The fate of the 45-year-old woman and her 13-year-old son on Monday shocked even war-hardened locals in southern Afghanistan, where people are killed daily in the raging battle between the Taleban and the Nato-backed Government.

“These two people had been to visit a relative in the town of Musa Qala to deliver some clean laundry. He was working as a policeman. When they returned home the Taleban accused them of being spies and hanged them from a mulberry tree,” Amir Muhammad Akhunzada, the deputy governor of Helmand, told The Times.

He said that after the murder villagers in Daigh, five miles (8km) north of Musa Qala, were warned that they would share the same fate if they collaborated with the enemy.

In this case the enemy are the Afghan government forces and the British Army supporting them, who have been locked in clashes this summer that have killed four British soldiers and scores of Taleban militants.

Civilians have been caught up in the violence, with the Taleban killing teachers and local officials and threatening anyone who does not feed or provide shelter to their fighters. No one challenging their authority is spared — even the young. “How could this boy be a spy. He was only 13?” General Muhammed Nabi Molakhel, the chief of police in Helmand, asked.

Yesterday the Taleban remained unrepentant. They insisted that the victim was 21 and repeated their warning to collaborators. Mullah Amanullah, an aide to the Taleban commander Mullah Dadullah, told The Times that the British were using women and young children or people who pretended to be mad to spy on them.

“There will be more killings like this. These people had cameras and GPS [global positioning system],” he said via a satellite phone from an undisclosed location. No one will regard his words as an idle threat. When in power, the Taleban enforced strict Islamic law, with punishments including public executions for those convicted of crimes such as adultery and homosexuality, and amputations for thieves.

Lieutenant-General David Richards, the British head of Nato troops in Afghanistan, predicted that the current Taleban tactic of intimidation would backfire. “The people we talk to say, ‘Yes, we are frustrated with the lack of perceived improvement’, but they do not want to go back to the Taleban,” he said. “The reason they do not want to go back to the Taleban is the [practice of] chopping off hands and the public executions. Most Afghans definitely do not want that.”

It was announced yesterday that Australia would be sending an extra 150 troops to Uruzgan province, which borders Helmand, to combat the increased threat. John Howard, the Prime Minister, told Parliament: “The level of violence has increased as the Taleban and other terrorist groups, including al-Qaeda, seek to chip away at the credibility of the Afghanistan Government and prevent reconstruction.”

The reinforcements mean that Australia will have sent about 700 troops.

Read Tim Albone’s weblog

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