Another Deliberate Taliban War Crime

Matiullah Khan, Chief Police of Kandahar Province, reads a paper during a press conference at his office in Kandahar, Afghanistan, Sunday, Oct. 19, 2008. Khan said Taliban militants stopped a bus traveling on Afghanistan's main highway through a wild and dangerous part of the country's south, seized about 50 people on board and slaughtered around 30 of them. (AP Photo/Allauddin Khan)

Taliban Kill Around 30 People After Stopping Bus
-- Yahoo News/AP

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan – Taliban militants stopped a bus traveling on Afghanistan's main highway through a wild and dangerous part of the country's south, captured some 50 people on board and slaughtered around 30 of them, officials said Sunday.

A Taliban spokesman said the militia's fighters carried out the attack but that the insurgents killed 27 Afghan army soldiers riding on the bus.

Militants stopped one bus in a two-bus convoy in the Maiwand district of Kandahar province — a Taliban-controlled area about 40 miles west of Kandahar city, said Matiullah Khan, the provincial police chief. Around 50 people were taken hostage, though several were freed, he said.

Officials offered varying death tolls from the attack, which occurred in an area of Afghanistan that government forces cannot safely travel to without heavy military protection. That may explain why news of the Thursday hijacking did not emerge until Sunday.

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My Comment: Another deliberate Taliban war crime.