Read Next: Battle of Mazar e Sharif, Special Forces Troops Mount Horseback AssaultĪn Air Force bomber dropped a joint direct attack munition (JDAM) that landed on the team. For the next two days, they called in numerous airstrikes and pounded any attempts to take their position. They called in AC-130 gunship runs to pound the Taliban assembly areas. The ODA with just 25 guerrillas who stuck it out, retreated to a hill that was surrounded that the Green Berets dubbed the Alamo. Most of the guerrillas bolted and retreated back. The Taliban counter-attacked with over 100 fighters. The Americans now had a Southern Alliance to go along with the Northern Alliance.Īs the force moved on Kandahar, they attacked the town of Shawali Kowt on December 2. The word quickly spread and one-by-one the towns began switching their allegiance over to Karzai. In the end, more than 30 vehicles and over 300 Taliban were killed. Only one small group of Taliban managed to reach the rear entrance of the town but they were quickly repulsed and bombed on their retreat. As Air Force bombers took a toll on the approaching Taliban, they smashed the attacking force. The Taliban split into three groups, Yoshimoto decided to take out the one in the middle first. After alerting the aircraft of the tactical situation on the ground, he organized the defense thru the air of the town. Nevertheless, Yoshimoto once again leaped into action. The Americans were forced to do the same. Not realizing what was happening, they raced to the trucks and fled back to Tarin Kowt. Yoshimoto had three F-18 Hornets above them to provide cover, as the first bomb dropped into the valley on the Taliban, the untrained guerrillas with the Americans panicked. He set up his small team of SF troops and the ragtag untrained guerrillas who didn’t speak English on the plateau overlooking the wide valley below. Amerine correctly deduced that the Taliban’s forces would attack thru the Tarin Kowt Pass. But the Air Force combat controller attached to ODA-574, Tech Sgt Alex Yoshimoto was a force multiplier and the ODA’s lifeline to the combat aircraft of the coalition in the skies overhead. The combined coalition force was hugely outnumbered by more than 5-1. More importantly, we were there to ensure that al Qaeda couldn’t operate in Afghanistan anymore,” Amerine remembered after the battle. “Our mission was to infiltrate the Oruzgan province, link up with Hamid Karzai and his Pashtun fighters, and advise and assist his forces in order to destabilize and eliminate the Taliban regime there. Karzai met with the Green Berets prior to the insertion and the Pashtun leader brought the team up to date on the intelligence in the area. Another Pashtun leader, Abdul Haq was captured and killed by the Taliban and Karzai escaped into Pakistan with a few followers. He went into Afghanistan prior to the American insertion to round up guerrilla fighters. that many Pashtun were allies with the Taliban only out of a sense of survival. They approached the town with 500 fighters. As Karzai met with the village elders, the Taliban decided to strike back at the village and take it back. It was commanded by CPT Jason Amerine and CWO Bob Pennington and inserted into Uruzgan Province on 4 MH-60K helicopters with Hamid Karzai and a small band of guerrillas loyal to him.Īs the force of US and Afghan fighters closed on the town of Tarin Kowt, with about 10,000 people, the local inhabitants revolted against the Taliban controlling the area and expelled them. inserted ODA-574, another Special Forces A-Team into Afghanistan. More SF A-Teams were inserted and one by one, the key cities in Afghanistan fell to the U.S. Army Rangers jumped in via parachute and seized a key airfield in Kandahar. In the south, Navy SEALs and in the northwest British SAS were setting up and conducting special operations. Two US Green Beret teams (ODA-595, ODA-555 The “Horse Soldiers, with Air Force Combat Controllers) inserted into the country with the help of CIA Special Activities Division and linked up with Northern Alliance (anti-Taliban) fighters. US and coalition airstrikes pounded Taliban positions. In the aftermath of 9/11, the Taliban had no idea of what was soon to engulf them. During October and early November of 2001, the United States was hitting back hard at the Taliban in the early days of the U.S.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |