Ruters02/05/2004By [Printer Friendly Version]
KABUL - Afghan government troops hung the body of a Taliban fighter from a crane in southern Helmand province on Thursday after he was killed in a failed attempt to blow up a dam, the province's governor said.
Two other Taliban fighters were wounded when fighting broke out when they were trying to blow up the dam in Kajaki district in the north of Helmand, Governor Sher Mohammad Akhundzada said.
"He was strung up with a crane in the bazaar (market) of Kajaki," he said, adding government troops launched a search after the two wounded Taliban escaped along with other Taliban guerrillas.
Remnants of the Taliban have become more aggressive in recent months, and the country has experienced its worst period of violence since U.S.-led forces overthrew the Taliban in late 2001, with more than 500 people killed since August.
There are still about 12,000 U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan hunting Taliban fugitives and their al Qaeda allies, in particular Osama bin Laden.
When the Taliban came to power in 1996, they hung former President Mohammad Najibullah from a street post in Kabul.