Militants brutally kill up to 50 civilians in Shia Afghan village: Reports

Militants have massacred dozens of civilians, mostly Shia Hazaras, in “a brutal, inhumane way” after attacking a village in a remote area of Afghanistan’s northern province of Sar-e Pul, officials and locals say.

 

 

Militants have massacred dozens of civilians, mostly Shia Hazaras, in “a brutal, inhumane way” after attacking a village in a remote area of Afghanistan’s northern province of Sar-e Pul, officials and locals say.

The militants, whose identity were not immediately known, raided a security outpost in the Mirzawalang area of Sayaad District in Sar-e Pul overnight Sunday, said Zabihullah Amani, a spokesman for the provincial governor.

Amani said the assailants were a mixed group of Taliban and Takfiri Daesh militants, and that there were foreign nationals among them.

During the raid, the militants set fire to several mosques, torched at least 30 houses, beheaded a number of villagers and shot dozens of others dead, other officials said.

The carnage occurred “in the province’s predominately Shia village of Mirzawalang after insurgents captured it on Saturday,” said Sar-e Pul Governor Mohammad Zaher Wahdat.