U.S. Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Anthony Duncan picks a poppy flower while returning from a security patrol through a poppy field in Helmand province. Photo: wiki commons.

Fox News/AP – The US has been secretly releasing captured Taliban fighters from a detention center in Afghanistan in a bid to strengthen its hand in peace talks with the insurgent group, the Washington Post reported Monday.

The “strategic release” program of high-level detainees is designed to give the US a bargaining chip in some areas of Afghanistan where international forces struggle to exercise control, the report said.