The Taliban executed five people in a busy opium market in Afghanistan's southern Helmand province and left their bodies hanging overnight after accusing them of kidnapping a businessman, officials told Reuters. The militant group has stepped up its fight for control of the southern region since June, launching a string of attacks on government buildings, seizing territory and imposing its brand of Islamic justice.
Thursday's public hanging, in the largely Taliban-controlled Kajaki district, was the second group execution reported in Helmand since the offensive began. "Five kidnappers ... were hanged to death by an order from the Islamic Emirate's prosecution authorities," a Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, said in a text message. "We hanged them in order to teach others a lesson."