Taliban blamed for beheading 17 party-goers in Afghanistan

THE Taliban beheaded 17 people in a remote corner of southern Afghanistan – apparently for attending a party.

Two of the victims were women and all were described as ‘civilians’.

Officials said they were killed because they were at a music event, were dancing and both sexes were present, all of which are against Taliban law.

However, other reports claimed that those who died – who may have been shot before being decapitated – were victims of a crackdown on government informers, or even that they were killed as a result of two Taliban leaders arguing over the women.

The executions were carried out on Sunday night in Helmand province’s Musa Qala district in an area controlled by the Taliban.

District government chief Neyamatullah Khan said the victims were part of a large group that had gathered for a celebration involving music and dancing.

He said the Taliban slaughtered them to show their disapproval of the event, and added that information was trickling out only slowly because the area is completely under the Taliban’s control.

However, a Helmand police official said there was a possibility that those who were killed were suspected of being informants. Yet another official put the killings down to a dispute between two Taliban leaders. Afghan President Hamid Karzai condemned the atrocity and said the killings were against Sharia law.

‘The killing of innocent civilians by the Taliban is an unforgivable crime,’ he said. However, the Taliban denied that they were involved. Spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi said: ‘No Taliban have killed any civilians. Neither were Taliban commanders fighting each other. We don’t know about this thing.’

The deaths contradict the Taliban leadership’s orders for their fighters to avoid killing ordinary Afghans, suggesting a breakdown in discipline and a further fracturing of the insurgency.

Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar urged his commanders earlier this month to ‘employ tactics that do not cause harm to the life and property of the common countrymen’.

The deaths heralded a violent 24 hours in Afghanistan. More than 200 insurgents took part in an attack on a checkpoint in the same region yesterday in which ten Afghan soldiers were killed and six more seized. And an Afghan soldier killed two US troops in eastern Afghanistan’s Laghman province yesterday, bringing to 12 the number of foreign soldiers who have died this month.

A spokesman for Nato said coalition forces were not pulling back from collaborating with the Afghans despite such incidents.