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Two teachers from the American University in Kabul were freed by the Taliban today. Kevin King and Timothy Weeks were abducted¹ more than three years ago. The Afghan government freed three high-profile Taliban members in exchange for their release. NPR Pentagon correspondent Tom Bowman joins us now. Hey, Tom.

TOM BOWMAN, BYLINE²: Hey, Ailsa.

CHANG: So can you first just tell us a little more about who Kevin King and Tim Weeks are?

BOWMAN: Well, Kevin King is an American. He's 63. And Timothy Weeks is Australian, 50 years old. The Taliban released pictures of the two. King has a long beard and had been reportedly ill with kidney and heart disease. Weeks looks thin and pale. They were taken to Bagram Air Base north of Kabul. The King family released a statement, saying they were thankful and said Kevin King is now receiving medical treatment at Bagram.

CHANG: And what do we know about the Taliban members who were exchanged for King and Weeks?

BOWMAN: Right. The three Taliban include a senior Taliban leader who equipped suicide bombers³ and also a senior commander. But, Ailsa, the most notable is the third one — Anas Haqqani is the brother of the Taliban's military leader and the son of the founder⁴ of the Haqqani network. It's a brutal⁵ militant⁶ group aligned⁷ with the Taliban and based next door in Pakistan. They've been responsible for a number of suicide attacks, high-profile attacks in Kabul and elsewhere.

CHANG: Now, am I right? There was talk about this exchange happening, like, a week ago or more than a week ago. Why didn't it happen earlier then?

BOWMAN: Well, we believe because it was an attack — a deadly car bomb attack in Kabul. And the Afghan government apparently⁸ pulled the plug on the release, saying, in essence, unless violence decreases, they will stay put in prison.

CHANG: That does raise the whole question about how overall reduction in violence may be necessary in order for peace talks to resume. That has been part of the ongoing⁹ conversation. Do we even know when these U.S.-Taliban-Afghan peace talks might pick up again?

BOWMAN: You know, we really don't. Both the U.S. and Afghan governments say there must be a reduction in violence for peace talks to go forward, and this exchange of the Westerners for the Taliban is seen as a kind of sweetener to get talks going again. The three Taliban were flown to Doha, Qatar, where the Taliban has a political office and where peace talks were taking place with American envoy¹⁰ Zalmay Khalilzad, who, by the way, helped broker¹¹ this prisoner exchange. And, of course, Khalilzad came up with a preliminary peace deal with the Taliban. That deal came to an end in September when President Trump¹² scrapped¹³ it, again, because of increased violence, including the death of an American soldier.

CHANG: And any reaction to the release of — or the exchange of these prisoners?

BOWMAN: The reaction, actually, in Afghanistan is pretty grim. Most people polled by TOLOnews, one of the big networks there, said more than 80% were against this. They didn't think it was a good idea to release these three Taliban Haqqani members. So it's going to be tough for Ashraf Ghani, the Afghan president, if peace talks don't resume and if the Taliban don't eventually start talking to the Afghan government, which they've refused to do because they see the Afghans as just mere¹⁴ puppets of the American military. So there's a long way to go here.

CHANG: That's NPR Pentagon correspondent Tom Bowman. Thank you very much, Tom.

BOWMAN: You're welcome, Ailsa.

今天，塔利班释放了两名来自喀布尔美国大学的两名教师。凯文·金和蒂莫西·威克斯在三年多以前遭绑架。阿富汗政府释放了三名高级别塔利班成员，以换取两名教师的获释。NPR新闻驻五角大楼记者汤姆·鲍曼将和我们连线。你好，汤姆。

汤姆·鲍曼连线：你好，阿尔萨。

张：首先请你详细介绍一下凯文·金和蒂莫西·威克斯的情况。

鲍曼：凯文·金是美国公民。今年63岁。蒂莫西·威克斯是澳大利亚公民，今年50岁。塔利班公布了这两个人的照片。金留着长胡子，据报道，他患有肾病和心脏病。威克斯看起来又瘦又苍白。二人已被带到喀布尔以北的巴格拉姆空军基地。金的家人发表声明表达了他们的感激之情，并称凯文·金目前正在巴格拉姆接受治疗。

张：我们对交换金和威克斯的塔利班成员有何了解？

鲍曼：好。这三名塔利班成员包括一名训练过自杀式炸弹袭击者的高级塔利班领袖，还有一名高级指挥官。不过，阿尔萨，最值得注意的是第三名成员——阿纳斯·哈卡尼，他是塔利班领导人的弟弟，也是哈卡尼网络创始人的儿子。哈卡尼网络是与塔利班有联系的残暴武装组织，以阿富汗邻国巴基斯坦为据点。该组织是喀布尔和其他地区发生的多起自杀式袭击和备受关注袭击的幕后黑手。

张：我的消息准确吗？大约一周或一周多以前，举行了商讨交换事宜的对话。为什么没有早一点协商？

鲍曼：我们认为这与喀布尔发生的致命汽车炸弹袭击有关。很明显，阿富汗政府中止了释放行动，本质上来说，他们的态度是，除非暴力事件减少，否则塔利班成员仍将被关在监狱中。

张：这引发了一个整体问题，即暴力事件全面减少对重启和谈有多必要？这一直是正在进行的谈话涉及的部分内容。我们知道美国、塔利班和阿富汗的和谈何时重启吗？

鲍曼：我们并不清楚。美国和阿富汗政府都表示，要继续和谈就必须减少暴力事件，而这次用西方人质交换塔利班成员的行动被视为重启和谈的条件。三名塔利班成员已飞抵卡塔尔多哈，塔利班在该市设有政治办公室，美国特使扎尔梅·哈利勒扎德曾在那里参加和谈，顺便说一下，哈利勒扎德帮助斡旋了这一囚犯交换行动。当然，哈利勒扎德已经和塔利班达成了初步和平协议。但该协议在9月终止，因为特朗普总统取消了和谈，原因依然是暴力行为增加，而且有一名美军在暴力事件中死亡。

张：人们对此次释放或者说交换囚犯行动有何反应？

鲍曼：阿富汗方面的反应相当糟糕。阿富汗主要电视台黎明台进行的民调显示，超过80%的参与者反对这项行动。他们认为释放这三名塔利班哈卡尼成员并不是好主意。因此，如果和谈没能重启，或者塔利班最后没有开始与阿富汗政府对话，那阿富汗总统将陷入困难境地，塔利班曾拒绝与阿富汗政府对话，原因是他们认为阿富汗只是美军的傀儡。因此，还有很长的路要走。

张：以上是NPR新闻驻五角大楼记者汤姆·鲍曼带来的报道。汤姆，非常谢谢你。

鲍曼：不客气，阿尔萨。