Special operations, forces in Afghanistan

68 Pages·2008·26.72 MB·English

by  Leigh Neville

Special Operations
Forces in Afghanistan
CONTENTS
LEIGHNEVILLEisan
Australianintelligence
specialist,currentlystudying
foradegreeinInternational
Security.Hehaspublished INTRODUCTION 3
anumberofarticlesonthe
• Aftermath ofthe Sovietoccupation: the 'AfghanArabs' - the
subjectandhasexcellent
contactsintheUS,UKand Taliban- September2001: '9/11' -AhmadShah Masoud
Australianspecialforces. the Jawbreaker' mission
RAMIROBUJEIROhas
OPERATION 'ENDURING FREEDOM' 6
becomeafrequentand
popularcontributortoOsprey • Operation 'CrescentWind'
Military'sbookseriessince
• SOFstructure: CombinedJointSpecial OperationsTaskForce
illustratingWarrior23,US
MarineinVietnam(1998).He (TaskForce Dagger, TFK-Bar, TFSword) - CombinedJointTask
isanexperiencedcommercial Force, Mountain (TF64, TF58, TFJacana) - JointInteragency
artistwholivesandworks
TaskForce, Counterterrorism (TFBowie) - CoalitionJoint
inhisnativecityofBuenos
Civil-MilitaryOperationsTaskForce
Aires,Argentina.His
professionalbackground
includesmanycommissions OPERATIONS OCTOBER-DECEMBER 2001 11
asafigureillustratorandstrip
cartoonistforclientsallover • ODAdeployments: the PanjshirValley- the Kandaharraids
EuropeandtheAmericas, the NorthernAlliance- Mazar-e-Sharif- Kabul, Konduz &
includingmanyyears'work
Kandahar
forIPCMagazinesinGreat
• ToraBora- ZhawarKili
Britain.Hismaininterests
arethepoliticalandmilitary
historyofEuropeinthefirst OPERATION 'ANACONDA', 2002 20
halfofthe20thcentury.
• The Shah-e-KhotValley- Takur Ghar
FRONTCOVER:April 102007;
USSpecialForcesfromthe UNITED KINGDOM SPECIAL FORCES 25
7thSpecialForcesGroupin
anup-armouredGMVprovide • SAS- Operation 'Trent'
overwatchforaBritish • SBS- Qala-ijangi
mountedpatrolinWMIK
LandRoversinSangin
OTHER COALITION SPECIAL
District,HelmandProvince,
Afghanistan(USArmyPhoto OPERATIONS FORCES 29
bySpcDanielLove).
• Australia- Canada- Czech Republic- Denmark- France
BACKCOVER,TOPRIGHT:A Germany- Italy- Lithuania- Netherlands- NewZealand
GroundMobilityVehicle-an
Norway- Poland- Romania
adaptedHumvee-ofthe
US3rdSFGround.M240B
machinegunsaremounted SPECIAL OPERATIONS SINCE 'ANACONDA' 42
ontheroofandonaswing
armaheadofthedoorfor • NATO takes over: InternationalSecurityAssistance Force
thefrontseatpassenger. • CJSOTF- TaskForce 88- UKSpecialForces- the future of
(DeptofDefensephoto).
ISAF?
BACKCOVER,BOnOMRIGHT:
MembersofaSFOperational WEAPONS & EQUIPMENT 48
DetachmentAlpha;their
faceshavebeenobscured • Small arms- supportweapons- SOFvehicles- airassets
forsecurityreasons.Their
armour-carryingvestsare Appendix: Private security contractors 56
amixtureofSPEAR,Eagle
andBlackhawkmodels;their
weaponsareamixtureof SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY 59
'plainvanilla'M16A2s,M4A1s
withACOGsights,and(cen PLATE COMMENTARIES 60
ter)acollapsible-stockM249
witha200-roundassault
pack.(Photocourtesy"JZW"). INDEX 64
Elite • 163
Special Operations
Forces in Afghanistan
Leigh Neville · Illustrated by Ramiro Bujeiro
Consultant editor MartinWindrow
FirstpublishedinGreatBritainin2008byOspreyPublishing, Dedication
MidlandHouse,WestWay,Botley,OxfordOX2OPH,UK
443ParkAvenueSouth,NewYork,NY10016,USA
Thisworkisdedicatedto mylategrandfather, W02 Edward
A. Farrelly, who litthefire; andtothemen and womenwho
©2008OspreyPublishingLtd.
