In 2014, the Boyle and Coleman families decided to make videos of the couple public in light of the publicity surrounding the weekend rescue of Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who was freed from Taliban custody in exchange for the release of five high-level Taliban suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
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“They will execute us, women and children included, if the policies of the Afghan government are not overturned either by the Afghan government or by Canada somehow, or United States”, Boyle says in the video.
U.S. officials say they are working to free the family, particularly with help from the Pakistani government, whose military intelligence services, the ISI, has ties with the Haqqani network.
In the video, the scraggily bearded Boyle said the couple’s captors “are terrified of the thought of their own mortality approaching, and are saying that they will take reprisals on our family”.
In May, the Afghan government executed six Taliban members.
Logar Province Governor Mohammad Halim Fedayee told RFE/RL that Afghan security forces killed six Taliban fighters during the battle at the Charkh district’s administrative headquarters after an explosives-laden vehicle parked near the compound walls was detonated shortly before dawn on September 1.
Caitlan Coleman is seen here in the undated family photo. Bowe Bergdahl case, a senior source in the Taliban’s Qatar office told The Daily Beast. “Joshua is still my little nephew in mind”. They deserve to be with their friends and family.
“Both the prisoners are in good health”.
Last month, according to ABC 27 News, Coleman’s parents – Jim and Lyn Coleman of Stewartstown said they had received a letter from their daughter in November through a neutral party.
The Haqqani network has been known for kidnappings and high-profile attacks in cities but is rarely known to take part in big attacks on Afghan government positions.
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“It seems like a fairly passive attempt to influence Afghanistan with respect to to the execution of Anas Haqqani”, the former official, who requested anonymity, said of the video.
This comes as the Afghan officials have always been raising concerns regarding the presence of the Taliban group and Haqqani network leadership councils in Pakistan.
“On the other hand, if the closer alliance between the Haqqani and the Quetta Shura [the collective body of Taliban leaders] has thoroughly blurred the lines of their criminal enterprises, then this represents a subtle threat against the safety of the family”. It’s the first footage of the couple released since 2014, when Coleman’s parents shared two short video clips of them.
Washington has previously rejected any link between Khader and his capture saying it was merely a frightful coincidence.
Caitlan Coleman has been suspected of being in the custody of the Afghan Taliban’s Haqqani network, which has fought USA forces in a lethal insurgency along the border with Pakistan while also operating a lucrative kidnapping for ransom business in both countries.
“We are paying extraordinarily close attention to that”. But it has been slow going.
WATCH: Vassy Kapelos reports on the pleas for help from the Boyle and Coleman families. “These blessings brought us great joy”, James Coleman said in the video made last June at the family’s home.
The Taliban had earlier confirmed Anas and Rashid’s detention, adding that the two had travelled to Qatar to meet Taliban leaders released from Guantanamo. The Americans turned over him and a traveling companion, Hafiz Rashid, to the Afghan government.
The Haqqani network may be trying to secure a prisoner swap similar to the Sgt.
Ever since the Bergdahl trade, the families of US hostages have pressured the Obama administration to make similar deals to free their loved ones. The Colemans last saw their daughter in July 2012, when she set off for Russian Federation on a hiking trip with Boyle that took them through Central Asia and ultimately into war-torn Afghanistan.
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Coleman and Boyle have been two of the most visible prisoners in Afghanistan.
