Taliban executes female prison guard, and UN raises concern over Afghan violence

The Taliban abducted and executed a female prison guard in the eastern Afghan province of Ghazni, officials and relatives said Monday, as the United Nations expressed concern over the war’s unending toll on civilians.

Fatima Rajabi, 23, who had trained as a police officer, was pulled out of a civilian minibus on her way to her home village in the Jaghori district two weeks ago. After holding her captive for two weeks, the Taliban executed the young woman and sent her body to her family, her brother, Samiullah Rajabi, said.

“My sister was shot eight times,” Samiullah Rajabi said. “When we opened the coffin, her hands were behind her, together and stiff — you could tell her hands were first tied and they had only untied them after they sent the body.”

In a report released Monday on civilian harm in the Afghan conflict in the first six months of the year, the United Nations expressed particular concern about the rise of abductions and executions by the Taliban. There has been more than a fivefold increase in civilian casualties tied to abductions since last year, it said.

Nearly 1,300 civilians have been killed and close 2,200 others wounded in the first six months of the year, according to the U.N. report, which attributed 43% of the civilian casualties to the Taliban and 23% to Afghan forces.

It said the insurgent violence had grown deadlier, with a 33% increase in deaths caused by the Taliban over the same period last year.

Women and children made up about 40% of the overall dead and injured, with pro-government forces responsible for the death of more children than the Taliban, the United Nations said. Civilian casualties from airstrikes by Afghan forces tripled from the first half of 2019.

“The reality remains that Afghanistan continues to be one of the deadliest conflicts in the world for civilians,” the report noted. “Each year, thousands of civilians are killed and injured, abducted, displaced and threatened by parties to the conflict in Afghanistan.”

The numbers still marked an overall 13% reduction in civilian casualties — which accounts for injuries and deaths — from the same period last year.

That is largely attributed to a major drop in casualties from U.S. airstrikes and attacks by the Islamic State group branch in the country, which has shrunk significantly after major military operations. As part of a withdrawal deal signed with the Taliban in February, the United States is no longer deploying its air power against the group except in extreme cases, such as when their Afghan allies are being routed.

Although the United States has reduced its troops in the country to about 8,600 — it is on schedule to complete a full withdrawal over a 14-month period laid out in the agreement — other elements of the peace agreement, mainly direct negotiations between the Afghan sides over future power-sharing, have stalled as the violence continues.

“At a time when the government of Afghanistan and the Taliban have a historic opportunity to come together at the negotiating table for peace talks, the tragic reality is that the fighting continues inflicting terrible harm to civilians every day,” said Deborah Lyons, the U.N. secretary-general’s special representative for Afghanistan.

Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. special envoy for peace in Afghanistan, has begun another trip to meet with the Taliban’s negotiating team, based in Doha, Qatar, and Afghan leaders in Kabul and push for direct negotiations, the State Department said. Those negotiations were expected to begin in March but were delayed by disagreements over a prisoner swap under which the Afghan government was expected to free 5,000 Taliban fighters in return for 1,000 of its forces.