Fall of Mazar-i-Sharif
Fall of Mazar-i-Sharif | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Part of the War in Afghanistan | |||||||
U.S. Army Special Forces soldiers with Northern Alliance fighters at Mazar-i-Sharif on 10 November 2001 | |||||||
| |||||||
Belligerents | |||||||
|
![]() ETIM ![]() | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() | |||||||
Strength | |||||||
2,000+ | 5,000+ | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
8 fighters killed | 500+ killed,[5]~500 captured and ~1,000 defected[6][7] |
The fall of Mazar-i-Sharif (or Mazar-e-Sharif) in November 2001 resulted from the first major offensive of the
Preparation
The Taliban captured Mazar-i-Sharif on 8 August 1998 and controlled it thereafter.[8] After taking the city, Taliban fighters committed a massacre against its Shia population. This led to widespread international condemnation, and further isolation of the Taliban regime.[9]
The campaign to capture Mazar-i-Sharif began on October 17, 2001, when the CIA's eight-member Team Alpha landed in the Dari-a-Suf Valley, about 80 miles south of the city, to link up with General
In the days leading up to the battle, Northern Alliance troops advanced on population centers near the city, such as Shol Ghar, which is 25 kilometers from Mazar-i-Sharif. Phonelines into the city were severed,[11] and American officials began reporting accounts of anti-Taliban forces charging Afghan tanks on horseback.[12] On November 2, 2001, Green Berets from ODA 543 and three members of the CIA's Team Bravo[13] inserted into the Dari-a-Balkh Valley, after being delayed by weather for several nights. Their role was to support General Mohammed Atta Nur and his militia. Together they fought through the Dari-e-Souf Valley and had linked up with Dostum and his force and ODA 595 and the CIA Team Alpha, who had also battled through the valley.[14]
Dostum led the ethnic-
Propaganda leaflets were dropped from airplanes, showing a woman being struck by a man and asking if this was how the Afghans wanted to live, and listing the radio frequencies over which Americans would be broadcasting their own version of events.
On November 7, the New York University's Director of Studies on International Cooperation, Barnett Rubin, appeared before a hearing of the American House Committee on International Relations on "The Future of Afghanistan". He claimed that with Mazar-i-Sharif on the brink of invasion, the US was responsible to ensure that there were no reprisal killings of Taliban members by the Northern Alliance. He noted that when the city had been overrun (in 1997 and 1998), thousands had been murdered by both sides.[16]
Bombing campaign
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/76/Laser_designator-_SOF_in_Afghanistan.jpg/220px-Laser_designator-_SOF_in_Afghanistan.jpg)
On November 7 and 8, as the Taliban were moving 4,000 fighters across the countryside towards Mazar-i-Sharif in preparation for battle, American
"When the bombing started, I was commanding some 400 fighters on the front lines near Mazar-e Sharif. The bombs cut down our men like a reaper harvesting wheat. Bodies were dismembered. Dazed fighters were bleeding from the ears and nose from the bombs' concussions. We couldn't bury the dead. Our reinforcements died in their trenches."[19]
Nevertheless, the Taliban claimed they had infiltrated 500 fighters into the city to prepare for the coming battle.[15]
Battle
On November 9, 2001, members of the two ODAs and the CIA teams positioned themselves in mountainside hides and began calling in airstrikes against the Taliban at Tangi Pass - the gateway from the Balkh Valley to the city where the US and Northern Alliance agreed to attack. The Taliban responded with indirect fire from BM-21 Grad rockets, which were quickly suppressed by orbiting air support. The airstrikes took their toll on the Taliban and at a signal Atta and Dostum Northern Alliance forces began their assault by foot, horseback, pickup trucks and some captured BMP armored personnel carriers.[21]
Initial rumors claimed that the fighters holding the city were unimpressed by the American bombardment and believed that their opponents refused to advance on the city.
After outlying villages fell to precision air strikes on key command and control centers, approximately 5,000-12,000 Taliban combatants as well as members of al-Qaeda[25] and other foreign fighters began to withdraw towards Kunduz to regroup, travelling in pickup trucks, SUVs and flatbed trucks fitted with ZU-23-2 anti-aircraft guns modified for ground combat.[6][26][27] By sunset, the Taliban forces had retreated to the north and east.[17] Some feared that they were massing for a counter-offensive.[28] It was later estimated that 400-600 people died in the battle, although it was not possible to separate civilian and combatant deaths.[29] Approximately 1,500 Taliban were captured or defected.[6][7]
Pakistani volunteers
As many as 900 Pakistani volunteers reached Mazar-i-Sharif in the following days while the majority of the Taliban were evacuating. Many of these fighters were recruited by a Pakistani Mullah,
When these volunteers reached the city in the days when the Taliban were evacuating, many of them were alone and confused. The group, chiefly consisting of teenage boys,[30] gathered in the Sultan Razia Girls' School, where they began negotiating their surrender, but hundreds of them were ultimately killed.[4][31] For almost two days as the group gathered in the abandoned Sultan Razia Girls' School and built up their fighting positions, the town officials and Northern Alliance attempted negotiations for their surrender, but the fighters vehemently refused, ultimately killing two peace envoys, one town mullah and a soldier escort. All the while they constantly fired at anyone who moved within the vicinity of the building, including civilian bystanders.
