Taliban kill US 'spy' in NW Pakistan

MIRANSHAH: Taliban militants shot dead an Afghan national in Pakistan's restive northwest tribal belt after accusing him of spying for the United States, a police official said Sunday.

The bullet-ridden body of Fazal Haq, 28, was found on Sunday dumped by the side of a road in Naurak village, 15 kilometres (nine miles) east of Miranshah, the main town in the semi-autonomous North Waziristan tribal region.

"Haq, who was kidnapped two months ago, had multiple bullet wounds on his body," local tribal police official Omar Niaz told a foreign news agency.

A note written in Pashto language and found on Haq's body said: "He was killed because of spying for the US against the Taliban."

Almost every week, militants kidnap and kill tribesmen, accusing them of spying for the Pakistani government or US forces operating across the border in Afghanistan, where Taliban fighters are leading an insurgency.

Pakistan's rugged tribal regions have been beset by violence since hundreds of Taliban and Al-Qaeda rebels fled across the border to escape the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001.