AGENCIES

KABUL NATO troops were prepared to join a manhunt for the Taliban fighters who publicly executed a young woman for adultery in an incident that has drawn worldwide condemnation.

Footage of the execution of 22-year-old Najiba showed men cheering as she was shot several times in the back and head.

The incident in the Shinwari area of Parwan province recalled similar public executions which were commonplace during the Taliban’s government of the 1990s.

General John Allen, commander of American and NATO forces, said: “Let’s be clear, this wasn’t justice, this was murder, and an atrocity of unspeakable cruelty.” “The Taliban’s continued brutality toward innocent civilians, particularly women, must be condemned in the strongest terms.” He added that his troops were “ready to assist the Afghan security forces in tracking down and holding accountable the perpetrators of this heinous act”.

The killing reportedly took place late last month after the woman was accused of being married to one Taliban figure and having an affair with another.

Troops and police had been sent to the area, the governor of Parwan said, but the killers had escaped, perhaps by wearing women’s burkas.

His spokesman said the manhunt would be hampered by mountainous terrain in the area. Parwan province has long been considered relatively safe, but security has slid in the past two years.

A spokesman for Nato forces in Kabul said they had not yet been called on by the Afghans for help with the search.

Hamid Karzai ordered his security officials to police to “not to spare any efforts in arresting and punishing the perpetrators”.

He added: “The murder of a woman who has had no voice to raise for her self-defence against the weapon and brutality of a number of criminals is a clear symbol of the cowardice and wickedness of her murderers”.

In the mobile phone footage, a man is seen reading verses from the Koran condemning adultery, before saying: “We cannot forgive her, God tells us to finish her.

Juma Khan, her husband, has the right to kill her.” As the young woman squats, huddled in a burka facing away from the camera, a man walks up behind her to within a few feet and opens fire with his assault rifle.

A crowd of around 100, looking on from a hill, cheer her death, shouting “Long live Islam”, “Long live Mujahideen (holy warriors)”.