The Taliban was accused of beheading
two boys for spying in southern Afghanistan yesterday. (M) Afghan
officials said the boys, aged 10 and 16, were kidnapped by Taliban
fighters while scavenging for food in rubbish bins near the police
headquarters in Kandahar, Afghanistan's second largest city and a key
base for Western forces.
The
boys are suspected to have accepted food from the police in exchange
for information and to have been killed for colluding with police,
Kandahar provincial government office said last night.
In separate incident, it was claimed, the boys were questioned about spying and their heads were then cut off.
Killed: Taliban fighters patrol the outskirts of
Kandahar. Two boys aged 10 and 16 were beheaded by Taliban fighters
beheaded today as a warning to villagers not to cooperate with the
Afghan government (file photo)
Officials condemned the act as
inhumane and un-Islamic, claiming the boys had merely been going through
bins to find unused and expired packages of food that had been thrown
away by Western forces, an event common in Afghanistan.
Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi denied the allegations, insisting the group had not beheaded any children in the area.
News first emerged of the
10-year-old's death and later yesterday the Kandahar provincial
government office confirmed that a second boy had also been beheaded.
Both bodies were recovered in Kandahar's Zhari district.
The 10-year-old boy was very poor and
was known to take food going spare from the police to take home to his
family, officials said.
Kandahar governor Dr Toryalay Wessa
instructed Afghan security forces and police to hunt down and catch the
militants responsible for the killing 'with whatever casualties it takes
and at whatever price.' In 2012 the Taliban were accused of beheading a
12-year-old boy and a seven-year-old girl in south and east Afghanistan
- the group denied responsibility in both those cases.
Taliban fighters in Afghanistan have
been known to behead targets in the past, but have always denied
attacking children in this way.
Origins: Kandahar is the birthplace of the Taliban and one of Afghanistan's most restive provinces
Afghans officials believe the Taliban
carried out the executions as a 'warning' to other youngsters not to
co-operate with the Coalition forces at a time when they are launching
fresh attacks in Afghan cities on Western and Afghan forces as part of
their Spring offensive which has so far seen a series of high profile
attacks.
The news of the beheadings drew a
strong response on social media - with hundreds taking to Twitter
re-tweeting the news - and outrage.
The beheadings were revealed hours after fierce gun battles raged near the airport in Kabul, the Afghan capital.
Taliban fighters armed with guns and
explosives clashed with security forces after taking over a building
near the airport in the Afghan capital of Kabul. The fighting ended with
all seven attackers dead, Afghan officials said.
The Taliban said the attack was
intended to target Americans in Kabul International Airport, one part of
which is used by military forces and another by civilians, the
officials said.
In eastern Afghanistan, a service
member with NATO's International Security Assistance Force died in a
bombing yesterday, the latest in a string of coalition deaths. Eighteen
coalition soldiers have died in June so far. At least nine of them are
Americans.
DAILYMAIL
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