Hostage tells of six special forces bids to free him

An Australian lecturer held hostage by the Taliban said some of his guards were ‘‘lovely people’’ as he disclosed that US special forces launched six unsuccessful rescue bids.

Timothy Weeks spent more than three years locked up, often in the dark and underground, after he and Kevin King, a colleague, were seized in Kabul.

In his first public appearance since he was freed in a prisoner swap, the 50-yearold said he believed US Navy SEAL teams had launched repeated rescue missions, sometimes only missing their targets by hours.

In one incident, he was bundled into a tunnel beneath his prison as fighting erupted above. His captors told him they were under attack from Isis, but he said he now believed it

This image made from video released by the Taliban in January 2017 shows Timothy Weekes making a statement on camera while in captivity.

was a US raid. ‘‘I believe they were right outside our door,’’ he told a press conference.

‘‘The moment that we got into the tunnels, we were one or two metres underground and there was a huge bang at the front door. And our guards went up and there was a lot of machine-gun fire.

They pushed me over the top into the tunnels and I fell backwards and rolled and knocked myself unconscious.’’

Weeks and King were freed in return for three senior Taliban commanders last month. While he thanked Donald Trump, the

US president, and Scott Morrison, the Australian prime minister, for his release, he praised the compassion of some of his captors.

‘‘I don’t hate them at all,’’ he said. ‘‘And some of them, I have great respect for, and great love for, almost. Some of them were so compassionate and such lovely, lovely people. And it really led me to think about ... how did they end up like this?

‘‘I know a lot of people don’t admit this, but for me, they were soldiers. And soldiers obey the commands of their commanders. (They) don’t get a choice.’’

Weeks, from Wagga Wagga, New South Wales, had been working at the American University of Afghanistan for only three weeks when he was taken in August 2016. King remained in hospital, Weeks said. The 63-year-old had appeared dangerously frail in hostage videos. – Telegraph Group