Taliban releases detained US citizen Dennis Coyle

 Afghanistan's Taliban government on Tuesday announced that it released a U.S. national who had been detained in the country for more than a year. 

The foreign ministry said in a statement it agreed to the release after a letter from his family, and that Dennis Coyle "would be pardoned and released" for Eid, the holiday marking the end of Ramadan. The U.S. State Department later confirmed Coyle's release.

Coyle landed back in the U.S., in San Antonio, Texas, Wednesday morning.

"Today, our hearts are filled with overwhelming gratitude and praise to God for sustaining Dennis' life and bringing him back home after what has been the most challenging and uncertain 421 days of our lives," Coyle's family said in a statement shared first with CBS News on Tuesday.

A Taliban senior official involved in prisoner negotiations told CBS News that the Taliban and U.S. have been holding talks since the last week of February.

Coyle, a 64-year-old academic from Colorado, was taken by force from his Kabul apartment by the Taliban. His abduction came just six days after another American, Ryan Corbett, was released at the start of President Trump's second term.

Coyle's family said they were "profoundly grateful" to Mr. Trump, Secretary of State and national security adviser Marco Rubio and others in the administration, leaders in the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, and all those who assisted and advocated on his behalf. "Your efforts as mediators, your compassion, and your commitment to diplomacy have given our family the most precious gift imaginable: Dennis' freedom," the family wrote.

Coyle was being released "based on humanitarian sympathy and goodwill, and believes that such steps can further strengthen the atmosphere of trust between countries," the Afghan foreign ministry said in its statement, adding that Kabul "also expresses the hope that both countries will find solutions to the remaining problems through understanding and constructive dialogue in the future."  

Earlier this month, the U.S. State Department announced the designation of Afghanistan as a sponsor of wrongful detention.

"Earlier this month, I met Molly, Amy, and Patti as they asked for help freeing their brother Dennis Coyle from detention in Afghanistan," Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote on social media. "Today, Dennis is on his way home…. The release is a positive step towards ending the practice of hostage diplomacy."

Last June, the U.S. government officially designated Coyle as wrongfully detained under the Robert Levinson Hostage Recovery and Hostage-Taking Accountability Act, a status that unlocks select government tools and elevates the priority of efforts to secure his release.