Taliban execute Afghan teenager for teaching English to classmates

KHOST, Afghanistan (Reuters) -- Taliban terrorists shot dead a teenage boy in southeastern Afghanistan for teaching English to his classmates, police said yesterday.

The Taliban have killed a number of teachers and students in recent years for attending government-run schools, taking part in classes for girls or what the hardline Islamist militants consider un-Islamic subjects.

Armed men arrived at the school in the Sayed Karam district of Paktia province and grabbed a 16-year-old student and dragged him outside.

"Taliban militants took the boy out and killed him outside the school just because he was teaching English to his classmates," said Gen. Esmatullah Alizai, the police chief of Paktia province.

Police arrived on the scene and in the ensuing gun battle, two police officers and two terrorists were killed, he said.

A Taliban spokesman denied the group was involved in the killing. The militants often deny carrying out unpopular actions. The Taliban are divided into a number of factions with no unified command and individual units act with autonomy.

Afghanistan has suffered from two years of steadily rising violence as the Taliban have reignited their campaign to overthrow the pro-western Afghan government and eject foreign troops.

Taliban insurgents suffer heavy casualties whenever they engage with foreign troops, but there are few signs they are suffering from a shortage of recruits. Both the number of clashes and their geographical range has gone up this year.

U.S.-led coalition forces killed several militants in clashes in southern Afghanistan, the U.S. military said yesterday.