UN Report Says Taliban Killed Former Afghan Officials To ISIS Members

Illustration of the Taliban special forces Battalion Badri3 13. (Twitter/@SpoilOfWar)

JAKARTA - A United Nations (UN) report seen by Reuters said the Taliban and its allies are believed to have killed a number of people linked to the previous government and foreign.

The report said the Taliban had killed former Afghan officials, members of the security forces and people who worked with the international military contingent since the US-led withdrawal.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres' report to the UN Security Council describes deteriorating living conditions for 39 million Afghans despite fighting that ended with the takeover of the Taliban in August.

"The entire complex social and economic system is being shut down," Guterres said.

The report comes as the latest in a series of warnings issued by the UN chief in recent months about a humanitarian and economic crisis that accelerated after the Taliban seized Kabul, when the last US-led foreign troops left and international donors cut off vital financial aid.

Guterres recommended the council approve a restructuring of the UN mission to deal with the situation, including the creation of a new human rights monitoring unit.

The UN mission "continues to receive credible allegations of killings, enforced disappearances and other abuses" against former officials, members of the security forces and people working for the US-led international military contingent despite the general amnesty announced by the Taliban, the report said.

Moreover, the mission has established as credible reports that more than 100 people have been killed, more than two-thirds of them suspected by the Taliban or their affiliates, since August 15, 2021, he said.

There are also credible allegations of the extrajudicial killings of at least 50 people suspected of being members of the local branch of the Islamic State militant group, according to the report.

"Human rights defenders and media workers continue to be assaulted, intimidated, harassed, arbitrarily arrested, ill-treated and murdered," the report said.