Dhaka, March 24 -- The Afghan Taliban government said on Tuesday that it has decided to release US detainee Dennis Coyle in response to a request from his mother, weeks after Washington censured Afghanistan over its detention of ​American citizens.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio this month designated Afghanistan's Taliban government as a "state sponsor of wrongful detention", demanding that Kabul release all US citizens detained ​in the country, including Coyle and Mahmood Habibi, the former head of Afghanistan's civil aviation.

Sources told Reuters that Washington could ban US passport holders from travelling to ‌Afghanistan if it did not comply, a restriction currently only in place for North Korea.

The Taliban f...