US Fails to Recruit Taliban Five as Informants - Reports

The US government’s attempts to recruit members of the so-called Taliban Five group of former Guantanamo prisoners turned out to be a "total failure," the Fox News reported Saturday citing unnamed sources familiar with the situation.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — In June 2014, the five Taliban detainees were released from the Guantanamo Bay prison in exchange for Taliban-held US soldier Bowe Berghdal before being transferred to Qatar.

Qatar provided security guarantees, including a one-year travel ban, and pledged that the detainees would not be a threat to US national security. The travel ban was set to expire earlier this week but was temporarily extended.

According to the Fox News, the US administration effort to recruit the five Taliban leaders was aimed at preventing them from returning to terrorism.

On Friday, US State Department spokesperson Marie Harf said that none of the five individuals "returned to the battlefield," as they all resided in Qatar under a travel ban and none have engaged in physical violence since their release.

According to earlier reports, the five former Guantanamo prisoners were mostly mid- to high-level officials in the Taliban regime who had been detained early in the Afghanistan war.