Taliban Executions As Militants Capture Kabul (Video)
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
(Worthy News) – Minority Christians and supporters of the U.S.-led military coalition such as translators were among Afghans facing executions after the Islamist militant Taliban group took control over Afghanistan.
U.S. and other sources already reported beheadings of people who helped the U.S military and forced marriages, and other possible war crimes.
The killings also added to concerns about the plight of Afghanistan’s Christian minority as the Taliban rapidly imposed its strict interpretation of Islam across Afghanistan.
The U.S. embassy in Kabul said it received reports that Taliban members were also executing surrendering Afghan troops.
In addition, it said the Taliban was unlawfully detaining members of the government, including military leaders, provincial officials, and police officers.
The executions “could constitute war crimes,” the embassy warned on social networking site Twitter. In statements, the Taliban denied it was executing prisoners, despite witness accounts contradicting that claim.
GIRL BRIDES
The Taliban has also brushed off accusations that its militants demanded that conquered territories provide them with females aged 15 and older as brides. Several girls’ schools were reportedly shuttered.
The tensions came as thousands of Afghans, Americans, and others tried to escape Kabul, but gunfire reported around the airport appeared to complicate those efforts.
Eyewitnesses also described chaos at the airport, with a stampede on the tarmac injuring civilians.
The United States and Britain sent thousands of additional troops to evacuate their citizens and potentially thousands of Afghans who helped the U.S.-led coalition.
However, Faridoon Hazeen, an Afghan translator who helped U.S. forces in the region, told Fox News network that the Taliban’s rapid sweep across the country left him fearing for his life.
“I feel like a man drowning,” the 39-year-old father of four said. “I am reaching out to anything and anyone to save me.”
PRESIDENT LEAVES
He and many other Afghans were abandoned by Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, who fled the war-torn nation Sunday. Officials suggested he had gone to neighboring Tajikistan.
As Taliban fighters effectively captured the capital Kabul, the U.S., Britain, and other countries were evacuating staff from their embassies in the capital. Germany was among the nations already closing its embassy.
Taliban leaders said they would refrain from violence and allow safe passage for anyone wanting to leave, but with reports of executions, Afghans remained concerned.
In addition, Taliban fighters freed prisons where Islamic extremists, including al-Qaida militants, were held, with many now roaming the streets, several witnesses and other sources said.
Eyewitnesses said the Taliban militants met little resistance along with the ways to the capital. U.S.-trained Afghan forces were quickly overrun by the Taliban, underscoring its power and influence after two decades of American military operations in Afghanistan.
As American troops began leaving the country, Christian aid workers warned that Afghan Christians are among others “at huge risk.”
ISLAM CONVERSION
The Islamist Taliban group “publicly announced that Christians must convert [to Islam] leave or be killed,” noted Barnabas Fund, a Christian charity, in a recent assessment.
There are up to roughly 3,000 Christians from a Muslim background residing in the country, according to U.S. sources and researchers. Other reports say there may be as many as 18,000 Afghan Christians practicing their faith secretly in the strict Islamic nation.
“How we survive daily only God knows,” said a secret Afghan believer in a published statement published earlier by Worthy News. “He knows because He has been kind to dwell with us. But we are tired of all the death around us,” added the believer speaking anonymously amid security concerns.
Leading figures in the U.S. administration have admitted they were caught off guard with the utter speed of the collapse of Afghan security forces. Sporadic gunfire at the Kabul airport prompted Americans to shelter as they awaited flights to safety.
“We’ve seen that that force has been unable to defend the country, and that has happened more quickly than we anticipated,” said Secretary of State Antony Blinken referring to the Afghan military.
Despite the Taliban victory, U.S. President Joe Biden said he wants American troops out by August 31.
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