The Taliban are alive, well, and in the business of taking hostages. They freed the Lebanese hostage when his company agreed to leave Afghanistan, thus pulling needed capital from an already impoverished nation. Al Jazeera:

A Lebanese engineer kidnapped by the Taliban last week has been released after his company agreed to stop operations in Afghanistan.

Safieddine Mohammad Rida, a mechanical engineer working for a Lebanese company that sells diesel engines, had been abducted on Sunday in the southeastern province of Zabul.

"The Lebanese engineer has been released. He's in good health," said Gulab Shah Alikhil, spokesman for the Zabul governor, on Thursday.

The Taliban earlier said they had freed the Lebanese. The group's spokesman Abdul Latif Hakimi said Mohammad Rida was released on Thursday morning at 10am.

"His company has agreed to leave Afghanistan from today (Thursday)," Hakimi told Reuters. He said Rida had been released near a US base in Shajoy, Zabul province.

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