Navy SEALs Were Ready if Pakistan Failed to Free Family Held as Hostages<br />But the risky operation planned on Pakistani soil was called off because some in the United States government were not certain<br />that the people spotted by the drones were Ms. Coleman, Mr. Boyle and their children, according to the officials.<br />Mr. Boyle has said a gun battle ensued before he and his family were freed,<br />but American officials remained skeptical and a Pakistani military spokesman has said only that the vehicle’s tires were blown out.<br />Mr. Trump was briefed, and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson both backed the idea<br />that should the Pakistani government decline to try to rescue the family, the Navy SEALs would go in.<br />American officials said communications with the Haqqani network had gotten garbled, causing confusion,<br />and the death of the leader of the Taliban, killed by a United States drone strike last year, also set back efforts to rescue the hostages.<br />The top American diplomat in Pakistan, Ambassador David Hale, turned to his host country, one of the officials<br />said, delivering an urgent message to the Pakistani government: Resolve this, or the United States will.<br />If the Pakistanis did not act decisively, the United States would set aside its unease and launch a raid deep inside the country to free the family.
