RESIDENTS have vowed to avenge the public execution of a woman in front of a large crowd not far from Kabul, which has caused shock and condemnation from Afghan authorities and the US.

The Taliban denied involvement in the killing in Parwan province in which an unnamed woman's head and body were riddled with bullets at close range in punishment for alleged adultery.

Shopkeeper Sayed Jala, 42, said: "We will take revenge for this. Their brutality and such inhumane acts are why we hate the Taliban."

The execution was recorded in a three-minute video which shows a woman in a shawl being repeatedly shot in front of around 150 men perched on a hill.

Nato's top commander in Afghanistan, US General John Allen, called the killing "an atrocity of unspeakable cruelty".

Meanwhile, Nato said six troops killed in a bombing in eastern Afghanistan on Sunday were Americans.