The Taliban, the ultra-conservative Islamist group that ran Afghanistan while it acted as a host to Osama Bin Laden, have a Twitter feed. Called @alemarahweb (Mostafa Ahmedi), the website attached to it is described as belonging to the “islamic emirat of afghanistan” (sic).
The Taliban have usually been described, rather euphemistically, as “medieval” in outlook and they have not had a public relationship to communications technology, unlike the late Bin Laden. However, the group has been tweeting since December 19 of last year. In that time, they have posted 773 tweets. They have 2,970 followers but only follow 12. So not exactly a robust back-and-forth there.
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The overwhelming majority of the tweets are in Pashto, the Iranian language spoken in southern Afghanistan and northwestern Pakistan. However, they started posting in English on May 11, less than two weeks after their former guest was killed by U.S. forces. The English tweets have been concerned with announcing alleged killings of the Taliban’s “enemies.”
“8 local minions killed, 7 wounded in Kunduz province,” “US invaders spy plane shot down in Wardag,” “Fifth US tank obliterated in Nawzad” and so forth.
The feeds @alemarahweb follows include @afghanheroesuk, a charity to help British troops in Afghanistan and @afghantim, a U.S. Army logistics officer. No doubt both follows are in the hopes of tracking movements of supplies and troops.
Other sources: Guardian, The Envoy.
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