Official Taliban websites go offline, though reasons unknown

By FRANK BAJAK
AP Technology Writer

BOSTON (AP) — Taliban websites that delivered the victorious insurgents’ official messages to Afghans and the world at large in five languages have gone abruptly offline, indicating an effort to try to squelch them. It was not immediately clear, though, why the sites in the Pashto, Urdu, Arabic, English and Dari languages went offline Friday. They had been shielded by Cloudflare, a San Francisco-based content delivery network and denial-of-service protection provider. Cloudflare did not respond to emails and phone calls seeking comment. Facebook banned Taliban accounts earlier this week. Twitter has not, however, removed accounts of Taliban officials, including the group’s main spokesman.