FAIZABAD, Afghanistan -- Afghan officials say Taliban militants have executed 16 Afghan soldiers in the country’s northeast.
Badakhshan Provincial spokesman Abdul Maruf Raskh told RFE/RL’s Radio Free Afghanistan that the Afghan National Army soldiers were abducted by the Taliban on March 4.
He added that the abductors killed the soldiers in the Warduj district of Badakhshan on March 5.
Raskh said village elders and clerics were able to negotiate the release of another seven soldiers from the same district.
The mountainous, remote Badakhshan Province is generally considered immune from Taliban violence, which is concentrated in the eastern and southern regions along Afghanistan's border with Pakistan.
Badakhshan Provincial spokesman Abdul Maruf Raskh told RFE/RL’s Radio Free Afghanistan that the Afghan National Army soldiers were abducted by the Taliban on March 4.
He added that the abductors killed the soldiers in the Warduj district of Badakhshan on March 5.
Raskh said village elders and clerics were able to negotiate the release of another seven soldiers from the same district.
The mountainous, remote Badakhshan Province is generally considered immune from Taliban violence, which is concentrated in the eastern and southern regions along Afghanistan's border with Pakistan.