There have been mixed reports about the fate of 26 deminers abducted earlier this week in Afghanistan's western province of Farah.
AFP is quoting Afghan security forces as saying that police and tribal elders have recovered the bodies of seven of the men and found they were beheaded.
But Reuters reports that only six bodies were found. And it quotes Mohammad Munir, a senior police detective in Farah's Bakwa district, as rejecting reports that the victims had been beheaded.
The mine clearing workers were snatched on July 6 in a district that is the focus of the Taliban insurgency in the province.
But Taliban spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi says the deminers were abducted by outlaws in Farah and that the militia was not involved.
compiled from agency reports