KABUL (thesun): Footage has emerged of “Taliban fighters” mocking American troops by exercising in the gym at an abandoned US military base in Afghanistan.
It comes as the terror group unleashes a reign of terror after seizing control of a third of the country since US troops deserted in June.
The clip begins with one man playing around with two ropes and shows him swinging from side to side.
The cameraman can be heard laughing while recording his comrades play around on the gym equipment.
Then the camera moves to a punching bag where the cameraman briefly tries his hand at boxing the bag before letting his associate take over.
The group take it in turns to try and tackle the punchbag, flailing and kicking at it to little avail.
The video was posted online by a woman called Zoya who claimed it was filmed at a gym in Nimruz, which is believed to have belonged to the US forces but has since been abandoned.
Meanwhile, terrified Afghanis have begun fleeing the Taliban as the militants sweep across the country.
‘READY FOR A FIGHT’
Hundreds of Afghan soldiers have already fled across the border into neighbouring Tajikistan as the terror group sweeps through the country and leaves it on the verge of collapse.
Now, anyone who can is leaving the country as fast as they can, The Sunday Times reported on Sunday.
According to the paper, the second-hand market in Kabul is full of carpets, kitchenware and other goods as families are selling to raise money to flee.
“There is a real sense of foreboding,” says Kate Clark, director of the Afghanistan Analysts Network.
Nader Nadery, a former human rights activist now civil servant, said the Taliban are simply biding their time.
The barbaric Taliban of old, which banned women from working and girls from going to school, has not changed, he said.
In one province, women fled as Taliban warnings came over loudspeakers for them to stay at home.
Some women have vowed to fight back and took to the streets with rifles and rocket launchers telling the Taliban they were “ready for a fight”.
But there is a fear that the country could once again return to the barbaric rule of the Taliban, with pubic executions and flogging.
Last week the Taliban claimed to have control of 85 per cent of Afghanistan after seizing a key checkpoint on the border with Iran.
On July 2, S General Scott Miller warned the country is on the verge of a “civil war”.
“That should be a concern to the world,” said General Miller.