2 children beheaded by militants, Afghan authorities say

[happyslug]

7. Why would the Taliban do this??

A press release issued by the office said the militants caught and beheaded the 10-year-old Sunday after he had collected food waste from a trash bin in the area of a security checkpoint.

That implies to me that someone wanted these two kids dead, and some how I doubt it was the Taliban. These two children were KILLED for taking food from a food dump? and near a security check point? Something tells me it is the Check point that was important..

In theory the Taliban could have demanded these two boys give them data as to the Check point, when the boys refused the Taliban executed them. The problem with this theory is what would prevent the Taliban from sending their own men to the same dump and look over the Check point? That is a big hole in any theory that the Taliban did this act,

On the other hand, the people at the Check point could have decided that the people working at the dump were all Taliban and thus threats. To clear the threats the men at the Check point went over to the dump and grabbed who they could, a 10 year old and a 16 year old, and then killed them. The Soldiers then blamed the Taliban when people asked. The locals know better (as does probably the Taliban) and I suspect so do the soldier's superiors. On the other hand it is convenient up the chain of command to blame the Taliban rather then the fact that they permitted a security hazard to be so close to a Check point.

Sorry, while I can NOT rule out the Taliban, I see no advantage for them to do this. On the other hand I see a lot of advantages for out allied Afghan allies, mostly to cover up their own incompetency. Check points should be in places where no one can get near without being seen AND away from any other "attractive nuisance" such as a dump, a restaurant, a water source etc. That dump sounds like it was to close, and the person to blame for it being to close is much higher up on the chain of command then the men manning that check point. Thus the men at the check point took things into their own hands, and then blamed the Taliban for the killings. As this report became more widespread, WHY it occurred would have become clear, but no one wanted to take responsibility for permitting that dump so close to a check point that it became more convenient to blame the Taliban.

I am not defending the Taliban, they have done some horrible deeds, but killing two Civilians near a Government Check Point would NOT be advisable to them and thus they would not do it. I am looking at who benefits from this act, and it does NOT add up to the Taliban's benefit.