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Taliban executes 5 as spies

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Afghanistan's ruling Taliban authorities say they have executed five men for sabotage and spying on behalf of the United States.

The men were hanged in different squares in the key northern city of Mazar-e Sharif, according to a Taliban spokesman.

"Two commanders by the name of Saboor and Yosuf along with their three men were executed for acts of sabotage, provoking people and spying for the Americans," said a Taliban Information Ministry official, Abdul Hanan Himat.

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He said the five "had resisted fiercely and were arrested in the battle field."

The Taliban are fighting to hold Mazar-e Sharif after troops of the opposition North Alliance moved within five km (three miles) of the key city that straddles supply routes to the capital, Kabul, in the south.

Two of the men were local opposition commanders who had been distributing arms to civilians around the city, Himat said.

Mazar-e Sharif, capital of Balkh province, has been controlled by the Taliban since 1998. But opposition forces have launched a series of offensives over the past week and say they are close to taking the city.