London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Wednesday, Oct 15, 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
Erika Kirk Delivers Moving Tribute at White House as Trump Awards Charlie Presidential Medal of Freedom
British Food Influencer ‘Big John’ Detained in Australia After Visa Dispute
ScamBodia: The Chinese Fraud Empire Shielded by Cambodia’s Ruling Elite
French PM Suspends Macron’s Pension Reform Until After 2027 in Bid to Stabilize Government
Orange, Bouygues and Free Make €17 Billion Bid for Drahi’s Altice France Telecom Assets
Dutch Government Seizes Chipmaker After U.S. Presses for Removal of Chinese CEO
Bessent Accuses China of Dragging Down Global Economy Amid New Trade Curbs
U.S. Revokes Visas of Foreign Nationals Who ‘Celebrated’ Charlie Kirk’s Assassination
AI and Cybersecurity at Forefront as GITEX Global 2025 Kicks Off in Dubai
DJI Loses Appeal to Remove Pentagon’s ‘Chinese Military Company’ Label
EU Deploys New Biometric Entry/Exit System: What Non-EU Travelers Must Know
Australian Prime Minister’s Private Number Exposed Through AI Contact Scraper
Ex-Microsoft Engineer Confirms Famous Windows XP Key Was Leaked Corporate License, Not a Hack
China’s lesson for the US: it takes more than chips to win the AI race
Australia Faces Demographic Risk as Fertility Falls to Record Low
California County Reinstates Mask Mandate in Health Facilities as Respiratory Illness Risk Rises
Israel and Hamas Agree to First Phase of Trump-Brokered Gaza Truce, Hostages to Be Freed
French Political Turmoil Elevates Marine Le Pen as Rassemblement National Poised for Power
China Unveils Sweeping Rare Earth Export Controls to Shield ‘National Security’
The Davos Set in Decline: Why the World Economic Forum’s Power Must Be Challenged
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
×