The second incident reportedly took place around a week ago in Kharnay village in Khak-i-Afghan district of Zabul province. Details are becoming available now that villagers from the area have reached Kandahar and the Pakistani border town of Chaman in Balochistan province.

Haji Abdul Aziz, who belongs to Khak-i-Afghan district, told The News that a number of villagers witnessed the burning alive of Taliban fighters Mohibullah and Sibghatullah. He said the two men were unarmed when the US Army and Afghan National Army soldiers caught them in Kharnay village. He said the Americans sprinkled petrol on the two men and torched them before shocked onlookers. He said the soldiers kept sayng that anyone fighting them would meet the same fate.

According to Haji Abdul Aziz, one Mulla Abdul Salam from the same village was tortured by burning different parts of his body. He said Abdul Salam was alive but his condition was bad. He said Abdul Salam was now undergoing treatment in Chaman.

This is the first time that allegations of such a serious nature have been made against the US military, which is already under fire for prisoners’ abuse in Afghanistan, Guantanamo Bay and Iraq’s Abu Ghraib jail. The existence of CIA-run secret prisons in several countries including Afghanistan has also put the US government and its intelligence in the dock.