Al-Qaeda Flags (Afghanistan)

Last modified: 2006-07-01 by ian macdonald
Keywords: afghanistan | al-qaeda | politics | taliban | text: arabic (white) | shahada |
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• Description

See also:

• Afghanistan 1996-2001 (Taliban regime)
• The Shahada or Kalimah
• Afghanistan

I saw this flag on television and in pictures. It is black with the Shahada in white. Probably it is being used by the Al-Qaeda group.
Juan Manuel Gabino, 10 October 2001

Page 14 of the first section (Florida edition) of New York Times of 10 January 2002 showed a photo with the caption Qaeda Fighter Is Buried. Over the grave is a flag of a simple pattern, a horizontal tricolor light-dark-light. Does anyone know anything about this flag?
Albert Kirsch, 10 January 2002

This Associated Press photo shows several flags, with various different arrangements. Some are horizontal with two bars, one is divided diagonally. For the most part the colours are white and green. The caption refers to them as martyrs' flags:

Martyr's flags fly over the "Arab Cemetery", a section of Kandahar's main cemetery, Thursday, Jan. 10, 2002. The flags mark the graves of al-Qaida fighters as well as some Taliban. Witnesses there said that on Wednesday morning a group of anti-Taliban gunmen loyal to Kandahar Governor Gul Agha harassed visitors at the cemetery and burned some of the flags. (AP Photo/John Moore)

Devereaux Cannon, 10 January 2002