- Kevin King, 63, and Timothy Weeks, 50, were captured by the Taliban in 2016
- King, a US citizen, and Weeks, an Australian, were flown out by helicopter today
- The family of King said he was getting medical care ahead of his return home
- In return the Afghan government has released three jailed Taliban commanders
- Anas Haqqani, Haji Maali Khan and Abdul Rashid were all freed and sent to Qatar
Two Western university professors have been freed by the Taliban today in exchange for three militant commanders who were released on Monday.
The two hostages, American citizen Kevin King and Australian national Timothy Weeks, were released today more than three years after they were abducted in 2016.
Both men, who taught at the American University in Kabul, were flown out of the southern Zabul province by US helicopters this morning.
‘The two professors are safely freed and are being taken care of now,’ an Afghan official said.
King’s family said he was getting medical care from U.S. officials in Afghanistan ahead of his return home.
Stephanie Miller, his sister, said the family was ‘so happy to hear that my brother has been freed and is on his way home to us.’
Their release came hours after the Afghan government freed three Taliban prisoners and sent them to Qatar.
They include Anas Haqqani, who was seized in 2014 and whose older brother is the deputy Taliban leader and head of the Haqqani network, a notorious Taliban affiliate.
Afghan authorities accuse Anas of a being a high-level player in the Taliban, but the militants have long demanded his release.
The other two Taliban prisoners to be released are Haji Mali Khan and Abdul Rashid, whose brother is based in Qatar.
Afghanistan’s president Ashraf Ghani announced the prisoner swap last week in the hope of restarting talks with the militants.
King and Weeks were kidnapped by gunmen wearing military uniforms in the heart of Kabul in August 2016.
They later appeared looking gaunt and haggard in a Taliban hostage video, pleading with their home countries to secure their release.
The militant network said King was in poor health and suffering from a heart and kidney condition that they were unable to treat.
Both prisoners said they were being treated well by the Taliban, but it was impossible to know if they were being forced to speak.
Ghani said last week that the pair had been ‘deteriorating while in the custody of the terrorists’.
The U.S. has previously mounted two raids in an attempt to rescue the jailed professors, but missed them by hours both times.
The FBI has also previously offered a $1million reward for information on the two men’s whereabouts.