US swaps 5 Taliban inmates for abducted soldier

Almost five years after he was captured by the Taliban in Afghanistan, US Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl was freed on Saturday in exchange for five Taliban inmates held at the Guantanamo prison, Cuba.

The deal, brokered by Qatar, brings to an end a long campaign to set Bergdahl free.

President Barack Obama thanked Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, for the breakthrough.

Bergdahl, 28, was the only American held captive by the Taliban in the war which started in 2001 after the September 11 attacks on twin towers.

“Today the American people are pleased that we will be able to welcome home Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, held captive for nearly five years,” Obama said in a statement.

In the past, attempts to secure the release of Bergdahl’s release through a swap with the Taliban failed.

A senior administration official was quoted as confirming the US had transferred five Afghan Guantanamo detainees to Qatar.

“With the personal commitment of the emir of Qatar, with whom the president spoke on Tuesday, we were thankfully able to obtain Sgt Bergdahl’s release,” the official said in an email.

Bergdahl was captured by the Taliban in June 2009 from a base in Afghanistan’s eastern Paktika province near the Pakistan border.

Bergdahl’s parents said they were “joyful and relieved” to hear that their son was a free man.

“We cannot wait to wrap our arms around our only son,” they said in a statement quoted by CNN. “Today, we are ecstatic!”

Obama, however, faced criticism over the transfer of the Taliban inmates Guantanamo Bay.

Republican Senator John McCain said the transferred detainees “hardened terrorists”, although he expressed gladness at Bergdahl’s release.

The senator demanded to know what steps were being taken to “ensure that these vicious and violent Taliban extremists never return to fight against the United States and our partners.”

US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel said the US had “coordinated closely with Qatar to ensure that security measures are in place and the national security of the United States will not be compromised.”

The senior administration official concurred, saying “we will not transfer any detainee from Guantanamo unless the threat the detainee may post to the United States can be sufficiently mitigated.”

According to a State Department official, the five transferred detainees are Mohammad Fazl, Mullah Norullah Noori, Mohammed Nabi, Khairullah Khairkhwa and Abdul Haq Wasiq.

A Taliban source in the Pakistani city of Quetta told AFP that all five had been officials in the Taliban regime driven out of power in the US-led invasion of Afghanistan after the 9/11 attacks, and that they were influential among the Taliban ranks.

News of their transfer was welcomed with “great happiness” by the militants, who had long sought their release from Guantanamo Bay as a condition for launching peace talks.

Their transfer leaves 149 detainees in the US military prison in Cuba, including 12 Afghan nationals, of whom four have been approved for transfer.