The Taliban and Isaf take on each other not just in the forbidding, treacherous terrain of eastern and southern Afghanistan, they attack, taunt and take jibes at each other, in 140 characters or less, on popular microblogging site, Twitter.
A series of exchanges between @ISAFmedia, the force’s official account, and @ABalkhi, the account for a user named Abdulqahar Balkhi purportedly associated with the Taliban, reveals another face of the war in Afghanistan.
November 21
ABalkhi: Nooristan: ISAF raid homes in at 01:00 am in Kamdish district’s Kamo village, search homes, martyr 6 innocent civilians (shot dead) b4 leaving.
ISAFmedia: Another false report.
November 17
ISAFmedia: In the Game of Tweets, you win or you ... become @ABalkhi I guess
ABalkhi: Thats why they picked you for this job. If I wasn’t here, you wouldn’t have a job.
November 17
ABalkhi: Article CSM [Christian Science Monitor]: 1000s Afghan mercenaries hired by CIA in Afghanistan. Commit outright human rights abuses (rape, robery, extra judicial killing etc).
ISAFmedia: We don’t hire mercs to commit murder/rape/torture. OTOH ... that seems to be a core competency among Taliban
ABalkhi: Your officials admitted to it dumb dumb. And how can you talk about Taliban when u cut fingers etc and use them as trophies
ISAFmedia: Dumb dumb? How the dialogue elevates. Look: Nobody takes you seriously. Everything you type is wrong. Just. Stop.
November 16
ABalkhi: Breaking: ISAF helicopter shot down in Ghazni’s Qarabagh district last night during raid. 13 killed according to witnesses. Area cordoned off
ISAFmedia: Nope again. No ISAF helo shot down last night. Nice try.
November 14
ABalkhi: Why are you capturing civilians? Afghan Officials Say They Captured Taliban Spokesman [LINK]
ISAFmedia: Story you linked states he was official Taliban spokesman. Taliban = hardly a civilian.
October 14
ISAFmedia: IJC: Taliban has not been successful. Badr offensive failed. Not taken single objective they said they would
ABalkhi: OK so takng out of key puppt leaders, kndhar prsn break, expndng reach to nrth, trgetng enmy bses n centrs n Kabul no achievmnts?
ISAFmedia: IJC: Over winter, we’ll remain on offensive and drive home our initiative. ANA will lead even more as they develop capabilities
ABalkhi: Why not over summer????
September 20
ISAFmedia: GEN Allen 2 insurgents: now is time, join AFG future ... otherwise we will fight you. We’re looking at you @abalkhi
ABalkhi: We have joined Afghan future but unfortunately you do not fit in that picture
September 14
ISAFmedia: Re: Taliban spox on #Kabul attack: the outcome is inevitable. Question is how much longer will terrorist put innocent Afghans in harm’s way?
ABalkhi: I dnt knw.u hve bn pttng thm n ‘harm’s way’ fr da pst 10 yrs.Razd whole vllgs n mrkts.n stil hv da nrve to tlk bout ‘harm’s way.
July 20
ISAFmedia: 400+ Afghan National Security Forces patrol Lashkar Gah with no assistance from coalition forces to eliminate insurgents
ABalkhi: If 4000+ ‘coalition’ forces could not stop Mujahideen in Lashakrgah, 400+ of their puppets wont last for long… edited by gulraiz khan
Published in The Express Tribune, December 5th, 2011.
COMMENTS (10)
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ
Why many of us tend to think Taliban to be living in caves and out of touch with reality. If they are fighting America for past one decade, then they could engage in an argument on twitter or facebook. First rule of the battle is to understand your enemy, otherwise, half battle is lost.
I doubt these are Taliban. Its most likely some pro-Taliban kids who are themselves living in the West, you can tell just from their expression and English.
Overall a waste of everyone's time and energy.
This is more entertaining than American Idol
before commenting here - you better visit their twitter account. nato, isaf and even pakistan army have official pages on facebook. isaf even have it on flickr. and there ain't any operation details. the patrol, if you are referring to is nothing secret. what are you patrolling for if you want to be hidden? regarding claims, well both are are destroying humanity.
I fail to understand is the Afghanistan situation is that better that it had internet facility.
More like chat room fight going on in a cafe between two people!!!
ET from being Express Tribune to extraterrestrial !
I agree with the first comment. NATO is not so stupid to give out operation details on twitter probably a hoax.
being able to use social media like twitter and facebook doesn't make the taliban any less barbaric than they were.And what blatant hypocrisy by the religious fanatics,they rail and cry against the western culture and countries and yet are using the technology developed by the yahood-o-nasara.what shameless munafkat by our mard-e-momins.