Taliban Announces New Special Ops Suicide Division, Carry Out Mannequin Beheadings

The Taliban has been a busy group since the final U.S. military flight left Kabul International Airport back in August. There was a government to form. Citizens to harass and behead. Trash to pick up. Money to steal from Afghans. New weapons to test out. Cricket wins to celebrate. And paddle boats to enjoy.

But it's a new year and that means the Taliban is back to work like the rest of society after the winter holiday break. The new year means new beginnings and it also means, according to Afghan freelance journalist Natiq Malikzada, that the Taliban army will soon get a new special ops suicide division.

Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid (who still has an active Twitter page that pumps out multiple Taliban reports per day) tells Malizada that the Office for Suicide Bombings in the Taliban Ministriy of Defense will have the suicide bombing special ops unit at its disposal.

That isn't the only development the Taliban has been working on. They've also been busy beheading mannequins at clothing stores. "The Taliban have ordered a series of mannequin beheadings, telling clothes shops to remove the heads of dummies that offend Islam," Malikzada reports. 

The Times (UK) reports the Taliban's Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice ordered the beheadings in the Herat province. A Taliban official said the "statues" were being worshipped, a big no-no in Islam, so their heads came off.

The heads of mannequins (foreground) are seen at a at a women's clothing store in Herat on January 5, 2022. - The Taliban have ordered shop owners in western Afghanistan to cut the heads off mannequins, insisting figures representing the human form violate Islamic law. (Photo by AFP) (Photo by -/AFP via Getty Images)