Elite Taliban unit wearing US gear appears to mock iconic American WWII photo

A Taliban fighting unit called the Badri 313 Battalion was spotted patrolling Afghanistan with U.S.-made gear, and posting one photo appearing to mock the iconic World War II photo, Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima.

Propaganda videos posted this week on channels affiliated with the Taliban show soldiers in the little-known Badri 313 Battalion carrying U.S. and U.S. ally-made weapons and gear that appear to be stolen from allied militaries while patrolling parts of Kabul.

بدري ۳۱۳ قطعه
د ارګ او د کابل ښار د حساسو سیمو امنیت په غاړه لري pic.twitter.com/dSSgnuAUbM

— Qari Saeed Khosty (@SaeedKhosty) August 17, 2021

In one propaganda photo, members of the Badri 313 Battalion are seen hoisting a Taliban flag in a similar fashion to the six U.S. Marines who raised the U.S. flag on Mount Suribachi during the Battle of Iwo Jima in 1945.

“This has only been recently revealed, is a militia, a special operations unit of the Taliban that is being deployed not just in Kabul but elsewhere as well that has provided a completely different picture. No more just the sons of farmers and shepherds, a ragtag bunch of religious terrorists, but a special operations group comparable, perhaps, with the best in the world,” senior editor and television anchor at India Today, Shiv Aroor, said in a news segment this week. – READ MORE