Terrorists fighting for the Islamic State in Afghanistan released photos this week of themselves slicing off the head of a Taliban fighter, in front of cheering children.
“The Middle East Media Research Institute, which monitors jihadi Internet traffic, said three photos posted on the app Telegram showed ‘many children, one of whom is armed, standing at the front of the crowd to witness beheading,'” The Washington Times reports.
MEMRI did not post or share the photos but they have emerged on the internet – and this is a clip from one of them.
“The children and adults in civilian clothing appear to be cheering on the butchers,” the Times reports. “MEMRI said ISIS dressed the victim in red and identified him as Fadl Ahmad from Kunar Province.”
While ISIS and the Taliban both adhere to a radicalized version of Sunni Islam, “ISIS considers Taliban members to be apostates who can thus be lawfully killed,” MEMRI said.
Though ISIS lost much of its territory in Syria and Iraq, it is rapidly growing in areas like Afghanistan and expanding its reach into the United States through YouTube and social media.
“Social media remains the primary method for ISIS affiliates to communicate, and it is also a medium through which ISIS propaganda influences online,” the Pentagon reports.
DAILY MAIL: The Islamic extremist group is seen as a greater threat to Afghanistan than the Taliban despite this year losing its caliphate in Syria and Iraq.
The terrorists are expanding the group’s footprint across the northeastern mountains of the country as they recruit new fighters and plot attacks on the US and other Western countries, US and Afghan security officials said.
Two decades after the US-led invasion, the extremist group is seen as an even greater threat than the Taliban due to its increasingly sophisticated military capabilities and its strategy of targeting civilians.