Taliban guerrillas behead two in Afghan south

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, Mar 11 (Reuters) Taliban insurgents have beheaded two former Afghan government officials in the southern province of Helmand, officials said today.

Local officials said the bodies were dumped today morning beside a road in Lashkargah, the provincial capital of Helmand where British troops have started deploying as part of NATO's expansion plan.

One of the dead men was Abdul Razaaq, a former pro-government militia commander for the province, they said.

The interior ministry in Kabul said the beheadings were carried out by ''Afghanistan's enemies'', a term usually used by Afghan officials to describe Taliban and al Qaeda allies.

A Taliban commander said Taliban militants were behind the beheadings. ''We beheaded them because they had committed heinous atrocities,'' the commander said.

The incident is part of growing violence by militants in the restive province where one policeman was killed and five others wounded today after a roadside bomb hit their vehicle, a local official said.

yesterday two local police and one Taliban fighter were killed in a clash in another area of the province, according to local officials.

Helmand used to be part of the main bastion of the Taliban government which US-led forces overthrew in late 2001 after it refused to hand over al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, the architect of September. 11 attacks on the United States.

Helmand is the main drug-producing region of Afghanistan. British forces have already begun deploying soldiers there as part of NATO's expansion into the restive south to allow US soldiers to cut down size of its troops in Afghanistan.

Nearly 70 foreign troops have been killed in the Taliban-linked violence in Afghanistan in the past year, the bloodiest period since the Taliban were ousted.

REUTERS CH PM1943