Freed Taliban hostage says kidnappers killed his daughter, raped his wife

The Canadian-American family freed this week from a five-year captivity in Afghanistan spoke to reporters about their ordeal upon arriving in Toronto Friday night. Joshua Boyle, a Canadian citizen, said the Taliban raped his wife, Caitlan Coleman, an American, and killed their baby.

"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," he said. The Haqqani network is an insurgent group with Taliban ties. Boyle suggested the murder and rape occurred in 2014, the former a retaliation for his refusal to comply with the terrorists' demands.

The family's goal now is to provide "a secure sanctuary for our three surviving children to call a home," Boyle said, so they can "try to regain some portion of the childhood that they have lost."

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