Freed by Taliban, US soldier reaches Texas

KABUL’s captivity before being freed on May 31, has reached an army medical centre in Texas, the Pentagon announced on Friday.

Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl arrived from Germany at the Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, where he would resume his recovery, said the Pentagon press secretary, John Kirby.

The US exchanged five Taliban leaders held at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility for Bergdahl, who was provided medical care at Bagram Airfield before being flown to Germany.

Foreign news agencies quoted Kirby as saying: “While there, he will continue the next phase of his reintegration process. There is no timeline for this process. Our focus remains on his health and well-being.”

According to the Associated Press, the Idaho native may be reunited with his family in San Antonio. The army has not yet formally begun a new review into the circumstances of Bergdahl’s capture.

The Obama administration has come in for flak for failing to give legislators 30 days’ notice before transferring prisoners from Guantanamo.

But Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel told the House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday the recovery of Bergdahl from the Taliban was fully consistent with US law.

“The prisoner exchange was done legally, with substantial mitigation of risk and in the national interest of our country,” Hagel said. Since his disappearance in 2009, the soldier was officially listed as missing-captured.

PAN Monitor/mud

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