Militants decapitate captured Afghan policemen

Militants decapitate captured Afghan policemen
11.07.2005 Militants allied to the ousted Taliban regime have beheaded six Afghan policemen captured in an ambush near the Pakistanborder, adding a grizzly episode to a stream of attacks across southern Afghanistan that shows no signs of easing.

Haji Mohammad Wali, spokesman for the governor of Helmand province, said the six policemen went missing after the ambush on Saturday in which four policemen were killed. Their decapitated bodies were later recovered, he said.

His account echoed that of Latifullah Hakimi, who purports to speak for the Taliban, though Mr Hakimi said seven policemen had died in the initial attack.

Violence has surged in recent months as militants intensify efforts to destabilise the government and militia vie for power ahead of September's first parliamentary election.

Two rockets slammed into an upmarket area of Kabul that houses several diplomatic missions yesterday, but caused no casualties.

Despite almost daily attacks, coalition and Afghan officials say the Taliban is a fractured force that has no overarching command structure and does not pose a strategic threat to the Afghan government. Militants operate in small groups and do not co-ordinate attacks in different areas of the country.

Afghan officials said the militants who carried out Friday's ambush crossed the Pakistanborder into Helmand's Dehshu district and fled back over the frontier. Anger about Pakistan's role as a haven for Taliban militants continues to fray relations between Kabul and Islamabad, despite two recent telephone calls in which General Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's president, assured his Afghan counterpart, Hamid Karzai, of his commitment to prevent cross-border attacks.

Mr Hakimi said yesterday that militants had killed a US special forces soldier that he claimed had been captured during fighting 10 days ago in the eastern province of Kunar. Mr Hakimi, whose precise link to the Taliban is unclear, said the group planned to release a video of the captured soldier.

Lieutenant Colonel Cindy Moore, a spokeswoman for the US-led military coalition in Kabul, said the military had no evidence pointing to the capture of the soldier, who has been missing since his reconnaissance team was surrounded by rebels on June 28.

Lt Col Moore said the coalition was still searching for the soldier in Kunar as part of Operation Red Wing, involving more than 300 coalition troops. Rebels shot down a helicopter with 16 aboard that was sent on June 29 to back up the four-man team, of whom one has been rescued and two found dead.

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