Afghan Taliban spokesman's tweet 'sent from Pakistan'

Zabihullah Mujahid vehemently denies he was hundreds of kilometres south of the border, insisting the social networking site's geolocation facility was interfered with by his enemies.

KABUL // The Taliban’s main spokesman in Afghanistan on Saturday denied a tweet in which he claimed the group had killed 13 Afghan soldiers was sent from southern Pakistan.

Zabihullah Mujahid denounced the tweet as an “enemy plot” after the social network’s geolocation facility tagged the militant in Sindh, hundreds of miles from the Afghan border.

Afghan officials harbour long-standing suspicions of connections between the hardline movement’s Afghanistan branch and Islamabad’s powerful intelligence services.

The tweet, which also claimed the group had taken over three security checkpoints on Thursday in the Kamdesh district of Nuristan, eastern Afghanistan, appeared on a Twitter feed recognised as belonging to Mr Mujahid.

He later tweeted: “My Twitter account has been manipulated – as part of weak efforts of enemy plot, it showed that I am based in Sindh of Pakistan, I call this attempt as fake and shame.

“Now, the enemy fake act has been exposed, and with full confidence, I can say that I am in my own country.”

The Afghan spokesman’s tweets are usually in his country’s two local languages of Pashto and Dari but sometimes in English, and often claim responsibility for attacks on Afghan security forces and US-led Nato coalition troops in Afghanistan.

Many Afghan Taliban leaders seek shelter in Pakistan, and Islamabad’s Inter-Services Intelligence spy agency is often accused of maintaining ties to the militants to ensure future influence in Afghanistan after US-led Nato troops withdraw.

* Agence France-Press