Taliban executes two ‘US spies’

Kandahar – Taliban militants hanged a teenager found with a five-dollar note and separately beheaded a villager after accusing both of spying for US forces, Afghan officials said yesterday.

The rebels also shot dead an elderly man who had asked for government help to build a water channel, they said, in the latest executions in an intensifying Taliban-led insurgency in which civilians are being caught up. The 15-year-old boy was hanged from an electricity pole on Sunday in the Sangin district of the southern province of Helmand and the five-dollar bill stuffed into his mouth, said the district’s chief, Mohammad Wali.Wali blamed the execution of the boy, named Zainullah, on the Taliban, saying villagers reported that the rebels were involved.The extremist Taliban carried out similar executions during its 1996-2001 hold of government.”Taliban simply hanged him because they found a five-dollar note in his pocket,” Wali said.”They said the boy was spying for foreign troops.But he was neither spying for foreign troops nor for us.He was just a kid.”Sangin is fiercely fought over, with British troops leading efforts to drive Taliban hardliners out of the district, which is in Afghanistan’s opium-producing heartland.Wali said Taliban had also shot dead an elderly tribal chief from Sangin after he had travelled to Helmand’s capital town of Lashkar Gah to request the government’s help to rebuild a water channel in his village.Also on Sunday, a man was beheaded in the eastern border province of Paktika, the provincial police chief said, also blaming Taliban fighters.”Taliban beheaded a man over spying charges.We know that he was not a spy, he was just an ordinary villager,” said Paktika police chief Farouq Sangari.The rebels’ campaign against the government and international troops makes heavy use of suicide bombings and executions intended to terrorise people.More than 700 civilians have been killed this year in the growing unrest, about half by rebels and half in the crossfire of military action against the militants, according to an AFP count based on official reports.Nampa-AFPThe 15-year-old boy was hanged from an electricity pole on Sunday in the Sangin district of the southern province of Helmand and the five-dollar bill stuffed into his mouth, said the district’s chief, Mohammad Wali.Wali blamed the execution of the boy, named Zainullah, on the Taliban, saying villagers reported that the rebels were involved.The extremist Taliban carried out similar executions during its 1996-2001 hold of government.”Taliban simply hanged him because they found a five-dollar note in his pocket,” Wali said.”They said the boy was spying for foreign troops.But he was neither spying for foreign troops nor for us.He was just a kid.”Sangin is fiercely fought over, with British troops leading efforts to drive Taliban hardliners out of the district, which is in Afghanistan’s opium-producing heartland.Wali said Taliban had also shot dead an elderly tribal chief from Sangin after he had travelled to Helmand’s capital town of Lashkar Gah to request the government’s help to rebuild a water channel in his village.Also on Sunday, a man was beheaded in the eastern border province of Paktika, the provincial police chief said, also blaming Taliban fighters.”Taliban beheaded a man over spying charges.We know that he was not a spy, he was just an ordinary villager,” said Paktika police chief Farouq Sangari.The rebels’ campaign against the government and international troops makes heavy use of suicide bombings and executions intended to terrorise people.More than 700 civilians have been killed this year in the growing unrest, about half by rebels and half in the crossfire of military action against the militants, according to an AFP count based on official reports.Nampa-AFP