Recreational drones used by Taliban to drop bombs

On Monday the Afghanistan spy chief said that the Taliban has started to use small recreational drones to drop grenades on government forces during recent attacks, demonstrating a new way of fighting by the insurgents.

Recreational drones used by Taliban to drop bombs

The head of the National Directorate of Security (NDS), Ahmad Zia Shiraj, said Taliban fighters were using off-the-shelf recreational drones and rigging them with explosives.

“The drones they are using are sold in the market. They are basically camera drones,” Shiraj said while addressing the parliament.

Shiraz continued to say that the NDS wants to ban importing the popular recreational drones.

Late last month, the Taliban reportedly used a hobby drone to drop an explosive on the compound of the governor of Kunduz province. While not confirming this report, Shiraj did say that the Taliban has used unmanned aircraft in the Kunduz and Paktia provinces.

While new to the Taliban, dropping grenades and other explosives with recreational drones is not a new concept. Islamic State (IS) jihadists have used recreational unmanned aircraft to drop explosives in Iraq and Syria since 2016. Despite years-long efforts by the United States and Afghan forces to wipe them out, IS has been able to maintain a small but deadly presence in Afghanistan.

“We have destroyed their leadership circle but their second layer are young are still active,” Shiraj said, according to The News. IS claimed three deadly attacks in recent weeks in Kabul that killed scores of people, including a rocket attack Saturday.

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The photo shows a DJI Phantom that was used by the Taliban a few years ago. This photo comes from one of their social media accounts.