The siege of Sangin was a military engagement which occurred between June 2006 and April 2007, between Taliban insurgents and the British Army during the war in Afghanistan. During the engagement, the district centre of Sangin District in Helmand Province was occupied by British forces and was completely surrounded by Taliban fighters. At one point fighting became intensive, causing General David J. Richards, the then-NATO commander in Afghanistan, to declare that Helmand province had seen the fiercest fighting involving British troops since the Korean War.[3] The siege became emblematic of the difficulty of the mission being carried out by British soldiers in Afghanistan, who nicknamed it "Sangingrad" (in reference to the Battle of Stalingrad).[4]
Sangin, a town of 30,000 inhabitants in Helmand province, is situated in a "green zone", a fertile agricultural area. By 2006, it was well known for opium poppy production[5] and Taliban activity. Control of the city was strategically important to the Taliban because it would allow the transportation of poppy from the north to go south to Maiwand and Pakistan and enable them to cut off Afghan central government garrisons.[6]
The situation in Sangin was fragile due to the presence of two competing Pashtun tribes. The Alikozai tribe who held the district governorship and wielded political power, was at odds with the Ishakzai tribe, who had sympathies for the Taliban. This volatile situation made Sangin a prime target for internal divisions that could be exploited by the Taliban. The Taliban would be assisted in various ways by the local Ishakzai when they attacked and captured the city in mid-June 2006.[7] When the Taliban seized control of Sangin, they viciously targeted the family of the district governor, Alikozai Dad Mohammed, killing 33 members, including his influential brother, who had previously held the same office.[8] One resident described the horrific account: "The fight started after Amir Dad Mohammed Khan’s brother was killed. The situation worsened with more than fifty supporters of Amir Dad Mohammed killed in one day. The district office was seized, forcing the [new] District Governor to leave. Soon after there was general fighting and bombings."[8]
Several incidents involving coalition troops had already occurred in that sector: on 13 June 2006 a U.S. convoy was ambushed north of Sangin, on the road to Musa Qala.[3] A Company, 3rd Battalion, Parachute Regiment, were called into the town to protect the convoy, but they withdrew after only 24 hours presence. In late June, under pressure from PresidentHamid Karzai, the decision was taken to deploy British troops in Sangin to enforce the authority of the Afghan central government. This represented an important change from the "inkspot" strategy that had been carried out previously around Lashkar Gah.
With the Taliban now in full control of Sangin, the British deployed to recapture the city.
Siege
A Company was called in to secure Sangin on 21 June 2006 after the Taliban had killed five civilians on 18 June, accusing them of working for the government, and a further 27 shortly afterwards when the relatives went to collect the bodies.[9] 120 British troops arrived in two Chinook heavy transport helicopters. The Taliban initially put up no resistance as the British entered the city,[10] and the attitude of the local residents seemed passive, if not sympathetic to the presence of British troops, who were able to patrol the city safely.
At the district centre (DC), the governor's compound, located half a mile from the town centre, became a garrison for the 120 British troops. The DC housed the local government offices, and an Afghan police force. The position was strengthened with rudimentary fortifications consisting of foxholes dug around the perimeter and sandbags reinforcing the compound walls.
The situation changed abruptly on 27 June after a failed raid by the Special Reconnaissance Regiment, during which two soldiers were killed not far from Sangin. A delegation of local elders arrived at the governor's compound and demanded the British leave the city.[11]
The attitude of the locals changed suddenly, and the base was attacked soon after with small arms fire. The Taliban were able to hide and move freely through the bazaar and alleys with the assistance of locals, from which the Taliban would emerge at night to ambush and attack the British in the city centre.[11] Taliban attacks increased to five or six a day, including fire from RPG-7 anti-tank rocket launchers. With all roads cut, the British at the DC now effectively found themselves under siege, and wholly dependent on helicopter flights from Camp Bastion for resupply. This resupply was sometimes interrupted for as long as five days, due to risk of Taliban firing on the helicopters. Despite the Taliban fire, a unit of Royal Engineers surrounded the whole compound and the helicopter landing pad with a double rampart of Hesco barriers.
On 1 July, two signallers, Corporal Peter Thorpe and Lance Corporal Jabron Hashmi, and an Afghan interpreter, who were listening in to Taliban communications, were killed when a Chinese-made 107mm rocket hit the DC. Hashmi was the first British Muslim soldier to die during the war on Terror.
Each attack was repulsed, as British troops posted on the DC rooftop directed fire from artillery, mortars and airstrikes from attack helicopters and jets against the Taliban, inflicting heavy losses. The situation worsened when the Afghan policemen began defecting to the Taliban, giving them inside information about the layout of the base.[3]
Operation Mountain Thrust
On 16 July, during Operation Mountain Thrust, 200 British paratroopers, supported by Apache attack helicopters, were inserted into Sangin via Chinooks. With these reinforcements, the besieged British troops led a concentrated attack that broke the encirclement of the District Centre.[12] They were supported by 700 ISAF coalition troops, including American, Canadian, Afghan and Estonian forces. In a subsequent cordon and search operation, the town was sealed off and Taliban compounds were searched and cleared. Ten Taliban were confirmed killed during the clearing operation, and the others were driven out.[13] The operation weakened the Taliban's hold on the city, but did not break it, and the DC soon came under attack again.
