The Taliban took four men to the main bazaar in a southern Afghanistan district at evening prayer, denounced them as government spies because they were carrying satellite phones, then beheaded them in front of local residents who had been summoned to watch

Several days later, the director of a relatively progressive radio station in eastern Afghanistan was found stabbed to death in his car. His back, stomach and chest had been slashed, and his throat slit, according to the man’s brother, who said that his head had been nearly severed from his body. The local police chief, Daulat Khan Zadran, said the victim, Sadeem Khan Bahader Zoi, had been totally beheaded. “We still don’t know the cause” of the killing, Zadran said, but the method was consistent with the Taliban. Beheadings by the Taliban are not new, but they have not been seen for a while, and five such gruesome deaths in a few days suggest that the Taliban may be operating with increasing impunity in some regions.