Taliban hangs five in Afghanistan's Helmand as fighting rages

By Mohammad Stanekzai LASHKAR GAH Afghanistan (Reuters) - 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. 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." Mass public executions, common when the Taliban ruled Afghanistan from 1996, ceased after the movement was ousted in the U.S.-led invasion in 2001. Read More http://ift.tt/1vUhhwS