Kidnappers kill 21 police in Paskistan

Twenty-one policeman were lined up on a cricket pitch and shot dead by suspected Taliban militants in Pakistan late last night.

Government officials said the killings happened in the north-west tribal region of Jabai. The men were kidnapped last Thursday after two security posts were attacked with rocket-propelled grenades. No group has yet claimed responsibility for the killing.

Naveed Akbar Khan, a local government official, told the AFP news agency: "We found 21 bullet-riddled bodies of security personnel in an uninhabited area. One was wounded and admitted to hospital, while another managed to escape." Another official, Gul Shehzad, added: "The hands ... were tied with rope before they were shot."

Earlier this year, Pakistan Taliban members released footage that seemed to show the severed heads of soldiers who had gone missing during a conflict in the Bajaur district.