Taliban Hangs Afghan Boy, 7, for Spying

By: Tucker Reals
Topics: In The News ,; Afghanistan ,; World Watch

Taliban militants accused a seven-year-old boy of spying and hanged him earlier this week in Afghanistan's southern Helmand province, a local government official tells CBS News.

Provincial government spokesman Daud Ahmadi confirmed the incident which took place on Tuesday in the Taliban stronghold of Sangin, in Helmand. Ahmadi told CBS News' Fazul Rahim the boy was hanged in public after a Taliban commander read a verdict out loud, accusing the youth of spying for international forces.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Thursday that, if confirmed by his national government, the hanging would be "heart breaking and shocking."

Karzai spoke in Kabul at a joint news conference with Britain's new Prime Minister David Cameron, who was in town for his first visit as head of state. Cameron said the alleged hanging would be a "horrific crime... a crime against humanity," if proven.

A local resident in the remote village of Sang e Hissar, in the Sangin valley, tells CBS News he witnessed the hanging. The man says three militants brought the boy before a crowd of about 150 people, read the short verdict, and then hanged him from a tree.

The youngster was the grandson of a respected local elder, the resident tells CBS. According to the villager, the Taliban have intensified their campaign of intimidation in the area in recent months.

A Taliban source in Helmand told CBS News' Sami Yousafzai on Thursday he was aware of the boy being killed, but that it was a case of a militant settling a personal vendetta against the boy's family, then using the spying charges as an excuse. The source said he believed the boy's executor had fled across the border to Pakistan.

The hanging comes as a Taliban commander in neighboring Kandahar province -- the Taliban's traditional home territory -- tells CBS News that a suicide attack on a wedding party that left 40 people dead was "collective punishment" for villagers standing up to the Islamic militants' control in the region.

Tucker Reals
Tucker Reals is a senior news editor and overnight site editor for CBSNews.com, based at CBS News' London bureau.

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by sdcowgirl June 12, 2010 4:06 AM EDT: What drives a person to do something like this. Our troops are fighting an enemy that is not truly human. How do you not hate this enemy? To kill a child to make a point. This is one of worse things I have heard about coming from this war.; Reply to this comment


by mrjustice1 June 11, 2010 7:51 PM EDT: THESE EVIL BLOODTHIRSTY SAVAGES

have been fixated with primitive hate, and abuse the concept of god to justify their heinous acts.

Past Christian leaders - often from orders by the Pope, by cardinals, bishops, priests and by other agents of the Roman Catholic Church - carried out similar acts against women for being witches, and against Moslems and Jews for not being Christians.

Religion has never been a good idea.

Religion continues to cripple humankind from genuine progress and betterment of this planet.

Elimination of all religion is long overdue.; Reply to this comment


by Leaderless June 11, 2010 3:13 PM EDT: The talibans are a bunch of animals.
Hope NATO will waste them!; Reply to this comment

by noloyalisti June 11, 2010 1:27 PM EDT

So these are the people we want to help in Afghanistan? THIS is why iver 1,000 US troops have died for the American oil corporations?

What an utter waste of time and money and human life.

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by miami_don June 11, 2010 3:22 PM EDT: One on the most shallow things to slip through your fingers.


by konoronok June 11, 2010 1:00 PM EDT: i don't understand how any human could witness this and not stop it (or die trying to stop it), something must be done. Ever heard of the last straw, can't take it anymore, well, this is it......if this is actually true, it is time for total annihilation of all subhuman participants, their hell does not belong here. this kind of tactic is not human.; Reply to this comment


by Turbidite June 11, 2010 12:05 PM EDT: There seems to be a lot of bloodthirsty people making hate comments from the safety of their computer keyboards. There are already more than enough psychopaths to go around, we don't need more. That killer will most likely get his sooner or later, either in this world or the next.; Reply to this comment

by AlFranken June 11, 2010 10:42 AM EDT

I wonder what we would do if the situation was reverse? Hmmm, I remember reading something about the British burning whole families in their homes for treason during the American Revolution. I'm condoning the action nor suggesting that we would be as barbaric in our own evil deeds during a revolt -- just putting it into the right perspective.

I also had a WWII Officer once tell me that he saw more Germans shot with their hands up than not. --- it's a very cruel world when it comes to war.

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by bankersvox June 11, 2010 8:14 PM EDT: i hope you are not The Al Franken. What are you trying to say ? That our society and values are the same as those of the Taliban ? Is that what you really think ?


by starda40 June 12, 2010 1:11 AM EDT: Alot of people are bringing up the past, it's 2010 retards back in the day crap like this might fly but now I don't fricking think so. What kind of idiot comes on here and tries to condone this stuff. WOW


by patty101558 June 11, 2010 9:08 AM EDT: individuals make choices every day .....good or bad .....this is just terrible and yet any time a child is involved it is not good....if there are issues with one family deal with the adults but no matter what country we are in people who take out their issues on innocent children for the sins of the fathers makes it completely wrong no matter what and the executor is a nothing but human trash...running like a coward..this little 7 year old is with God.....and is loved by his family and will be missed greatly....this shows the type of PEOPLE THE Taliban ARE....but God will deal with this individual ....he will answer for this ...and I do not want to walk in his shoes.....; Reply to this comment


by elfinmir June 11, 2010 9:08 AM EDT: Wow ...that is disgusting. How screwed up and sick are these evil Godless people?; Reply to this comment


by magnumdr June 11, 2010 9:06 AM EDT: This is a good example on why all of these thoughtless people should be wiped from the face of the Earth!; Reply to this comment