American woman held hostage by Taliban-linked group rushed to hospital, husband says
SMITHS FALLS, Ontario -- Joshua Boyle, a Canadian who was rescued with his family last week by Pakistani troops, said Tuesday that his wife had to be rushed to the hospital and remains there.
Boyle told The Associated Press in an email that his wife, Caitlan Boyle, was admitted Monday. His email did not specify why she was taken to the hospital.
"My first concern has to be the health of my wife and children," Boyle wrote.
Boyle, his American wife and their three children were rescued Wednesday, five years after the couple was abducted in Afghanistan on a backpacking trip. Four children were born in captivity.
Joshua Boyle said after landing at Toronto's airport on Friday that the Taliban-linked Haqqani network killed an infant daughter and raped his wife during the years they were held.
In prior email exchange with AP, Boyle did not respond to a question about the fourth child but later told Canadian Broadcasting Corp. that it was a forced abortion. The Taliban said in a statement it was a miscarriage.
On Monday, Boyle told the AP that he and his wife decided to have children even while held captive because they always planned to have a big family and decided, "Hey, let's make the best of this and at least go home with a larger start on our dream family."
"We're sitting as hostages with a lot of time on our hands," Boyle told AP. "We always wanted as many as possible, and we didn't want to waste time. Cait's in her 30s, the clock is ticking."
Boyle said their three children are now 4, 2 and "somewhere around 6 months."
"Honestly we've always planned to have a family of 5, 10, 12 children ... We're Irish, haha," he wrote in an email.
The parents of Caitlan Boyle have said they are elated she is free, but also angry at their son-in law for taking their daughter to Afghanistan.
"Taking your pregnant wife to a very dangerous place, to me, and the kind of person I am, is unconscionable," Caitlan's father, Jim Coleman said, told ABC News.