Taliban allegedly beheads two young Afghan 'spies'

Boys aged 10, 16 caught looking for food near police station, executed as warning to villagers against collaborating with officials

Taliban forces in Kandahar, Afghanistan, have reportedly executed two boys, ages 10 and 16, who were found scavenging for food near the city’s police headquarters.

The boys were interrogated and charged with giving the police information in exchange for food, according to local government officials. They were then beheaded as a warning to villagers against cooperating with local forces against the Taliban.

Kandahar is the second-largest city in Afghanistan and one of the primary locations for Western military forces.

Qari Yousef Ahmadi, a spokesman for the Taliban, rejected the charges, saying that his group had not beheaded any children in the area. In the past, Taliban fighters have often been accused of beheading children, but the group has consistently denied the charges.

According to local officials, the boys were simply looking for food. The 10-year-old was known to locals as a particularly poor child who often accepted scraps for his family from the local police.

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Jamal Agha, the police chief of the Zhari district where the boys’ bodies were recovered, told Reuters that “the boys were on their way back when they were stopped by Taliban insurgents who beheaded them. Both of them were innocent children and had nothing to do with government or foreigners.”

Kandahar governor Toryalay Wessa instructed police to find the boys’ killers, “whatever the price.”