An Afghan police official says a Chinese citizen has been killed in the country's northeast. The killing of foreigners is rare in Afghanistan, especially since the withdrawal of foreign troops in 2021.

A senior Taliban figure has urged the group’s leader to scrap education bans on Afghan women and girls, saying there is no excuse for them, in a rare public rebuke of government policy.

Two Americans have been freed in a prisoner swap between the U.S. and Afghanistan’s Taliban in exchange for a Taliban figure, officials said Tuesday.

The family thanked both the Biden and Trump administrations for "countless hours of negotiations, unwavering support, and determination."

Ryan Corbett, an American held in Afghanistan since 2022, has been released from Taliban custody, his family said.

The Taliban's acting deputy foreign minister called on his senior leadership to open schools for Afghan girls, among the strongest public rebukes of a policy that has contributed to the international isolation of its rulers.

After more than two years of being detained by the Taliban, Western New Yorker Ryan Corbett is finally coming home after being freed. Corbett will soon be reunited with his wife and their three children.

The deal was struck for Khan Mohammad, a member of the Taliban serving two life sentences in a U.S. prison on "narco-terrorism charges."

The prisoner exchange was the result of "long and productive" negotiations between Afghan and American authorities, Afghanistan's foreign ministry said in a statement. Mohammad was arrested in eastern Afghanistan in 2006 and extradited to the U.S a year later, according to the DOJ website.

A senior Taliban figure has urged the group's leader to scrap education bans on Afghan women and girls, saying there is no excuse for them, in a rare public rebuke of government policy. Sher Abbas Stanikzai, political deputy at the Foreign Ministry, made the remarks in a speech on Saturday in southeastern Khost province.