U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio threatened to offer a financial reward for the heads of Taliban government leaders in Afghanistan in protest of the continued detention of Americans in the country, which may be higher than previously reported.

This threat, representing a significant change in tone, comes days after a prisoner exchange between Kabul and Washington at the end of President Joe Biden's term.

The newly appointed Secretary of State spoke on the platform X, adopting a very direct style similar to that of U.S. President Donald Trump.

Rubio wrote, "I just learned that the Taliban are holding more American hostages than previously reported." He added, "If this is true, we should immediately place a very large bounty on the heads of their top leaders, perhaps larger than the one we placed on bin Laden.

The United States had offered a $25 million reward for capturing or killing the al-Qaeda leader shortly after the September 11, 2001, attacks, which Congress later increased to $50 million.

Osama bin Laden was killed in 2011 in a raid by U.S. forces in Pakistan, and the promised reward was not claimed, according to available information.

Rubio did not provide details about the Americans believed to be detained, but his statements reflect reports of many Americans still missing in the country without official demands from Washington.

The Taliban government announced this week that it had released Ryan Corbett, who had been detained since 2022, and William McEntee, about whom little information was disclosed.

In return, the United States handed over Khan Mohammed, who had been arrested in 2006 and convicted of "drug-related terrorism" and was serving a life sentence in California.