Taliban kill 2 for spying

KANDAHAR (Afghanistan)—Taliban militants beheaded a man and fatally stabbed another as a warning to villagers not to give the government or NATO information about Taliban activities, a villager who said he witnessed the incident said Tuesday.
The militants brought a young man to Talukan village’s central market in the southern province of Kandahar on Monday, then stabbed him to death and suspended his body from a tree, said villager Lal Jan. They then beheaded another man, he said. The militants told villagers that the men had been spying on the Taliban, and said the killings were a lesson for others cooperating with the government or NATO forces, he said. Government and NATO officials could not immediately confirm the killings.
Elsewhere, seven Taliban fighters including a regional commander were arrested Monday night in Zabul province, said provincial police Chief Noor Mohammad Paktil. NATO forces overnight launched an airstrike against a “known insurgent command and logistics post” in an isolated area of Kandahar’s Panjwayi district, a NATO statement said Tuesday.—Agencies