US evaluating Taliban video of captive couple in Afghanistan

In Washington, State Department spokesman John Kirby said US officials were aware of the video and were examining it “for its validity”.

In the video, Joshua Boyle and Caitlan Coleman sombrely warn they will be killed by their captors unless Kabul abandons its policy of executing captured prisoners.

Acknowledging the video, John Kirby, the spokesperson of US State Department said that they are examining the video for its validity and are concerned about the safety of the couple.

“Certainly when Americans are taken captive, this becomes an immediate priority for us”, Army Gen. Joseph Votel, who leads U.S. Central Command, told reporters at the Pentagon on Tuesday, referring to Coleman and her family. They were kidnapped by militants four years ago whilst travelling through the country and have not appeared in a video since 2014.

“Our captors are terrified at the thought of their own mortality approaching and are saying that they will take reprisals on our family”, he added in the video clip.

Dressed in a black dress and head covering, with her left hand holding what appears to be an earpiece to the side of her face, Coleman speaks directly to her parents and says she knows it is “terrifying and horrifying” for them to hear that she might be executed herself.

Coleman gave birth to their children while in captivity.

The video, uploaded on YouTube, came to public attention through the USA -based Site Intelligence Group, which monitors online extremists’ activity.

“The Government of Canada will not comment or release any information which may compromise or risk endangering the safety of Canadian citizens overseas”, O’Shaughnessy’s email read.

But the Coleman family in rural Pennsylvania has not received any demands for ransom since her disappearance.

The couple was last seen in a video emailed to her parents in 2013 in which they asked the US government and their families to secure their release. Due to their fear they are willing to kill us, willing to kill women, to kill children, to kill whomever, in order to get these policies reversed or take revenge.

Her parents, Jim and Lyn Coleman, last heard from their son-in-law on October 8, 2012, from an internet cafe in what Josh described as an “unsafe” part of Afghanistan.

In July, Jim Coleman, the father of Caitlan, issued a plea to top Taliban commanders to be “kind and merciful” and let the couple go during an interview with Circa News.

“As a man, father and now grandfather, I am asking you to show mercy and release my daughter, her husband, and our attractive grandchildren”, Jim Coleman said.

USA officials say they are working to free the family, particularly with help from the Pakistani government, whose military intelligence services, the ISI, has ties with the Haqqani network.