Taliban deny killing 22 captured Afghan commandos

The Afghan Taliban on Wednesday dismissed a CNN report, claiming that the insurgent group had killed 22 commandos of Afghan special forces while they were surrendering.

The report — which also included a graphic video — claimed that the incident occurred on June 16 in the town of Dawlat Abad in Faryab province, close to Afghanistan's border with Turkmenistan.

It stated that the commandos had run out of ammunition after a fierce battle to hold the town and were surrounded by the Taliban fighters.

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"A report of CNN claiming that the Mujahideen of the Islamic Emirate have killed enemy’s commando soldiers after surrendering is not true," Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesperson for the insurgent group, said on Twitter shared by Taliban political spokesman Suhail Shaheen.

He said that a fake scene has been montaged with another scene of 22 commandos who had been killed during fighting in Faryab province. "The two scenes have been photoshopped and montaged, for preparation of the report," Mujahid claimed.

The Afghan Taliban have also distanced themselves from what they called fake statements, videos, documents, threats and other letters which were not only being shared on social media but even being physically airdropped in some areas of the war-torn country.

In a statement on Monday, Mujahid said that all such propaganda by the enemy is aimed at controlling their fear and anxiety, to distract common thinking, and to cover up their compounding failures.

"After the stooge enemy was exposed and suffered humiliating defeats across the country where thousands of soldiers defected and embraced the open arms of the Islamic Emirate, and nearly two hundred districts were cleansed from their malicious presence, the enemy has now reached for propaganda, fabrications, and other futile tactics," he said.

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He added that fake statements, documents, threats and other letters are recently being circulated on social media and even physically airdropped into some areas that impose restrictions on locals, threatens them, specifies gender laws, regulates lives, beards, movements and even contains baseless claims about marriage of daughters and other such issues.

Similarly, he said, fake videos and footage of multi-year-old video scenes showing activities of Da’ish militias are also passed on as recent actions committed by the Taliban.

"Spurious claims and propaganda is being conjured and handed over to media by the enemy about horrendous dealings by the Mujahideen of Islamic Emirate with locals in the recently liberated districts."