DISINFO: The US is helping ISIS in Afghanistan
SUMMARY
US forces helped 40 ISIS commanders to escape from a Taliban prison in Badghis, Northwest Afghanistan. According to Iranian news agency Tasnim, quoted by Sputnik, the prisoners, all of them foreigners, were carried away by helicopters after US troops attacked the prison and killed every guard two weeks earlier.
RESPONSE
Recurrent pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about the US supporting ISIS. The story was initially aired by Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in mid-January, and then reported by Sputnik as: “Russia announces new evidence of links between the US and ISIS”. According to that narrative, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs suggested that the US was interested in separating ISIS prisoners and seizing documents from the prison to avoid information leaks about the links between this country and the terrorist organization. There really was an attack on a Taliban prison those days in Badghis, but according to Afghan national news agency Bakhtar News and local Pakistani newspaper The Frontier Post, the operation was conducted by Afghan forces and not by US troops. The Frontier Post says that “18 Taliban and 10 Daesh fighters were killed while 40 Daesh gunmen were arrested alive in the operation”. However, Sputnik reported it then as a US operation intended to rescue, not arrest, Daesh combatants. The story was picked up by Tasnim agency, that published a version of it on the 27th of January, and then picked again by Sputnik in this new article. Both Russia and Iran are interested in portraying jihadist groups such as ISIS/Daesh as supported by the US. In reality, US and NATO forces have been fighting ISIS, not helping them.