U.S. lifts bounties on senior Taliban officials, including Sirajuddin Haqqani, says Kabul

Sirajuddin Haqqani no longer on Rewards for Justice website, U.S. lifts bounties on senior Taliban figures, signaling progress in relations.

The U.S. 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 government, officials in Kabul said on Sunday (March 23, 2025).

Sirajuddin Haqqani, who acknowledged planning a January 2008 attack on the Serena Hotel in Kabul, which killed six people, including U.S. citizen Thor David Hesla, no longer appears on the State Department's Rewards for Justice website. The FBI website on Sunday still featured a wanted poster for him.

Interior Ministry spokesman Abdul Mateen Qani said the U.S. government had revoked the bounties placed on Haqqani, Abdul Aziz Haqqani, and Yahya Haqqani.

“These three individuals are two brothers and one paternal cousin,” Mr. Qani told the Associated Press.

The Haqqani network grew into one of the deadliest arms of the Taliban after the U.S.-led 2001 invasion of Afghanistan.

The group employed roadside bombs, suicide bombings and other attacks, including on the Indian and U.S. embassies, the Afghan presidency, and other major targets. They also have been linked to extortion, kidnapping and other criminal activity.

A Foreign Ministry official, Zakir Jalaly, said the Taliban's release of U.S. prisoner George Glezmann on Friday and the 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 relations.