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• In the deadliest attack, insurgents beheaded 17 Afghan civilian for taking part in a music event in a Taliban-controlled area of southern Afghanistan, officials said. The attack happened Sunday night in Helmand province's Musa Qala district, said provincial government spokesman Daoud Ahmadi. All of the bodies were decapitated but it was not clear if they had been shot first, Ahmadi said.
• The victims were part of a large group that had gathered for a celebration involving music and dancing, said Musa Qala government chief Neyamatullah Khan. He said the Taliban slaughtered them to show their disapproval of the event. Information was only trickling out slowly because the area where the killings occurred is completely Taliban controlled, Khan said.
• Then on Monday morning, two American soldiers were shot and killed by one of their Afghan colleagues in the east, military officials said, bringing to 12 the number of international troops -- all Americans -- to die at the hands of their local allies this month.
• But Afghan officials said Monday's attack in Laghman province was a separate case from the rash of recent insider attacks on international forces, because it appeared to have been an accidental shooting.
• ___

• INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- The U.S. government claims it has the ultimate proof

that American-born Taliban fighter John Walker Lindh might foment hate and violence among fellow Muslim inmates if they're allowed to pray together daily. He has already tried, it argues.
• But Lindh, 31, accuses the government of going too far in its drive for security and trampling on his freedom of religion by restricting group prayers among Muslim inmates in the Terre Haute, Ind., prison unit where he has been housed since 2007.
• Lindh is expected to testify Monday in federal court in Indianapolis during the first day of a trial that will examine how far prison officials can go to ensure security in the age of terrorism.
• Muslims are required to pray five times a day, and the Hanbali school to which Lindh belongs requires group prayer if it is possible. But inmates in the Communications Management Unit are allowed to pray together only once a week except during Ramadan. At other times, they must pray in their individual cells. Lindh claims that doesn't meet the Quran's requirements and is inappropriate because he is forced to kneel in close proximity to his toilet.

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