Taliban offer to free US soldier

KABUL, Afghanistan  — The Taliban proposed a deal in which they would free a US soldier held captive since 2009 in exchange for five of their most senior operatives at Guantanamo Bay, while Afghan President Hamid Karzai eased his opposition Thursday to joining planned peace talks.

The idea of releasing these Taliban prisoners has been controversial. US negotiators hope they would join the peace process but fear they might simply return to the battlefield, and Karzai once scuttled a similar deal partly because he felt the Americans were usurping his authority.

The proposal to trade US Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl for the Taliban detainees was made by senior Taliban spokesman Shaheen Suhail in response to a question during a phone interview with The Associated Press from the militants' newly opened political office in Doha, the capital of the Gulf nation of Qatar.

The prisoner exchange is the first item on the Taliban's agenda before even starting peace talks with the US, said Suhail, a top Taliban figure who served as first secretary at the Afghan Embassy in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad before the Taliban government's ouster in 2001.

"First has to be the release of detainees," Suhail said Thursday when asked about Bergdahl. "Yes. It would be an exchange. Then step by step, we want to build bridges of confidence to go forward."

The Obama administration was noncommittal about the proposal, which it said it had expected the Taliban to make.

"We've been very clear on our feelings about Sgt. Bergdahl and the need for him to be released," State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said. "We have not made a decision to ... transfer any Taliban detainees from Guantanamo Bay, but we anticipate, as I've said, that the Taliban will all raise this issue."

Bergdahl, 27, of Hailey, Idaho, is the only known American soldier held captive from the Afghan war. He disappeared from his base in southeastern Afghanistan on June 30, 2009, and is believed held in Pakistan. Suhail said Bergdahl "is, as far as I know, in good condition."

Donna Thibedeau-Eddy, who has spent the last few days at the Idaho home of the soldier's parents, Bob and Jani Bergdahl, said the family was hopeful.

"I was with his Mom and Dad this morning when they got the news of the exchange offer. They were ecstatic," said Thibedeau-Eddy. "They actually saw the news before they got the call from the military. Bob saw it online and said 'Jani, Donna, look at this.'"

While there have been talks before, Bob Bergdahl is putting more faith and hope into the latest developments because it appears the Taliban are taking the initiative, Thibedeau-Eddy said.

Bergdahl's parents received a letter this month from their son through the International Committee of the Red Cross. They did not release details of the letter. The soldier's captivity has been marked by only sporadic releases of videos and information about his whereabouts.

The reconciliation process with the Taliban — seen by most as the only way to end the nearly 12-year war — has been a long and bumpy one.

The US began secret talks with the militants more than two years ago in off-and-on discussions that lasted several months.

The two sides discussed prisoner exchanges and for a brief time it appeared that the five Guantanamo Bay prisoners would be released and sent to Qatar to help further the peace process.

But Karzai, furious that he had not been told of the talks in advance, demanded that the Taliban operatives be returned to Afghanistan rather than Qatar.

Since then, the US has been trying to jumpstart peace talks and the Taliban have made several offers — including sharing power in Kabul. The Taliban have also attended several international conferences and held meetings with representatives of about 30 countries.

Afghan and US officials have said the Taliban being considered for any exchange deal are:

— Mohammad Fazl, a former Taliban chief of army staff and the deputy minister of defense.

— Abdul Haq Wasiq, former Taliban deputy minister of intelligence. He was in direct contact with supreme leader Mullah Mohammed Omar during the Taliban rule, according to military documents.

— Mullah Norullah Nuri , who has been described as one of the most significant former Taliban officials held at Guantanamo. He was a senior Taliban commander in Mazar-e-Sharif and previously was a Taliban governor in two provinces in northern Afghanistan.

— Khairullah Khairkhwa, a former Taliban minister of the interior and military commander. According to military documents, he had direct ties to Mullah Omar and Osama bin Laden and was also a friend of Karzai.

— Mohammed Nabi, former chief of security for the Taliban in Qalat, the capital of the southern province of Zabul.