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| Afghanistan | |
| Taliban hangs five in Afghanistan as fighting rages | |
| 2014-08-17 | |
| [Dhaka Tribune] The Taliban executed five people in a busy opium market in Afghanistan's southern Helmand ...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan... province and left their bodies hanging overnight after accusing them of kidnapping a businessman, officials told Rooters.
Thursday's public hanging, in the largely Taliban-controlled Kajaki district, was the second group execution reported in Helmand since the offensive began. "Five kidnappers ... were hanged to death by an order from the Islamic Emirate's prosecution authorities," a Taliban front man, Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, said in a text message. "We hanged them in order to teach others a lesson." Mass public executions, common when the Taliban ruled Afghanistan from 1996, ceased after the movement was ousted in the US-led invasion in 2001. But the Taliban's reach in strategic provinces like Helmand has grown since US and allied troops stepped up the pace of their withdrawal, under plans to hand over security to Afghan forces by the end of 2014. British troops closed their last outpost in Helmand in May. Tribal elder Abdul Ahad Mahsomi told Rooters the five bodies were left hanging in the area's main opium market until Friday afternoon. More than half of Afghanistan's opium is produced in Helmand and its main highway is an import route for drug smugglers. Around 90% of the world's heroin is produced in Afghanistan and last year's crop was the highest on record, according to the United Nations ...an organization originally established to war on dictatorships which was promptly infiltrated by dictatorships and is now held in thrall to dictatorships... Helmand's police front man said he believed the hanged men were innocent and were executed to punish civilians for failing to support the Taliban against the government. "As they (the Taliban) are defeated in the battlefield they want to take Dire Revenge" on local people and create fear," said Shah Mohammad Ashna. After months of intense fighting in Helmand's Sangin district, an Afghan special force commander said on Thursday he had started talks with Taliban to end the bloodshed. Taliban fighters also kidnapped 13 people who had been working to clear mines in central Ghazni province and were travelling to the capital Kabul late on Friday, officials said. "We have already spoken to elders in the area to use their influence and speak to the Taliban to release them," Shafiq Nang Safi a front man for provincial governor said. | |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #6 We can't have that, #5 Fred. |
| Posted by: Barbara 2014-08-17 13:09 |
| #5 They're gonna give Islam a bad name |
| Posted by: Fred 2014-08-17 12:05 |
| #4 More Muslims killing Muslims, where are all the protestors? /sarc off |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2014-08-17 09:31 |
| #3 Throw a little drug-cartel in there as well. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2014-08-17 08:53 |
| #2 I think its a proxy war Afghanistan versus Pakistan at the moment. Semi-proxy at best, surely, Paul D. ;-) Afghanistan is standing in only for itself in this one. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2014-08-17 07:01 |
| #1 I think its a proxy war Afghanistan versus Pakistan at the moment. |
| Posted by: Paul D 2014-08-17 05:57 |