US-Canadian family rescued after 5 years by Pakistan Army

Boyle was worried that he knew many operations conducted by american forces that ended up in a disaster resulting in death of all the hostages... American Caitlan Coleman, her Canadian husband Joshua Boyle and the children born in captivity were believed to be held by the Taliban-allied Haqqani network. Coleman and Boyle were kidnapped while backpacking in Afghanistan in 2012. Coleman was pregnant at the time, and a video released by the Taliban in December showed their two sons born while they were hostages. An Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) statement said that “through an intelligence-based operation”, the army took custody of the hostages. It said the hostages had been recovered in Kurram tribal area that borders Nangarhar and Paktia provinces in Afghanistan. Boyle’s family said they had received a call from their son early on Thursday morning, describing it as the first time in five years they had been able to speak to him. “Josh said he was doing pretty well for someone who has spent the last five years in an underground prison,” Patrick Boyle told the Toronto Star. His son also told him that he and Coleman had had a third baby – a girl – who had been born two months earlier. Boyle told his father that the rescue operation had taken place while the family were locked in the trunk of a car. The last words Boyle heard were “kill the hostages” before a shootout erupted. The five kidnappers were shot dead, and Boyle was injured by shrapnel, his father told the Star. The family are in Pakistan and are preparing to return to North America in the coming days. Arrangements had been made for the family to leave Pakistan immediately on a US transport plane, but Boyle had refused to board. A US official said Boyle was concerned that he might face scrutiny by the Americans over his links to Omar Khadr, the Canadian held for 10 years at Guantánamo Bay after being captured as a teenager during a firefight at an al-Qaida compound in Afghanistan. Boyle was briefly married to Zaynab Khadr, Omar’s sister.