In a first of its kind in 20 years of Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan, Afghan officials suspect the group of weaponizing drones on the Afghan battlefield, TOLOnews reported. The officials from the security establishment confirmed the development to TOLOnews that the insurgent group has indeed used weaponized drones in some recent attacks against the security forces. 

“The Taliban embeds mortar rounds or small bombs with the drones and drops them on military and government installations,” one of the officials is quotes by TOLOnews as saying. 

Recently, The New York Times published a similar report indicating the group might have used a drone in the November 1st attack on the Kunduz Government compound.  

Esmutullah Muradi confirmed, “Investigation into the incident is underway to find out whether it was a mortar shell, or it was dropped by a drone.”

This development, if true, could pose a big challenge to security managers in the Kabul government. After the US-Taliban deal on February 29 of this year, the US forces largely stopped engaging in combat missions in Afghanistan except for some recent instances.  

The Taliban could challenge security especially in urban centres and provincials centres using drone attacks where the group has been using tactics of suicide bombings and  IED blasts.