Video of Kidnapped Couple Shows Sons Born in Captivity

Taliban abducted American Caitlan Coleman and Canadian Joshua Boyle in 2012
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 20, 2016 7:15 AM CST

A newly released video of an American woman and her Canadian husband kidnapped by the Taliban four years ago shows them with two young boys—their own sons born in captivity. Joshua Boyle and Caitlan Coleman were abducted in Afghanistan while on a backpacking trip in 2012, and Coleman, now 31, was pregnant at the time. In the video, Coleman is critical of her abductors and both the American and Canadian governments as she pleads for an end to their "Kafkaesque nightmare," reports the AP. She also makes some unexplained but disturbing comments, including, "My children have seen their mother defiled." And she refers to her "surviving children" without elaborating, notes Reuters.

"Please don't become the next Jimmy Carter," Coleman says in a direct appeal to President Obama. "Just give the offenders something so they and you can save face so we can leave the region permanently." She also appeals to President-elect Donald Trump to get them out. A senior Taliban official says the video was released by the affiliated Haqqani network, which is seeking the release of three members. One is a commander named Anas Haqqani, who is in the custody of the Afghan government and has been sentenced to death, per the New York Times. Coleman says her family will be harmed if the sentence is carried out. "They really will not settle this until they get what they are demanding," says her husband in the video. (More Joshua Boyle stories.)

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