Afghan Islamic Press ( ps, افغان اسلامي اژانس - AIP) is an Afghan news agency established in 1982, during the Soviet Union's occupation of Afghanistan, by Muhammad Yaqub Sharafat. Sharafat was the nephew of

Mohammad Yunus Khalis Mawlawi Mohammad Yunus Khalis (alternate spellings Yunis and Younas) ( ps, محمد يونس خالص; c. 1919 – 19 July 2006) was a mujahideen commander in Afghanistan during the Soviet–Afghan War. His party was called Hezb-i-Islami ("Isla ...

, one of the leaders of the anti-Soviet

mujahideen ''Mujahideen'', or ''Mujahidin'' ( ar, مُجَاهِدِين, mujāhidīn), is the plural form of ''mujahid'' ( ar, مجاهد, mujāhid, strugglers or strivers or justice, right conduct, Godly rule, etc. doers of jihād), an Arabic term th ...

guerrilla movement. After the

Taliban The Taliban (; ps, طالبان, ṭālibān, lit=students or 'seekers'), which also refers to itself by its state (polity), state name, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a Deobandi Islamic fundamentalism, Islamic fundamentalist, m ...

seized power in Afghanistan in 1996, some critics accused AIP of spreading propaganda on behalf of the movement. U.S. critics made such charges in particular during the 2001

U.S. invasion of Afghanistan In late 2001, the United States and its close allies invaded Afghanistan and toppled the Taliban government. The invasion's aims were to dismantle al-Qaeda, which had executed the September 11 attacks, and to deny it a safe base of operation ...

in which U.S. air forces bombed Taliban targets, allowing the movement's Afghan enemies to overthrow it. During this phase of Afghanistan's war, the agency reported heavily on civilian casualties caused by the U.S. air attacks, and was cited by international media and by anti-war writers such as University of New Hampshire economics professor Marc Herold. AIP denies accusations of propaganda and says it has preserved its independence by refusing funding from governments, political groups or non-government organizations. It says it requires three independent sources for its stories.

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Afghan Islamic Press
News agencies based in Afghanistan Pashto mass media Organisations based in Kabul Mass media in Afghanistan {{Afghanistan-media-stub