Graphic photos showed the bloodied corpse of a man hanging from a crane in the main square of the western Afghan city of Herat, near the border with Iran, on Saturday.

Ziaulhaq Jalali, a Taliban-appointed district police chief in Herat, reportedly said that Taliban members rescued a father and son who had been abducted by four kidnappers after an exchange of gunfire. He said a Taliban fighter and a civilian were wounded by the kidnappers and that the kidnappers were killed in crossfire, the Associated Press reported.