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Editor’s Note: This article has been updated. A previously published version of this article speculated whether the person flying below a helicopter was a suspended corpse of a hanged person. Following a fact check by Lead Stories, the video footage does NOT show a suspended corpse of a hanged person. The person is alive and video footage shows his hands raised. Afghanistan experts say the man was attempting to fix a flag over a public building.
“Our Air Force!” the Taliban has reportedly said about seized US Black Hawk helicopters flying over Afghanistan, according to the NY Post.
The Talib Times gloated about the moment, which claims to be the official English-language account of the Taliban-run Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.
Disturbing footage appears to show the Taliban flying seized US Black Hawk helicopters over Afghanistan. It appears that a person is suspended below as the helicopter flies around.
Immediately after the last U.S. plane left, footage shows the Taliban taking over the Kabul airport.
They celebrated with gunfire after the last American left. The Taliban “joyously fired guns into the air,” according to Agence France-Presse. BBC News also broadcasted the footage of gunfire.
Another video shows them entering a hangar with equipment the US military left behind.
A US general said this equipment is “permanently disabled” and can “never be used again.”
However, this footage is causing widespread speculation about whether the equipment is, in fact, permanently disabled.
The Talib Times tweeted, “At this time, the Islamic Emirate’s air force helicopters are flying over Kandahar city and patrolling the city.”
Someone is clearly seen hanging below the chopper as it hovers in the sky. Initially, it was unclear exactly how he is attached or if he is alive, NY Post notes.
According to the BBC, the video does not show a man hanged from the helicopter.
Upon closer examination, the person hanging below the helicopter is alive with their hands raised. The Black Hawk is equipped with rescue hoists.
“Several Afghanistan experts, quoting Taliban sources, have told the BBC that the flight yesterday was an attempt to fix a flag over a public building using their newly-captured US-built equipment,” the report says.
Watch the clip:
In what f***ing world was it a good idea to just hand over a country to these people. https://t.co/fyO2fnxmfz
— Dan Crenshaw (@DanCrenshawTX) August 30, 2021
More from NY Post:
Some journalists insisted that it showed someone who had been hanged — and then paraded in the skies.
“Another landmark picture taking the world in a new era of terror,” tweeted Indian TV host Sudhir Chaudhary, the editor-in-chief of Zee News and WION.
“Taliban hang a person, presumed to be an American interpreter, from a U.S. Blackhawk helicopter. The leftover US helicopters will now be used in #Afganistan like this,” Chaudhary predicted.
Conservative podcaster Liz Wheeler said she “could vomit” if it is “what it looks like … the Taliban hanging somebody from an American Blackhawk.”
“Joe Biden is responsible,” she tweeted.
Talib Times also shared another clip that it bragged was the “first flight of black hawk,” after the Islamic militant group was earlier filmed making doomed attempts to take flight in one of the US choppers seized when they took power.
The White House has said it does not yet have a “complete picture” of the military items the Taliban have seized, but has conceded it includes aircraft like Black Hawks that were given to the Afghan National Security Forces.
