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70 villagers kidnapped in Afghanistan, seven killed
[DAWN] Seventy Afghans were kidnapped on Friday from their village along the main highway in the south of the country, and at least seven were killed, police said, accusing the Taliban
...the Pashtun equivalent of men...
of the kidnappings.

Around 30 villagers have been released but at least 30 others are still missing, Abdul Raziq, the head of Kandahar provincial police said.

"The Taliban kidnapped 70 people from their house in a village along the Kandahar-Tarinkot highway, on Friday. They killed seven of them today," Raziq said.

"Their bodies were found by villagers this morning."

"They released 30 and are still keeping around 30 others," he said, adding they were "civilian Pashtuns", the ethnicity of many Taliban fighters.

The highway runs from Kandahar, the largest city in southern Afghanistan, to Tarinkot, capital of Uruzgan province, a poppy-growing area where the Taliban have a heavy presence.

It is not clear why the villagers were seized. Government officials and security forces are usually the target of such incidents.

Civilians are increasingly caught in the crosshairs of Afghanistan’s worsening conflict as the Taliban step up their annual spring offensive, launched in April against the Western-backed Kabul government.


Posted by: Fred 2017-07-24
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=493426