Taliban stop bus and butcher 30 passengers

Taliban militants stopped a bus traveling on Afghanistan's main highway through a wild and dangerous part of the country's south, seized about 50 people on board and slaughtered around 30 of them, officials said yesterday.

A Taliban spokesman said the militia's fighters carried out the attack but had killed 27 Afghan army soldiers riding on the bus.

Militants stopped the bus traveling in a two-bus convoy in the Maiwand district of Kandahar province, a Taliban-controlled area about 60 km west of Kandahar city, said Matiullah Khan, the provincial police chief. About 50 people were taken hostage, though several were freed, he said.