Not if it's okay to copy and paste a cached version. Please delete if not allowed...
A Canadian man held hostage with his wife and children for five years by Islamist militants linked to the Taliban and al-Qaeda has said the group tried desperately to recruit him, before killing his unborn child when he refused.
Joshua Boyle, 34, said that militants from the feared Haqqani network also tried to abort two subsequent children when they became suspicious that his wife, Caitlan Coleman, 31, was pregnant. Mr Boyle told The Times that their captors poisoned Ms Colemans food with oestrogen to induce miscarriage. The couple resorted to burying food in the ground to ensure a safe supply and protect the children.
Mr Boyle, his American wife and their three children, who were born in captivity, were freed by Pakistani commandos three weeks ago. The raid brought an end to the horrific ordeal suffered by the couple since they were kidnapped while hiking in Afghanistan on their honeymoon in 2012.
Ms Coleman was five months pregnant and gave birth to a son soon after. By the time of their release, she had had another boy and a daughter, born only weeks ago. Since they were freed the couple have revealed further horrors, including an allegation that Ms Coleman was raped by one of their guards.
Mr Boyle said the militants desperately wanted me to join [the group] but Id have none of it.
I have standards, its what sets me apart from them, he said.
The consequences of his refusal were terrible. Ms Coleman has said that when she conceived again, their guards spiked her food with oestrogen. The Taliban has since denied this, claiming she miscarried naturally, but Mr Boyle said that their captors admitted what they had done at the time.
They did tell us after the forced abortion how it was done, which made it easier to avoid on the next two pregnancies, he said. We buried safe food in the dirt floor in some houses before she was pregnant .
The couple tried to keep the pregnancies a seceret but Mr Boyle said that the militants became suspicious when Ms Coleman conceived two further times and began dosing their food again. Mr Boyle delivered his second son and daughter by torchlight.
The Haqqani network recruited Osama bin Laden in the 1980s and now runs the Talibans lucrative line in kidnapping. The Taliban said yesterday that the health of another American held by the Haqqanis, Kevin King, a university professor, was deteriorating.
The insurgents have threatened to kill Mr King and his Australian colleague Timothy Weekes unless one of their senior commanders, Anas Haqqani, is released from death row in Afghanistan.
Ms Coleman has said she was raped as punishment after guards discovered the couple had a concealed pen and were passing notes to people around them. Mr Boyle said that, far from being religious zealots, his captors had little knowledge of Islam and the Haqqanis were mere ****s.
You could always tell when an actual Taliban representative had come to the prison compound because suddenly all of our remarkably secular, mercenary guards would be wearing black turbans and reciting Quran, something they never did unless there was a pious visitor, he said.
Their opposition is not based on religious fervour [but] . . . a primitive love of blood sports, the desire to dominate, rape, kill and be feared.
