Taleban websites disappear from Internet, reason unclear

A still image from a social media video shows Taleban fighters marching in uniforms in Qalat, Zabul Province, Afghanistan. PHOTO: REUTERS

Updated

Published

Aug 21, 2021, 06:16 AM

KABUL (REUTERS) - The official websites of the Taleban, who swept to power in Afghanistan on the back of a lightning offensive last week, appeared to have vanished from the Internet late on Friday (Aug 20).

It was not immediately clear whether a technical fault or something else was to blame.

The Taleban operate separate websites in Pashto, Dari, Arabic, Urdu and English.

All five appeared to be unreachable on Friday.

A spokeswoman for CloudFlare, which online records list as providing protection for the Taleban sites, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The outage was first reported by The Washington Post.