Taliban execute Afghan woman in public: police

HERAT, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Taliban insurgents publicly executed an Afghan woman for alleged adultery, a police official said on Monday, in a reminder to the era when the militant group ruled Afghanistan.

The 48-year-old widow was given dozens of lashes before being shot dead on Sunday in the remote Qades district, held by the militants in northwestern Badghis province, said Abdul Jabar who serves as a senior officer in the province.

"It happened before the public ... despite that no one has complained, the government will take its own measures about the incident," Jabar told Reuters by phone from Badghis.

The unidentified man who had the alleged affair with the woman had escaped, he said.

When in power from 1996 until 2001, the radical Taliban staged public stonings or lashings of those found to have sex outside marriage. A spokesman for the Taliban. who lead the insurgency against the Afghan government and foreign forces, said he was not aware of the incident and could not comment on it.

If confirmed, Sunday's execution would be the second of a woman by the Taliban since their ouster from power nine years ago. A woman was previously executed for alleged spying for foreign forces.

The judiciary in neighboring Iran last month suspended a sentence of death by stoning for a woman convicted of adultery after an international outcry over the case.

(Reporting by Sharafuddin Sharafyar, Writing by Sayed Salahuddin; Editing by Miral Fahmy)