haveserved, and continuetoserve, in both Operation
Allrightsreserved.Apartfromanyfairdealingforthepurposeofprivatestudy, 'Enduring Freedom' andthe International Security
research,criticismorreview,aspermittedundertheCopyright,Designsand Assistance Force- guys, thisone'sforyou.
PatentsAct,1988,nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced,storedina
retrievalsystem,ortransmittedinanyformorbyanymeans,electronic, Author's note
electrical,chemical,mechanical,optical,photocopying,recordingorotherwise,
withoutthepriorwrittenpermissionofthecopyrightowner.Inquiriesshouldbe
Somelocationsmentioned inthistexthavedeliberately
addressedtothePublishers.
been keptvague, ashavesomespecificoperationaldetails
ACIPcatalogrecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary which mayimpacton Coalitiontactics, techniquesand
procedures. Someunitnames, locationsand roles have
ISBN:9781846033100 also been omitted oralteredforreasonsofoperational
security.
EditedbyMartinWindrow
Pagelayoutby:KenVailGraphicDesign,Cambridge,UK
Acknowledgments
IndexbyGlynSutcliffe
TypesetinHelveticaNeueandITCNewBaskerville
OriginatedbyPPSGrasmere,Leeds,UK Manyofthecontributorstothisworkcannot benamed
PrintedinChinathroughWorldPrintLtd. astheycontinuetoworkinthespecial operationsor
intelligencefields; so, to 'JZW', 'A', 'Oax', 'J', 'HO', 'ISO',
08 09 1011 12 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 'Jim' andtheother'anonymousbynecessity' folkswho
assisted me- thankyou so mUCh. Iwould also liketothank
FORACATALOGOFALLBOOKSPUBLISHEDBYOSPREYMILITARYAND
MathewR, Keith W, Paul B, RolfHand Kathyand EddieS
AVIATIONPLEASECONTACT:
fortheircontinued support.
NORTHAMERICA
OspreyDirect,c/oRandomHouseDistributionCenter,400HahnRoad, Artist's note
Westminster,MD21157
E-mail:[email protected] Readersmaycareto notethattheoriginal paintingsfrom
whichthecolourplatesinthis bookwerepreparedare
ALLOTHERREGIONS
availableforprivatesale. All reproduction copyright
OspreyDirectUK,PO.Box140Wellingborough,Northants,NN82FA,UK
whatsoeverisretained bythe Publishers. All inquiries
E-mail:[email protected]
should beaddressedto:
OspreyPublishingissupportingtheWoodlandTrust,theUK'sleading RamiroBujeiro, CC28, 1602Florida, Argentina
woodlandconservationcharity,byfundingthededicationoftrees.
The Publishersregretthattheycan enterintono
www.ospreypublishing.com correspondenceuponthis matter.
