Taliban behead four spies in Afghanistan
Pakistan Times Wire Service

KANDAHAR (Afghanistan): Taliban militants beheaded four people, including a policeman, for allegedly spying for the US-led military, officials and the militia said on Friday. They also killed a road worker, while three Taliban were killed elsewhere in the ongoing violence.

Two people, one of them a police officer, were kidnapped on Thursday in Helmand province and later beheaded, a high- ranking police official informed on condition of anonymity.

Claiming responsibility, spokesman for the Taliban Abdul Latif Hakimi said: "We beheaded them because they were American spies. We also beheaded two other men captured on Thursday for the same crime in Zabul province." The police officials confirmed Hakimi’s claims.

The Taliban ambushed a vehicle in Shahjoy district of Zabul province late on Thursday and killed an Afghan road worker. Police chief Abdul Saboor confirmed the killing and added that three Taliban were also killed in a fighting with the security forces on the same day. He said two policemen were also wounded.

Meanwhile, Afghan and US paratroopers killed a Taliban leader Qari Amadullah, who attacked the US military with 50 militants and fired rockets and rocket-propelled grenades in Paktika province, the US military said on Friday.

Five other militants were killed and three US service members were wounded during the clash, the military added and suspected that Amadullah was former intelligence chief of the Taliban. A US service member was killed and two others were wounded accidentally in an explosive training in the Uruzgan province.●