US Hostage Released by Taliban After Nearly 900 Days in Captivity
by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) – US citizen Ryan Corbett was last week released from nearly 900 days in captivity after being taken hostage by the Taliban in Afghanistan in August 2022.
Corbett was released in exchange for a Taliban member on January 21. His family thanked the outgoing Biden administration and the new Trump administration as well as the government of Qatar and US congressional lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle for helping to secure his release.
“We are profoundly grateful to President Trump, National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, and incoming Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs Adam Boehler for their efforts, even before taking office, to help bring Ryan home.”
“We also thank President Biden, former Secretary of State Blinken, former Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs Roger Carstens and his extraordinary team, including Jacob Hernandez, for their tireless work and steadfast dedication to bringing Ryan back to us,” the family statement reads.
Married with small children, Corbett had launched Bloom Afghanistan – a social enterprise focused on strengthening Afghanistan’s private sector. He was working on a valid 12-month visa when he was taken into captivity with another foreign national by the ruling Taliban on August 10, 2022. He was never charged with a crime. “Ryan and his German colleague were detained by the Taliban with the only suspected reasons being their value as political leverage,” his family said in a statement.
Welcoming his return, David Theobald, senior pastor at Grace Baptist Church in Dansville, New York, who has known the Corbett family said during a sermon: “I happen to think that the Lord providentially carried out this rescue. Smack dab in the middle of the overlap of two administrations with all kinds of ambiguity as to which party was responsible — so that we would know that the Lord is responsible, that he is our only hope.”
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