The removal of the bounty comes days after Afghan group releases US citizen.

The United States has lifted a $10m reward for information leading to the arrest of a major Taliban leader, Sirajuddin Haqqani, an Afghan Ministry of Interior Affairs spokesperson says.

Despite the announcement on Saturday, the FBI still lists the reward on its website, saying Haqqani was “believed to have coordinated and participated in cross-border attacks against United States and coalition forces in Afghanistan”.

The move comes after the Taliban on Thursday released a US citizen who had been kept in captivity for two years.

The release of George Glezmann, who was abducted while travelling as a tourist in Afghanistan in December 2022, marks the third time a US detainee has been freed by the Taliban since January.

In a statement, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Glezmann’s release represented a “positive and constructive step”. He also thanked Qatar for its “instrumental” role in securing the release.

The Taliban has previously described the release of US detainees as part of its global “normalisation” effort.

The group remains an international pariah since its lightning takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021. No country has officially recognised the Taliban government although several countries continue to operate diplomatic facilities in the country.

The Taliban takeover came as former US President Joe Biden’s administration oversaw a withdrawal outlined by the first administration of President Donald Trump.

The US president had negotiated with the Taliban in 2020 to end the war in Afghanistan, and he agreed to a 14-month deadline to withdraw US troops and allied forces.

The agreement was contentious for leaving out the Western-backed Afghan government, which was toppled during the chaotic US exit from the country in 2021.

Haqqani, the son of a famed commander from the war against the Soviets, was head of the powerful Haqqani Network, a US-designated “terror group” long viewed as one of the most dangerous armed groups in Afghanistan.

It is infamous for its use of suicide bombers and is believed to have orchestrated some of the most high-profile attacks in Kabul over the years.

The network is also accused of assassinating top Afghan officials and holding kidnapped Western citizens for ransom, including US soldier Bowe Bergdahl, released in 2014.

Haqqani had continued to be on the US radar even after the Taliban takeover. In 2022, a US drone strike in Kabul killed then-al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri. The house in which al-Zawahiri was killed was a home for Haqqani, according to US officials.

As Israel comes into focus amid the ongoing war against Hamas, antisemitism has risen across the globe. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) said it recorded over 10,000 antisemitic incidents in the U.S. between Oct. 7, 2023, and Oct. 6, 2024. The ADL said it was the highest number of incidents ever recorded in a single year since it began tracking such data in 1979. 

In the aftermath of the deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust, protests erupted on university campuses and in the streets of major cities. In fact, on Oct. 8, 2023 —just one day after the massacre and before Israel’s retaliation — a crowd gathered in Times Square to celebrate the attackers and condemn the victims.

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“The very same lethal antisemitism that fueled the atrocities, the war crimes, the crimes against humanity perpetrated on October the 7th is the antisemitism that fuels the responses to the atrocities, to the war crimes, to the crimes against humanity perpetrated on October the 7th,” Israel’s special envoy for combating antisemitism Michal Cotler-Wunsh told Fox News Digital. 

Cotler-Wunsh warns there is a “global tsunami” of antisemitism, and anti-Zionism is a “new strain” of “an ever-mutating lethal virus.”

“If we track these moments in which we’ve seen this unfathomable backlash, we could track it to the execution — [the] point-blank execution of six of the hostages who were held in captivity—one, of course, being American-Israeli Hersh Goldberg-Polin,” Cotler-Wunsh told Fox News Digital.

Anti-Israel protesters march on Capitol Hill on July 24, 2024 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Michael A. McCoy/Getty Images)

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“And the understanding that in response to that point-blank execution, instead of seeing outrage in the streets — including in New York City — what we saw was support for Hamas, the executioners, if you will. Hamas, a genocidal terror organization designated as such by the United States of America.”

While antisemitism was on the rise prior to Oct. 7, the attacks “ripped off many, many masks,” according to Cotler-Wunsh. However, she emphasizes that this is not just a problem for Jewish people; this is a warning shot for humanity.

“What we have seen systematically in this normalization historically through time is that antisemitism, when it comes to this state of normalized mainstream lethal hate, just predicts what is a major threat to freedom, humanity, and the dignity of difference.”

When speaking about the protests seen at universities across America, Cotler-Wunsh pointed to the examples of professors who either praised or downplayed the Oct. 7 attacks, including Cornell professor Russell Rickford, who described the massacre as “exhilarating.” She believes that schools need to start consistently applying policies and cracking down on systemic violations of those policies, such as the anti-Israel demonstrations seen on so many campuses.

“No rule that is not applied equally and consistently is worth the paper that it is written on,” Cotler-Wunsh told Fox News Digital.

Student protesters gather in protest inside their encampment on the Columbia University campus, Monday, April 29, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah)

However, Cotler-Wunsh says that enforcing rules is only the first step. She believes institutions across the globe, not just universities, need to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) definition of antisemitism.

The IHRA definition states: “Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.”

While criticizing Israel is not necessarily an antisemitic act, even under the IHRA’s definition, “claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor” is considered antisemitic by the IHRA’s standards.

Countries and institutions across the globe, such as the U.S. and the United Nations, have adopted the IHRA’s definition of antisemitism. The Combat Antisemitism Movement says that as of Feb. 1, 2025, 1,266 entities have adopted the definition, which includes national and local governments, as well as international organizations.