Taliban jihadists in Afghanistan reportedly hacked off an 85-year-old woman’s limbs before murdering her on charges of cooperating and supporting the country’s government.
The terrorists “tried” her after charging her “with cooperating with the government and security institutions in Helmand,” reports Khaama Press (KP), citing local government officials.
Omar Zwak, a spokesman for the governor of Helmand province, reportedly confirmed the incident in Helmand’s Garamsir district, noting that the Taliban brutally murdered the elderly woman a few days ago and said the Taliban insurgents killed her a few days ago.
“The militants initially chopped off the limbs of the elderly woman before murdering her on charges of cooperating and supporting the government,” indicated the spokesman.
Afghanistan’s opium-rich Helmand province is a Taliban stronghold located along the country’s border with Pakistan. It is one of the deadliest provinces for U.S. troops and Afghans. Helmand sits next to Kandahar province, the birthplace of the Taliban.
“The execution of civilians by the Taliban insurgents on charges of working or cooperating with the government is not a rare incident,” notes KP. “However, this is the first time the militants of the group have killed an elderly woman on charges of supporting the government.”
Taliban jihadists have been behind several gruesome fatalities.
In June 2016, the terrorists reportedly “skinned alive” and “ripped out” the eyes of a 21-year-old Afghan in retaliation for the death of one of the Taliban’s former commanders allegedly at the hands of a distant relative of the victim.
Deteriorating security conditions have forced U.S. Marines to return to Helmand where the Taliban is believed to control at least 65 percent of the province.
The United Nations has named Helmand, Afghanistan’s largest province, as the top poppy-producing region in the country, the world’s primary supplier of deadly opium and its heroin derivative.
According to the U.S. military, the Taliban “narco-insurgency” depends on opium trafficking for 60 percent of terrorist funding.
Terrorists, primarily the Taliban, control or contest about 45 percent of Afghanistan, reveals SIGAR.
Within a year after former U.S. President Barack Obama declared the U.S. combat mission in Afghanistan over at the end of 2014, the State Department designated the Taliban the world’s top perpetrator of terrorist attacks during 2015.
Since then, a resurgent Taliban has been carrying an increasingly violent insurgency resulting in a record number of casualties suffered by Afghan civilians and security forces.
U.S. President Donald Trump has escalated the American military involvement in the war-devastated country, authorizing the deployment of nearly 4,000 additional troops and dramatically intensifying airstrikes against Afghan jihadist groups.