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Reuters

A Taliban spokesman on Sunday denied accusations by a Canadian man that one of his children had been murdered and his wife raped while they were being held captive by militants who kidnapped them in Afghanistan in 2012.
Joshua Boyle and his American wife, Caitlan Coleman, were held by the Haqqani network, a semi-independent wing of the Afghan Taliban, before being rescued by Pakistani troops in northwest Pakistan, near the Afghan border, last week.
Boyle told reporters soon after he, his wife and their three children returned to Canada on Friday that their captors had murdered a fourth child and had raped his wife.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid rejected that as propaganda by the Western governments that helped rescue the family.
“We strongly reject these fake and fabricated allegations of this Canadian family, now in the hands of the enemy,” he said in a statement sent to media. ‎
“Whatever statement the enemy wants to put in their mouth, the family is forced to make it.”
Boyle called on the Taliban to “provide my family with the justice we deserve”.
Mujahid said the couple was intentionally never separated to protect their safety.
He also denied that their child had been murdered, but acknowledged that one child became sick and died.

“We were in remote areas without access to a doctor and medications that led to the loss of the child,” he said.
Three children, all born in captivity, were rescued along with Boyle and Coleman.
The US government says the Haqqani network is “the most lethal and sophisticated insurgent group” in Afghanistan.
Its operational chief, Sirajuiddin Haqqani, was named deputy to the Taliban’s newly appointed leader Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour in 2015, cementing ties between the groups.
The Haqqanis previously held US Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, who was freed in a swap for Taliban prisoners in 2014, and are suspected of holding two professors, an American and an Australian, who were kidnapped outside their university in Kabul in 2016.

A senior Afghan government official said American and Afghan special forces launched two unsuccessful raids to try to rescue the professors in Afghanistan, but officials now believe they have been taken to Haqqani hideouts across the border in Pakistan.
On Sunday, a bomb killed four Pakistani soldiers as they searched for the militants linked to the kidnapping. The incident happened near the Kharlachi checkpoint in Kurram district in the restive tribal belt bordering Afghanistan.
“Four security force troops including a captain embraced shahadat (martyrdom) while three others sustained injuries when an improvised explosive device went off,” the military said in a statement.
“The troops were part of a search party for handlers of the rescued foreigners,” it said without offering further details.


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Islamic militancy

Afghan Taliban deny hostage family’s claims of murder, rape

A 2016 photo of Taliban fighters in Afghanistan. Photo: AP

In this image taken from video obtained from Voice Of Jihad Website, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, right, stands with a Taliban fighter in eastern Afghanistan. The Taliban on Wednesday, June 4, 2014, released a video showing the handover of Bergdahl to U.S. forces in eastern Afghanistan, touting the swap of the American soldier for five Taliban detainees from Guantanamo as a significant achievement for the insurgents. Bergdahl was freed on Saturday after five years in captivity, and exchanged for the five Guantanamo detainees who were flown to Qatar, a tiny Gulf Arab country which has served as a mediator in the negotiations for the swap. (AP Photo/Voice Of Jihad Website via AP video)

Joshua Boyle walks through the airport after arriving with his wife and three children at Toronto Pearson International Airport, nearly 5 years after he and his wife were abducted in Afghanistan in 2012 by the Taliban-allied Haqqani network, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, October 13, 2017. REUTERS/Mark Blinch

In this image from video released by Taliban Media in December 2016, Caitlan Coleman talks in the video while her Canadian husband Joshua Boyle holds their two children. U.S. officials said Pakistan secured the release of Coleman of Stewartstown, Pa., and her husband, who were abducted five years ago while traveling in Afghanistan and then were held by the Haqqani network. Coleman was pregnant when she was captured. The couple had three children while in captivity, and all have been freed, U.S. officials said. (Taliban Media via AP)

