New York: In a change of strategy, Taleban are killing Muslim clerics who oppose call for jihad or holy war in American and foreign troops in Afghanistan, a media report said on August 4.

Taleban, it says, had been running a campaign of attacks against foreign and Afghan troops in Afghanistan for months but in recent days, they have killed five Muslim clerics including Maluavi Abdul Manan, known as Maulavi Jebab, a member of the local district council, who was shot as he left his mosque last week.

In addition, the head of Kandahar's Ulema-u-Shura, or Clerics' Council, Maulavi Abdul Fayaz, narrowly escaped death when a bomb exploded in his mosque as he was leading evening prayers on June 30.

Twenty-seven people were wounded, 14 seriously, council members were quoted by 'The New York Times' as saying. The killings, the paper said, come amid increased Taleban activity in Southern Afghanistan.

Local officials reported capturing 20 Taleban suspects in the last few days in two operations in Kandahar Province, one against a band of Taleban who killed two government soldiers last week.

The authorities also caught a Taleban member trying to plant a mine meant to kill the governor of Oruzgan Province, North of Kandahar.

PTI