London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Wednesday, Sep 24, 2025

Child soldiers are OK if they’re anti-Taliban? AFP takes flak over photos of ‘armed’ Afghan kids waving flag of local resistance

Child soldiers are OK if they’re anti-Taliban? AFP takes flak over photos of ‘armed’ Afghan kids waving flag of local resistance

Paris-based news agency AFP has been accused of romanticizing child soldiers after photographing an Afghan children’s ‘militia’ in Panjshir province, where locals have taken up arms against the Taliban.

The outlet, known for its photojournalism, apparently took an interest in a group of kids who wanted to show their martial spirit amid a tense standoff with the Taliban.

“Afghan children carry rifles and a Panjshir National Resistance Front flag along a road in the Dara district of Panjshir province,” AFP tweeted on Monday, adding that “thousands of people” have come to the province to “find safety” and join the resistance against the Taliban.

The photographs show around 10 children marching down the road and standing guard at a bridge as they waved the green, white and black flag of the National Resistance Front (NRF). Two of the youngsters were armed with “rifles.”

The photos coincide with an uptick in western media reports detailing how Panjshir has become a rallying point for Afghanistan’s anti-Taliban resistance.

But if the photos were intended to elicit sympathy for NRF’s cause, it appears AFP’s plan backfired.

Numerous Twitter users alleged that the outlet was promoting the use of child soldiers, which is typically at least frowned-upon.



 

Others accused AFP of staging the questionable photographs.


There were even questions about the “rifles” being used by the pre-teen militia, with social media users expressing a high degree of certainty that the weapons were old air guns.

Lying some 150 kilometers (93 miles) north of Kabul, the Panjshir Valley is currently under the control of warlord Ahmad Massoud, whose NRF is a re-branding of the National United Front (Northern Alliance) led by his father, Ahmad Shah Massoud. Ousted vice president Amrullah Saleh and former defense minister Bismillah Mohammadi have taken refuge in the valley, along with soldiers of the Afghan National Army.

The Taliban has demanded NRF’s immediate surrender, but Massoud is reportedly unwilling to capitulate and instead seeks to negotiate a “comprehensive government” for Afghanistan in which the Taliban shares power.

Comments

Oh ya 4 year ago
Well someone has to fight as the adult males are all hanging out at the airport looking to get out of there and go to some non Muslim country where they can hate the non Muslims. Their own country is a 7th century shit hole and they want to turns yours into the same. Maybe someday your wife can look like Casper the ghost in a full body sheet when she leaves the house

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Arnault Denounces Proposed Wealth Tax as Threat to French Economy
Study Finds No Safe Level of Alcohol for Dementia Risk
Denmark Investigates Drone Incursion, Does Not Rule Out Russian Involvement
Lilly CEO Warns UK Is ‘Worst Country in Europe’ for Drug Prices, Pulls Back Investment
Nigel Farage Emerges as Central Force in British Politics with Reform UK Surge
Disney Reinstates ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ after Six-Day Suspension over Charlie Kirk Comments
U.S. Prosecutors Move to Break Up Google’s Advertising Monopoly
Nvidia Pledges Up to $100 Billion Investment in OpenAI to Power Massive AI Data Center Build-Out
U.S. Signals ‘Large and Forceful’ Support for Argentina Amid Market Turmoil
Nvidia and Abu Dhabi’s TII Launch First AI-&-Robotics Lab in the Middle East
Vietnam Faces Up to $25 Billion Export Loss as U.S. Tariffs Bite
Europe Signals Stronger Support for Taiwan at Major Taipei Defence Show
Indonesia Court Upholds Military Law Amid Concerns Over Expanded Civilian Role
Larry Ellison, Michael Dell and Rupert Murdoch Join Trump-Backed Bid to Take Over TikTok
Trump and Musk Reunite Publicly for First Time Since Fallout at Kirk Memorial
Vietnam Closes 86 Million Untouched Bank Accounts Over Biometric ID Rules
Explosive Email Shows Sarah Ferguson Begged Forgiveness from Jeffrey Epstein After Taking His Money
Corrupt UK Politician Ed Davey Demands Elon Musk’s Arrest for Supporting Democracy
UK, Canada, and Australia Officially Recognise Palestine in Historic Shift
Alibaba Debuts Open-Source Deep Research Agent with Benchmarks Rivaling OpenAI
Marcos Faces Legacy-Defining Crisis as Flood Projects Scandal Sparks Massive Tide of Protests
China’s Micro-Drama Boom Turns Stalled Real Estate Projects into Lavish Film Sets
New Eye Drops Show Promise in Replacing Reading Glasses for Presbyopia
'Company Got 5,189 H-1B Visas, Then Laid Off 16,000 Americans': US Defends New $100,000 H-1B Visa Fee
Golf legend tells Omar she should be 'sent back to Somalia' after her Kirk comments
EU Set to Bar Big Tech from New Financial Data Access Scheme
China Bans Livestreaming and AI in Religion Amid Crackdown on Shaolin Temple Scandal
Documents Reveal Mandelson Failed to Declare Epstein-Funded Flights as MP in 2003
Dubai Property Boom Shows Strain as Flippers Get Buyer’s Remorse
Harris Memoir Sparks Backlash from Democrats for Blunt Critiques in ‘107 Days’
Germany Weighs Excluding France from Key European Fighter Jet Programme
Cyberattack Disrupts Check-in and Boarding Systems at Major European Airports
Japan’s ‘Death-Tainted’ Homes Gain Appeal as Prices Soar in Tokyo
Massive Attack Withdraws from Spotify Over Daniel Ek’s €600M Defence-AI Investment
Björn Borg Breaks Silence: Memoir Reveals Addiction, Shame and Cancer Battle
When Extremism Hijacks Idealism: How the Baader-Meinhof Gang Emerged and Fell
Top AI Researchers Are Heading Back to China as U.S. Struggles to Keep Pace
JWST Data Brings TRAPPIST-1e Closer to Earth-Like Habitability
Trump Orders Third Lethal Strike on Drug-Trafficking Vessel as U.S. Expands Maritime Counter-Narcotics Operations
Trump Orders $100,000 Fee on H-1B Visas and Launches ‘Gold Card’ Immigration Pathway
Why Google Search Is Fading and AI Is Taking Its Place
UAE-US Stargate Project Poised to Make Abu Dhabi a Global AI Powerhouse
Federal Judge Dismisses Trump’s Fifteen-Billion-Dollar Suit Against New York Times, Orders Refile
France’s Looming Budget Crisis and Political Fracture Raise Fears of Becoming Europe’s “Sick Man”
Three Russian MiG-31 Jets Breach Estonian Airspace in ‘Unprecedentedly Brazen’ NATO Incident
DeepSeek Claims R1 Model Trained for only $294,000, Sparking Global Debate Over China’s AI Capabilities
SoftBank Vision Fund to Cut Nearly Twenty Percent of Staff in Bold AI Strategy Shift
Intel’s Next-Gen Manufacturing Gets a Lifeline from Nvidia’s Strategic $5B Deal
Erika Kirk Elected CEO of Turning Point USA After Husband Charlie Kirk’s Assassination
Massive Strikes in France Pressure Macron and New PM on Austerity Proposals
×