NATO, Taliban Go To War On Twitter

The forces of NATO and the Taliban have taken their war to the digital battleground of Twitter.

NATO and the Taliban have been warring over Afghanistan for a decade but yesterday, following an attack in the capital of Kabul that was defeated by NATO-backed Afghan security forces after a 20-hour battle, the conflict shifted to a very different theater: the 140-character STFU fields of Twitter.

After the attack was put down, the Twitter account belonging to the International Security Assistance Force Afghanistan, which normally restricts itself to straight-up info dumps on the Afghan situation, posted a response to comments about the attack from a Taliban spokesman. "Re: Taliban spox on #Kabul attack: the outcome is inevitable," @ISAFmedia wrote. "Question is how much longer will terrorist put innocent Afghans in harm's way?"

That put a bee in the Taliban's bonnet, which responded through the @ABalkhi account, "@ISAFmedia i dnt knw.u hve bn pttng thm n 'harm's way' fr da pst 10 yrs.Razd whole vllgs n mrkts.n stil hv da nrve to tlk bout 'harm's way'"

"Really, @abalkhi?" @ISAFmedia replied. "Unama reported 80% of civilians causalities are caused by insurgent (your) activities http://goo.gl/FylwU" @ABalkhi, however, questioned the validity of the numbers, pointing out that they came from ISAF's parent body at the United Nations. "@ISAFmedia Unama is an entity of whom? mine or yours?" it asked.

Things went quiet for awhile, although @ABalkhi fired off a quick "lol" at CNN for an article claiming that the Afghanistan insurgency was "less effective" this year than it has been in the past. But @ISAFmedia wasn't ready to let things go without taking a parting shot at another Taliban-related account. Linking to a YouTube video showing General John R. Allen, the ISAF Commander, checking on his troops after the Kabul attacks, it wrote, "Hey @alemarahweb, does your boss do this? http://goo.gl/9XpYn #Kabulattacks #ISAF #COMISAF"

via: The Guardian