Ashab al-Kahf

Armed group · claims recorded 1980-10-31 to 2026-11-18

26%of 1165 settled checkable claims were independently corroborated in full or in part (302 of 1165)

Claims recorded

6,228Every assertion entered onto the ledger from this source.

Independently checkable

1,218Could have left a trace outside the militia information space.

Settled

1,165The re-check ladder has run out; these are the only claims scored below.

Still open

53Awaiting a further check. Counted nowhere else on this page.

Outside coverage

4,052Claims about events outside Iraq. Reported and counted, never searched and never scored.

What the checks found

Independently corroborated14913% of settled claims

Independent, non-militia reporting described the same event with the same substance.

Corroborated in part15313% of settled claims

The event was independently reported, but a material detail in the claim — a casualty figure, a target, an attribution — was not borne out.

Contradicted141% of settled claims

Independent reporting positively contradicted the claim. This is the only outcome that counts as a finding against the source.

No independent record84973% of settled claims

No independent outlet reported it either way. This is not a finding of falsehood: Iraqi coverage is uneven, whole districts go unreported, and these channels are sometimes genuinely first.

Not checkable00% of settled claims

The claim could never have left an independent trace — a statement of intent, an internal grievance, a prediction — so it was recorded but never scored.

“No independent record” does not mean false. It means no outlet outside the militia information space reported the event either way. Iraqi coverage is uneven, whole districts and whole weeks go unreported, and these channels are sometimes genuinely first. Only the contradicted column carries a positive finding against a source.

4052 claims about events outside Iraq are reported here but never scored. This desk builds its independent record from reporting inside Iraq. A claimed strike on Eilat, Tower 22 or eastern Syria cannot be confirmed against Iraqi sources however true it is, so counting it as unconfirmed would measure our reach rather than the claim. Those claims stay in the total and in the analysis; they are kept out of every rate.

Independent reporting positively contradicted 1% of settled claims, and bore out another 13% only in part — the event real, a material detail overstated.

When independent reporting did catch up, it took a median of 0.55h. That lag is why a claim is re-checked on a ladder rather than judged once: a claim four hours old with no independent record yet is not the same finding as one four days old with none.

Download CSV Method & all sourcesupdated 2026-11-04

Cite this

Iraq Monitor, “Claim record: Ashab al-Kahf,” 302 of 1165 settled checkable claims independently corroborated (26%), 14 contradicted, 849 with no independent record; a further 4052 about events outside Iraq are reported but not scored, as published 2026-11-04, https://iraqmonitor.com/record/actor-ashab-al-kahf.