タリバンの「特殊部隊」　略奪した米軍装備を誇示

【パリＡＦＰ＝時事】アフガニスタンのイスラム主義組織タリバンはソーシャルメディア上で、独自の「特殊部隊」を誇示するプロパガンダを展開している。略奪した米軍の軍用品を装備し、新しい戦闘服を着た隊員らの姿は、通常のタリバンのイメージとは対照的だ。専門家らは、タリバンが以前よりも優れた装備と訓練を受けた部隊を有していることを強調するため、同部隊の写真や動画を投稿していると分析している。（写真は資料写真）
　「バドリ３１３」と呼ばれるこの部隊は、通常のタリバン戦闘員がみせる伝統衣装サルワール・カミーズにターバン、サンダルという姿とは異なり、世界各国の特殊部隊が着用しているような戦闘服やブーツ、目出し帽、防弾チョッキを身に着けている。
　携帯する武器はロシア製のカラシニコフ銃ではなく、Ｍ４などの米国製の新型ライフルで、中には暗視ゴーグルや高性能な照準器を使用している隊員もいる。ソーシャルメディア上では、第２次世界大戦中の１９４５年に硫黄島で星条旗を掲揚した米兵の姿をバドリ３１３部隊がまねる挑発的な写真も投稿された。
　防衛コンサルティング会社ジェーンズのマット・ヘンマン氏はＡＦＰに、タリバンのバドリ３１３部隊についてのプロパガンダには「当然ながら、ある程度扇情的な部分がある」ものの、同部隊は「タリバン戦闘員の中でも最も訓練され、装備の整った部類に入るだろう」との見方を示した。
　「カリバー・オブスキュラ」という仮名でツイッターに投稿している兵器専門家はＡＦＰに対し、バドリ３１３部隊は欧米やインド、パキスタンの特殊部隊には太刀打ちできないものの、「通常のタリバンよりも能力は高く、数週間前の一般的なアフガン国軍部隊よりも確実に有能だ」と指摘した。
　バドリ３１３の名は、１４００年前にイスラム教の預言者ムハンマドがたった３１３人の軍を率いて勝利したとされる「バドルの戦い」にちなんだもの。専門家らは、同部隊の規模は数千人に及ぶ可能性があるとみている。
　バドリ３１３部隊が所持している装備の数は不明だが、ネット上に投稿された一連の写真には、米国から装備提供を受けたアフガン軍が放棄した装甲車や航空機、武器を奪取して歓喜するタリバン戦闘員の様子が写っている。ただ専門家らは、ヘリコプターなどの最先端兵器は扱いが難しく、整備はほぼ不可能だと指摘している。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】

〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2021/09/01-10:26）

The Taliban 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 insurgent.
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.
The soldiers are shown in uniforms, boots, balaclavas and body armour similar to those worn by special forces around the world -- and unlike the shalwar kameez, turban and sandals of the traditional Taliban fighter.
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 sensationalising in propaganda coverage of the unit by the group, Matt Henman from the Janes defence 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 Pakistan.
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.
- US weapons -
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.
The amount of equipment at their disposal is unclear, but multiple pictures online show jubilant Taliban fighters posing with captured armoured Humvees, aircraft and weapons abandoned by the defeated US-equipped Afghan national army.
Experts say the most sophisticated equipment, especially the helicopters, will be difficult to operate and near-impossible to maintain.
There is certainly a degree of propaganda, but we saw during the final offensive since May that the Taliban special forces have been critical in the taking over of Afghanistan, said Bill Roggio, managing editor of the US-based Long War Journal.
When they began to overrun the Afghan forces, they progressively integrated Western supplies. The US in effect armed the Taliban army, he added.
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.
- Haqqani role? -
Badri 313 is also seen as having benefited from training from the Haqqani network, Afghanistan's most ruthless and feared militant group which has been responsible for multiple suicide attacks on civilian targets.
Mainly based in eastern Afghanistan -- with alleged bases across the border in Pakistan'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 Pakistani military establishment -- US Admiral Mike Mullen described them as a veritable arm of Islamabad's intelligence in 2011.
Pakistan denies the allegations.
There is a strong likelihood of Pakistan having provided at least a vestige of training to the unit, said Henman from Janes, who specialises in terrorism and insurgencies.
Gilles Dorronsoro, an expert on Afghanistan at the Sorbonne University in Paris, said the emergence of the new Taliban commandoes was part of a larger trend.
We've seen a remarkable professionalisation 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, he added.