Taliban militants 'kill 30 bus passengers'
Taliban militants have killed at least 30 bus passengers, reports claim
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Sunday, 19, Oct 2008 04:01
Taliban militants have killed at least 30 people travelling in buses through the Afghan province of Kandahar, officials have claimed.
Reports claim the militants stopped a bus, captured some 50 people on board and killed around 30 of them.
A Taliban spokesman confirmed the attack but said that the insurgents killed 27 Afghan soldiers not civilians.
The Afghan defence ministry spokesman General Mohammad Zahir Azimi said that 31 of the bus passengers had been killed.
He said that six of the dead were beheaded in a separate area of the Maiwand district, away from where the other 25 bodies were found.
Provincial police chief Matiullah Khan quoted local sources in saying the death toll was in fact as high as 40, the Associated Press news agency reports.
General Azimi rejected the claims that soldiers had been killed in the ambush, saying: "Our soldiers travel by military convoy, not in civilian buses. And we have military air transportation."
According to the Associated Press, Taliban attacks have become increasingly deadly this year, as the milita has gained control of regions throughout eastern and southern Afghanistan.