Taliban brands Islamic State ‘scruffy and uncouth’, wants group destroyed

An image grab taken from a video released by the jihadist media arm Al-Hayat Media Centre on January 24, 2016, purportedly shows a man known by his nom de guerre Ukashah al-Iraqi speaking to the camera at an undisclosed location. The Islamic State (IS) group released the video purporting to show nine jihadists involved in the November Paris attacks that killed 130 people, in which they threaten "coalition" countries including Britain. / AFP / AL-HAYAT MEDIA CENTRE / HO / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - MANDATORY CREDIT "AFP PHOTO / HO / AL-HAYAT MEDIA CENTRE " - NO MARKETING NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS - DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS FROM ALTERNATIVE SOURCES, AFP IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DIGITAL ALTERATIONS TO THE PICTURE'S EDITORIAL CONTENT, DATE AND LOCATION WHICH CANNOT BE INDEPENDENTLY VERIFIED /

FILE - In this Sunday, May 13, 2012 file photo, former Taliban fighters hand over their weapons to Afghan police as part of a reconciliation process in Herat, Afghanistan. As the United States and its allies try to negotiate a peace settlement with the Taliban before all combat troops leave Afghanistan in 2014, a new obstacle has arisen: Insurgent splinter groups opposed to the deal are emerging, complicating U.S. hopes of leaving behind a stable country.(AP Photo/Hoshang Hashimi, File)

A screenshot of a man referred to by his nom de guerre as 'Abu Fu'ad al-Faransi' is seen in this image taken from an undated video. The video published on January 24, 2016 by the media centre of Islamic State purported to show images and last statements of nine of the people who took part in the Paris attacks that killed 130 people on November 13. The attackers are identified in the video by noms de guerre referring to their nationalities. REUTERS/al-Hayat Media Center of IS via Reuters TVATTENTION EDITORS - THIS PICTURE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY. REUTERS IS UNABLE TO INDEPENDENTLY VERIFY THE AUTHENTICITY, CONTENT, LOCATION OR DATE OF THIS IMAGE. THIS PICTURE IS DISTRIBUTED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED BY REUTERS, AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS. FOR EDITORIAL USE ONLY. NOT FOR SALE FOR MARKETING OR ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS. FOR EDITORIAL USE ONLY. NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVE.

An image taken from a video shows an Islamic State member known by his nom de guerre Ukashah al-Iraqi. He is purported by IS to have been among nine jihadists involved in the November Paris attacks that killed 130 people. Photo: AFP

US-Canadian family is free after five years as hostages of Taliban-linked militants

A still image from a 2013 video released by militants showing American Caitlan Coleman and her Canadian husband Joshua Boyle. Photo: AP

A Pakistani channel broadcasts a report about western couple, seen at a local electronic shop in Islamabad, Pakistan, Thursday, Oct. 12, 2017. An American woman, her Canadian husband and their three young children have been released after years of being held captive by a network with ties to the Taliban, U.S. and Pakistani officials said Thursday. (AP Photo/B.K. Bangash)

TOPSHOT - US President Donald Trump walks to Marine One prior to departing from the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC, on October 11, 2017, as he travels to Pennsylvania to talk about tax reforms. / AFP PHOTO / SAUL LOEB

(FILES) This file photo taken on January 22, 2017 shows Pakistani soldiers standing guard at a checkpoint in Parachinar, capital of the Kurram tribal district. A North American family that had been held hostage by the Afghan Taliban has been freed following an operation in Pakistan, the Pakistani military said October 12. / AFP PHOTO / BASIT GILANI

Insurgents suspected of being from the Haqqani network are presented to the media at the Afghan National Directorate of Security (NDS) headquarters in Kabul on May 30, 2013. Afghan intelligence agents captured six militants with suicide vests and heavy weaponry who were planning a major attack in Kabul. AFP/ Daud Yardost / AFP PHOTO / DAUD YARDOST

When they saw their grandchildren for the first time, it was in a Taliban hostage video

A still image from a video posted by the Taliban on social media on December 19 shows American Caitlan Coleman next to her Canadian husband Joshua Boyle and their two sons. Photo: Reuters