US lifts bounties on Taliban officials, including Sirajuddin Haqqani: Kabul

WASHINGTON: The US has lifted bounties on three senior Taliban figures, including the interior minister who also heads a powerful network blamed for bloody attacks against Afghanistan's former Western-backed govt, officials in Kabul said Sunday.
Sirajuddin Haqqani, who acknowledged planning a Jan 2008 attack on Serena Hotel in Kabul, which killed six people, including US citizen Thor David Hesla, no longer appears on the state department's 'Rewards for Justice' website. The FBI website still featured a wanted poster for him. Interior ministry spokesman Abdul Mateen Qani said the US had revoked the bounties placed on Haqqani, Abdul Aziz Haqqani, and Yahya Haqqani. "These three individuals are two brothers and one paternal cousin," Qani told AP.
The Haqqani network grew into one of the deadliest arms of Taliban after the US-led 2001 invasion of Afghanistan. The group employed roadside bombs, suicide bombings and other attacks, including on Indian and US embassies, the Afghan presidency, and other major targets.
A foreign ministry official, Zakir Jalaly, said Taliban's release of US prisoner George Glezmann Friday and removal of bounties showed both sides were "moving beyond the effects of the wartime phase and taking constructive steps to pave the way for progress" in bilateral ties. "The recent developments in Afghanistan-US relations are a good example of the pragmatic and realistic engagement between the two governments," said Jalaly. Taliban see the opening in breaking out of isolation
Since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021, China has been the most prominent country to accept one of their diplomats. Other countries have accepted de facto Taliban representatives, like Qatar, which has been a key mediator between the US and Taliban. US envoys have also met Taliban.
His partial rehabilitation on the international stage is in contrast to the status of the reclusive Hibatullah Akhundzada, who could face arrest by International Criminal Court for his persecution of women.