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Taliban fighters wear stolen US military gear, mock American WWII photo

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Members of the Badri 313 special unit differ from other Taiban fighters by mimicking the appearance of American soldiers.

By World Israel News Staff

Taliban fighters have shared videos and pictures online that seem to mock the iconic World War II photo, Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima, Fox reported.

A photo taken by Taliban fighters from the Badri 313 unit show the elite fighters wearing U.S. made military gear and posing as the six U.S. Marines who raised the U.S. flag on Mount Suribachi during the Battle of Iwo Jima in 1945.

Other propaganda videos and pictures shared on channels affiliated with Taliban in recent days show members of the Badri 313 fighting unit with U.S. military guns and equipment, most likely stolen while raiding abandoned bases and patrolling the city of Kabul.

According to the Fox report, members of the Badri 313 special unit differ from other Taliban fighters by mimicking the appearance of American soldiers. They are better equipped and receive more training than most Taliban fighters.

 

“Everything that hasn’t been destroyed is the Taliban’s now,” a U.S. official told Reuters. And this amounts to quite a lot when considering that the U.S. had supplied Afghanistan with approximately $28 billion in weapons and military equipment between 2002 and 2017.

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And yet, even the most trained Taliabn fighter would lack the required training to operate most of the advanced weaponry and equipment left behind by the U.S. military, indicating that the purpose of the recently published videos is purely propaganda.

“When an armed group gets their hands on American-made weaponry, it’s sort of a status symbol. It’s a psychological win,” deputy director of the Center for International Policy’s Security Assistance Monitor, Elias Yousif, told The Hill.

As the evacuation of U.S. personnel from Afghanistan continues, a U.S. official said Saturday that potential Islamic State threats against Americans in Afghanistan are forcing the U.S. military to develop new ways to get evacuees to the airport in Kabul, further complicating the already chaotic efforts to get people out of the country, Associated Press reported.