Kabul, Afghanistan • The Taliban released a video Wednesday purportedly showing two Western hostages tearfully urging President-elect Donald Trump to negotiate with their captors to secure their release.
American Kevin King and Australian Timothy Weeks were abducted in August outside Kabul's American University of Afghanistan, where they worked as English professors. U.S. Special Operations forces almost immediately launched a raid to rescue them but did not find the hostages at the compound where they were thought to be held.
The video emerged hours after the United Arab Emirates (UAE) announced that five of its diplomats were killed Tuesday in blasts in Kandahar.
The 13-minute video could not be independently verified, but it was emailed to reporters by a Taliban spokesman and circulated by the group's social media accounts.
Sitting in front of a curtain, the two professors wept as they urged the U.S. government to agree to a prisoner exchange that would allow them to go free. The men appeared pale and were short of breath when speaking; they often sobbed.
They gave the date as Jan. 1 and said they had "been here for five months," without specifying their location. No other people were shown in the video clip.
"This is a message for the President-elect Donald Trump," Weeks, 49, said to the camera. "I ask you, please . . . please negotiate with the Taliban. If you do not negotiate with them, we will be killed."
The Taliban, he said, wanted its members released from detention centers at Bagram air base and Pul-i-Charki prison, outside Kabul.
"I don't know how much longer I can go," Weeks said, rubbing his eyes. "I don't want to die here."
Roughly 10,000 U.S. troops remain in Afghanistan, training Afghan forces and carrying out counterterrorism operations. The United States announced this month it would send an additional 300 Marines to southern Helmand province to advise and assist Afghan troops.
On Tuesday, more than 40 people were killed in a string of bombings in three major cities, including the capital.
At a meeting between Afghan and Emirati officials in Kandahar, three bombs exploded in quick succession, wounding the governor of Kandahar and the UAE ambassador to Afghanistan. Twelve others were killed.
The Kandahar region is a Taliban stronghold, but the militants denied responsibility for the explosions, instead blaming them on an "internal dispute" between Afghan government officials. The group often denies roles in attacks that could provoke a local backlash.
But the militants did assert responsibility for two bomb attacks Tuesday in Kabul and the Helmand provincial capital of Lashkar Gah. Together, those blasts killed more than 40 people and injured close to 100.
This image made from video released by the Taliban on Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2017 shows an American identified as Kevin King making a statement on camera while in captivity. The video shows King and an Australian who were kidnapped in August, the first time they’ve been seen since their abduction. The two men, an American identified as Kevin King and an Australian identified as Timothy Weekes, were abducted outside the American University of Afghanistan in Kabul, where they worked as teachers. (militant video via AP)
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