November 19, 2007	Monday	Ziqa’ad 08, 1428

KANDAHAR, Nov 18: Afghan-istan’s Taliban militia shot dead and hanged five policemen and a man they accused of robbery, police and a rebel spokesman said on Sunday.

The policemen, captured two months ago, were gunned down on Saturday in the province of Uruzgan and then hanged from trees in a village, provincial police chief Juma Gul Himat said.

Alerted to the bodies on display, police went to the area on Sunday and killed two rebels in a firefight, he said, accusing the Taliban.

The officers had been captured in Dihrawood district, where they were also hanged, he said.

The chief spokesman for the Taliban, Yousuf Ahmadi, did not immediately comment on the hanging but said members of the militia had shot dead and hanged another man they “arrested” for robbery.

He was executed at dusk Sunday in Helmand province’s Dishu district, an area where the Taliban are said to have significant influence, and his body hanged in a crowded bazaar, Ahmadi said.

The extremist Taliban, in government between 1996 and 2001, have executed several Afghans who work with the administration and its international allies, putting their bodies on display as an example to others.

While in power, they have carried out public executions, including stoning. Their insurgency, aimed at ousting international forces and overthrowing the Western-backed government, has gained steam in the last two years.—AFP