Taliban posts ISIS-style execution videos showing prisoners being shot dead by cheering fanatics as they copy terror group’s tactics to instil fear among Afghan resistance fighters

The Taliban have summarily executed members of a resistance group fighting against their harsh rule in Afghanistan.

A video filmed and shared on the Taliban’s group chats shows a group of five blindfolded fighters who have their hands tied behind them before they are executed by cheering members of the Taliban.

In a move that echoes ISIS’s social media strategy, Taliban shared their battlefield atrocities to spread fear among their enemies.

The executed fighters are members of the National Resistance Front (NRF), a nascent group operating mainly out of the Panjshir Valley in central Afghanistan.

Another video shows two groups of men squatting on a hillside with their hands tied behind their backs before being shot with automatic rifles by Taliban fighters.

The fighters can be heard shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’, and a man is later heard saying ‘stop it, stop it’ after the captives slump forward, apparently dead.

‘Don’t waste the bullets,’ another fighter of the Taliban said.

Later in the clip a Taliban fighter says one of the victims is alive as he seemingly moves, then two members of the Taliban start shooting at him. The footage went viral a day after the Taliban said its forces had killed at least 40 NRF fighters in clashes in the Panjshir Valley.

‘Due to a clearance operation against rebels in Rekha, Dara and Afshar areas of Panjshir province, 40 have been killed including four commanders and 100 more have been arrested,’ Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said.

The NRF said those shown being executed in the video were captured during fighting in the valley.

‘The criminal Taliban committed a war crime again by shooting and martyring eight members of the NRF’, the insurgent group’s spokesman Sibghatullah Ahmadi said.

The Taliban said they are ‘looking into’ the video. One year after the fall of Kabul to the Taliban after sudden withdrawal of intentional forces, the Taliban’s leaders seem to have less control over their foot soldiers as they seek international recognition.

‘We are looking into it to know exactly when these videos were filmed and to know whether they are old,’ the Taliban’s spokesman said.

‘But so far, we absolutely don’t know about the place, timing of the videos, or who the people in them are.’

Thousands of civilians had fled the valley in the days of the battle for Pnajshir, but there has been a lull in recent weeks.

Intense fighting has erupted in the valley in the past few days, according to residents and the insurgent group.

‘Summarily executing anyone in custody, whether a civilian or combatant, is a serious violation of the Geneva Conventions and a war crime,’ said Patricia Gossman, associate Asia director of the Human Rights watch. ‘Taliban commanders with oversight over such atrocities are also responsible for war crimes.’

The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said it was ‘gravely concerned’ by the allegations.

‘Parties have clear international obligations, including respect for detainees’ rights,’ UNAMA said, calling for action against those responsible.

UN Special Rapporteur Richard Bennett said: ‘Deeply concerned about latest allegations of extrajudicial summary executions in Panjshir. Reminding international human rights obligations of all parties, I call for immediate thorough investigation and for perpetrators to be held accountable. I am closely monitoring the situation.’

In July, the United Nations mission in Afghanistan accused the Taliban of carrying out hundreds of human rights violations, including extra-judicial killings and torture, since they seized power.

Many of the victims were former government officials and national security force members, the mission said, an accusation denied by the Taliban.

The scenic Panjshir Valley is famed for being the centre of Afghan resistance to the Soviet occupation of the 1980s and the Taliban’s first stint in power in the late 1990s.

It was the last part of Afghanistan to hold out against the Taliban when they returned to power in August last year.

The NRF is headed by Ahmad Massoud, the son of legendary anti-Soviet and anti-Taliban fighter Ahmad Shah Massoud.

The elder Massoud, known as the Lion of Panjshir, was assassinated in 2001 by Al-Qaeda, two days before the September 11 attacks in the United States.

His son has since picked up the mantle against Taliban forces, repeatedly denouncing the Islamist regime as ‘illegitimate’