Afghan soldiers patrol at the scene of clashes with Taliban militants in Helmand province in 2015. (Noor Mohammad/AFP/Getty Images)

The Taliban released a video Wednesday purportedly showing two Western hostages, including an American, tearfully urging President-elect Donald Trump to negotiate with their captors to secure their release.

American Kevin King and an Australian, Timothy Weeks, were abducted in August outside ­Kabul’s American University of Afghanistan, where the two 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 announced that five of its diplomats were killed Tuesday in blasts

in Kandahar, underscoring the threats to foreigners working and living in Afghanistan.

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 light purple 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, and 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.

“This is a message for the ­President-elect Donald Trump,” the 49-year-old Weeks 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.

[Attack on Bagram base raises questions about security]

“I don’t know how much longer I can go,” Weeks said, rubbing his eyes. “I don’t want to die here.”

How Trump plans to handle Afghanistan’s deepening political and security crises is unclear. About 10,000 U.S. troops remain in Afghanistan, training Afghan forces and carrying out counterterrorism operations. The United States announced this month that it would send an additional 300 Marines to the southern province of Helmand to advise and assist Afghan troops.

On Tuesday, more than 50 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’s 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.

[U.S. Marines heading back to southern Afghanistan]

However, the militants did assert responsibility for two bomb attacks Tuesday in Kabul and the Helmand provincial capital, Lashkar Gah. Together, those blasts killed more than 40 people and injured close to 100.

The Kandahar bombing was the deadliest attack on UAE diplomats in that country’s 45-year history, and it struck at a nation with deep and complicated relations in Afghanistan.

The UAE has given billions of dollars in aid to the Western-backed governments that took over after the Taliban fell in 2001. But, before that, the UAE was among the few nations that recognized the Taliban government, and the UAE’s financial hub, Dubai, has come under scrutiny as a haven for money funneled out of Afghanistan.

The UAE also contributed combat troops to the NATO mission training Afghan security forces.

The Emirati diplomats were in Kandahar, along with several high-level Afghan officials, on a “humanitarian mission,” the UAE Foreign Ministry said. It added that the UAE government planned to finance a technical institute and offer scholarships to Afghan students.

The slain diplomats were “helping the weak, children, and the needy,” Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, ruler of the emirate of Dubai, wrote on Twitter. Maktoum is also vice president of the UAE.

[Humanitarian crisis looms in Afghanistan]

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani ordered a special team of investigators, headed by his national security chief, to probe the attack. The security chief’s spokesman, Tawab Ghorzang, said an initial investigation revealed that explosives had been placed underneath couches in the building, which served as the governor’s guesthouse.

The Kandahar governor’s spokesman, Samim Khpelawak, said three blasts occurred inside the two-story guesthouse, which has multiple layers of security and regularly hosts foreign dignitaries and senior Afghan officials.

“There were screams, smoke and fire in the room. The power went out,” Khpelawak, who escaped with minor injuries, said by phone.

Kandahar’s provincial police chief, Gen. Abdul Raziq, told reporters that construction was recently completed on part of the building, suggesting that the bombs may have been smuggled in by laborers.

A former Taliban official, Waheed Mozdah, said he doubted that the group carried out the attack.

Taliban leaders “have close ties with Saudi Arabia and the Emirates,” said Mozdah, who now works as a political analyst. “It’s unlikely that they would target Arab diplomats.”

Cunningham reported from Istanbul. Heba Habib in Stockholm contributed to this report.

Read more:

Gallery: Dozens dead after twin bombings in Kabul

Thousands of Marines fought in Afghanistan. Now, the service is going back.

Afghanistan’s vice president, known for brutality, may have gone too far

Today’s coverage from Post correspondents around the world

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