‘Tech-savvy’ Taliban use drone to film attack

The Afghan Taliban have released aerial footage of a suicide car bombing in southern Helmand province, marking the first time the media-savvy militant group has used a drone to record an attack.

The 23-minute video shows a suicide bomber ramming a Humvee into a military base in volatile Nawa district, triggering a mushroom cloud of flames and smoke and razing the entire compound.

With pro-Taliban poems playing in the background, the video reported Tuesday by the US-based SITE Intelligence group shows a turban-clad bomber in front of a Humvee, hugging fellow fighters before he departs.

The camera mounted on a drone shows a birds-eye view of the target, tracking his Humvee as it strikes the base without any apparent resistance, causing a massive explosion. The video, which could not be independently verified, is the first drone footage released by the Taliban. The Afghan defence ministry in a statement rejected it as “propaganda”. Once seen as uneducated thugs, the Taliban have developed a savvy PR team who use digital technology to reach out to audiences worldwide.

When the Taliban ruled Afghanistan between 1996 and 2001, almost all electronic products were outlawed as un-Islamic. But the Taliban have avidly embraced electronic communication and social media in recent years as a recruitment tool and to promote their propaganda.

The Taliban now have a robust social media presence and a website in five languages, including English.