Afghanistan's ruling Taliban authorities said they...

Afghanistan's ruling Taliban authorities said they 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.
He said the five "had resisted fiercely and were arrested in the battle field."
The Taliban were 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.
The Taliban took over control of Mazar-e Sharif, capital of Balkh province, in 1998. But the opposition forces attacking it said they were close to taking the city.