Afghan Taliban Claim American and Australian Hostages Are Seriously Ill

Afghan Taliban Claim American and Australian Hostages Are Seriously Ill
https://saraacarter.com/afghan-taliban-claim-american-and-australian-hostages-are-seriously-ill/
By Sajid Khan | August 16, 2018 | 1:14 PM EDT
American professor Kevin King and Australian professor Timothy Weeks are being held in a remote location without access to any medical facilities or doctors
The American and Australian professors who were kidnapped two years ago by armed Taliban gunmen in Kabul, Afghanistan are now both ill and their condition is deteriorating, according to the militant group.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in an audio message Wednesday that American professor Kevin King and Australian professor Timothy Weeks are being held in a remote location without access to any medical facilities or doctors. It is not the first time the Taliban has issued health warnings about the pair of professors.
“Both professors are not feeling well, they are in (a debilitating) condition and the Taliban have no access to shift them to the hospital or arrange any doctors,”  Mujahid said in an audio recording.
The professors looked frail and visibly tired
Earlier this year, Mujahid told SaraACarter.com that King, who is believed to be ailing from a heart condition, received treatment from a local doctor. At the time, the Taliban refused to send proof of life confirmation of the victims. Five months after their kidnapping the Taliban released a video of the men and then again in October 2017.  The professors looked frail and visibly tired.
The revelation that now both hostages are ill comes on heels of renewed attacks by Taliban militants in Afghanistan over the past week. Taliban militants 

Taliban Released New Video of Two Prisoners |Taliban hostages | Kevin King And Timothy Weeks |
WATCH https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=57&v=R64kIuj08jA
launched several major assaults on the Afghanistan city of Ghazni, which is less than one-hundred miles from Kabul. According to the New York Times, on Aug. 10, more than 1,000 Taliban fighters attacked the city in the early morning hours with the assistance of foreign fighters, including Al Qaeda affiliates and Pakistan linked terror groups. This comes at a time that the Trump administration is considering negotiations with the Taliban. According to Afghanistan’s Defense Ministry, more than 100 Afghan law enforcement and military were killed in the attack.  At least 20 civilians were killed and the ministry estimated that roughly 200 Taliban were killed in the clashes.
Both U.S. and Canadian government officials have been working for years for the safe release of the two men, who the Taliban have accused of working for the CIA. The U.S. and Australian government contend that both men are professors, who were working for the American University in Afghanistan at the time of their kidnapping. They were leaving the university and heading back to their compound by vehicle when armed Taliban insurgents trapped them in the city and took them by force.
On Tuesday, the American University administration released a statement pleading the Taliban for the release of the men saying, “the two years of forced imprisonment without medical treatment has led to the deterioration of Kevin and Tim’s health.  We ask that their captors release them so that they can obtain the treatment they need to live and heal.”
“Kevin and Tim, we hold you dearly as part of our AUAF family and we will continue to work tirelessly for your release,” the official statement said, which was released throughout Afghanistan with the hope that the two men would know that they have not been forgotten. “Our hearts are heavy with grief and sorrow.  We will not be deterred, however.”
Without fulfillment of our demands, we will not release the hostages
On Wednesday, the Taliban rejected the pleas for the release of the men saying, “we reject the American University request to release them because the U.S. and Afghan forces have arrested hundreds innocent Afghans and shifted them to Bagram, Pul-e-Charkhi and even Guantanamo prisons.”

“We have put our demands before the American negotiators to release all the innocent Afghans and Taliban prisoners if they want to release these professors,” said Mujahid. “Without fulfillment of our demands, we will not release the hostages.”

In May, the FBI’s Washington field office offered a $1 million reward “for information leading directly to the safe location, recovery, and return of Kevin King” or another American hostage Paul Edwin Overby, Jr, who is an American writer who was conducting research for his book. According to the FBI, at the time of Overby’s disappearance, he had “planned to cross the border into Pakistan in furtherance of his research.” Overby was last seen in Khost province, in eastern Afghanistan.

VIDEO OF THE GHAZNI ATTACK:
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When Mujahid was asked by SaraACarter.com to give details of the condition of both men he said, “I have no latest information but a few days ago I was told by our people who are holding them in a safe place that both professors are ill and their condition is deteriorating.”
The Taliban spokesman did not offer details on their illness but stipulated that the Taliban have no arrangement to provide them medical treatment.
Sara Carter contributed to this report