AMF MilitialocallyrecruitedbyCoalitionforces OEF Operation'EnduringFreedom'(umbrellacodenamefor
ANA AfghanNationalArmy US/CoalitionforcesinAfghanistan,distinctfromISAF)
CAG CombatApplicationsGroup(1stSFOperational 'OGA' 'OtherGovernmentAgency'(USmilitaryslangforCIA)
Detachment- Delta,USArmy) OP observationpost
CENTCOM USmilitarycommandresponsibleforMiddleEast SAD SpecialActivitiesDivision(ofUSCIA)
&CentralAsia SAM Surface-to-airmissile
CJC-MOTF CoalitionJointCivil-MilitaryOperationsTaskForce SAS SpecialAirService(British)
CJSOTF CombinedJointSpecialOperationsTaskForce SASR SpecialAirServiceRegiment(Australian)
CJTF-M CombinedJointTaskForce- Mountain SEAL Sea,Air,Land(USNavySOFunits)
COS CommandementdesOperationsSpecia/es(coordinating SF SpecialForces(USArmy)
entityforallFrenchmilitarySOF,similartoUSSOCOM& SFSG SpecialForcesSupportGroup(Britishairborneforce
BritishSFDirectorate) providingback-upforSFoperations,e.g.securitycordons
CTC CounterTerroristCenter(ofUSCentralIntelligenceAgency) andORF)
DA directaction(combatmissions,asopposedtointelligence- SMU SpecialMissionUnit
gathering) SOAR SpecialOperationsAviationRegiment(USArmy)
DEVGRU USNavalSpecialWarfareDevelopmentGroup SOF specialoperationsforces(genericterm)
ISAF InternationalSecurityAssistanceForce(NATO) SOPs Standardoperatingprocedures
JIATF-CT JointInteragencyTaskForce-Counterterrorism SOTG SpecialOperationsTaskGroup(Australian)
JSOC JointSpecialOperationsCommand(US) SR surveillance&reconnaissance
HALO HighAltitudeLowOpening(parachutejump) SSE sensitivesiteexploitation
HVT HighValueTargets(enemyleadership) UKSF UnitedKingdomSpecialForces(British)
ODA,ODB,ODC OperationalDetachmentsAlpha,Bravo, USSOCOM UnitedStatesSpecialOperationsCommandOoint
Charlie(USArmySpecialForces) servicescoordinatingentityforallmilitarySOF)
2
SPECIAL OPERATIONS
FORCES IN
AFGHANISTAN
'IN0TRODUCTION
An'operator'fromaUSAnny
SpecialForcesOperational
ne ofmyfirst and lasting memories was my trip from Kandahar
DetachmentAlpha(ODA)poses
airfield into the city for the first time. We were in the Toyota
forapre-missionphoto.Over
civilianclothinghewearsthe trucks, rolling 'hard' because they had been getting hit a lot.
SPEARRBA(SpecialOperations That meant we had an extra AMF in the back and we went windows
ForcesEquipmentAdvanced downwith muzzles out. Iwas a bitnervous, and didn'twantto make any
Requirements,RangerBodyAnnor)
mistakes in front ofthe Team guys.
plate-carrierwithwoodland
'The grizzled SF veteran who had been briefing me on their team's
patterncover;thisiscompatible
withtheMOLLEload-bearing SOPs wasn't making me any calmer ... I remember as we were leaving
pouchequipment.Theweapon the base he turnedbackto me andsaid "There'sone more requirement
isaMk11 Mod0semi-automatic ifyou're gonna ride in our truck ... you gotta like Creedence"; then he
7.62mmsniperrifle- basically
put in a cassette of CCR's greatest hits. The nervousness melted right
anenhanced-accuracy7.62mm
away, and Iwas calm and tappingmyfoot as I cruisedinto Kandaharfor
versionofthevenerableM16.
Readersshouldnotethatinall the first time to the sound ofclassic rock. I'll never forget it. That was
non-publiclyreleasedimages Afghanistan.' USArmy specialoperator, Afghanistan
throughoutthisbook,allfaces
andidentifyingcharacteristics
Afghanistan is a land that has rarely known peace. The 19th century
ofspecialoperatorshavebeen
sawbloodydefeats inflictedon the Britishand theirIndianArmyin both
digitallyobscured,forreasonsof
personalsecurity.(Courtesy'JZW') the First (1838-42) and Second (1878-80) Anglo-Afghan Wars. During
andsince the 1979-89occupationbySovietforces in an attemptto
shore up a communist regime, Afghanistan has been fought over
by rival governments, factions, tribes and warlords. In fact, these
particularepisodesofwidelyreportedturmoilhavedifferedonlyin
degree, and notin nature, from the pattern oflife th~tthatregion
has known over many centuries: warfare in Afghanistan is
essentially based on ethnic or communal rivalries rather than
modern ideological quarrels.
