Kabul - The Taliban claimed on Thursday to have hung two Afghan men who were accused by the militants of spying for the US forces in the southern region of the country, while six militants and one army soldier were killed in separate incidents. In a statement posted at the rebels' website, the Taliban spokesman Qari Mohammad Yousif Ahmadi said that two men, Toor and Akhtar Mohammad, were hung before the public in Zherai district of southern Kandahar province on Wednesday afternoon.
"Both men confessed to their crimes, and then according to the Sharia law, they were both hung before the public," Ahmadi said.
He said that the men, who were originally from Maiwand, another district in Kandahar province, came to the Taliban-controlled area to gather information, and "were caught and punished by our mujahedeens."
The Taliban's claims could not be independently confirmed, however, the militants in the past have beheaded or hung several Afghans on accusations of spying for the international forces in the country.
In a separate incident, four suspected Taliban were killed and three were wounded when the rocket they were firing at the centre of Sangin district of southern Helmand province exploded on Wednesday, the Defence Ministry said in a statement.
Two other militants were killed when army forces clashed with insurgents in Bala Murghab district of the north-western province of Badghis on Wednesday, the statement said, adding that one national army soldier was also killed in the firefight.
The recent clashes happened on the same day as six Canadians serving under NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) command and their Afghan translator were killed in a roadside bomb blast in Kandahar province.
Reacting to the news, Afghan President Hamid Karzai, expressed his condolences to their families and to the Canadian nation, and said that their struggle against international terrorism would not be forgotten by Afghan people.
Wednesday's attack was the deadliest targeting ISAF troops in more than a month.
