KABUL, Afghanistan — Taliban militants seized a civilian bus in volatile southern Afghanistan and executed at least two dozen passengers, beheading some of them, officials said Sunday.
The attack took place in Kandahar province, which was the home base of the militant Islamic movement before it was toppled by a U.S.-led invasion in late 2001. The incident illustrated the extreme danger of travel in the Afghan countryside, even along main roads such as the one where the bus was commandeered. Many of those aboard the bus were women and children.
In recent months, Taliban and fellow insurgent groups have been staging attacks on roads that connect major cities in an apparent effort to show that the government does not exert any significant control in the hinterlands.
Violence in Afghanistan this year has hit its highest levels since the conflict began. Many of those killed have been combatants, but civilian deaths in 2008 so far have been estimated by the United Nations at more than 1,300.
The district where the bus attack took place, Maywand, is strategically important. Western troops have been struggling to choke off infiltration routes that lead into it from Helmand province, the center of Afghanistan’s drug trade. Many Taliban fighters based in Pakistan are believed to cross the border into Helmand and make their way from there via Maywand to the area surrounding Kandahar, the south’s main city, which lies about 40 miles to the east.
Canadian forces, who make up the bulk of the NATO-led contingent deployed across Kandahar province, have been suffering steady losses in near- daily clashes with insurgents in Maywand and nearby districts.
Despite the presence of Canadian and Afghan troops, Maywand is considered Taliban territory. Reports about the bus assault, which took place Thursday, were sketchy but chilling. Many attacks that take place in distant rural areas do not come to light until days or even weeks later.
Afghan authorities said the passengers were traveling in a two-bus convoy, a measure intended to bolster their safety. Militants manning a makeshift checkpoint fired on the first bus, which accelerated away from them. They were able to halt the second, with about 50 people on board.
Between 24 and 30 passengers were killed execution- style at the scene, according to Police Chief Matiullah Khan of Kandahar province.
Western news agencies quoted a Taliban spokesman as saying that 27 people were dragged from the captured bus and shot, and that they were Afghan army soldiers. The army denied that, saying regulations prohibit soldiers from traveling in the area by civilian transport.
Some of those aboard the seized bus were reported to have been freed, but a precise count was impossible to obtain.
A spokesman for the Afghan defense ministry, Gen. Mohammed Zahir Azimi, put the death toll at 31. He said six decapitated bodies were recovered elsewhere in the district, and about 25 bodies were found at the scene.
Elsewhere in the south, U.S.- led troops killed three militants in weekend clashes in Helmand, military and Afghan authorities said.
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