The defining moment in the country's modern history, which
sowed the seedsfor all laterevents,was the Sovietinvasion in 1979.1
Installinga puppetgovernmentunderBabrakKarmalin the capital,
Kabul, the Soviets boasted that they would eliminate the anti
communist mujahideen (fighters) in a few short months. But those
local fighters would receive massive covert support from the West,
andactivereinforcementbyIslamicvolunteersfrom manycountries.
Ten years later the Soviets withdrew, after suffering anything from
35,000 to 50,000 troop deathsandup to three times thatnumberof
othercasualties. The experience thoroughlydemoralized the Soviet
Army for a decade thereafter, and released many thousands of
physically and psychologically crippled veterans into a society that
itselfproved to be on theverge ofpoliticalcollapse.
1 SeeMen-at-Arms178,Russia'sWarinAfghanistan 3
An iconicimageofSpecial
ForcesinAfghanistan. Fromthe
HarleyDavidsonmerchandize,
Realtreehuntingjacketand
Confederateflag, itissafe
toassumeaSouthernODA.
(Courtesy'JZW')
The 'Afghan Arabs' and the Taliban
During the 1980s the looselyalignedMghan mujahideen groups were
reinforced by the so-called 'Mghan Arabs', an eventual 30,000
volunteers from across the Islamic world, fuelled by the Koranic
imperative to jihad. Amongst these was a man whose name would rise
to notorious prominence in later years - Usama bin Laden. The
wealthySaudi son ofa construction magnate, bin Laden developed an
Islamic charity to support the Mghan Arabs. This organization,
centred on a guesthouse for foreign fighters over the Pakistani border
in Peshawar, became known as al Qaeda or 'the Base'. Blooded in
the Soviet-Mghan War, many of these volunteers went on to fight in
otherconflicts involvingIslamic peoples, from Kashmir and Chechnya
to Kosovo.2
In the vacuum leftbythe departingSoviets, the mujahideenfactions
fought against the ailing central government before its inevitable
collapse in 1992. Hope for a new central government was short-lived,
as the seven major mujahideen factions descended into a bitter civil
war for control of the country. These struggles naturally extended
southwards over the political border into and beyond the so-called
Tribal Territories along Pakistan's north-west frontier; vast numbers of
Mghans had fled across the borders during the Soviet occupation, and
the notional powers of the Pakistani government over the Tribal
Territorieswere exercised onlycovertly.
The Taliban
The Taliban arose in 1994 from a small group of Pashtun religious
students (talibs) in southern Mghanistan. Under the leadership of the
one-eyedclericMullahMuhammadOmartheTalibanbecameapopular
movement, railing against the brutal excesses of the rival warlords and
4 2 SeeElite146,TheYugoslavWar(2)
AFGHANISTAN
September2001
Province(velayat)Boundary
@ NationalCapital
1------,~-'--r-----rI 2--,~O
...1..._-r_-L-__ Miles
2~O
Kilomete/s
the corruption spread by the ubiquitous opium trade. Their solution, (USDeptofDefense)
however, was to bring the country under their own Dark-Age
interpretationofskarialaw;supportedbyPakistaniintelligence (the lSI),
the Taliban movementgrewquickly.
BinLaden returned toMghanistan in 1996afterbeingforced to leave
hisrefugeinSudan.HebroughtwithhimacadreofalQaedafighters, and
soon attracted manyMghanArabveterans. As a gift to Mullah Omar, Bin
Ladendonatedvehicles,builtroads,andrecruitedthelargestjihadistarmy
ofmodem times - al Qaeda's Brigade 055 - which Bin Laden deployed
againstthe SkuraNazarorNorthernAlliance ofanti-Taliban groups.
