The bodies of two beheaded boys, age 10 and 16, were found in Kandahar's Zhari district June 9 after the two boys were seen rummaging for food at police headquarters. The Afghan government issued a statement indicating suspicions of Taliban involvement. The Taliban fired back after the accusation that the government was using the boys' deaths as a diversion from issues such as the death of seven Taliban fighters who were killed June 10 upon taking over an airport in Kabul. Two of the fighters killed themselves via suicide attack while the remaining five were killed by troops, Yahoo News reported.
Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi denied the Taliban's involvement in the beheadings and condemned those responsible. Ahmadi said the Taliban does not murder children. Taliban fighters have beheaded enemies in the past, but said these attacks are never used on children. Afghan officials said that the Taliban carried out the attacks on the children as a warning to others to not cooperate with Coalition forces, the Daily Mail reported.
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"The government does this to distract from attacks such as in Kabul this morning," Ahmadi said of the claim.
Ahmadi said that the Taliban's civilian casualty commission would investigate the deaths, CNN reported.
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