Hostages home after 5 years

Photo: The Canadian Press

An American woman, her Canadian husband and their three young children have been released after years held captive by a network with ties to the Taliban.

Former Canadian hostage Joshua Boyle and his family arrived in Canada on Friday night after being freed from captivity this week.

Boyle, his American wife Caitlan Coleman and their three young children arrived at Toronto's Pearson International Airport, two days after Pakstani commandos rescued them from captors who first took the couple hostage five years ago in Afghanistan.

The final leg of the family's journey was an Air Canada flight Friday from London to Toronto.

Coleman, wearing a tan-colored headscarf, sat in the aisle of the business class cabin. She nodded wordlessly when she confirmed her identity to a reporter on board the flight. In the two seats next to her were her two elder children. In the seat beyond that was Boyle, with their youngest child in his lap. U.S. State Department officials were on the plane with them.

Boyle gave The Associated Press a handwritten statement expressing disagreement with U.S. foreign policy.

"God has given me and my family unparalleled resilience and determination, and to allow that to stagnate, to pursue personal pleasure or comfort while there is still deliberate and organized injustice in the world would be a betrayal of all I believe, and tantamount to sacrilege," he wrote.

He nodded to one of the State Department officials and said, "Their interests are not my interests."

He added that one of his children is in poor health and had to be force-fed by their Pakistani rescuers.

The family was able to leave from the plane with their escorts before the rest of the passengers. There was about a 5- to 10-minute delay before everyone else was allowed out.

The Canadian government also issued a statement Friday night saying it joined the Boyle family "in rejoicing over the long-awaited return to Canada of their loved ones."

The couple were kidnapped in Afghanistan in October 2012 while on a backpacking trip. All three of their children were born in captivity.

On Thursday, officials in Pakistan said the family had been rescued in "an intelligence-based operation" after their captors moved them across the border from Afghanistan.

The family was safe "but exhausted," Boyle's parents said on Thursday, while Coleman's parents were relieved to be able to speak with their daughter after five years.

However, her father said he was angry at Boyle for taking her to Afghanistan in the first place.