DISINFO: The Taliban were created by the CIA
SUMMARY
The Taliban were created by the CIA.
RESPONSE
This is a a recurring pro-Kremlin narrative claiming that the US has promoted and funded radical Islamist movements and jihadist terrorism.
It is not true that the Taliban was created by the CIA or United States. The US backed anti-Soviet Afghan mujahideen who resisted the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in the 1980s. The Taliban did not exist at that time, they arose several years later, in the early ‘90s, amid the turmoil that followed the 1989 withdrawal of Soviet forces from Afghanistan.
The end of the Soviet presence in Afghanistan in 1989 marked the victory of the Afghan resistance. After the withdrawal of the Soviets, the mujahideen fragmented, and emerging warlords fought among themselves.
The Taliban emerged as an Islamist militant organisation in the early 1990s and, with their promise to put Islamic values first and fight corruption, quickly attracted a mass following. In 1996, Taliban forces seized Kabul. The United States actively engaged in the fight against the Taliban since 2001 to 2021.
For an in-depth look at the emergence of the Taliban read this in-depth study.
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