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2021-08-27 Afghanistan
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On social media, Taliban tout trained and US-equipped ‘special forces’
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Haqqani’s super duper elite troops. Someone else sponsors the Red Unit, the Taliban’s special forces/shock troops first deployed in Sangin town in Helmand province in 2016, then claimed a victory against ISIS-Khurasan in 2018. We haven’t been hearing much from them recently, for some reason. It should be noted that Sirajuddin Haqqani is counted among Al Qaeda’s leadership, probably their regional vice president for Afghanistan... [IsraelTimes] The Taliban
 ...the Pashtun equivalent of men...
has been showing off its own "special forces" on social media, soldiers in new uniforms equipped with looted American equipment who contrast sharply with the image of the usual Afghan murderous Moslem.
Pictures and videos of fighters in the so-called "Badri 313" unit have been posted online for propaganda purposes to underline how the Taliban have better equipped and trained men at their disposal than in the past, experts say.
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Rather than a battered Russian-designed Kalashnikov rifle slung over their shoulder, the men of Badri 313 hold new US-made rifles such as the M4, sometimes with night-vision goggles and advanced gunsights.
Badri 313 "likely represents some of the best trained and equipped fighters within the Taliban more broadly, although as you would expect there is a degree of sensationalizing in propaganda coverage of the unit by the group," Matt Henman from the Janes defense consultancy told AFP.
A Western weapons expert who writes anonymously on Twitter under the pseudonym of Calibre Obscura said the unit would be no match for Western special forces, or those of India or Pakistain.
The soldiers are shown in uniforms, boots, balaclavas and body armor similar to those worn by special forces around the world — and unlike the shalwar kameez, turban and sandals of the traditional Taliban fighter.
But "they are more effective than normal Taliban and certainly more than standard Afghan national army troops from a couple of weeks ago," he told AFP.
Named after the battle of Badr 1,400 years ago, when the Prophet Mohammed supposedly vanquished his enemies with only 313 soldiers, the Taliban unit could number up to several thousand men, experts say.
In previous days, the unit has been in charge of security outside Kabul international airport, bringing them nearly face-to-face with American troops inside who are overseeing the airlift of thousands of civilians.
In a social media post, Badri 313 troops even mocked their US counterparts by recreating the famed picture of American soldiers raising the Stars and Stripes on the island of Iwo Jima in 1945.
The Taliban figures in uniforms are seen raising their black-and-white flag.
Badri 313 is also seen as having benefited from training from the Haqqani network
...a branch of the Afghan Taliban, based in Pakistain. The network is a family business founded by the later Jalaluddin Haqqani...
, Afghanistan’s most ruthless and feared krazed killer group which has been responsible for multiple suicide kabooms on civilian targets.
Mainly based in eastern Afghanistan — with alleged bases across the border in Pakistain’s northwest — the group has become more visible in the Taliban leadership in recent years. They have also long been suspected of links with the Pak military establishment — US Admiral Mike Mullen described them as a "veritable arm" of Islamabad’s intelligence in 2011. Pakistain denies the allegations.
"There is a strong likelihood of Pakistain having provided at least a vestige of training to the unit," said Henman from Janes, who specializes in terrorism and insurgencies.
Gilles Dorronsoro, an expert on Afghanistan at the Sorbonne University in Gay Paree, said the emergence of the new Taliban commandoes was part of a larger trend.
"We’ve seen a remarkable professionalization of the Taliban since the middle of the 2000s," he told AFP. "The war they are fighting is not the same as the one their parents fought against the Soviets. They’ve learned from the ground and they are very good technically."
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Posted by trailing wife 2021-08-27 00:00||
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File under: Taliban/IEA
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