Taliban accused of massacre of 600 civilians (AFP, 7 Jan)

KABUL, Jan 7 (AFP) - Up to 600 civilians in north western Afghanistan have been massacred during a retreat by hardline Islamic Taliban forces last week, an opposition spokesman claimed Wednesday. According to a spokesman from the ousted Kabul government, Taliban forces beaten out of a district in Faryab province rounded up and murdered local residents in retaliation for their impending defeat in the area. "The Taliban were pushed out of Qaysar district at the beginning of the month and before leaving the area murdered 600 civilians including old people, women and children," Abdullah (Eds: one name) told AFP. No independent confirmation of the allegation from the Taliban's bitter enemies was immediately available, and no Taliban official could be reached to respond to the claim. Speaking from opposition-held northern Afghanistan by satellite telephone, Abdullah said the massacre took place as anti-Taliban forces advanced to retake lost ground in Faryab province. Quoting "eyewitness accounts" given to opposition officials, he accused the Taliban of grabbing civilians from their homes, lining them up against walls and gunning them down. "This shows the real barbarism of the Taliban," Abdullah noted, while denying the allegation was a response to mounting evidence that opposition troops massacred up to 2,000 Taliban prisoners last year. Abdullah, who serves as a close aide to ex-government commander Ahmad Shah Masood, said he has despatched a letter to United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan to alert him to the alleged atrocities. Situated in the northeastern province of Faryab, Qaysar is inhabited mainly by ethnic-Uzbeks nominally loyal to ex-communist warlord and Taliban opponent Abdul Rashid Dostam. The province was also once a stronghold of warlord Abdul Malik, who the Taliban accuse of killing the 2,000 militia prisoners captured during a failed attempt to take northern Afghanistan in May last year. Malik was forced into exile by his rival Dostam, who in turn allowed a UN human rights team to investigate a series of mass graves. The UN team, which visited the sites in December, said some prisoners held by Malik were taken from detention, told they were going to be exchanged and trucked off to desert wells into which they were tossed either alive or after being executed. About nine wells were used and a UN forensic expert said each one could contain up to 100 bodies. However it remains unclear what the exact death toll is and whether the executions were limited to the small samples seen. On Sunday the Taliban gave Iran a stern warning to extradite Malik or face "grave consequences," including facing Taliban support for groups opposed to the Tehran regime which are based on Afghan soil.