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Taliban kill Afghan woman on spying charge

Posted on: Wednesday, 10 August 2005, 05:59 CDT

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Taliban guerrillas have executed an Afghan woman after accusing her of spying for U.S.-led forces, officials said on Wednesday.

The unidentified woman was shot dead in her house on Tuesday in the southern district of Zabul, district chief Haji Mohammad Younus said, adding Taliban fighters also kidnapped the victim's brother and father.

Abdul Latif Hakimi, a spokesman for the Taliban, confirmed the report and said the Taliban had killed the woman because "she was a spy for the Americans."

Ousted from power by U.S.-led forces in 2001, the Taliban have executed several men in the past after accusing them of being American spies, but Tuesday's execution was the first of a woman by the hardline Islamic group.

It comes amid an increase in attacks by the Taliban, who are active in southern and eastern parts of Afghanistan where hundreds of people, including at least 40 American soldiers, have died in violence this year, the worst since the Taliban's fall.

The Taliban have vowed to derail next month's parliamentary polls, drive out foreign forces from Afghanistan and topple President Hamid Karzai's government.

The U.S. military announced the latest American death on Wednesday, saying a soldier injured by a roadside bomb on Monday had died of his wounds.

A second U.S.soldier who was wounded in the same incident was in a stable condition, the U.S. military said in a statement.

A German soldier serving with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force for Afghanistan was killed when his vehicle crashed while on patrol on Sunday, ISAF announced on Wednesday.

Three other servicemen were injured in the accident.

Source: REUTERS

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