KABUL, Afghanistan — Gunmen fatally shot two federal prosecutors Saturday as they were driving to Bagram Airfield north of the capital, said Jamshid Rasouli, spokesman for the national attorney general’s office.
Two other prosecutors were wounded, he said, adding that the prosecutors were heading to the prison at Bagram Airfield, which has held top-level Taliban detainees including Anas Haqqani. He’s the younger brother of the Taliban’s deputy chief Sirajuddin Haqqani, who leads the fearsome Haqqani militant network.
Anas Haqqani and two other Taliban prisoners were supposed to be freed Tuesday in exchange for an American and an Australian citizen. Their release was announced by Afghan President Ashraf Ghani in an address to the nation.
But the Taliban said the three prisoners didn’t show up at an exchange site agreed upon with the U.S.
Ghani’s spokesman Sediq Sediqqi said late Saturday that the three were still in government custody. He didn’t say what went wrong with the exchange.