Taliban Accused of Massacre in Afghan Border City

Taliban says claims are 'baseless'

While most of the focus in Afghanistan is on the Taliban contesting more major cities, the US and Britain are also accusing the Taliban of carrying out a massacre in the city of Spin Boldak, along the Pakistan border. The city was captured in recent weeks.

The US and British embassies tweeted out accusations claiming that the Taliban had massacred “dozens of civilians” in Spin Boldak, saying that this could constitute war crimes.

The narrative was that these were “revenge killings” of past and present government officials, and that at least 40 had been confirmed killed. The claims began with Afghanistan’s Independent Human Rights Commission.

The Taliban denied that this was the case, calling it a baseless allegation. Spin Boldak is the second largest border crossing by volume between Afghanistan and Pakistan. The Pakistani government cut off the crossing when the Taliban took the Afghan side.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.