Reports of targeted Taliban killings fuel fears of Afghans

Militants killed and tortured Hazara men in Ghazni province, say eyewitnesses.

Reports of targeted killings in areas overrun by the Taliban mounted on August 20, fueling fears that they will they imposed when they were last in power, even as they urged imams to push a message of unity at Friday's prayers. Terrified that the new de facto rulers would commit such abuses, thousands have raced to Kabul's airport and to border crossings, desperate to flee following the Taliban's stunning blitz through the country. Others have taken to the streets to protest the takeover — acts of defiance that Taliban fighters have violently suppressed.