'Taliban Hunting Club' badge, 2008

Digital photograph by Corporal Ian Houlding, Royal Logistic Corps, 2008.

A British soldier's unofficial patch with an emblem of gun sight cross-hairs on a skull in front of crossed US service weapons, with the text, 'Taliban Hunting Club' and 'Final Notice Payment Due'. The badge is of a type that became popular among some Coalition troops in Afghanistan and which became more widely available to the public, along with other similar merchandise, after media coverage focused on them. In August 2011, 'The Daily Mail' reported the apparent banning of such insignia, citing the concerns of senior British Army officers and the Ministry of Defence, in light of possible legal repercussions in relation to alleged extra-judicial killings by service personnel.

From a collection of photographs was taken on operation with 3rd Battalion, The Parachute Regiment, 16 Air Assault Brigade, in Zabul Province, Afghanistan, in June 2008.