Afghan police have found 11 decapitated bodies of Shia men amid concerns over the growing number of civilian casualties in the war-ravaged country.An Afghan police patrol discovered the bodies of the Hazaras in the southern Uruzgan province. Afghan officials blame the killings on the Taliban.
"This was the work of the Taliban. They beheaded these men because they were ethnic Hazaras and [Shia] Muslims," Reuters quoted regional police official Mohammad Gulab Wardak as saying.
Hazaras, who largely follow the Shia faith of Islam, are facing a widespread oppression from the Taliban. Thousands of the community members were killed in Afghanistan under the Taliban rule between 1996 and 2001. Mass graves containing the beheaded bodies of Hazaras have been found since the Taliban were overthrown following the 2001 US-led invasion.