Intelligence officials fear that the Taliban may be picking up more than the information needed to frighten wives and parents, The Sun, a British newspaper, reported.

In one case, the wife of an air force officer got a middle-of-the-night call that said her husband had been killed, The Sun reported. When she called the Royal Air Force, she learned that was not true.

“You’ll never see your husband alive -- we have just killed him,” she had been told.

Soldiers must now call home only from secure military lines and are limited to 30 minutes on the phone each week.

Intelligence agents said that much of the tapping is being done in Pakistan and said that the Taliban may be getting help from Iran with telephone intercepts.