The new US administration has issued a warning to the Afghan Taliban, threatening to place bounties on the heads of Taliban leaders. This follows growing concerns over the number of American citizens held captive in Afghanistan.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio expressed alarm, stating that the number of detained Americans may be significantly higher than previously estimated.

He declared that if this proves true, the US will be forced to set substantial bounties on the leaders of the Taliban, exceeding even the amount offered for Osama bin Laden.

“Just hearing the Taliban is holding more American hostages than has been reported. If this is true, we will have to immediately place a VERY BIG bounty on their top leaders, maybe even bigger than the one we had on Bin Laden,” Rubio wrote on X.

This threat comes after the Biden administration facilitated a prisoner exchange with the Taliban shortly before the Trump administration’s departure.

Trump has also made statements about intending to bring back weapons left behind in Afghanistan when US troops withdrew from the country in 2021. Kabul had almost immediately fallen to the Taliban after the departure of the US forces. However, Taliban have flat out refused to return the weapons, instead saying they need more weapons to fight ISIS-K.