NATO officials say 'monkey jihadists' report is false

Kandahar - The news has been circulating across the Internet spectrum that the Taliban in Afghanistan was indeed training monkeys to shoot and kill United States troops. However, NATO officials have now publicly stated that the story is false.

Digital Journal reported last week that the People’s Daily, a Chinese newspaper owned by the Communist government, released a report stating that the Taliban was training monkeys to become terrorists by shooting and killing U.S. soldiers. The report has drawn considerable attention over the web. On Tuesday, according to the Raw Story, the Rumor Doctor, Jeff Schogol, asked NATO officials, “Could it possibly be true that the Taliban are training monkeys to fire heavy weapons at U.S. troops in Afghanistan?” A spokesperson for NATO said they haven’t received any credible and reliable information to prove that the Chinese report is true. “We have absolutely nothing that leads us to believe that this tale could be even remotely based in reality,” said spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Todd Breasseale. In a follow-up report, Schogol contacted an army staff member who has collected a lot of information and images over the years and says one of the pictures shows a monkey holding a toy gun instead of a real weapon. “I collect a lot of weird, unusual, humorous photos and images I find on the web, and this happened to be in my collection,” said Staff Sgt. Roy Dunigan in an e-mail. “I can't remember where I found it. I had intended to use it for a training Power Point at one time since I like to inject a bit of humor here and there when I train soldiers.”