Sara Adams, a former officer with the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), has claimed that the Taliban staged a fake anti-ISIS operation in Kabul on Monday night. According to her, the group actually attacked one of its own intelligence compounds.
On Tuesday, June 10, Adams wrote on the social media platform X that the building targeted during Monday night’s operation had been fully controlled by the Taliban’s “Zulfiqar” unit—part of their General Directorate of Intelligence—since the fall of Kabul in 2021.
According to Adams, the building is not only a Taliban intelligence base but also a venue for secret meetings between Taliban officials and senior leaders of ISIS-K (Islamic State Khorasan Province).
Adams, who was directly involved in field investigations on ISIS-K and the deadly attack at Kabul airport’s gate, stated she is very familiar with the location. “The Taliban are now pretending the building belonged to ISIS, when in fact it’s their own base,” she added.
She made these remarks in response to Monday night’s armed clashes near Kabul Airport, in District 15 of the capital. While the Taliban have not officially disclosed details of the operation or its target, pro-Taliban media outlets reported that it was a raid on an ISIS hideout.
Adams further alleged that such staged operations are used by the Taliban to gain favor with the United States and secure financial aid under the guise of counterterrorism cooperation. She claimed the Taliban recently received $48 million from the U.S. government.
Additionally, she alleged that members of the Haqqani Network feed false intelligence to the West to portray the Taliban as fighting ISIS, while secretly maintaining ties with the group. “They regularly laugh at CIA’s stupidity from inside the very building they claimed to attack,” Adams said.
These statements by Sara Adams have cast serious doubt on the credibility of the Taliban’s narrative and the West’s current counterterrorism engagement with the group.
