A mass grave of people believed to have been executed by Afghanistan's Taliban militia has been discovered near Herat in western Afghanistan, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) reported Friday.
These people were "either shot or dumped" into a small swimming pool behind a school at Shindand airbase near Herat, a BBC correspondent reported from the town bordering Iran. The news bulletin was monitored in Islamabad.
The bodies had their hands tied suggesting they were executed and had not died in a combat, the report noted.
When asked who could be behind the executions, he replied "there is no question, the Taliban."
Meanwhile, opposition Northern Alliance forces resumed pounding of the Taliban-held city of Kunduz in northern Afghanistan on Friday after US warplanes bombed Taliban positions overnight, the Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) agency reported.
The report said Alliance forces launched attacks on the last stronghold of the Taliban in northern Afghanistan on Thursday amid claims by a member of the Alliance, General Rashid Dostum, that the Taliban had agreed to surrender the city.
Intense fighting was raging on the Khan Aabad, Pul-e-Bangi and Dasht-e-Archi fronts, the Pakistan-based news agency said.
Dostum was quoted by CNN as saying that he planned to lead a 5,000-men force to Kunduz yesterday to oversee the surrender set down for today.
Taliban sources said that a Taliban team held "promising" talks with Dostum in his stronghold of Mazar-e-Sharif but other elements in the Northern Alliance went on the offensive before the final outcome of the talks.
Also on Friday, the Taliban militia denied reports its reclusive leader Mullah Mohammad Omar had gone into hiding and appointed a successor, AIP reported.
"This is wrong and baseless. Mullah Omar is still in Kandahar," Taliban spokesman Mohammad Tayyab Agha said.
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INSPIRING: Taiwan has been a model in the Asia-Pacific region with its democratic transition, free and fair elections and open society, the vice president-elect said Taiwan can play a leadership role in the Asia-Pacific region, vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) told a forum in Taipei yesterday, highlighting the nation’s resilience in the face of geopolitical challenges. “Not only can Taiwan help, but Taiwan can lead ... not only can Taiwan play a leadership role, but Taiwan’s leadership is important to the world,” Hsiao told the annual forum hosted by the Center for Asia-Pacific Resilience and Innovation think tank. Hsiao thanked Taiwan’s international friends for their long-term support, citing the example of US President Joe Biden last month signing into law a bill to provide aid to Taiwan,
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
STATE OF THE NATION: The legislature should invite the president to deliver an address every year, the TPP said, adding that Lai should also have to answer legislators’ questions The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday proposed inviting president-elect William Lai (賴清德) to make a historic first state of the nation address at the legislature following his inauguration on May 20. Lai is expected to face many domestic and international challenges, and should clarify his intended policies with the public’s representatives, KMT caucus secretary-general Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) said when making the proposal at a meeting of the legislature’s Procedure Committee. The committee voted to add the item to the agenda for Friday, along with another similar proposal put forward by the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The invitation is in line with Article 15-2