Everything changed on 11 September, 2001. Two days before the
terrorist attacks which killed 2,973 people in New York, Virginia and
Pennsylvania, Ahmad Shah Masoud, the leader of the Northern
Alliance, was assassinated in his headquarters in the Panjshir Valley in
a suicide bombing by two al Qaeda terrorists posing asjournalists. Al
Qaedahad eliminated the United States' closestallyinMghanistan. 5
In the aftermath of '9/11' America received pledges of military
support from many nations, from the United Kingdom, Australia, New
Zealand and Canada to France. Indeed, on 12 September, for the first
timeinhistory, NATOinvokedArticle5ofitsfoundingcharterproviding
for mutualprotectionofmemberstatesagainstattack; thispavedtheway
for NATO participation, and the eventual deployment toMghanistan of
the International SecurityAssistance Force (ISAF).
'Jawbreaker'
The first US ground forces to set foot inside Mghanistan did so a scant
15 days after '9/11'. This small team, codenamed 'Jawbreaker,' inserted
covertly from the former Soviet airbase of Karshi-Khandabad (K2) in
Uzbekistan,whereaformidable USpresencewasbuilding, andlandedin
the PanjshirValley in a Russian-built but CIA-operated Mi-17 helicopter
in the pre-dawn darkness ofSeptember 26. These eight men were not
members of any military unit, but of the Central Intelligence Agency's
paramilitary Special Activities Division (SAD) and Counter Terrorist
Center (CTC). To the men ofthe Special Forces, theywould be known
colloquiallybythe acronym OGA- 'Other GovernmentAgency'.
Consistingofformerspecialoperators, communicationsandlinguistics
experts, the team brought with them satellite communications enabling
their 'ground truth' intelligence reports to be available instantly to
headquarters staffat CIA Langley and Central Command (CENTCOM),
the military command responsible for Operation 'Enduring Freedom'
(OEF) - the forthcoming US/Coalition operations in Mghanistan.
Jawbreakeralso carried 3million dollarsin UScurrencyin non-sequential
$100 bills, which would be used to shore up Northern Alliance support
to OEF.
TheJawbreakerteamfacilitated the plannedinsertion ofthefirstUS
ArmySpecialForces detachmentswith NorthernAlliance commanders;
assessed potential air targets for CENTCOM; provided an in-country
combatsearch-and-rescue (CSAR) capability; andwould provide bomb
damage assessments for the coming air campaign.
OPERATION 'ENDURING FREEDOM'
Operation 'Enduring Freedom' began officially on the evening of
6 October, 2001 with Operation 'Crescent Wind' - the Coalition air
campaign targeting Taliban command-and-control and air defence
facilities. Most of the Taliban's ageing SA-2 and SA-3 SAMs, along with
their attendant radar and command units, were destroyed on the first
nightofoperations,aswere theirsmallfleetofMiG-21 andSU-22aircraft.
With the threat of high-altitude SAMs negated and total air
dominance quicklyestablished, aerialtargetingsoonfocused onTaliban
infrastructure, leadership and troop targets, as well as known al Qaeda
facilities. These targetswere struckbya range ofUSAF, USN andBritish
RAF aircraft types, including the venerable B-52H and the B-1B long
range bombers alongwith the AC-130 Spectre, operatingfrom bases at
K2 and in Pakistan. The way was now clear for deployments on the
ground. The structure of the special operations forces committed to
6 OEFwas basicallyas follows:
UndertheoverallleadershipofCenTommyFranks, CoalitionForces
ODAoperatorsmeetwithGen
Commander, CENTCOM,fourmajortaskforceswereinitiallydedicated TommyFranksinOctober2001.
to OEF: the CombinedJoint Special Operations Task Force (CJSOTF); Notethepakolhats, Mk11 sniper
Combined Joint Task Force-Mountain (CJTF-Mountain); the Joint rifle(left),and M4A1carbine
fittedwithasoundsuppressor
InteragencyTaskForce-Counterterrorism OIATF-CT);andtheCoalition
andtheACOG4xopticalsight.
Joint Civil-Military Operations TaskForce (CJCMOTF).
