According to recent reporting from the Washington Post, the US is mounting a last-ditch effort to recover US Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl from his alleged Haqqani Network captors holding him in the lawless Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) of Pakistan.

This effort comes amidst the major drawdown of US forces from Afghanistan expected by the end of this year.  As SOFREP has previously reported, Sgt. Bergdahl is the only living American POW, and one of two Americans currently being held hostage in Pakistan at this time.

In exchange for Sgt. Bergdahl’s release through a third party mediator, the US has offered a prisoner exchange for five Afghan Taliban fighters currently being held at Guantanamo Bay.  While the US has offered such an exchange previously, the simultaneous release of all five Taliban fighters was never an option until now.

According to the Washington Post, this decision to release the five fighters simultaneously was made within the past month, most likely in light of the most recent proof-of-life video showing Sgt. Bergdahl in poor condition sometime around December of 2013.