Operation Snakebite: The Explosive True Story of an Afghan Desert Siege

357 Pages·2009·3.47 MB·English

by  Stephen Grey

Operation Snakebite
STEPHEN GREY
VIKING
an imprint of
PENGUIN BOOKS
VIKING
Published by the Penguin Group
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First published in 2009
1
Copyright © Stephen Grey, 2009
Maps copyright © Ian Moores, 2009
The moral right of the author has been asserted All rights reserved
Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any
means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written
permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book ISBN: 978-0-14-
192394-9
‘Both the American and the British forces guaranteed to me they knew what they were
doing, and I made the mistake of listening to them. And when they came in, the Taliban
came.’
Hamid Karzai, president of Afghanistan
TASK FORCE HELMAND
OCTOBER 2007
Contents
List of Maps
List of Illustrations
Author's Note
Principal Characters
Prologue: The Eyewitness
PART 1
The Rebellion
1 Desert of Death
2 Band of Brothers
3 The Fort of Moses
4 Among the Taliban
PART 2
The Population Is the Prize
5 Arriving in Helmand
6 Mullah Salaam
7 Corrupt Measures
8 The War Cabinet
PART 3
The Taliban Strikes Back
9 The Patrol to Khevalabad
10 Daft Orders
11 Killer with a Conscience
12 The Battle of 9/11
PART 4
The Plan
13 Camping with Wolves
14 War, Tea and Sugared Almonds
15 Alone in Sangin
16 Decision
17 The Manhunt
18 The Yanks Are Coming!
19 The Final Plan
20 Camp Shorobak
PART 5
The Battle
21 The Militia: 4–6 December
22 D-Day: 7 December
23 Battle for the Wadi: 8 December
24 Night of the Spectre: 9 December
25 Diversion: 10 December
26 Raising the Flag: 11–17 December
PART 6
The Aftermath
27 Perfidy
28 The Cost of It All
29 Cracking On
30 A Man with a Plan?
Appendix: Names of Killed in Action
Acknowledgements
Glossary
Notes
List of Maps
1. Task Force Helmand, October 2007
2. Kajaki Assault – advance to northern front line, 4 November 2007
3. Battle of 9/11 – outside FOB Inkerman, 9 November 2007
4. Operation Snakebite – the build-up around Musa Qala, 2 November
to 3 December 2007
5. Assault on Musa Qala, 2–11 December 2007
6. Feint attack on village of Deh Zohr E Sofla, 7 December 2007
7. Musa Qala wadi, 7–11 December 2007
8. Battle of Sangin, 06.15–17.35, 10 December 2007
List of Illustrations
*
1 Chinook helicopter in Helmand sunset (© Crown Copyright/MOD )
2 Brigadier Andrew Mackay (Nick Cornish)
3 Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles, British ambassador (own collection)
4 General Dan McNeill, NATO commander (© NATO)
5 President Hamid Karzai (Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles)
6 Major Jake Little (Stephen Grey)
7 Mullah Abdul Salaam (Major Paul Holder)
8 Lieutenant Colonel Brian Mennes (Major Paul Holder)
9 Sergeant Lee Johnson (Corporal Phil French)
10 Michael Semple, EU envoy (own collection)
11 The ex-Taliban ‘Group’ (Captain Rob Sugden)
12 Royal Marines in battle of 9/11 (Sergeant Jim Wright)
13 Mortar line at Inkerman (Nick Cornish)
14 Flight Lieutenant Nichol Benzie, Chinook pilot (Philip Coburn)
15 Shura organized by B Company (Corporal Phil French)
*
16 Warrior armoured vehicle, Scots Guards (© Crown Copyright/ MOD )
17 Major Chris Bell, Scots Guards (own collection)
18 Brigade Reconnaissance Force (BRF) in the desert (Philip Coburn)
19 Parachute drops (Lieutenant Malcolm Dalzel-Job)
20 Major Tony Phillips, BRF (Philip Coburn)
21 BRF in the desert (Philip Coburn)
22 Taliban in Musa Qala (Institute for War and Peace Reporting)
23 Mullah Sadiq, Kajaki commander (© Al Jazeera English)
24 JDAM bomb above compound (Corporal N. Marshall)
25 JDAM bomb hits compound (Corporal N. Marshall)
26 Task Force 1 Fury at Kandahar Airport (A Flight, 18 (B) Squadron,
RAF)
27 Fury boarding Chinook (A Flight, 18 (B) Squadron, RAF)
28 Fury flying into action (Squadron Leader Paul Curnow)
29 BRF on edge of Musa Qala (Philip Coburn)
30 Militia arriving to guard Mullah Salaam (Staff Sergeant Rob Sinclair)
31 Corporal Darryl Gardiner at nightfall (Philip Coburn)
32 B Company, 2 Yorks, at dawn (Stephen Grey)
33 B Company in action in feint attack (Nick Cornish)
34 Soldiers trying to save injured civilian (Stephen Grey)
35 Afghan soldier confronts Taliban (Nick Cornish)
36 Soldiers recover dead Taliban (Nick Cornish)
37 US Green Berets in the village (Stephen Grey)
38 Scene of Jonno mine strike (Nick Cornish)
39 Corporal Gregory ‘Cagey’ Roberts (Philip Coburn)
40 Wounded soldier helped away (Stephen Grey)
41 Captain Nick Mantell (Stephen Grey)
42 B Company Vector is destroyed (Stephen Grey)
43 Apaches over the Musa Qala wadi (Philip Coburn)
44 Musa Qala wadi (Philip Coburn)
45 BRF soldiers fire from wadi ridgeline (Philip Coburn)
46 Chinooks land in the wadi (Philip Coburn)
47 Sergeant James Brasher, Task Force 1 Fury (Private First Class Dillon
Foxx)
48 A Spectre gunship in action over Musa Qala (Abu Dhabi TV)
49 On top of Roshan hill (Alex Gardner)
50 Roshan Tower (Alex Gardner)
51 Brigadier Mackay on Roshan Hill (Alex Gardner)
52 Task Force 1 Fury scouts (Sergeant Mills)
53 Rifleman Subash Gurung awaits medevac (Rifleman Sanamraj Malla)
54 ANA soldiers before assault on Musa Qala (Nick Cornish)
55 Private Lawrence Fong leads prayers before battle (Nick Cornish)
56 Author in Musa Qala (Nick Cornish)
57 Brigadier Mohaydin, ANA commander (Alex Gardner)
58 Corporal Phil French passes burning opium (Nick Cornish)