\n Thousands of Afghans are fleeing Taliban-captured cities in the north, some telling of brutal treatment by the insurgents: bodies left in the streets, girls being kidnapped to become Taliban brides, and young men press-ganged into fighting.\n<\/p>\n
\n Many have arrived in Kabul just this week, following a five-day Taliban blitz that has seen them seize eight provincial capitals -- some with barely a fight.\n<\/p>\n
\n But where there has been resistance, those who fled described harrowing scenes.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"We saw bodies lying near the prison... there were dogs next to them,\" said Friba, 36, a widow who fled Kunduz Sunday with her six children as the Taliban took the city.\n<\/p>\n
\n Like many who spoke to AFP, she asked not to be fully identified for fear of reprisal.\n<\/p>\n
\n The war has gathered pace since early May, when foreign forces began the final stage of a troop withdrawal due to be complete at the end of the month.\n<\/p>\n
\n During their first stint in power -- from 1996 until the September 11, 2001 attacks that prompted the US-led invasion -- the Taliban earned notoriety for a strict interpretation of Islamic law that punished even petty crime with public floggings and executions.\n<\/p>\n
\n But they have also been accused of war crimes on this campaign, targeting government officials and security personnel -- particularly in areas where they have met resistance.\n<\/p>\n
\n - 'He was just a barber' -\n<\/p>\n
\n \"Three days ago the Taliban killed a barber because they thought he was working for the government. But he was just a barber,\" said Mirwais Khan Amiri, 22, whose car was struck by bullets as he fled Kunduz three days ago.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"They killed people who worked in government even if they had quit four to five years ago.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n Another evacuee from Kunduz, Abdulmanan, told AFP the Taliban beheaded his son.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"They took him... as if he was a sheep and cut off his head with a knife and threw it away,\" he said.\n<\/p>\n
\n AFP had no way of independently verifying these reports.\n<\/p>\n
\n The Taliban routinely deny committing atrocities and last week announced they had set up a WhatsApp hotline to deal with complaints.\n<\/p>\n
\n But several humanitarian organisations, including the UN, say possible war crimes have been carried out that need to be investigated.\n<\/p>\n
\n The UN's International Organization for Migration said Tuesday that more than 359,000 people have been displaced by fighting this year alone.\n<\/p>\n
\n In a public park in central Kabul Tuesday, hundreds of the latest arrivals were camping in the open -- sheltering from the sun in the shade of trees, or under sheets stretched between them.\n<\/p>\n
\n Occasionally a volunteer would offer food or snacks, causing chaotic scenes as the evacuees clamoured for handouts.\n<\/p>\n
\n - Forced to marry -\n<\/p>\n
\n One newcomer, 25-year-old widow Marwa, fled Taloqan on Saturday as fighting raged for the city -- terrified she would be ordered to marry a Taliban fighter.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"I heard my 16-year-old cousin has been forcibly taken by the Taliban for marriage with one of them,\" she said.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"She was engaged, and her fiance is in France,\" she added, bursting into tears.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"When there are two girls in a family they take one to marry her to a fighter; when there are two boys they take one to make him fight.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n Widow Bibi Ma told AFP how she found her only son Azizullah, 20, dead on her doorstep -- hit by shrapnel from a Taliban rocket.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"After my husband died, my son was everything to me ... our guardian, and source of joy,\" she said.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"My heart died that moment, it was horrible to see him dead.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n Another Azizullah, who worked in the justice department in Kunduz, could find no comfort even in the relative safety of the capital.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"The way they are fighting, without care for others, they will be coming to Kabul soon,\" he said.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"Where will we have to run to then?\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Thousands of Afghans are fleeing Taliban-captured cities in the north, some telling of brutal treatment by the insurgents: bodies left in the streets, girls being kidnapped to become Taliban brides, and young men press-ganged into fighting. Many have arrived in Kabul just this week, following a five-day Taliban blitz that has seen them seize eight […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[553],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-80875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n