A former Taliban commander has pleaded guilty to taking hostages, including an American journalist, and the deaths of U.S. soldiers, the Justice Department said Friday. 

Haji Najibullah, 49, pleaded guilty to hostage taking and providing material support for acts of terrorism resulting in death in connection with his role in the hostage taking of an American journalist and two Afghan citizens in Afghanistan and Pakistan in 2008 and 2009, as well as his leadership of Taliban fighters who carried out attacks on U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan, between 2007 and 2009, resulting in the deaths of American soldiers. 

Taliban fighters patrol on the road during a celebration marking the second anniversary of the withdrawal of U.S.-led troops from Afghanistan, in Kandahar, south of Kabul, Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Abdul Khaliq)

He was also charged with an October attack that same year in which a U.S. military helicopter was shot down. In November of that year, fighters under Najibullah’s command took hostage an American journalist and two Afghan nationals at gunpoint in Afghanistan. 

They were forced to hike to neighboring Pakistan, where they were forced to make videos demanding ransom payments and the release of Taliban terrorists held by the U.S. government, federal prosecutors said. 

The Taliban commander was responsible for the Jaghato district in Afghanistan’s Wardak Province, court documents state. He had over 1,000 troops under his command, who he had conduct attacks on American and NATO troops outside of Kabul.

Najibullah was arrested and extradited from Ukraine in October 2020, and is now in federal custody in the U.S.

He faces a life sentence in prison.