Sangin is a town in Helmand province of Afghanistan, with a population of approximately 20,000 people. It is located on 32°4′24″N64°50′2″E in the valley of the Helmand River at 888 m (2,913 ft) altitude, 95 km (59 mi) to the north-east of Lashkargah. Sangin is notorious as one of the central locations of the opium trade in the south of the country, and is also a town that has traditionally supported the Taliban. It was described by British newspaper The Guardian as "the deadliest area in Afghanistan" in 2010. Sangin also houses the main bazaar for Sangin District. Route 611 passes through Sangin.
Robert Lewis Howard was the most highly decorated officer of Vietnam United States Army Special Forces and Medal of Honor recipient of the Vietnam War. He was wounded 14 times over 54 months of combat, was awarded the Medal of Honor, eight Purple Hearts, a Distinguished Service Cross, a Silver Star, and four Bronze Stars.
Corporal Bryan James Budd, was a British Army soldier and a Northern Irish recipient of the Victoria Cross (VC), the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.
Monica Lin Brown is a United States Army sergeant and medic who became the first woman during the War in Afghanistan and only the second woman since World War II to receive the Silver Star, the United States military's third-highest medal for valor in combat.
The Battle of Wanat took place on July 13, 2008, when around 200 Taliban insurgents attacked American troops stationed near Quam, in the Waygal district of Afghanistan's far eastern Nuristan province. The distant position was primarily defended by United States Army soldiers with 2nd Platoon, Chosen Company, 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment (Airborne), 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team.
French International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) troops were ambushed by Afghan Taliban insurgents, with heavy casualties, in the Uzbin Valley outside the village of Spēṟ Kunday in the Surobi District of Kabul province in eastern Afghanistan on 18 August 2008.
There were 2,402 United States military deaths in the War in Afghanistan, which lasted from October 2001 to August 2021. 1,921 of these deaths were the result of hostile action. 20,713 American servicemembers were also wounded in action during the war. In addition, 18 Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) operatives also died in Afghanistan. Further, there were 1,822 civilian contractor fatalities.
The Battle of Kamdesh took place during the war in Afghanistan. It occurred on October 3, 2009, when a force of 300 Taliban assaulted the American Combat Outpost ("COP") Keating near the town of Kamdesh in Nuristan Province in eastern Afghanistan. The attack was the bloodiest battle for US forces since the Battle of Wanat in July 2008, which occurred 20 miles (32 km) away from Kamdesh. The attack on COP Keating resulted in 8 Americans killed and 27 wounded while the Taliban suffered allegedly 150-200 killed.
Restrepo is a 2010 American documentary film about the War in Afghanistan directed by British photojournalist Tim Hetherington and American journalist Sebastian Junger. It explores the year that Junger and Hetherington spent, on assignment for Vanity Fair, in Afghanistan's Korengal Valley, embedded with the Second Platoon, B Company, 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team of the U.S. Army. The Second Platoon is depicted defending the outpost (OP) named after a platoon medic who was killed earlier in the campaign, PFC Juan Sebastián Restrepo, who was a Colombian-born naturalized U.S. citizen. The directors stated that the film is not a war advocacy documentary, they simply "wanted to capture the reality of the soldiers."
Salvatore Augustine Giunta is a former United States Army soldier and the first living person since the Vietnam War to receive the United States Armed Forces' highest decoration for valor, the Medal of Honor. Giunta was cited for saving the lives of members of his squad on October 25, 2007, during the War in Afghanistan. He left the United States Army in June 2011.
The Korangal Valley campaign was a series of military operations conducted by ISAF forces against Taliban and other local insurgents in the Korangal Valley in Kunar province, Afghanistan, from October 2004 to April 2010. The campaign ended with a US withdrawal from the valley, after suffering heavy casualties, and a Taliban takeover of the area.
