In a statement disclosed to US media on Friday, the family of the seized US soldier Bowe Robert Bergdahl appealed to Taliban militants for their son’s life and said, “The Bergdahl family pleads with the captors to let our only son come home. To Bowe: We love you and we believe in you. Stay strong.”

The request for Bergdahl’s release comes after Taliban militants posted footages of the American soldier in which he demanded the US government to discontinue the invasion of Afghanistan.

“I’m afraid to tell you that this war has slipped from our fingers and it’s just going to be our next Vietnam unless the American people stand up and stop all this nonsense,” the captive US service member had noted in the video recording.

The video ruffled feathers in Washington, with authorities condemning Taliban for the ‘ill-timed’ release of the recording, which they view as an insult to the family of the soldier on the eve of Christmas.

In the video, Bergdahl criticizes the US policymakers for the ‘futile’ campaign against what he calls Taliban’s ‘organized guerrillas’ and slams the US past and present wars.

Meanwhile, Yousuf Ahmadi, a Taliban spokesperson has told AFP that the release of the video is meant “to show to the world that this is an invasion of Afghanistan, they (the foreign forces) are invaders, we want to show we are winning this war and the invaders will be either killed or captured like this.”

He has also reportedly demanded the release of a “limited number of prisoners” in exchange for the American soldier.

The war-stricken nation of Afghanistan has lost thousands of lives as a result of the war between the Taliban insurgents and a myriad of foreign forces during the past eight years.