Taliban

Did a video authentically show President Donald Trump saying, of clashes between India and Pakistan in May 2025, "let 'em fight"? No, that's not true: The clip was authentic, but was recorded in 2019. Trump was speaking then in the context of conflict between ISIS and the Taliban in Afghanistan. The claim appeared in a May 6, 2025, post on…

Did the Taliban return Bagram Air Base base in Afghanistan to the United States? No, that's not true: On April 8, 2025, the Pentagon refuted the claim, replying to Lead Stories' questions. Two AI detectors found a significant presence of generative AI in an article that started the rumor. The claim originated from a story published on Medium on April…

Did Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz give a 9/11 anniversary speech in which he claimed that while serving in the National Guard he "stood one night in the dark of night at Bagram Air Base in Iraq", seemingly unaware Bagram is in Afghanistan? No, that's not true: Video of his speech shows Walz only said he was at "Bagram," not "Bagram…

Was German politician Marie-Thérèse Kaiser convicted and fined in May 2024 solely for sharing statistics regarding sexual assaults committed by Afghan immigrants? No, that's not true: Kaiser was found guilty of "incitement to hatred" under the German Criminal Code, not merely posting government figures. The law stipulates that individuals who incite hatred against specific groups based on nationality, race, religion…

Does a well-known video of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, now on social media, show an inflatable prop rather than a real military plane? No, that's not true: There's no credible evidence to suggest that the scores of people in the clip were running alongside and hanging onto a blow-up version of the massive cargo jet. Additionally, in…

Did "Call of Duty" game maker Activision post a tweet mocking the Russian military, apologizing to gamers for using Russia as an antagonist and saying it should have built games around a more competent army, such as that of Cuba or Laos? No, that's not true: There is no evidence that Activision ever posted such a tweet. The claim appeared…

Does a "real tweet" from a Twitter account called "Taliban Public Relations Department, Commentary" proclaim that Afghanistan has the second-largest collection of Humvees behind the United States? No, that's not true: There is no proof that the tweet cited on social media is from the PR arm of the Taliban. Also, another post on the same Twitter account appears to…

Does a Facebook video show heavy fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces? No, that's not true: The video shows U.S. and Afghan National Army (ANA) forces fighting the Taliban in Kandahar province, Afghanistan, during Operation Creature Pan Kalay in December 2011. This video was shot more than a decade before Russian leader Vladimir Putin announced his intention to conduct a…

Did CNN publish tweets claiming that a CNN journalist killed in Afghanistan by the Taliban in 2021 is the same person who was the first American casualty in the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine? No, that's not true: The tweets were published by parody accounts with no relation to CNN's official Twitter accounts. Plus, the "victim" mentioned in the…

Was a female Afghan pilot stoned to death in public? No, that's not true: The reports that claimed Afghanistan's second woman pilot, Safia Ferozi, was stoned to death by the Taliban came with a photograph of a different woman who was lynched by a mob in Afghanistan in 2015. Ferozi gave an interview to Stars and Stripes published on December…