Taliban kill seven US 'spies'

MIRANSHAH (AFP) Taliban militants shot dead seven men in North Waziristan after accusing them of spying for the United States, officials said Sunday.
The bullet-riddled bodies of five men were found on Sunday dumped by the side of a road in Kamsarobi village, 30 kilometres south of Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan tribal region.
Taliban killed five men overnight, accusing them of spying for Americans to help them launch drone attacks, local police official Mehboob Shah told AFP.
A note found on the body said that the victims were spying on Taliban and anyone doing the same would be killed in this manner, he added.
The body of a sixth man was found in Qutabkhel village, five kilometres south of Miranshah, with a similar note from the Taliban, Shah said, adding that he too appeared to have been shot dead overnight.
Another body of a man with a warning note from the Taliban was found near the town of Mir Ali, some 30-kilometres east of Miranshah, local police official Qayyum Khan told AFP.
An intelligence official and local tribesmen confirmed the incidents.
Militants frequently kidnap and kill tribesmen, accusing them of spying for the government or US forces operating across the border in Afghanistan, where Taliban fighters are leading an insurgency.
Separately, a paramilitary soldier was killed Sunday when Taliban militants fired a rocket at a convoy near Malik Deenkhel village in Khyber.
One security forces member was martyred and four others were injured after a rocket fired by militants struck their convoy, district chief Shafirullah Khan told AFP.