Times of Mashiach: Taliban Commander Sides with Israel over Iran
A "wild twist" or a calculated lie? A viral video claiming TTP Commander Qari Khalid "Ashna" has pledged support for Israel against Iran is exploding across social media. As experts dismiss the "Al-Qaeda-Israel" alliance as a bizarre fabrication, this unverified claim is gaining traction in the chaos of Operation Epic Fury.
According to multiple accounts on social media, a senior commander of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Qari Khalid alias Ashna, has publicly declared support for Israel in its ongoing conflict with Iran.
A Facebook user posted a short video, captioned in French as "Al-Qaïda se range du côté d’Israël contre l’Iran" (translated: "Al-Qaeda sides with Israel against Iran"), which claims Ashna released a message from Afghanistan urging followers to back Israel against Tehran.
What began as a single post has snowballed into a viral trend, with identical or similar claims proliferating on Facebook, Instagram, X (formerly Twitter), and Gettr since March 1.
Accounts ranging from news aggregators to individual users have reposted the narrative, often framing it as "breaking" news or a "wild twist" in the US-Israel-Iran war that erupted on February 28.
On X, posts have racked up hundreds to thousands of views, with hashtags like #IranWar and #TTP amplifying the spread.
Instagram reels echoing the claim have similarly gone viral, with one video noting the commander's alleged praise for strikes on a "common enemy" in Tehran.
Experts caution that the TTP—known for its anti-Western and anti-Israel ideology, with historical ties to Al-Qaeda—has never previously endorsed Israel, making the claim highly inconsistent.
Several regional experts suggest the video may be a black-propaganda effort. Given the intense Sunni-Shia friction exacerbated by the Iran strikes, or the ongoing border tensions between Pakistan and the Taliban-led Afghanistan, the claim may be designed to discredit the TTP in the eyes of the Muslim world.