REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, KABUL - The Taliban said Friday that US Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl was treated well during the five years they held him captive and was even allowed to play soccer with the men holding him.

Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the Taliban in eastern Afghanistan, told The Associated Press by telephone that Bergdahl was held under "good conditions," and was given fresh fruit and any other foods he requested. "You can ask him in America about his life (in captivity). He will not complain," Mujahid said.

The question of Bergdahl's well-being is part of a fierce debate in Washington over whether the US should have negotiated for his release on Saturday in exchange for five Taliban detainees who had been held at Guantanamo Bay.

Mujahid's statements could not be verified. Bergdahl, of Hailey, Idaho, was captured after he walked away from his base in June 2009 and US officials believed he was mainly held by the Haqqani network, an insurgent group affiliated with the Taliban, in Pakistan. He was handed over to the US in a remote area of Khost province, near the Pakistani border.

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