Pakistani militants execute 2 alleged spies

Pakistani militants publicly executed two Afghans before thousands of cheering supporters Friday, saying the men spied for U.S. forces and helped orchestrate a suspected U.S. missile strike that killed 14 people last month.

The brazenness of the execution, in which one man was decapitated and the other shot in front of 5,000 people in the Bajur region, underscored the power of the local Taliban forces in the lawless tribal areas near the Afghan border.

Celebratory gunfire after the executions killed two bystanders, a local official said.

The new Pakistani government has supported negotiations to win peace with militants and to try to pacify the restive areas. The United States says those agreements will only allow Taliban and al-Qaida forces in the border region to regroup for more attacks on neighboring Afghanistan.

Before the execution, Waliur Rehman, a local Taliban commander, told the crowd that the two men confessed to aiding in the May 14 missile attack on a house in the town of Damadola that killed 14 people. Pakistan's army lodged a formal protest over the strike, which has been blamed on U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

"These two men admitted they led the Americans in the attack in Damadola and they have given us names of more spies," Rehman said. He promised the cheering crowd he would catch and kill others involved in the attack.

Taliban militants wielding daggers then stabbed one of the men, identified as Jan Wali 36, cut off his head and waved it to the crowd. The militants then argued over how to kill the other man, before one lost patience and shot him with his assault rifle.

The crowd erupted in cheers of "God is great," and gunmen shot in the air in jubilation.

The gunfire killed two people and wounded six others, said local official Fazal Rabbi.

In early 2006, a CIA Predator drone struck a village near Damadola in an apparent attempt to target al-Qaida No. 2 leader Ayman al-Zawahri. Thirteen people were killed but it emerged that al-Zawahri was not in the village at the time of the attack.