Taliban behead 12 Afghan civilians

KABUL, Afghanistan — The Taliban beheaded 12 Afghan civilians, mostly family members of local policemen, in an assault that was part of a weeklong offensive that has so far killed 60 people and wounded scores in a remote province in eastern Afghanistan, officials said Friday.

However, a Taliban spokesman in Ghazni province denied the reports of beheadings and civilian slayings, insisting the insurgents were only fighting Afghan forces there.

The violence comes amid the annual Taliban offensive, which this year will be an important gauge of how well Afghan government forces are able to face insurgent attacks ahead of the withdrawal of foreign combat troops at the end of the year.

According to the Ghazni provincial deputy police chief, Asadullah Ensafi, the Taliban on Thursday night captured and beheaded 12 civilians and torched some 60 homes in an attack in the province’s district of Arjistan.

Details were sketchy because of the remoteness of the rugged mountainous area, about 60 miles southwest of the capital, Kabul, but Afghan officials said that women and children were believed to be among the casualties. There are no NATO troops stationed in the district.

Beheadings are rare in Afghanistan, though they occasionally take place as part of the Taliban campaign to intimidate and exact revenge on the families of Afghan troops and security forces.

“We don’t have the time for this (beheadings) while we are fighting,” Taliban spokesman Qari Yousaf told The Associated Press over the phone.

“These reports are baseless and a lie.”

The offensive in Ghazni comes as Afghanistan readies to inaugurate the country’s new president, Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai, who officially takes over from Hamid Karzai on Monday.