Taliban murder female 'spy' and dump body in sewer

Pro-Taliban militants have shot and killed an Afghan woman accused of being a U.S spy in Pakistan and dumped her body in a sewer, a witness and intelligence officials said today.

The militants in North and South Waziristan have killed dozens of people they accused of being Pakistani government supporters or spies for U.S. forces based in neighbouring Afghanistan.

The killing of women, however, has been rare.

The body of Gulzada Bibi, a woman in her mid-thirties, was found with three bullet wounds in her chest near Degan village, some 35 km (22 miles) west of Miranshah, the main town of North Waziristan, the officials said.

"A note pinned to her body said she belonged to Afghanistan's Paktia province and was caught with a satellite phone she had been using to spy for the U.S.," said, Abdullah, a resident of the village.

The killing came two days after a suspected U.S. missile attack killed six people in neighbouring South Waziristan, that Pakistani intelligence officials said had killed an al Qaeda chemical and biological weapons expert named Abu Khabab-al-Masri.

Many Taliban militants and foreign al Qaeda members fled to Pakistan's semi-autonomous tribal regions after U.S.-led forces ousted the radical Taliban regime in Afghanistan in 2001.