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Taliban behead 7 'spies'
14/07/2007 11:49 - (SA)
Spin Boldak - Taliban
insurgents have beheaded seven Afghan civilians accused of
spying for foreign and Afghan government forces in the past 10
days, a senior Afghan intelligence official said on Saturday.
Taliban militants have increasingly resorted to executing
those they accuse of spying for Nato and US-led forces in the
last two years alongside more suicide and roadside bombs,
tactics copied from Iraq that officials say are aimed at
instilling fear.
"In the last 10 days the Taliban beheaded seven Afghan
civilians without any proof," said the intelligence official
who declined to be named.
He said the killings had taken place across the country,
but mostly around Kandahar, Ghazni and other areas of the
south.
"The Taliban are putting pressure on civilians to gain
support," he told Reuters. "When these people are caught they
are tortured first and then beheaded."
He said Taliban insurgents became suspicious of everyone
whenever US or Nato-led forces launched air strikes,
believing they must have been guided from someone on the
ground.
A Taliban spokesperson said those executed had been captured
along with proof, such as laser equipment used for guiding air
strikes, that showed they were working for foreign troops.
"We have captured many spies providing information about
the Taliban to foreign troops. When we catch any spy, we behead
him," Taliban spokesperson Zabiullah Mujahid told Reuters by
satellite telephone from an undisclosed location.
Some 6 000 people have been killed in Afghanistan, around
1 500 of them civilians, in the last 18 months, the worst
period of violence in the country since US-led forces
overthrew the Taliban in 2001.
- Reuters
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