Afghan Witness Reports

The economic impact of poppy eradication on local communities, and the lack of alternative forms of income, have the potential to spark confrontations.

By dismissing stories as ‘fake news’ and identifying fake profiles, the account utilises the weight and language of the ‘fact-checking’ brand, without doing the meaningful verification work required.

This was the second ISKP-claimed attack targeting the Tebyan centre. In December 2017, the group claimed a suicide bombing at the Tebyan Cultural Centre in Kabul.

The explosion occurred on the same road – in front of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs – as the January 11 suicide bombing claimed by ISKP.

In recent weeks, there has been a spate of incidents in Mazar-i-Sharif and Herat city in which the Taliban have displayed the bodies of men they describe as ‘kidnappers’, ‘insurgents’ or ‘thieves’.

This is the first time ISKP have directly addressed reports of a Taliban raid.

After eight weeks without any high-profile attacks in Afghanistan, ISKP target two high-ranking officials on consecutive days.

Interviews with women in the sector reveal that some organisations have replaced their female directors with men to allow operations to continue, while one president of a women-focused NGO says she is using her personal savings to keep office doors open.

While one of the protesters was reportedly released the next day, women's rights protester Narges Sadat is thought to still be in detention.

The account presents itself as the news outlet Afghanistan International, which has been a common target for mimic accounts – AW investigators have identified at least five accounts mimicking Afghanistan International in the last three months.

Several hundred people gathered at Kabul International Airport on February 8 after rumours circulated that Afghans could fly to Turkey to support the earthquake relief effort – however, AW’s assessment of the arrested men’s social media profiles suggests they were not initiators or significant amplifiers of the ‘flights to Turkey’ story.

This was the second raid on an alleged ISKP hideout in Kabul in 2023 - and comes at a time when several embassies and international organisations have suspended operations or evacuated staff over concerns of a large-scale attack.