Caitlan Boyle, 31, described how she was gang-raped during his five years as a hostage of the Taliban-linked Haqqani network. Photo / ABC News
Caitlan Boyle, 31, described how she was gang-raped during his five years as a hostage of the Taliban-linked Haqqani network. Photo / ABC News
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 US intelligence. The couple have since settled in Joshua Boyle's native Canada, according to the Daily Mail.
Caitlan Coleman talks in the video while her Canadian husband Joshua Boyle holds their two children. Photo / AP
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, Boyle said that was tragically true.
"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," Boyle said.
There's been speculation about whether the Boyles converted to Islam because she has continued to wear a hijab since being released. But when asked by DailyMail.com, Joshua Boyle refused to say which religion they are practicing.
Linda Boyle, left and Lyn Coleman hold a photo of their married children, Joshua Boyle and Caitlan Coleman, in Stewartstown. Photo / AP
He said they made it clear to their captors that they had no interest in joining their group.
"I would call them religious hypocrites to their face and I would tell them they would burn in hell fire for what they had done and that I would rather be killed than join their group. And that did not make me any friends," he said.
Joshua Boyle said he was empowered to say such things because his faith that God was on their side.
"God likes me better than he likes them, so in the end we ended up with the upper hand I guess," he said.
In addition to beating them, Caitlan Boyle 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," she said.
Her husband said they would fight back against the guards to protect the 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.
Caitlan and her husband Joshua were kidnapped by the terror group while backpacking through Afghanistan in October 2012. Photo / ABC News
Joshua Boyle says the group offered him freedom four times if he joined their ranks.
"I think they had a misunderstanding because they recognise that I was somebody who was aware that the US was not always the good guy in the equation so they leaped on that and hoped that I would be joining their ranks.
"I had to break the news to them that I wasn't actually of the opinion that there was any good guys in this war. War tends to bring out the worst in everybody," he said.
This may have been an allusion to the fact that Boyle was previously married to the sister of a Taliban fighter.
"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 Boyle said.
"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," he said.
"And after the final time - that's when they killed our daughter. And after that there were no more intimations of recruitment."
Caitlan Boyle gave birth to three children during their five years as hostage. The couple claim that their guards poisoned her while she was pregnant a second time, resulting in an abortion. Their captors claim it was a miscarriage and that they had nothing to do with it. That same spokesman also claimed the Taliban had nothing to do with the couple's imprisonment, despite the Haqqani network and the Taliban being heavily linked.
Because their children were denied toys, the couple said they had to get inventive in creating as happy a childhood as possible for them.
Joshua Boyle and his son Jonah play in the garden at his parents house in Smiths Falls. Photo / AP
"We would teach them to use things like bottle caps or bits of cardboard, garbage essentially, but what we could find to play with," Caitlan Boyle said.
She 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 children - 4-year-old Najaeshi Jonah, 2-year-old Dhakwoen Noah and 6-month-old Ma'idah Grace - are now living in Ottawa, Canada.
"I hope that they find enough happiness and joy to make up for it," Caitlan said of her children and their new life of freedom.
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 Boyle said.
