Link to what little information is available on this so far is at Site Intel Group.
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Joshua Boyle and Caitlan Coleman were kidnapped by the Taliban in 2012 while on a backpacking trip in the mountains of Afghanistan.
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The US department on Tuesday said that it is evaluating that video. The captives said they will be killed if the Afghan government continues executing Taliban prisoners.
Colonel Michael Lawhorn, director of public affairs for Afghanistan’s NATO-led mission, confirmed that USA forces had carried out attacks in support of Afghan forces on Monday.
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”.
One of Boyle’s relatives said the family hadn’t seen the new video until Tuesday morning.
Taliban sources said the couple were being held by the Haqqanis, a militant Islamist group affiliated with the Taliban that is known for kidnappings and high profile attacks in cities like Kabul. The families said they were disappointed that their children and grandchild were not freed as part of the same deal but were still holding out hope for the USA and Canadian governments to secure their release on humanitarian grounds.
“The Haqqanis are ticked off”, a counterterrorism official familiar with hostage recovery operations told ABC News.
A Republican lawmaker said Coleman and her family’s plight shows that a new Federal Bureau of Investigation team set up to improve hostage rescue efforts across hasn’t made sufficient progress. “And therefore we ask Canada and the United States to change the policies of the Afghan government so that our captors do not have to face the fear of execution in the future, and that we will – our family – will be able to live safely”.
August 29 (ANI): A local court in Afghanistan has sentenced Taliban commander Sirajuddin Haqqani’s brother Anas Haqqani to death, reports said. Their families have openly pleaded with the USA and Canadian governments to intervene on their behalf and ensure their safe return.
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The couple was vacationing in Afghanistan when they were taken, according to previous reports.
