Title : Haqqani hostage couple speaks out
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Haqqani hostage couple speaks out
- Joshua and Caitlan Boyle, 34 and 31, were kidnapped by the Haqqani network while backpacking through Afghanistan in 2012
- Catilan, an American, was six months pregnant at the time, and went on to have two more children during their five years in captivity
- In an interview with ABC News, which aired Monday, Caitlan described how she was gang-raped by their guards
- The couple said the guards sometimes tried to beat their children, but they fought back to protect their kids
- Joshua says he was offered freedom four times if he agreed to join the group
- He said no each time and told the guards they would 'burn in hell fire for what they had done'
- Last month, Pakistani forces received intel from the U.S. about the couple's whereabouts, in the northeastern region of the country
- They couple was rescued and have since returned to Joshua's native Canada
The American mother-of-three who was held hostage by a Taliban-linked terror group for five years is speaking out about being gang-raped at the hands of her guards
Caitlan Boyle, now 31, was five months pregnant when she and her husband Joshua were kidnapped while backpacking through Afghanistan in October 2012.
They couple were rescued last month by Pakistani forces, who were tipped off to their location by U.S. intelligence. The couple have since settled in Joshua's native Canada.
In one of the many hostage videos they recorded over the next half-decade, Boyle said that her three children had watched their mother 'be defiled'.
Speaking in an interview with ABC News on Monday, Caitlan said that statement was tragically true.
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Caitlan Boyle, 31, described how she was gang-raped during his five years as a hostage of the Taliban-linked Haqqani network (pictured above with her youngest child, Grace)
Caitlan and her husband Joshua were kidnapped by the terror group while backpacking through Afghanistan in October 2012
'That did happen,' she said. 'They came into the cell and they took my husband out - forcefully dragging him out - and one of the guards threw me down on the ground, hitting me and shouting, 'I will kill you! I will kill you!' And that's when the assault happened.'
She continued: 'It was with two men and then there was a third at the door. And afterwards the animals wouldn't even give back clothes.
'But the very next day, the valley where they were living and hiding came under attack. There were two helicopters with Gatling guns firing constantly, there was a lot of AK-47 fire and there were even some larger explosions. It was a big, big battle and our guards were hiding out of sight. They were absolutely terrified.
'My husband and I were each laughing to ourselves, thinking 'I hope these sons of bitches die today'. It was a bad day for the Haqqani network, but for us it just gave evidence that God is swift in answering prayers,' Caitlan said.
Her husband Joshua said they made it clear to their captors that they had no interest in joining their group.
'I called them religious hypocrites to their face and said that they would burn in hell fire for what they had done,' Joshua, 34, said.
Joshua said he was empowered to say such things because his faith that God was on their side.
In addition to beating them, Caitlan says the guards sometimes took it out on their kids, hitting them with sticks if they were too loud.
'Some of the guards actually actively hated children and would somewhat target [our eldest son] and come up with reasons to hit him either with a stick or otherwise. Claiming that he was making problems. He was being too loud,' Caitlan said.
Her husband said they would fight back against the guards to protect his children, and that his wife once broke her cheekbone this way.
'She actually broke her own hand punching one of them. She broke her fingers, so she was very proud of that injury,' he said.
Joshua says the group offered him freedom on four occasions if he joined their ranks.
'They had come four different times - to offer employment in the group... and I made it very clear that I'd rather be the hostage than be on "your side of the cage"' Joshua said. 'I'd rather be inside than outside.'
'There were beatings. There was violence. Then they'd come to make the offer again. Still said no. More beatings, more violence. Maybe that'll be the solution. Still no,' Joshua said. 'And after the final time - that's when they killed our daughter. And after that there were no more intimations of recruitment.'
Caitlan gave birth to three children during their five years as hostage. The couple claim that their guards poisoned Caitlan while she was pregnant a fourth time, resulting in an abortion. Their captors claim it was a miscarriage and that they had nothing to do with it.
Because their children were denied any toys, the couple said they had to get inventive in creating as happy a child as possible for them.
'We would just teach them to use things like bottle caps or bits of cardboard, garbage essentially, but what we could find to play with,' Caitlan said.
Caitlan says she and Joshua knew that being beheaded was always a possibility and that they tried to expose their eldest child to this so that he wouldn't be afraid if the time ever came.
'He certainly knew that this type of thing could happen to his family, so he had great fun pretending to be Oliver Cromwell chasing Charles I around and trying to behead him,' she said. 'So we made it a game so that he wasn’t afraid because there was, you know, there was nothing we could do if it came to that except try to make him less afraid.'
The Boyles and their three children - four-year-old Jonah, two-year-old Noah and six-month-old Grace - are now living with Joshua's family in Canada.
They said they are speaking out in hopes of holding their captors responsible.
'Our focus is on trying to hold accountable those who have committed grave human rights violations against us and against others,' Joshua said. 'I lost a daughter. That was more of a crushing blow to me than the years. What they did was a crime against humanity by international law.'
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