Western couple missing in Afghanistan plead for help in videos

Hoping to take advantage of the publicity surrounding the release of U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, the family of a then-pregnant American woman who went missing with her Canadian husband in Afghanistan in 2012 has shared two videos it received of the couple.

In the footage, which was released to the Associated Press this week, Josh Boyle and Caitlan Coleman ask their governments to help free them and their child from their captors.

Coleman is wearing a black head scarf and glasses, while her husband has a long beard. There is no sign of the child.

We request our governments do what is necessary to bring the family back together to safety and freedom,” Boyle says in one of the videos.

AP reported that the videos were emailed to Coleman’s father last July and September by an Afghan man who said he had ties to the Taliban.

U.S. law enforcement officials believe the videos are authentic but say it is unclear when or where they were recorded, the news agency said. There have reportedly been no ransom demands.

The families expressed disappointment that the deal that secured Bergdahl’s release did not include the couple, who disappeared while traveling in a mountainous region near the Afghan capital, Kabul.

“It would be no more appropriate to have our governments turn their backs on their citizens than to turn their backs on those who serve,” Boyle’s father, Patrick, told AP.

Bergdahl was freed Saturday in exchange for five Taliban prisoners held at the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, who were released into the custody of Qatar.

The prisoner swap has stirred controversy in the United States, where some former members of Bergdahl’s military unit contend that he had deserted his base when he was captured in June 2009.

Members of Congress have also complained that the White House failed to provide the required notice for releases from Guantanamo.