(USSOCOM/DODphoto)
CJSOTF comprised three subordinate task forces: Joint Special
Operations Task Force - orth OSOTF-North), known as Task Force
Dagger;Joint Special Operations Task Force - South OSOTF-South), aka
TaskForceK-Bar;andthesecretiveTaskForceSword (laterTaskForce11).
Initial SOFstructure, Operation 'EnduringFreedom'
CENTCOM
I I I I
CJSOTF CJTF-M JIATF-CT CJCMOTF
(TF Bowie)
JSOTF-N
(TF Dagger)
JSOTF-S
(TF K-Bar)
TF Sword
(TF 11)
TF 64 TF 58 TFJacana 7
Task Force Dagger
JSOTF-North, led by ColJohn Mulholland, was formed around his 5th
Special Forces Group, with integral air assets from the 160th Special
OperationsAviationRegiment (SOAR). Daggerwasassignedto the north
of Mghanistan, and tasked with infiltrating Special Forces ODA
(Operational Detachment Alpha) teams to advise and support the
warlordsofthe NorthernAlliance. These ODAsweregenerallycomposed
of a Special Forces A Team supported by an Air Force Special Tactics
team, andworkedjointlywith CIAassets alreadyon the ground.
The Army Special Forces' motto De Oppresso Liber ('To Liberate the
Oppressed') hints at one ofthe key skills ofArmy SF- Foreign Internal
Defense (FID): infiltrating foreign countries and raising, training and
advising indigenous guerrilla forces. Within the 13-man ODA teams
each SF operator has a different primaryspecialty, from demolitions to
communications to engineering, but is cross-trained in others. Several
ODAs are supported by an ODB (Operational Detachment Bravo),
which provides intelligence product, medical and logistical support
to the ODAs. Both the ODB and the ODAs are led by an ODC
(OperationalDetachmentCharlie), generallyan SFbattalioncommand
element. The ODAs are also supported by integrally attached USAF
Special Tactics operators - usually Combat Controllers (CCTs) trained
to guide close airsupport. Some ODAs, particularlyiftaskedwith direct
action (DA) missions, may also be supported by USAF Pararescue
Jumpers, who are specialistcombatmedics.
Task Force K-Bar
JSOTF-South, TF K-Bar, was led by Navy SEAL Capt Robert Harward,
andformed arounda core ofNavySEALTeams 2, 3& 8and theArmy's
1stBn/3dSF Group. The SEALs are structured in 16-man platoons, six
of which comprise a SEAL Team. Platoons in OEF were most often
deployedinsensitive site exploitation (SSE) orDAmissions,whilefour
man sub-elements were assigned to surveillance and reconnaissance
(SR) operations. The SEALs are generally considered to be more
focused on direct action when compared with the unconventional
warfare and FID focus ofArmy SF. K-Bar nevertheless concentrated on
SSE and SRtaskings, although some 3dSFGroup ODAswere deployed
in the FID role alongside 5th SF Group. K-Bar was additionally the
homefor several SOFunitsfrom otherCoalition nations, includingthe
German Kommando Spezialkrafte (KSK), Canada's Joint Task Force 2
(JTF-2), and New Zealand's 1stSpecialAir Service Group (NZSAS).
Task Force Sword
TFSword/ TF 11 was theJSOC's so-called 'hunter-killer' force, with the
mission ofcapturing or killing senior leadership or 'high-value targets'
(HVTs) in both al Qaeda and Taliban. Sword was structured around a
two-squadron component of Special Mission Unit (SMU) operators
from the Combat Applications Group (CAG) and the Naval Special
Warfare DevelopmentGroup (DEVGRU), supportedbyRangersecurity
teams, and the intelligence specialists ofGreyFox, NSAand the CIA.
CAG- 1stSF Operational Detachment-Delta- are modelled on the
British 22nd Special Air Service Regt (22SAS), and are the US Army's
8 primary direct action, hostage rescue and special reconnaissance unit.