055 Brigade
055 Brigade | |
---|---|
كتيبة ٥ ٥ | |
Active | 1996–2001 |
Country | Afghan Civil War (1996-2001)
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The 055 Brigade was a
Composition and role
The unit consisted mostly of foreign guerrilla fighters (Mujahideen) from the Middle East, Central Asia, Southeast Asia, North Caucasus, and the Balkans who had some form of combat experience, either fighting the Soviet invasion during the 1980s or elsewhere.[2]
They were equipped with weapons left behind by the
The 055 Brigade was highly trained, highly motivated and well-paid guerrilla fighters set up by Osama bin Laden shortly after he arrived in Afghanistan in 1996. When Bin Laden sought sanctuary in Afghanistan, other Afghan Arabs joined him. The 055 Brigade was set up as a foreign legion to drive ahead with the vision, shared by Bin Laden and the Taliban hardline regime, of a global Islamist revolution.[3] About 100 members served as Bin Laden's personal security detail.[4]
Before the United States invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, it has been based and trained at Rish Khor camp outside Kabul. They had no heavy artillery or heavy weapons, and it was believed to be equipped with sophisticated western communications equipment and night vision goggles. Some military sources said they had a collection of small mobile units which has been used to back up Taliban fighters on the frontlines of the civil war. The group was not organised along traditional army structures and borrowed brigade names from the former Afghan army.[3]
Size
Estimates on the strength of the 055 Brigade vary, however, it is generally believed that at its peak it comprised somewhere between 1,000 and 2,000 personnel. During the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, they had at least 500 men;[3] The 055 Brigade suffered heavy losses during the 2001 war in Afghanistan and many were captured by the United States. Those that survived retreated with Osama bin Laden to the Afghanistan–Pakistan border area where they regrouped with the intention of waging a protracted campaign.
According to
A
According to the 2005 book Warlords Rising: Confronting Violent Non-State Actors, the 055 Brigade was a mechanized unit.[6]
History
The 055 Brigade was founded by Bin Laden in Afghanistan in 1996. The force had close contacts with militant groups fighting against Indian security forces in Kashmir and with Islamist organisations trying to foment a revolt in Central Asia, particularly the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan. There were rumours in the weeks before the September 11 attacks that Juma Namangani, had been appointed as one of the top commanders in the 055 brigade.[3]
Most members are volunteers from Chechnya, Pakistan, Bosnia, China and Uzbekistan, who are veterans of battles in their own home nations or the Soviet war in Afghanistan and primarily led by Egyptian and Saudi revolutionaries.[4]
Since at least 1998, the Brigade was used to back up Taliban attacks during the
The 055 fighters were 3,000 soldiers who were believed to have sought sanctuary in Afghanistan. At least 1,000 more volunteers were believed to have arrived in Afghanistan after the September 11, 2001 Attacks, crossing over from
In the initial airstrikes during the coalition invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, a garrison of 055 Brigade fighters near Mazar-i-Sharif was one of the first targets for US aircraft. The US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld described the troops as "the al-Qaida-dominated ground force". The units tended to be much better motivated than regular Taliban soldiers and regarded as better fighters than the Afghans. They were used to "give backbone" to the fight and prevent defections.[3] Some 055 Brigade members escaped with as many as several hundred al-Qaeda during the Battle of Tora Bora.[7]
According to the Long War Journal, the 055 Brigade had been reestablished as part of the Taliban's
See also
Yugoslav wars:
References
- ^ Swazo, Norman K. (April 2004). "Questioning the Concept of a "War" on Terror". Spectacle.org. Archived from the original on 15 June 2011. Retrieved 13 June 2011.
- ^ a b "055 Brigade / Lashkar al Zil". TRAC Terrorism. Retrieved 7 March 2020.
- ^ a b c d e f g McCarthy, Rory; Carter, Helen; Norton-Taylor, Richard (26 October 2001). "The elite force who are ready to die". The Guardian. Retrieved 11 April 2008.
- ^ a b Eisenburg, Daniel (28 October 2001). "Secrets of Brigade 055". Time. Retrieved 11 April 2008.
- ^ OARDEC (14 October 2005). "Unclassified Summary of Evidence for Administrative Review Board in the case of" (PDF). United States Department of Defense. pp. 53–55. Archived from the original(PDF) on 14 December 2007. Retrieved 14 December 2007.
- ISBN 9780739111901. Retrieved 14 December 2007.
- ISBN 978-1472807908.
- ^ Roggio, Bill (9 February 2009). "Al Qaeda's paramilitary 'Shadow Army'". Long War Journal. Retrieved 13 June 2011.
Further reading
- Gunaratna, Rohan (2002). Inside Al Qaeda: Global Network of Terror. ISBN 0-231-12692-1.
- ISBN 0-7432-3467-7.