Afghanistan: Fresh Taliban brutality revealed

New videos show atrocities including beheadings, whipping and boiling oil punishment as Taliban’s ambition is revealed.

With US airpower now gone, the Taliban have seized more than 150 districts in the past two months, amassing weapons, vehicles and hardware as they go.

New videos have emerged of atrocities being committed by ­advancing Taliban fighters in ­Afghanistan, including beheadings of young men accused of being civil servants, and the whipping of a woman for going out without a male chaperone.

One shows Islamist fighters ­executing Afghan National Army soldiers after they surrender, while another records the Taliban cutting off a man’s left hand before killing him and placing the hand in boiling oil.

The videos, seen by The Australian, were provided by the ­Afghan embassy in Canberra with a warning over their extreme ­content.

The embassy said the horrific footage showed the reality of life under the Taliban in areas it had recently seized, which had gone largely unreported because the media had been forced to flee.

The embassy said the fundamentalist Taliban had portrayed itself as having changed, but the videos “clearly unveil the Taliban’s true intent, behaviour, and the world they are determined to make for the citizens”.

“The Taliban’s behaviour clearly indicates their vision and ambition for the return of an emirate with no difference whatsoever from the 90s,” the embassy said.

With US airpower now gone, the Taliban have seized more than 150 districts in the past two months, amassing weapons, vehicles and hardware as they go.

Many districts have fallen without a shot fired, with the Taliban using tribal elders to broker the surrender of poorly resourced Afghan troops.

But those who lay down their weapons face arbitrary execution by the insurgents. In one of the videos, the Taliban tells a group of Afghan soldiers they will be spared if they surrender, before shooting them dead.

Afghans accused of being government employees face heightened risk.

Footage shared by the embassy shows a Taliban fighter cry “Allahu Akbar” (God is great) before cutting the head off a young man identified as a civil servant. Villagers standing near the man are warned not to help him.

The videos show a return to harsh treatment of women and girls under the Taliban’s harsh sharia law. In one, a woman cries out in pain as she is whipped by Taliban members for going shopping without male company.

Another shows Taliban fighters on a child’s playground, asking “how come children waste their time on this ridiculous thing?”

The insurgents’ rapid advance since the withdrawal of foreign forces, including Australians, in recent weeks has intensified calls for Afghans who helped Australian forces to be given asylum.

Hundreds of interpreters, aid workers and security guards who worked for the Australian government during the long conflict have been left in limbo, including many with multiple character references from ADF personnel.

With their immediate family members, an estimated 1500 ­people are still seeking entry to Australia. The Morrison government has ruled out joining a US evacuation mission to rescue its Afghan support staff. The massive US airlift – branded Operation Allied Refuge – will relocate tens of thousands of ­Afghan interpreters and other personnel, who aided the nation’s war effort.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said about 20,000 interpreters had applied to be evacuated. She said the government was also considering applications by the interpreters’ family members.

Those still awaiting vetting would first be sent to a US base abroad, or a third country, “where they will be safely housed until their visa processing is going on”, Ms Psaki said.

additional reporting: AFP