Afghan Villagers Retaliate, Stone Taliban Commander To Death

From the Denver Post:

KABUL — Angry villagers stoned to death a local Taliban commander and his bodyguard in southern Afghanistan on Sunday after the two men killed a 60-year-old man accused of aiding the government, Afghan officials said.

It was a rare reversal of brutality aimed at the Taliban, and, some Afghan officials believe, suggests a growing sense of security in an area where the insurgency has lost ground to NATO forces in the past two years.

The stoning happened in the Nawa District of Helmand province, a verdant agricultural area along the Helmand River Valley, now considered one of the safest places in the volatile south as a result of a heavy influx of U.S. troops and aid dollars.

"People won't tolerate the Taliban's barbaric actions anymore," said Dawoud Ahmadi, a spokesman for the governor of Helmand province.

The stoning occurred a day after insurgents in the northeastern province of Kunar stoned, hanged and shot two Afghan National Army soldiers returning from leave, Afghan officials said. The attacks were unrelated and happened far away from each other, but they underscored the grisly nature of the insurgency even as NATO officials say overall violence in the country is beginning to show a sustained downward trend for the first time in five years.

The Helmand episode began Sunday evening when two armed insurgents roared up on a motorcycle to a mosque in the village of Trekh Zaber, where Yaar Muhammad, a local farmer, and his two sons were waiting to celebrate Iftar, the evening breaking of the daily fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

The men ordered Muhammad to come to them, and as he did, they fired their weapons, killing him instantly, said Haji-Hayatullah, a district council member. As Muhammad fell, his sons jumped the two gunmen and pulled them off their motorcycle. Other villagers joined in, officials said, beating the men to death with stones.

Officials said Muhammad had received threats but, apart from being friends with a former provincial governor, had no official government role.

Qari Yousaf Ahmadi, a spokesman for the Taliban in southern Afghanistan, denied that Taliban were involved. "This must be a personal issue among the villagers themselves," he said by phone from an undisclosed location.