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US volunteer claims Taliban beheaded boys ages 9 and 10 in Afghanistan

A former US Army officer who is part of a volunteer rescue team seeking to save at-risk Americans and Afghan allies still stuck in the Taliban-conquered country claimed that the extremists have beheaded two boys ages 9 and 10 in their reign of terror.

Jean Marie Thrower, an Alabama resident who has served in the 82nd Airborne Division, joined a group of US veterans and other civilians who work for the Afghan Rescue Crew, which is trying to get Americans, green card holders and US allies out of Afghanistan, according to a National Review report.

ARC has removed hundreds of people from the country, but the group said there are thousands of at-risk Afghans still left behind after the US military pullout, the conservative magazine said.

Thrower also disputed the State Department’s characterization that only 100 Americans have been left on the ground, saying that as of a few days ago, her group’s figure was closer to 1,000.

The Taliban have reportedly beheaded a 9 and 10-year-old as the terrorist group continues to tighten its hold on Afghanistan.
The Taliban have reportedly beheaded a 9 and 10-year-old as the terrorist group continues to tighten its hold on Afghanistan.KARIM SAHIB/AFP via Getty Images

She noted, however, that the number may include green card holders, whom the State Department lists in a separate category.

The former officer, whose duties included support work in Haiti and Bosnia, expressed her frustration with the Biden administration’s efforts in Afghanistan to get Americans and US allies out.

“In many cases, they’ve been called or texted by the Taliban with threats. They’re moving from place to place. Many of them are members of the Afghan government,” Thrower told the National Review.

Jean Marie Thrower, who stayed behind in Afghanistan to help those who are threatened by the Taliban to flee the country, said the terrorists beheaded a 9- and 10-year-old boy. AREF KARIMI/AFP via Getty Images

She described the case of an American child whose Afghan uncle has been killed by the Taliban.

“We have had people shot, beheaded. They’re taking the kids. If you’re on the run, and they find your family, they’ll hurt your family and put the word out in the neighborhood that ‘We’ve got your brother or son or daughter,’” Thrower said.

People struggle to cross the boundary wall of Hamid Karzai International Airport to flee the country after rumors that foreign countries are accepting people even without visas. STR/NurPhoto via Getty Images

“They cut off the heads of two boys that were 9 and 10,” she told the mag, which said the description of beheaded children could not be independently verified.

But the outlet reported that Christians in Afghanistan said they had received phone calls from the Taliban promising to behead them and that a British politician said refugees had told him the extremists forced people to watch their relatives being beheaded.

Thrower said the Taliban have been killing off Christians with alarming speed.

Jean Marie Thrower has said that anyone in Afghanistan who practices Christianity has received threatening calls from the Taliban saying they would come and behead them. AAMIR QURESHI/AFP via Getty Images

“We started out with 300 three weeks ago, and we’re down to 55. They’ve been killed … We had two young girls that were with this Christian family, the Christians had found them after their parents had been killed,” she said.

“They were hiding together, and then went to the market to try to get some food. The Taliban found them, raped them, and beat them. We did manage to get them to a hospital,” Thrower added.

She said the US could help matters by issuing transit visas to Afghans that would allow them to enter countries such as Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan by land and be flown out of the region.

Taliban patrol the streets in Kabul, Afghanistan, on September 11, 2021. Wali Sabawoon/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Thrower noted that flying people out of Kabul is almost impossible because the State Department must review and approve all passenger manifests.  

“Now I’m just pissed off. Furious. But I can’t be emotional right now,” she said. “I think the administration, they didn’t calculate the power of the relationships that we’ve, that all of us, civilians, veterans, formed with that country. It’s almost like they’re amputating a part of our body off.”

The Post has reached out to the State Department for comment.

The Taliban have been killing off Afghan Christians at an alarming speed. Wali Sabawoon/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images