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DASHTI QALA, Afghanistan - The Taliban fighters herded hundreds of frightened people into the center of the war-ravaged town of Taloqan and paraded out three dogs costumed in Western neckties and waistcoats.
The Taliban had shaved the heads of the three dogs and painted names of the men the regime most despises - ''Bush'' for the US president, ''king'' for the long-deposed monarch whom some want to return to power, and ''Rabbani,'' referring to Burhanuddin Rabbani, a leader of the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance. The regional Taliban commander, Arif Khan, took out a can of gasoline, doused the animals, and then, according to eyewitnesses, lit a match, proclaiming, ''This is what we do to the dogs who oppose Islam!''
Those who did not cheer the immolation of the animals were beaten with sticks, the witnesses said.
This scene from last week is just one of several horrifying images to emerge from Taliban-ruled areas of Afghanistan. Families who fled their homes and managed to escape to a displaced persons camp here in Northern Alliance-controlled territory describe what they left behind as a new reign of Taliban terror.
In a march to prepare for war, the Taliban have been forcing at gunpoint all men ''old enough to grow a beard'' into the Taliban ranks to fight ''jihad,'' or holy war, against America, according to the displaced, who have been arriving in recent days to a dusty plain here controlled by the anti-Taliban forces.
''They want this to be the great jihad. The Uzbek and the Tajik will be used as sandbags on the frontline. If they retreat they will be shot by the Pashtuns, and if they go forward they will be killed by the Americans,'' said Kareem, sitting in a hut made of tree branches and river reeds.
DASHTI QALA, Afghanistan - The Taliban fighters herded hundreds of frightened people into the center of the war-ravaged town of Taloqan and paraded out three dogs costumed in Western neckties and waistcoats.
The Taliban had shaved the heads of the three dogs and painted names of the men the regime most despises - ''Bush'' for the US president, ''king'' for the long-deposed monarch whom some want to return to power, and ''Rabbani,'' referring to Burhanuddin Rabbani, a leader of the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance. The regional Taliban commander, Arif Khan, took out a can of gasoline, doused the animals, and then, according to eyewitnesses, lit a match, proclaiming, ''This is what we do to the dogs who oppose Islam!''
Those who did not cheer the immolation of the animals were beaten with sticks, the witnesses said.
This scene from last week is just one of several horrifying images to emerge from Taliban-ruled areas of Afghanistan. Families who fled their homes and managed to escape to a displaced persons camp here in Northern Alliance-controlled territory describe what they left behind as a new reign of Taliban terror.
In a march to prepare for war, the Taliban have been forcing at gunpoint all men ''old enough to grow a beard'' into the Taliban ranks to fight ''jihad,'' or holy war, against America, according to the displaced, who have been arriving in recent days to a dusty plain here controlled by the anti-Taliban forces.
''They want this to be the great jihad. The Uzbek and the Tajik will be used as sandbags on the frontline. If they retreat they will be shot by the Pashtuns, and if they go forward they will be killed by the Americans,'' said Kareem, sitting in a hut made of tree branches and river reeds.
