The battle of Takur Ghar, or the battle of Roberts Ridge as it is commonly known within the US military, occurred on March 3–4, 2002, on a rugged and snow-capped mountain in southeastern Afghanistan. Takur Ghar, which roughly translates from the Pashto as “Tall Mountain,” is an imposing feature of the eastern ridge of the Shahikot Valley, reaching a height of some 10,469ft above sea level. It towers over the surrounding peaks by at least 1,000ft and over the valley itself, making Takur Ghar strategically important for any military operation into the Shahikot itself. In March 2002, that fact was not lost on the US military, nor on its enemy.
The battle of Takur Ghar became perhaps the most memorable part, at least in the general public’s mind, of a much larger operation known as Anaconda. Anaconda was the biggest US military air assault (meaning to insert soldiers into a hostile location by helicopters) since Vietnam, and became the largest and longest battle the US military had faced since Desert Storm in 1991.
Operation Enduring Freedom, the US military codename for operations in Afghanistan after September 11, 2001, had been a stunning success. The ruling Taliban government, who imposed a medieval form of Sharia law upon the Afghan people, had been driven from power in an unconventional campaign that had lasted some three months. The remnants of the Taliban, along with al-Qaeda and aligned foreign jihadists it harbored, were on the run. Success had been achieved through the classic Special Forces mission set: infiltrate into the target area; develop relationships with local guerrilla warlords; train, equip, and advise the local forces; and conduct unconventional warfare, supported by massive Coalition airpower.
Barely 400 “boots on the ground” had been deployed into the landlocked country, in the form of: the US Army’s 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne) – the famous Green Berets; elements of the secretive Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC); operatives from the Central Intelligence Agency’s (CIA) Special Activities Division (SAD) – Ground Branch; attached US Air Force Special Tactics personnel; and a handful of United Kingdom Special Forces.
Spearheaded by the CIA, Special Forces teams linked up with Afghan opposition fighters and formed what was loosely known as the Northern Alliance of anti-Taliban mujahideen fighters. The CIA and Special Forces brought with them millions of dollars in hard currency that was doled out to local warlords to buy their support. With the money, the US also bought the fighting power of the warlords’ militias – often poorly trained but enthusiastic Afghan fighters, many with combat experience dating back through the Civil War of the 1990s to the Soviet–Afghan War of the 1980s.
The US also brought the world’s finest close air support and strategic bombing capability into play against the Taliban and its foreign jihadist allies. Using their superb training and cutting-edge technology, the CIA and the Special Operations Forces (SOF) mentored and directed the anti-Taliban Afghan militias in a number of sweeping victories. City after city rapidly fell with thousands of Taliban fighters killed by precision guided munitions from the air. By December 2001, the Taliban were no longer an effective fighting force let alone a government, and an interim government led by Hamid Karzai was put in place ahead of elections.
As the world applauded the toppling of the Taliban regime, the enemy was regrouping in a remote valley, far from the eyes of the US military.
Two MH-47E Chinooks of the 160th SOAR launching on a mission somewhere in Afghanistan. (DOD)