Afghanistan Content Report

July 13 – July 26, 2024

Please note all items this issue are concerning ISIS-K

Table of contents

1. ISIS Al-Naba Newsletters
2. Pro-ISIS Online Chatter
3. ISIS Amaq Statements
4. Amaq Photos, July 18, 2024
5. Pro-ISIS Poster, Posted on RocketChat on July 25, 2024

Main points (Pro-ISIS online chatter)

• The Taliban want friendship and cooperation with Russia and Iran.
• Posts accuse Afghan Shiites of killing Sunnis in Syria. 
• The Taliban mimic the U.S. in their raiding of homes and embrace of capitalism.
• The Taliban have arrested Uyghur fighters in Afghanistan at the request of the Chinese government.
• The Taliban have arrested 43 people allegedly connected to the murder of a Shiite cleric in Uruzgan province.

1. ISIS Al-Naba Newsletters

ISIS Al-Naba Newsletter Edition 452, Published July 18, 2024

• “A Pakistani police officer was assassinated in an attack by Caliphate soldiers in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.”

“This week, the soldiers of the Caliphate in Khorasan Province assassinated a member of the apostate Pakistani police in an armed attack in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

“In detail, with the grace of God Almighty, on Thursday (Muharram 5), the soldiers of the Caliphate targeted a member of the apostate Pakistani police in the village of Shalobar in the Khyber region of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with pistol shots, which led to his death, praise be to God.”

• “A member of the Pakistani police was killed by the mujahideen in the village of Shalobar in the Khyber region.”

ISIS Al-Naba Newsletter Edition 453, Published July 25, 2024

• There were no ISIS-K news items in this week’s al-Naba.

2. Pro-ISIS Online Chatter

• July 24: Pro-ISIS post on Telegram stating that Russia and the Taliban are cooperating on counterterrorism issues. The post noted that Russia has ”brutally killed Muslims in Syria, Afghanistan, Chechnya, and now Africa.”

[Please note that the message below is nearly identical in both Pashto and Arabic. Only one translation is provided, rather than the double translation in both languages.]

“Russian President Vladimir Putin says that the Afghan Taliban is their ally in the war against terrorism. And Russia, which has brutally killed Muslims in Syria, Afghanistan, Chechnya, and now Africa with phosphorus bombs, supports close, friendly relations with the Taliban. And the terrorism in #Afghanistan is also the Khawarij [sic], and the Afghan Emirate is still Ahl al-Sunnah wal-Jamaa [those who follow the Sunnah].”

• July 24: Pro-ISIS post on Telegram stating that Shiites from Afghanistan and Pakistan have killed Sunnis in Syria, referring to Liwa Fatemiyoun units. 

[Please note that the message below is nearly identical in both Pashto and Arabic. Only one translation is provided, rather than the double translation in both languages.]

“The Shiites of Pakistan and Afghanistan, who are supported by the Taliban militia, are the killers of Muslims in #Syria.”

• July 24: Pro-ISIS post on Telegram claiming that the Taliban are mimicking the West by “earning” money and raiding homes.

[Please note that the message below is nearly identical in both Pashto and Arabic. Only one translation is provided, rather than the double translation in both languages.]

“The Taliban learned a lot from the infidels.

“They learned to earn money.

“They learned to raid the houses of Muslims.

“They also learned to martyr Muslim prisoners in a fake competition.”

• July 24: Pro-ISIS post on Telegram stating that men who fought against the U.S. in Afghanistan and then surrendered to the Pakistani government were arrested. The Telegram post contains a TikTok video from an account suspended from the platform for unknown reasons.

[Please note that the message below is nearly identical in both Pashto and Arabic. Only one translation is provided, rather than the double translation in both languages.]

“These are former mujahideen who fought against the American occupation but later surrendered to the Pakistani government and abandoned jihad. The police rudely arrested them today.”

• July 24: Pro-ISIS post on Telegram claiming that the Taliban have arrested Uyghur fighters in Afghanistan at the request of the Chinese government. 

[Please note that the message below is nearly identical in both Pashto and Arabic. Only one translation is provided, rather than the double translation in both languages.]

“Putin and Biden’s Taliban militias.

“In exchange for a few worldly projects, he has sold the blood of the oppressed Uyghur Muslims.

“The leader of the Taliban, Haibatullah ‘Hebtouf,’ has imprisoned several mujahideen from the Uyghurs/Eastern Turkestan on the orders of the Chinese authorities.”

• July 24: Pro-ISIS post on Telegram stating that the Taliban have friendly relations with Iran, despite the latter’s actions and support for Shiite militias in Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon. The post also notes Iran’s support to Russia in the form of military equipment, as well as Iran’s support for Hamas. 

“Do they notice that the Lord of the worlds does not see them?

“On the one hand, Iran is the killer of Muslims in Iraq, the supporter of Americans and Russians.

“On the other hand, in Syria, the same Iran is the co-conspirator of Russia and the United States.

“On the other hand, the anti-Muslims in Lebanon, this malicious Iran, pro-Jews and Christians.

“On the other hand, by the devil of Iran, in order to give Russia an opportunity in the war in Ukraine, with the support of Hamas, a new war is started in Palestine.

