Politics: Indonesia's notorious special forces shocked 'Mad Dog' Mattis with their training drill — here's how they train

But the US is barred from training with Indonesia's special forces over its past human rights abuses.

US Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis visited Indonesia on Tuesday to repair ties with the country's special forces, which committed gross human-rights violations under former Indonesian President Muhammad Suharto.

Mattis was expecting to watch the Indonesian special forces, known as Kopassus, perform a hostage rescue drill — but instead saw them walk on fire, drink snake blood, roll in glass, and more.

Mattis seemed to enjoy the demonstration.

“The snakes! Did you see them tire them out and then grab them? The way they were whipping them around — a snake gets tired very quickly,” Mattis later told reporters, according to Reuters.

Here's what the Indonesian special forces do:

Mattis visited Indonesia to repair ties with the country's military, and expected to just observe a hostage rescue demonstration. But he soon found out that that wasn't the only thing they had in store for him.

Source: Business Insider

The Indonesian special forces, or Kopassus, unsacked snakes and begin whipping them around to tire them out.

The soldiers bit them in half and drank their blood.

You can watch it in the short video below.

The soldiers also broke bricks with their heads.

And their fists.

And sledgehammers.

You can watch more of that below.

The special forces operators also walked on fire and rolled in broken glass.

The Indonesian special operators regularly train in tae kwon do.

And smash wood and cement blocks in all sorts of ways.

It's pretty impressive.

The soldiers also train with staffs.

And swords.

The Kopassus has a vicious past, and allegedly raped, murdered, and tortured people under the Suharto regime.

Despite this history, Mattis said he thought the human rights violators of Indonesia's past had moved on from the special forces.

Mattis said he hopes the US and Indonesian militaries can work together to fight terrorism and limit China's expansion into the South China Sea.

But the US is barred from training with Indonesia's special forces over its past human rights abuses. Read Full Story