Resurgent Taliban hangs three Nato 'spies' as warning

In further violence across the country over the weekend, eight policemen died in two separate ambushes amid increasing evidence of Taliban activities after a winter lull.

The three "spies" were killed in the Musa Qala region, where the British had arranged a local deal - which had since collapsed - under which tribal leaders pledged to keep insurgents out in return for the withdrawal of Nato forces.

Two of the men were hanged from a tree in front of a crowd in a village between Musa Qala and Gereshk, and the third was hanged in the main street in Musa Qala. The Taliban said they had been killed for supplying information to the enemy. A local Taliban commander, Nizamuddin Khan, said: "They were spying for the British troops and had tipped them off about the location of one of our commanders, who was killed by an air strike. The men had confessed to their crimes."

Namatullah, a resident of Musa Qala, said: "The Taliban told us that whoever gives information to the government or the foreign soldiers will be punished in the same way as these informers. The body of the man here was left hanging from a tree for three hours. It was then taken down and buried by local people."

At Gereshk, where there had also been an informal truce between the British and tribal chiefs, the hanging took place near a bridge. A local man, Syed Gul, said: "This was a warning. We were told that this is what would happen to anyone who betrays his own people to the British. There has been a lot of fighting here in the past, and we think that will happen again."

The children were killed when a bomber detonated his car packed with explosives at Mehtarlam, in Laghman province, near an Afghan army convoy. Yar Mohammed, a senior police officer, said: "It was a suicide attack and unfortunately it was children who were the victims. There were some injuries and they, too, were civilians."

More
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article2412774.ece