Taleban hang seven-year-old boy accused of spying - report

The Taleban has reportedly hanged a seven-year-old boy in Afghanistan this week.

The killing was an act of retribution, said The Times, as the boy had been accused of spying for US and NATO. He was hanged from a tree in southern Afghanistan.

Shamsuddin Khan Faryie, an elder in Heratiyan, where the attack happened, said the boy was seized while playing in his garden.

Daoud Ahmadi, the spokesman for the provincial governor of Helmand, said that the killing happened days after the boy's grandfather, Abdul Woodod Alokozai, spoke out against militants in their home village.

"His grandfather is a tribal elder in the village and the village is under the control of the Taleban," said Mr Ahmadi. "His grandfather said some good things about the government and he formed a small group of people to stand against the Taleban. That's why the Taleban killed his grandson in revenge."

Afghan president Hamid Karzai condemned the killing, reported the New York Daily News.

"I don't think there's a crime bigger than that, that even the most inhuman forces on earth can commit," said Mr Karzai. "A seven-year-old boy cannot be a spy. A seven-year-old boy cannot be anything but a seven-year-old boy."

"If this is true, it is an absolutely horrific crime," added British Prime Minister David Cameron while on a stop in Kabul. "I think it says more about the Taliban than any book, than any article, than any speech could ever say."

Taleban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmaid denied that any of his militants were involved, reported The Times. "The Taleban's enemies are the Afghan Government and the foreign forces," he said. "We never kill children. Everyone knows a seven-year-old can't be a spy."

- NZ Herald staff