Taliban prisoner

[Colin]

A Parachute Regiment patrol captured a Taliban leader in Afghanistan and took him to a warehouse where they gave him a dice.

The sergeant leading the patrol tells him to roll the dice and tells him "If you get a 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 your head comes off"

The Taliban leader says "What if I throw a 6?"

The sergeant says "You get another go."

 

[waltky]

Free at last, free at last - thank God Almighty dey's free at last!...

Family Held Captive by Taliban-Linked Group Released
12 Oct 2017 — A family has been released after years of being held captive by a network with ties to the Taliban.

An American woman, her Canadian husband and their three young children have been released after years of being held captive by a network with ties to the Taliban, U.S. and Pakistani officials said Thursday. U.S. officials say Pakistan secured the release of Caitlan Coleman of Stewartstown, Pennsylvania, and her husband, Canadian Joshua Boyle, who were abducted five years ago while traveling in Afghanistan and had been held by the Haqqani network in Pakistan. Coleman was pregnant when she was captured. The couple had three children while in captivity, and all have been freed, U.S. officials say. A U.S. national security official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing operation, commended Pakistan for their critical assistance in securing the family's release — and described the cooperation as an important step in the right direction for U.S.-Pakistani relations.

The U.S. has long criticized Pakistan for failing to aggressively go after the Haqqanis, who have been behind many attacks against U.S. and allied forces in Afghanistan. In Pakistan, its military said in a statement that U.S. intelligence agencies had been tracking the hostages and discovered they had come into Pakistan on Oct. 11 through its tribal areas bordering Afghanistan. "All hostages were recovered safe and sound and are being repatriated to the country of their origin," the military said. Three Pakistani military officials, all speaking on condition of anonymity as they weren't allowed to speak to journalists, also confirmed the hostages' identities. The release, which came together rapidly Wednesday, comes nearly five years to the day since Coleman and Boyle lost touch with their families while traveling in a mountainous region near the Afghan capital, Kabul.

This still image made from a 2013 video released by the Coleman family shows Caitlan Coleman and her husband, Canadian Joshua Boyle in a militant video given to the family.​

The couple set off in the summer 2012 for a journey that took them to Russia, the central Asian countries of Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, and then to Afghanistan. Coleman's parents last heard from their son-in-law on Oct. 8, 2012, from an internet cafe in what Boyle described as an "unsafe" part of Afghanistan. In 2013, the couple appeared in two videos asking the U.S. government to free them from the Taliban. Coleman's parents, Jim and Lyn Coleman, told the online Circa News service in July 2016 that they received a letter from their daughter in November 2015, in which she wrote that she'd given birth to a second child in captivity. It's unclear whether they knew she'd had a third. "I pray to hear from you again, to hear how everybody is doing," the letter said. In that interview, Jim Coleman issued a plea to top Taliban commanders to be "kind and merciful" and let the couple go. "As a man, father and now grandfather, I am asking you to show mercy and release my daughter, her husband, and our beautiful grandchildren," Jim Coleman said. "Please grant them an opportunity to continue their lives with us, and bring peace to their families."

The family was being held by the Haqqani network. U.S. officials call the group a terrorist organization and have targeted its leaders with drone strikes. But the group also operates like a criminal network. Unlike the Islamic State group, it does not typically execute Western hostages, preferring to ransom them for cash. Trump has called on Pakistan to do more to tackle militant organizations that use its territory as a home base. "We can no longer be silent about Pakistan's safe havens for terrorist organizations, the Taliban and other groups that pose a threat to the region and beyond," Trump said in a recent speech announcing his Afghanistan policy. He issued a stark warning: "We have been paying Pakistan billions and billions of dollars at the same time they are housing the very terrorists that we are fighting. But that will have to change, and that will change immediately."

Family Held Captive by Taliban-Linked Group Released | Military.com

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Pakistan official details car chase that freed kidnapped U.S.-Canadian family
October 13, 2017 - Pakistani troops shot out the tires of a vehicle carrying a kidnapped U.S.-Canadian couple and their children in a raid that led to the family’s release, a Pakistani security official said on Friday.

The operation late on Wednesday freed American Caitlan Campbell, her Canadian husband Joshua Boyle and their three children who were born in captivity following five years as hostages of the Taliban-linked Haqqani network. Taliban sources said the family spent most of their captivity at Haqqani strongholds inside Pakistan, and not in Afghanistan as early Pakistani reports had indicated. A senior Pakistani security source on Friday detailed how the family, who were expected to leave Pakistan on Friday, were freed following a car chase in Pakistan’s northwestern tribal region bordering Afghanistan. He said Pakistani troops and intelligence agents, acting on a U.S. intelligence tip, zeroed in on a vehicle holding the family as they were being moved in Kurram agency.

