Militants behead 'US spy'
2006-05-11 13:33
Khar - Pro-Taliban militants beheaded a man in a remote Pakistani tribal region near Afghanistan on Thursday after accusing him of spying for the United States, an official said.
The man's body was found in a village near Khar, the main town in the Bajur tribal region, and he was believed to have been a Pakistani tribesman, said Amir Zaman, the local official.
"We found this body and a letter near it today," he said, adding that the letter read as "those spying for Americans will face the same fate."
Although militants often kill tribesmen suspected of working for Pakistani and US forces in the North and South Waziristan tribal regions located near the Afghan border, such violence in Bajur is rare.
Bajur is about 200km northeast of Miran Shah, the main town in North Waziristan, where remnants of al-Qaeda and Taliban are believed to be hiding.
In recent months, Pakistani security forces have killed or captured several terror suspects in Bajur.
Pakistan - a key ally of the United States in its war on terror - has deployed about 80 000 soldiers in the country's tribal regions in an effort to flush out foreign militants and their local supporters, who often target troops with rockets and other weapons.
- AP