After the envoys' murder, the Northern Alliance began returning fire on the school with machine guns. This gun battle went on for hours. Inside the battered school, someone scrawled on the walls the words of their mullah, "Die for Pakistan", "Never surrender" and "Our philosophy has been surrender or die."[5][24][32][33][34]
At mid-afternoon, U.S. military advisers approved the building for a bombing run. Army Col. Rick Thomas of the U.S. Central Command said they had determined the school was an appropriate target.
Officials from the United Nations and other organisations claimed that a massacre by Northern Alliance troops had followed after the defenders surrendered in the school, moments before an American warplane dropped two, or four, 1000-pound bombs. The fighters scattered quickly to escape, and the Northern Alliance shot at them as they fled, resulting in an alleged 800 fatalities. Later reports suggested instead that the Northern Alliance had shelled the school, rather than an American warplane dropping bombs on it,[5][24][32][33][34] but following the battle, United States Air Force Sgt. Stephen E. Tomat was awarded the Silver Star for calling in the air strike on six vehicles and the school.[35][36][37][38][39][40]
Aftermath
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c1/December_2001_Mazar_Airfield.jpg/220px-December_2001_Mazar_Airfield.jpg)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/85/Students_of_Sultan_Razia_Girls_School_in_2002.jpg/220px-Students_of_Sultan_Razia_Girls_School_in_2002.jpg)
The fall of the city proved to be a "major shock",
US Army Civil Affairs Teams from the 96th Civil Affairs Battalion and Tactical Psychological Operations Teams from the
The fall of the city generated reports of jubilant excitement among locals,[47] followed by reports of summary executions and the kidnapping of civilians by the Northern Alliance.[48] The Pakistani prisoners who were captured fleeing the school were held as "slaves" and often sexually abused by their Northern Alliance captors, who demanded a ransom from their families for their return.[30] The American-backed forces now controlling the city immediately began broadcasting from Radio Mazar-e-Sharif, the former Taliban Voice of Sharia channel, on 1584 kHz,[49] including an address from former President Burhanuddin Rabbani.[15] Foreign media outlets were denied access to American troops or to battle sites at this time.[50]
The airfield, the city's main prize for the Americans, had been badly damaged by their bombardment and had been
The Turkistan Islamic Party's "Islamic Turkistan" magazine in its 4th edition released an obituary of Bilal all Turkistani who was killed in 1422 Hijri year in Afghanistan during the fall of the Taliban's Islamic Emirate in Mazar e Sharif's Ganja fortress.[52]
In popular culture
The fall of Mazar-i-Sharif and the events surrounding it were dramatized in the 2018 film "12 Strong", directed by Nicolai Fuglsig and based on the book Horse Soldiers by Doug Stanton.
References
- ^ "Pakistan's militant Islamic groups". BBC. 13 January 2002. Archived from the original on 6 August 2017. Retrieved 8 May 2017.
- ^ a b c Khan, M. Ismail. DAWN, Mazar falls to Alliance: Taliban says they're regrouping Archived 2010-11-10 at the Wayback Machine, November 10, 2001
- ^ Wolfowitz, Paul, Speech on November 14, 2001 Archived November 30, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ a b c d Gall, Carlotta The New York Times, A deadly siege at last lost Archived 2020-05-11 at the Wayback Machine, November 19, 2001
- ^ a b c Gall, Carlotta. The New York Times, Conflicting tales paint blurry picture of siege Archived 2020-04-07 at the Wayback Machine, November 20, 2001
- ^ , November 10, 2001
- ^ a b c d e Chipman, Don. "Air power and the Battle for Mazar e Sharif", Spring 2003
- ^ "Opposition troops closing in on Mazari Sharif". Archived from the original on 2020-04-07. Retrieved 2020-01-26.
- ^ Encarta Encyclopaedia Winkler Prins (1993–2002) s.v. "Afghanistan. §5.7 de Taliban". Microsoft Corporation/Het Spectrum.
