Coleman and Boyle vanished a few days after arriving in Afghanistan while on a backpacking trip near the Pakistani border in 2012.
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A newly released video shows a Canadian man and his American wife, held captive in Afghanistan for nearly four years, pleading for government help to save their lives. A counterterrorism analyst studying the video said Coleman and Boyle appeared “out of it”.
The couple told Circa News that they got a letter from Caitlan last November proving that she and Boyle were still alive, and announcing that she had given birth to a second son. “These blessings brought us great joy”, James Coleman said in the video made last June at the family’s home. Afghan officials earlier claimed that Anas was taking care of fundraising for the Haqqani network; however, the Taliban, while denying the claim said Anas was a student, who held no position in the militant organisation.
A phone message left at a number listed for Coleman’s family in Stewartstown, Pennsylvania, was not immediately returned. It’s the first footage of the couple released since 2014, when Coleman’s parents shared two short video clips of them. Siraj Haqqani also serves as one of the deputy emirs of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, as the Taliban call their shadow government.
In the new video, Coleman, who was pregnant when she went missing, and Boyle make a plea for the USA and Canadian governments to pressure the Afghan government to change their policies to secure their freedom.
“Our captors are terrified of the thought of their own mortality approaching, and are saying that they will take reprisals on our family”, Boyle says in the new video.
“I would tell you that the video is still being examined for its validity”, State Department spokesman John Kirby said in response to a question at his daily briefing.
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The pair say that the Taliban themselves are becoming more fearful of execution by the Afghan government and want the U.S. and Canada to ensure no more of their insurgents are killed.