Agents from Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) spy-agency and army soldiers attempted to intercept the vehicle, but it sped away and was chased into a district in northwest Pakistan, according to the security source. “Our troops fired at the vehicle and burst its tres,” he said, declining to be identified because he is not authorized to speak openly to the media. The kidnappers managed to escape, the security official added, saying the troops wouldn’t fire at the fleeing captors for fear of harming the hostages. The army recovered the hostages safely from the car. Major General Asif Ghafoor, military spokesman for Pakistan’s army, told NBC News that the vehicle’s driver and another militant had escaped to a nearby refugee camp.

A second Pakistani security official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said U.S. drones had been circling the town of Kohat, on the edge of the tribal areas on Wednesday, suggesting U.S. co-operation included sophisticated surveillance inside Pakistan. The U.S. embassy in Pakistan declined to comment on the drone report. The family’s rescue has been hailed by U.S. President Donald Trump as a “positive moment” for U.S.-Pakistan relations, which have frayed in recent years amid Washington’s assertions that Islamabad was not doing enough to tackle Haqqani militants who are believed to be on Pakistani soil.

Trump, in a statement, said the release of the hostages indicates Pakistan was acquiescing to “America’s wishes for it to do more to provide security in the region”. Pakistani officials bristle at claims Islamabad is not doing enough to tackle Islamist militants. After the release of the family, they emphasized the importance of co-operation and intelligence sharing by Washington, which has threatened to cut military aid and other punitive measures against Pakistan.

HOSTAGES LOCATION

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American-Canadian family released after 5 years of captivity
Oct. 12, 2017 -- An American woman, her Canadian husband, and their three children born in captivity were released by insurgents in Pakistan linked to the Taliban.

Caitlan Coleman and Joshua Boyle were kidnapped five years ago while traveling in Afghanistan and had been held by the Haqqani network since. Coleman was pregnant when abducted. The couple had all three of their children while in captivity. President Donald Trump issued a statement on the release, saying, "The United States government, working in conjunction with the government of Pakistan, secured the release of the Boyle-Coleman family from captivity in Pakistan. Today they are free."

Pakistan's military said in a statement that it had "recovered five Western hostages including one Canadian, his U.S. national wife and their three children from terrorist custody through an intelligence-based operation by Pakistan troops and intelligence agencies." The family was being held in the American embassy in Pakistan and it is not publicly known when the family plans to return to North America. "The Pakistani government's cooperation is a sign that it is honoring America's wishes for it to do more to provide security in the region," Trump said in his statement. "We hope to see this type of cooperation and teamwork in helping secure the release of remaining hostages and in our future joint counterterrorism operations."

The leader of the Haqqani network is also the head of the Afghan Taliban. The United States has criticized Pakistan in the past for not going after the extremely wealthy and well-connected Haqqanis, who are considered to be part of the Taliban terror organization. The Haqqanis have been blamed more for than 2,000 U.S. military deaths, and their deep links to local tribes have dubbed them the "Kennedys of the Taliban movement."

American-Canadian family released after 5 years of captivity

 

[waltky]

Granny says, "Dem dirty Taliban...

Freed Taliban hostage says wife was raped
Sat October 14, 2017 - Couple freed from militant captivity arrived in Canada Friday night; Canadian man and American wife were held for five years

A Canadian man who was freed along with his family after five years in militant captivity in Pakistan said his captors authorized the killing of one of his children and raped his wife. "The stupidity and the evil of the Haqqani network's kidnapping of a pilgrim and his heavily pregnant wife engaged in helping ordinary villagers in Taliban-controlled regions of Afghanistan was eclipsed only by the stupidity and evil of authorizing the murder of my infant daughter, Martyr Boyle," Joshua Boyle told reporters upon his arrival at Toronto's Pearson Airport Friday night. He said his captors' actions were a retaliation for his "repeated refusal to accept an offer" from them.

