Afghan police say Taliban insurgents have flogged and publicly executed a pregnant Afghan widow for alleged adultery.
Authorities say Taliban militants kept the woman in captivity for three days before her execution Sunday in a remote area of northwestern Badghis province. They say she was first flogged 200 times and then shot in the head three times.
Officials say a Taliban court had found the woman guilty of having an "illicit affair" that left her pregnant.
Afghan police say a local Taliban commander, Mohammad Yousuf, carried out the execution, but a Taliban spokesman Monday denied that the group was responsible.
The unidentified man who had the alleged affair with the widow has not been punished.
NATO condemned the killing in a statement Monday. The alliance said, in its words, the "tragic, gruesome brutality is an example of Taliban justice."
During the Taliban's harsh six-year rule in Afghanistan, the radical Islamists would often stage public stonings or lashings of women found guilty of adultery.
