Wed Aug 31, 2016 15:46:50
The US State Department said on Tuesday it is evaluating a video released by the Afghan Taliban showing a Canadian man and his American wife warning that their Afghan captors will kill them and their children unless the Kabul government ends its executions of Taliban prisoners.
The video, which has not been independently verified by the AP, shows Joshua Boyle and Caitlan Coleman, who were kidnapped in Afghanistan in 2012, calling on Canada and the US to pressure the Afghan government into changing its policy on executing captured Taliban prisoners.
Coleman has told her family that she gave birth to two children while in captivity.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told the AP that the video was not new and had in fact been recorded in 2015.
Mujahid said Boyle and Coleman and their two children remained in captivity but in good health.
The AP could not immediately verify the date of the recording, however even if the video was recorded in 2015, it would mark the first time the couple has appeared in a video since 2013.
The video, which was uploaded to YouTube on Tuesday, came to public attention through the Site Intelligence Group, which monitors extremist activity online.
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