Boyle, his American wife, Caitlan Coleman, and their three children were freed Thursday in a mission carried out by Pakistani forces based on intelligence from US authorities. The couple was held for five years by the Taliban-affiliated Haqqani network in Afghanistan after their kidnapping in 2012. Their three children were born during their time in captivity.
Coleman was pregnant at the time of their kidnapping and had two more children in captivity. Boyle did not say whether a death actually occurred, only that his captors were responsible for "authorizing the murder" of his infant daughter. He said Coleman was raped by a guard who was assisted by his superiors and asked Afghan authorities to bring them to justice. "I certainly do not intend to allow a brutal and sacrilegious gang of criminal miscreants to dictate the future direction of my family, nor to weaken my family's commitment to do the right thing, no matter the cost," he said.

Boyle said he had been in Afghanistan "helping the most neglected minority group in the world, those ordinary villagers that live deep inside Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, where no NGO, no aid worker and no government has ever successfully been able to bring the necessary help." A senior official had said Boyle refused to board an American military plane on Thursday over concerns he could face arrest. Boyle said his family had been delayed due to a medical emergency surrounding one of his children. "I assure you, I have never refused to board any mode of transportation that would bring me closer to home, closer to Canada and back with my family," he said. Boyle was previously married to the sister of Omar Kadhr, a Canadian imprisoned for 10 years at the US detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, after fighting US troops in Afghanistan.

The US official said there were some questions surrounding Boyle's past, but the Department of Justice said he did not face arrest. "Coleman and Boyle are not charged with any federal crime and, as such, we do not seek their arrest," spokesman Wyn Hornbuckle said. Before Boyle's arrival in Canada, his father, Patrick, told CNN that his son had described the rescue mission during a phone call. "The five of them being in the back of a car being transferred and a car being stopped, surrounded by, Josh described, 35 Pakistani Army officials," Patrick Boyle said. "A firefight breaking out, that all five captors had been killed by the Pakistani Army, and all five of our Boyles are safe and okay. Josh said he was hit with some shrapnel and our governments have confirmed that he was damaged in the leg. That's all we know right now about that." Boyle said the sudden turn of events was nothing short of miraculous. "Cait, in her last video said if all five of them make it out, it's going to be a miracle," Boyle said. "And we're living a miracle."

Freed Taliban hostage says wife was raped - CNN

 

[waltky]

Dastardly bastids!...

Canadian hostage Joshua Boyle says Taliban killed daughter
Sat, 14 Oct 2017 - Joshua Boyle says captors also raped his wife, during their five-year Afghan kidnap ordeal.

A Canadian held hostage by the Taliban has spoken of the group's "stupidity and evil", revealing they murdered his daughter and raped his wife. Joshua Boyle spoke to reporters after landing in Canada with his wife Caitlan Coleman and children following almost five years in captivity. They were captured while reportedly backpacking in Afghanistan in 2012. Ms Coleman's father has said the decision to visit the dangerous country was "unconscionable". Both sets of parents have previously questioned why the couple were in Afghanistan in the first place. "What I can say is taking your pregnant wife to a very dangerous place is to me and the kind of person I am, is unconscionable," Jim Coleman told ABC News following their rescue on Wednesday. "I can't imagine doing that myself. But, I think that's all I want to say about that."

However, Mr Boyle told reporters at Toronto's Pearson International Airport the couple had been trying to deliver aid to villagers in a part of the Taliban-controlled region "where no NGO, no aid worker, and no government" had been able to reach when they were kidnapped. Ms Coleman was heavily pregnant at the time with their first child. This week, they returned with three children, all born in captivity, the youngest of whom is understood to be in poor health. In his statement, Mr Boyle appeared to suggest they had had a fourth child, a baby girl who had been killed by their captors, the Taliban-aligned Haqqani network, as he also revealed they had raped his wife.

It was, he said, "retaliation for my repeated refusal" to accept an offer made to him by the network. "The stupidity and the evil of the Haqqani network in the kidnapping of a pilgrim... was eclipsed only by the stupidity and evil of authorising the murder of my infant daughter," he said. "And the stupidity and evil of the subsequent rape of my wife, not as a lone action by one guard, but assisted by the captain of the guard and supervised by the commandant." The family were finally rescued by the Pakistani army after a US tip-off during an operation near the Afghan border.

Initial reports suggested Mr Boyle had refused to board a US military flight out of Pakistan. Mr Boyle was once married to a woman who espoused radical Islamist views and is the sister of a former Guantanamo Bay inmate, Omar Khadr. CNN suggested he might fear prosecution by the US authorities. But Mr Boyle rubbished the reports after arriving in Canada. He said the family were looking to put their terrible ordeal behind them and the couple were now hoping "to build a secure sanctuary for our three surviving children to call a home".

Taliban killed my baby, says freed hostage