- ^ Harnden, Toby, First Casualty: The Untold Story of the CIA Mission to Avenge 9/11. Little, Brown, 2021. p. 78
- ^ a b c d The Guardian, Taliban fall in Mazar-e-Sharif Archived 2016-03-07 at the Wayback Machine, November 9, 2001
- ^ Independent Online, US, Taliban both claim success in offensives Archived 2020-04-14 at the Wayback Machine, November 8, 2001
- ^ Harnden, "First Casualty," p. 116
- ISBN 978-1472807908, p.38, p.41
- ^ a b c d The Guardian, Taliban lose grip on Mazar i Sharif Archived 2018-09-17 at the Wayback Machine, November 7, 2001
- ^ United States House of Representatives, The Future of Afghanistan Archived 2009-01-03 at the Wayback Machine, November 7, 2001
- ^ a b c Rebels: Mazari Sharif is Ours - TIME
- ^ a b c Independent Online, Taliban braces for battle over Mazar-e-Sharif Archived 2020-04-14 at the Wayback Machine, November 9, 2001
- ^ Yousafzai, Sami (25 September 2009). The Taliban's Oral History of the Afghanistan War.
- ^ Rumsfeld, Donald. "Annual Report to the President and the Congress", 2002. Chapter 3.
- ISBN 978-1472807908, p.41
- UPI, "US forces on horseback fighting Taliban", November 16, 2001
- ^ a b c Cahlink, George. Building a Presence Archived 2008-09-05 at the Wayback Machine, December 15, 2002
- ^ a b c "Special Warfare journal", "The Liberation of Mazar e Sharif: 5th SF group conducts UW in Afghanistan", June 1, 2002
- ^ "Chronology | Campaign Against Terror | FRONTLINE | PBS". PBS. Archived from the original on 2018-07-25. Retrieved 2017-08-27.
- ^ Harding, Luke. The Guardian, Fear of Bloodbath as Alliance advances on Kunduz Archived 2006-12-05 at the Wayback Machine, November 23, 2001
- ^ a b Dolan, Chris J. "In War We Trust", 2005. p. 150
- ^ a b The New York Times, The Battle for Mazar-e-Sharif Archived 2020-04-07 at the Wayback Machine, November 10, 2001
- ^ Los Angeles Times, Mazar i Sharif yields 400 to 600 bodies Archived 2012-10-10 at the Wayback Machine, November 23, 2001
- ^ , July 29, 2002
- ^ a b The Washington Post, "Taliban's Allies Lost in Strange City", November 11, 2001
- ^ a b The Daily Telegraph, 600 bodies found in Mazar-e-Sharif, November 22, 2001
- ^ Department of State, Afghanistan: Country Reports on Human Rights Archived 2020-01-22 at the Wayback Machine, 2001
- ^ a b Stern, Marcus. Copley News Service, Once, it was a girls school Archived 2006-08-16 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ ISBN 1-58544-624-6, 2007. pp. 24-25
- ^ "Silver Star Citation: Tomat, Stephen E." Archived from the original on 2018-03-02. Retrieved 2009-01-08.
- ^ Struck, Doug. The Washington Post, Fleeing Taliban left Pakistanis in Mazar-e-Sharif Archived 2012-09-19 at the Wayback Machine, November 12, 2001
- ^ Neal, A1C Jason A. 43rd Airlift Wing Public Affairs, "Silver cross awarded to three airmen", 2002
- Military Times, Medal of Honor Citations for Stephen Tomat Archived 2014-08-13 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Call, Steve. "Danger Close: Tactical Air Controllers in Afghanistan and Iraq", 2007. p. 22-23
- ^ a b Department of Defence Defend America: Photo Essay Archived 2008-12-21 at the Wayback Machine, December 26, 2001
- ^ Maloney, Sean M. Afghanistan: From here to eternity? Archived 2009-01-15 at the Wayback Machine, Spring 2004
- Scott Peterson (December 4, 2001). "A view from behind the lines in the US air war: Special operatives are key to the success of American airstrikes in Afghanistan". The Christian Science Monitor.
- ^ Feinberg, Cara. The American Prospect, Opportunity and Danger Archived 2011-08-10 at the Wayback Machine, November 15, 2001
- ^ Crane, Conrad. Facing the Hydra: Maintaining Strategic Balance while Pursuing a Global War Against Terrorism Archived 2017-08-29 at the Wayback Machine, May 2002
- ISBN 978-1472807908, p.42
- TIME, Mazar-i Sharif is ours, November 9, 2001
- ^ Zia, Amir. Associated Press, "UN Reports Mazar-e-Sharif executions", November 12, 2001
- ^ Clandestine Radio Watch, Afghan Balkh radio from Balkh Province, Mazar-e Sharif, inDari 10 Nov 01 (via BBCM via DXLD 1-169) Archived 2009-01-14 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Rich, Frank. "The Greatest Story Ever Sold", 2006. p. 30
- ^ Kellner, Douglas. "From 9/11 to Terror War", 2003. p. 112
- ^ عبد الله منصور. "الشهيد الشيخ بلال التركستاني - (كما نحسبه)" (PDF). تركستان الإسلامية. No. السنة الأولى العدد الرابع. p. 19. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2018-09-23.