“And at the same time, with the Taliban militias, also with this cunning and deceitful Iran, friendly relations and rapprochement, if there is no disbelief, brutality, and barbarism, then Pharaoh could not do any injustice again.”

• July 25: Pro-ISIS post on Telegram alleging that Pakistani military aircraft are flying over Khost and the nearby area.

[Please note that the message below is nearly identical in both Pashto and Arabic. Only one translation is provided, rather than the double translation in both languages.]

“New @ Afghanistan.

“Currently, Pakistani warplanes are in Khost city and its surroundings in Afghanistan.”

• July 25: Pro-ISIS post on Telegram stating that a faction of the Pakistani Taliban under Hafiz Gul Bahadur is fighting with Pakistani military-supported militias in the area of Mir Ali in North Waziristan.

[Please note that the message below is nearly identical in both Pashto and Arabic. Only one translation is provided, rather than the double translation in both languages.]

“In the Mir Ali area of ​​North Waziristan, fierce fighting continues between the fighters of Hafiz Gul Bahadur and the militias supporting the Pakistani army.”

• July 25: Pro-ISIS post on Telegram claiming that thieves beheaded an individual in Makuan, Kandahar, and stole a motorcycle and 50,000 Afghanis. 

[Please note that the message below is nearly identical in both Pashto and Arabic. Only one translation is provided, rather than the double translation in both languages.]

“Armed men beheaded a person in the village of Makuan in Zhari district of Kandahar, took a motorcycle and 50,000 Afghanis from this person.”

• July 25: Pro-ISIS post on Telegram stating that the Taliban have arrested 43 people allegedly connected to the murder of a Shiite cleric. 

[Please note that the message below is nearly identical in both Pashto and Arabic. Only one translation is provided, rather than the double translation in both languages.]

“In Uruzgan province, the Taliban militia have arrested 43 people for the murder of a Shiite cleric.”

• July 25: Pro-ISIS post on Telegram stating that Hamza bin Laden has made alliances through marriage and does not hold his leadership role because of religious knowledge and piety.

[Please note that the message below is nearly identical in both Pashto and Arabic. Only one translation is provided, rather than the double translation in both languages.]

“Islam is not blood and kinship, but steadfastness and sincerity in sharia and divine matters. But here Hamza bin Laden, the unknown leader of al-Qaeda, is close to many people and groups because he is married to the sister of the Afghan defense minister, the sister of the Afghan interior minister, the daughter of Ayman al-Zawahiri, and the daughter of the [former al-Qaeda] senior leader [Abdullah Ahmed] Abdullah.”

• July 25: Pro-ISIS post on Telegram stating that U.S. drones are operating in the Mir Ali area of North Waziristan. An earlier post on July 25 noted that a faction of the Pakistani Taliban was fighting with militias supported by the Pakistani army in the same area. 

[Please note that the message below is nearly identical in both Pashto and Arabic. Only one translation is provided, rather than the double translation in both languages.]

“Meanwhile, U.S. drones are on the lookout in the Mir Ali area of ​​North Waziristan.”

• July 25: Pro-ISIS post on Telegram stating that the Pakistani police have expressed “concern” regarding the safety of foreign tourists in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

[Please note that the message below is nearly identical in both Pashto and Arabic. Only one translation is provided, rather than the double translation in both languages.]

“The head of the [Khyber] Pakhtunkhwa police says that they are concerned about the protection of foreigners who go to the border areas of Khyber district for tourism.”

• July 25: Pro-ISIS post on Telegram claiming that a police station in Khyber district is under attack by unidentified “militants.”

[Please note that the message below is nearly identical in both Pashto and Arabic. Only one translation is provided, rather than the double translation in both languages.]

“Khyber police station in Jamrud area of ​​Khyber district is currently under attack by militants.”

• July 26: Pro-ISIS post in a Telegram chat, stating that ISIS-K is the “West’s nightmare,” noting the $10 million reward for information to disrupt ISIS-K’s finance operation.

“#Khorasan. The U.S. State Department has offered a reward of $10 million for information leading to the disruption of the financing of the #Islamic_State in Khorasan Province, the State Department said in a statement.

“Khorasan Province is the infidel West’s nightmare.”

3. ISIS Amaq Statements

• July 15 [Pakistan]: ISIS claims to have killed an individual employed by Pakistani intelligence in Quetta.

“Pakistan Province. By the grace of God Almighty, the soldiers of the Caliphate killed yesterday a spy for the apostate Pakistani intelligence, whom they had captured earlier near the city of Quetta in Balochistan, praise be to God.”

4. Amaq Photos, July 18, 2024

Three photos released by Amaq on July 18 show the execution of an individual alleged to have worked for Pakistani intelligence. The two beheading images are not included below. 

“Pakistan Province. Photos: Capture and beheading of a spy for the apostate Pakistani intelligence near the city of Quetta in Balochistan.”

5. Pro-ISIS Poster, Posted on RocketChat on July 25, 2024

The poster, titled “Killing the Apostates,” from a pro-ISIS media group that supports ISIS’s self-proclaimed Pakistan province, threatens Taliban leadership.