Operation Bulldog Bite was a joint US and Afghan counter-insurgent mission in Kunar province, Afghanistan, against Taliban forces that was conducted in November 2010. The operation targeted Taliban havens in the villages of the Watapur District, which lies in the eastern region of the Pech River Valley. The region served as a transit area for Taliban and al Qaeda fighters entering from Pakistan, and is just five miles from the Korangal Valley, an area where US forces had previously shut down combat operations. In 2009, US commanders stated that the valley was strategically insignificant due to its remote location, but the Taliban and al Qaeda would later use the region to launch attacks into neighboring Afghan provinces.
The First and Second Battles of Kakarak were fought near the village of Kakarak in the West Dorafshan district of Orūzgān Province, in southern Afghanistan. The fighting took place between Australian forces from the 1st Mentoring and Reconstruction Task Force (MRTF-1) and Taliban fighters, with the area considered to be one of the last Taliban outposts in the area. During the first action on the morning of 16 March a six-man Australian Operational Mentoring and Liaison Team (OMLT) operating with Afghan National Army (ANA) troops was contacted by a numerically superior Taliban force near the village. In the ensuing battle one Australian was killed before close air support from Dutch AH-64D Apache helicopter gunships and US aircraft allowed them to withdraw after inflicting heavy casualties on the Taliban insurgents.
Operation Rock Avalanche was a six-day, US-led offensive from 19 to 25 October 2007, with the purpose of hunting Taliban fighters in the Korengal Valley of Afghanistan. The mission also aimed to establish a peace with the local populace so that a road could be safely built through the area by the Afghan government. Over the course of the operation, a series of running battles occurred with members of the Taliban, as well as with local tribesmen. U.S. Army Paratrooper Salvatore Giunta would be awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions during combat between U.S. forces and local Afghans.
The 173rd Airborne Brigade is an airborne infantry brigade combat team (IBCT) of the United States Army based in Vicenza, Italy. It is the United States European Command's conventional airborne strategic response force for Europe.
The Battle of Ganjgal took place during the War in Afghanistan between American and Afghan forces and the Taliban in Kunar Province, Afghanistan on September 8, 2009. Complaints that the coalition casualties were avoidable and caused by a failure of the chain of command to provide fire support for the team triggered an official investigation and a series of reprimands to several US military officers. Army Captain William D. Swenson and Marine Corporal Dakota Meyer received the Medal of Honor for their actions during the battle. Meyer is the first living Marine to receive the Medal of Honor since the Vietnam War, and Swenson is the fifth living soldier and second officer to receive the Medal of Honor since the Vietnam War. Two other Marines at the battle, Staff Sgt. Juan Rodriguez-Chavez and Capt. Ademola Fabayo, received the Navy Cross.
The 2006 Dutch-Australian offensive was a military operation carried out in Afghanistan by a combined force of Dutch and Australian troops that commenced in late April 2006 and concluded on 16 July 2006. The force entered the Taliban-controlled Chora District and Balochistan region, both of which are located north-east of the provincial capital, Tarin Kowt. The offensive's goal was to protect Tarin Kowt, the site of a soon-to-be base, from a potential Taliban attack.
Kyle Jerome White is an American financial analyst and former United States Army soldier. He is the seventh living recipient of the Medal of Honor from the War in Afghanistan.
The Battle of Barawala Kalay Valley took place 29 March 2011 – 8 April 2011 in Barawala Kalay Valley, Kunar Province, Afghanistan. The battle was part of the War in Afghanistan (2001–2021). The goal was to close down the Taliban supply route through the Barawala Kalay Valley and to remove the forces of Taliban warlord Qari Ziaur Rahman from the Barwala Kalay Valley.
Matthew O. Williams is a sergeant major in the United States Army. He received the Medal of Honor on October 30, 2019, for his actions on April 6, 2008, as a member of Operational Detachment Alpha 3336, Special Operations Task Force 11, Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force-Afghanistan in the Battle of Shok Valley.
United States
Afghanistan
Taliban 
Afghan National Army 