How are the Taliban deceiving the US, Russia, and international organizations?
Author: Andrey Serenko, Head of the Analytical Center for Russian Political Scientists
In the photo: From this and other photos in the possession of "Sangar", it can be seen that the hands and feet of the "killed ISIS fighter" were tied up, and the weapons were placed for staging.
Recently, the Taliban began to show episodes of their struggle with alleged militants of the Afghan branch of ISIS. And there are many strange nuances in the demonstration of this struggle.
1 - Only the Taliban themselves report clashes (actions) between the Taliban and ISIS militants. Representatives of ISIS do not make any parallel comments. Previously, ISIS has always given its own interpretation of certain combat episodes, thereby confirming their existence.
2 - During the actions of the Taliban against ISIS, miraculously only ISIS members suffer losses: as a rule, the Taliban kill them all on the spot. Such amazing effectiveness of the Taliban with the absolute helplessness of ISIS, who are not able to fill up a single enemy, is sharply dissonant with the results of the actions carried out by the ISIS militants. While it is quite the opposite - ISIS demonstrates very high terrorist effectiveness with the obvious inability of the Taliban to prevent the actions of ISIS.
3 - The increased demonstration of the activity of the Taliban in the fight against ISIS appeared soon after a series of critical statements against the Taliban regime from the United States, Russia, and several international organizations about the insufficient promptness of the Taliban in terms of countering ISIS.
These three nuances of the current Taliban "fight" campaign against ISIS are supplemented by Afghan observers with the following comments:
1 - The Taliban stepped up their anti-ISIS demonstration in response to the normalization of the Americans' $40 million weekly cash payment schedule. This activation appears to be part of the secret protocols of the 2020 Doha Deal between the US and the Taliban.
2 - There is reason to believe that the Taliban are staging operations to eliminate ISIS groups in various cities and parts of Afghanistan. In particular, according to sources, the Taliban take prisoners from prisons in advance, and bring them to alleged ISIS safe houses, leaving them tied up there. After that, a sort of assault by the Taliban on the presence of ISIS begins, during which the "ISIS militants" located there are physically destroyed.
3 - The Taliban are passing off captured anti-Taliban resistance fighters, as well as former Afghan security officials, who in fact have nothing to do with ISIS, as "ISIS militants" killed during special operations.
Conclusion: The Taliban are engaged in imitation and falsification of the armed struggle against ISIS in Afghanistan in order to reduce the intensity of criticism from the United States, as well as Russia and international organizations, and to justify the regular receipt of $ 40 million from the Americans. The Taliban are also engaged in the physical elimination of former Afghan security officials, legalizing these punitive actions as "operations against ISIS." This imitation is taking place against the background of a real increase in the activity and effectiveness of the real Afghan branch of ISIS, which is rapidly strengthening its position in Afghanistan. The Taliban are unable to prevent this strengthening of ISIS.
