Karzai Calls for Arrest of Taliban in Public Execution

A video of a woman being publicly executed, supposedly for adultery, sparked outrage in Afghanistan—and now President Hamid Karzai has ordered the arrest of the Taliban involved. Officials actually believe the woman was killed—shot nine times as a throng of people cheered—because two Taliban commanders both had a relationship with her and ended up fighting over her; the adultery charge, they believe, was simply an attempt by the Taliban to save face.

The two commanders "faked a court to decide the fate of this woman and in one hour, they executed the woman," a provincial governor tells CNN. But both commanders were then killed by a third commander, he claims. Karzai ordered today that everyone involved be arrested and punished, and the commander of NATO-led forces in Afghanistan has offered the help of NATO troops. The video has sparked concern over the 2014 NATO withdrawal and the consequences it will have on women in the country. (More Taliban stories.)