Tribesman decapitated for allegedly being US spy

Suspected Islamic militants decapitated a taxi driver in north-western Pakistan over suspicion that he was a US spy and a frequent visitor to a US military base in Afghanistan, an intelligence official said today.

The headless body of the man was found yesterday near the town of Angoor Ada in the South Waziristan tribal region, close to the Afghan border.

The man, identified as Khan Mati, had been missing since April 17. He frequently travelled to Afghanistan and was suspected of often visiting a US military base in Birmal, a district in Afghanistan's eastern Paktika province that borders South Waziristan, the official said.

Mati was the second taxi driver to be abducted and killed in Angoor Ada in little more than a week, apparently over similar suspicions.

Pro-Taliban militants have been blamed for killing scores of local tribesmen accused of working with the Pakistani authorities in the hunt for them or spying for the US military in Afghanistan.

Pakistani military officials have said Arab, Central Asian and Afghan militants – suspected of links with al-Qaida – also operate in South and neighbouring North Waziristan, where violence has escalated this year.

Pakistan is a key ally of the United States in its war against terrorism and it has deployed about 80,000 troops to border regions hugging Afghanistan to track down terror suspects.