The video does NOT show Taliban executing Christians in Afghanistan

After the Taliban seized Afghanistan social media platforms have become one of the major sources of sharing misleading content. A gruesome video showing few men beheading a group of men is widely circulating on social media. The claim made along with this video is that the video shows Taliban executing Christians in Afghanistan.

Several instances of Taliban’s atrocities has been reported by international media where several Christians have been reported to flee the country in search of safety.

The caption of the post mentions “11 September at 15:03 Christian's are being massacred in Afghanistan. If Buhari has his way in Nigeria, the same will happen.”

(WARNING: Video contains sensitive content. Watch at your own discretion.)

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Fact Check-

We started our investigation by breaking the video into small keyframes by using the InVid We Verify tool and running a Yandex reverse image search. From the results we found that the viral video on social media is actually a cumulation of several small video’s dated much before Afghanistan was seized by the Taliban.

First Video:

The first part of the video shows men blind folded and lined up in a huge hole dug on the pit for execution. Soon we can see militants with guns shooting a bullet into their heads.

We found screenshots of the first part of the video on a website named valiasr.aj.com which stated that the video is from Baghdad in Iraq. The article is dated October 2016. The website mentions that the men executing the Iraqi prisoners in the video belongs to ISIL (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant). The ISIL is a militant group also known as ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria).

Another article on this video published in 2016 stated that the ISIS military dressed up in Arabian clothes executed people from the Iraqi military and were members of the Popular Mobilization Formation (PMF). This organization was formed by the Iraqi government to fight against the ISIS.

Second Video:

The second part of the video showing men carried in small trucks with their eyes blind folded. A man standing on top of the truck can be seen shooting these men with a gun.

We found this video to be from the Camp Speicher Massacre carried out by ISIS militants on Iraqi army cadets in 2014. According to Farsnews.ir, this video was circulated by ISIS militants claiming to carry out execution at Camp Speicher Massacre in 2014.

A report by Al Bawaba published in 2015 stated that the ISIS has published a 23-minute video after the Camp Speicher Massacre in 2014 carried out in Iraq. The men executed were a part of the Iraqi army who were captured at the Speicher Military Base and killed in the Iraqi city of Tikrit.

Third Video:

The third is part of the video showing groups of men lying on the ground with their hands behind their back while they are being shot down one by one.

We found this video posted on Youtube on August 2014 by the official channel of CBS Evening News. The news report stated that the video showed attacks by ISIS terrorists in Syria and Iraq. The description of the video states that ISIS fighters had stormed into towns of northern Iraq and executed Shiite men in mass graves.

There is no mention of Christian’s being killed in Afghanistan.

Fourth Video:

The fourth part of the video show’s militants standing alongside hundreds of dead bodies.

We found that this video dates back to 2014. The article mentioning this video states that it shows ISIS militants executing hundreds of military recruits of Iraq in Tikrit on June 2014. This video is also said to be a part of the 23-minute video published by ISIS after the Speicher Massacre in 2014. Approximately 1700 military men were captured at the Speicher military base and executed in different parts of Tikrit city which is also where the presidential palace is situated.

What is the Camp Speicher Massacre?

Camp Speicher Massacre took place on 12 June 2014 ,the massacre was carried out by ISIS militants who executed approximately 1700 Iraqi people by attacking camp Speicher based in Tikrit. The main target of this massacre were Shia militiamen and Iraqi army cadets.

Read our all Fact Checks on Afghanistan below:

#Thread🚨- Post the #Taliban took control over #Afghanistan and it's capital #Kabul, @FactCrescendo has witnessed a rise in misinformation related to this event. Several unrelated images and videos are being shared online as footages of the country post the takeover.

— Fact Crescendo (@FactCrescendo) August 19, 2021

Conclusion-

Fact Crescendo found the claim made along with the video to be False. The viral video in circulation does not show Christians in Afghanistan being mass executed. The video is a cumulation of several videos from 2014 and 2016 showing ISIS militants executing people in Iraq and Syria. The video has no relation with the ongoing atrocities carried out by the Taliban in Afghanistan.