Donald Trump has secured the release of an American hostage held for more than a year in Afghanistan after he was kidnapped by the Taliban. 

Dennis Coyle, an academic who had been living in Afghanistan since the early 2000s, was seized without charge in January 2025. 

'Today, after more than a year of captivity in Afghanistan, Dennis Coyle is on his way home,' Secretary of State Marco Rubio said.  

Afghan officials said that Coyle, originally from Colorado, was released to his family in Kabul.

Rubio credited the United Arab Emirates with helping to secure his freedom.

The Taliban had said that Coyle was 'arrested for violating the laws of Afghanistan,' while the US declared in June that he had been unlawfully detained.

The Trump administration designated Afghanistan a state-sponsor of wrongful detention earlier this month.

Afghanistan joined Iran as countries singled out by the United States for detaining Americans in hopes of extracting policy concessions. 

Afghanistan's government rejected US allegations that it detains foreigners for leverage, insisting its authorities arrest people for breaking laws, not to cut deals. 

Afghanistan released Coyle 'based on humanitarian sympathy and goodwill, and believes that such steps can further strengthen the atmosphere of trust between countries,' its foreign ministry said.  

Kabul added that it hoped 'both countries will find solutions to the remaining problems through understanding and constructive dialogue in the future.' 

Afghan authorities are believed to hold at least one other US national. Mahmood Habibi, an Afghan-American businessman who worked as a contractor for a Kabul-based telecommunications company, vanished in the country in 2022.

The FBI and Habibi's family have said they believe he was taken by Taliban forces, but Afghan authorities have denied holding him.

Habibi's brother, Ahmad Habibi, welcomed Coyle's release but said in a statement that 'we hope that our family will soon have the same feeling of relief, when Mahmood is returned home to us.'