State Dept offers $5M reward for info on Afghan-American missing after alleged abduction in Kabul

Mahmood Habibi, an American businessman who worked as a consultant for a Kabul-based telecommunications firm, and his driver were allegedly abducted and detained by the Taliban's intelligence service in August 2022.

Published: June 25, 2025 9:25am

The State Department is offering a $5 million reward for information on an Afghan-American who is missing after allegedly being abducted by the Taliban's General Directorate of Intelligence in Kabul in 2022.

Mahmood Habibi, an American businessman who worked as a consultant for a Kabul-based telecommunications firm, and his driver were allegedly abducted and detained by the Taliban's intelligence service in August 2022, according to the State Department.

"He has not been heard from since his initial arrest, and the Taliban has yet to provide any information regarding his whereabouts or condition," the department added.

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Mahmood Shah Habibi
The State Department is offering a $5 million reward for information on abducted Afghan-American Mahmood Shah Habibi.
FBI

The Taliban has denied taking Habibi.

He was a former civil aviation chief under Afghanistan's ousted Western-backed government, according to Reuters. Habibi was taken along with 29 other employees of the telecommunications company he worked for, but he and one other person are the only two who have not been released.

Two other Americans, Ryan Corbett and William McKenty, were released by the Taliban in January for an Afghan detained in the U.S. in an exchange that Qatar mediated, CBS News reported.

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