Pa. woman, husband, 2 sons speak in Taliban hostage video

A Pennsylvania woman held hostage in Afghanistan for four years appeared in a video Monday with her husband and two children - both born in captivity - and pleaded to President Obama and President-elect Donald Trump to secure their release.

Caitlan Coleman, 31, of York County, appeared in the video with her Canadian husband, Joshua Boyle, and their boys. The youngest had a pacifier in his mouth. Coleman was wearing a hijab.

Coleman and her husband have appeared previously in videos, but this was the first with their children.

Addressing the president simply as "Obama," Coleman said a failure to secure hostages' release could impact his legacy.

"So please don't become the next Jimmy Carter," she said, referring to the Iran hostages under his presidency.

Addressing "Donald Trump," Coleman said her captors "want money, power, friends. You must give them these things."

Coleman said the video was recorded Dec. 3.

"We have waited since 2012 for somebody to understand our problems, the Kafkaesque nightmare in which we find ourselves," she said, appearing to read from a script.

"My children have seen their mother defiled," she said.

She said her family could face retaliation for what its captors view as adverse actions by the United States.

The New York Times and other media have reported that the family is being held by the Haqqani network, a Taliban affiliate. The captors have sought the release of a commander who is being held by the Afghan government and has been sentenced to death.

Coleman was pregnant with their first son when she and her husband were kidnapped in late 2012 while on a hiking trip that also crossed parts of Russia and several central Asian countries.

Since their abduction, the U.S. government has tried to win their release, the Times reported.

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