7 Deminers beheaded in Afghanistan

Seven of 28 deminers kidnapped in the western Afghan province of Farah last week were beheaded by their abductors and their bodies recovered Sunday by police and tribal elders, police said. The mine clearing workers had been snatched on Wednesday in a district that is the focus of the Taliban insurgency in the province, but no one had claimed responsibility for the kidnapping. "Seven of the deminers are beheaded. We have recovered the body of one of them and the rest of the bodies are with the tribal elders," said Mohammad Ghaws Malyar, the Farah provincial deputy police chief. He said the fate of the 21 other deminers who were snatched on Wednesday was unknown. The provincial police chief said the 28 deminers were working for a charity in the west and had been taken in Bala Buluk district by kidnappers who set ablaze one of their vehicles and stole the others. Criminal groups and insurgents have repeatedly kidnapped dozens of Afghans and foreigners since a 2001 US-led invasion ousted the Taliban regime. Most are eventually freed for ransom or in exchange for the release of prisoners. The deminers were working for the Demining Agency for Afghanistan, an Afghan charity based in the southern province of Kandahar. In a similar incident last December, 18 Afghans working for the Mine Detection Center were kidnapped in the eastern province of Khost, which borders Pakistan. They were freed unharmed one day later in a joint operation by Afghan and foreign troops.