Continued fighting
On 20 August, a 20-man group of paratroopers was clearing a compound when they were ambushed by the Taliban. A section led by CorporalBryan Budd counterattacked and Budd himself killed two enemy fighters, but the section was forced to withdraw under heavy fire, with two men injured. It was only later that the platoon commander realized that Budd was missing, but rescuing him proved impossible due to heavy fire from the Taliban. The company commander, Major Jamie Loden, organised a relief force cobbled together from various units, including elements of the Royal Engineers and two Royal Military Policemen who happened to be in Sangin. Supported by the fire of two Apache helicopters, the British finally rescued Budd an hour after he had been hit, but it was too late to save him, and he died of his injuries.[14] For his bravery during this action, Corporal Budd was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross, the highest distinction in the British armed forces.
The paratroopers were later replaced by 3 Commando Brigade, initially with Kilo Company 42 CommandoRoyal Marines, then C Company 2nd Battalion The Light Infantry (later 3 Rifles). After a relatively quiet tenure, Lima Company 42 Commando took up the mantle for a brief time before handing over the effort to C Company 2nd Battalion, Royal Regiment of Fusiliers.
A severe spike in violence took place with 29th Commando Regiment Royal Artillery's Fire Support Teams, (then providing fire support to the infantry) sustaining three killed in action in less than a week. Mike Company's short but bloody tenure saw them relieved in March 2007 by C Company Group, 2nd Battalion, Royal Regiment of Fusiliers. In their first twenty days in Sangin, the fusiliers were attacked 79 times.[1]
Relief of Sangin
A Canadian M777 howitzer firing at Taliban positions, 7 April 2007
In April 2007, more than 1,000 coalition troops took part in Operation Silver, with the objective of relieving Sangin. NATO gave advance warning of the coming assault by dropping leaflets, and by word of mouth via the town elders, who were tasked with spreading the word.
U.S. troops from 1st Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division launched a heliborne assault at various locations approximately 5 kilometres south of the district centre. Augmented with elements of the Afghan National Army (ANA), 1-508 advanced north and pursued enemy forces to positions north and east of the district centre. Simultaneously, a column of armoured transports with 250 Royal Marines from 42 Commando attacked from the north. Danish and Estonian soldiers also participated, and fire-support was provided by Dutch and American aircraft, and by Canadian artillery.[15]
On 5 April, coalition troops occupied Sangin, meeting only light resistance, as by this time the town had been mostly vacated by the Taliban, and abandoned by most of its inhabitants.[1] Though Taliban groups still operated in surrounding areas, the Afghan civil authorities were able to return, marking the end of the siege. The governor of Helmand province appointed a new local governor, and a permanent ANA base was established in the town.[16]
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.
The United Kingdom was one of the first countries to take part in Operation Enduring Freedom against the Taliban regime in autumn 2001.
Operation Herrick was the codename under which all British operations in the War in Afghanistan were conducted from 2002 to the end of combat operations in 2014. It consisted of the British contribution to the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), and support to the American-led Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF), within the South Asian country.
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.
Musa Qala is a town and the district centre of Musa Qala District in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. It is located at 32.4433°N 64.7444°E and at an altitude of 1,043 m in the valley of Musa Qala River in the central western part of the district. Its population has been reported in the British press to be both 2,000 and 20,000. It is in a desolate area, populated by native Pashtun tribes.
In January 2006, NATO's focus in southern Afghanistan was to form Provincial Reconstruction Teams with the British leading in Helmand Province and the Netherlands, Australia and Canada leading similar deployments in Orūzgān Province and Kandahar Province respectively. The United States, with 2,200 troops, stayed in control of Zabul Province. Local Taliban figures voiced opposition to the incoming force and pledged to resist it.
Operation Hammer was a British-led NATO operation in the southern Helmand province of Afghanistan. The Task Force level offensive, codenamed 'Chakush' or 'Hammer', began in the early hours of July 24, 2007 in the area between Hyderabad and Mirmandab, north-east of Gereshk. The operation continued the momentum towards expelling Taliban forces from areas of the Upper Gereshk Valley in Helmand province.
The Helmand province campaign was a series of military operations conducted by the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) forces against Taliban insurgents and other local groups in the Helmand Province of Afghanistan. Their objective was to control a province that was known to be a Taliban stronghold, and a center of opium production. None of the ISAF's intended strategic and political objectives were achieved in the long term.
The Battle of Musa Qala was a British-led military action in Helmand Province, southern Afghanistan, launched by the Afghan National Army and the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) against the Taliban on 7 December 2007. After three days of intense fighting, the Taliban retreated into the mountains on 10 December. Musa Qala was officially reported captured on 12 December, with Afghan Army troops pushing into the town centre.
US and NATO International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) operations, alongside Afghan National Army forces, continued against the Taliban through 2007.
Ross Kemp in Afghanistan is a Sky One British documentary series fronted by actor Ross Kemp about the British soldiers fighting in the War in Afghanistan as part of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) mission against the Taliban. The first two series involved Kemp and a small embedded film crew following troops fighting in Helmand Province, documenting their part in the ongoing Operation Herrick.
United States and NATO International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) operations, alongside Afghan National Army forces, continued against the Taliban through 2008.
Operation Shahi Tandar, also called Operation Atal, was a series of operations by Coalition troops from the British 42 Commando Royal Marines, Royal Canadian Regiment, 2nd Battalion 2nd Infantry Regiment, and the Afghan national military in central Helmand province and the Western Panjwayi and Western Zhari districts of Kandahar, Afghanistan from January 7–31, 2009.
The siege of Musa Qala took place between July 17 and September 12, 2006 in Afghanistan's Helmand province. A small force of International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) troops and Afghan security forces were besieged by Taliban insurgents inside the district centre of Musa Qala.
Operation Panchai Palang, or Panther's Claw, was a British-led military operation of the War in Afghanistan in Helmand Province in southern Afghanistan. It aimed to secure various canal and river crossings to establish a permanent International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) presence in the area. The commander of the operation declared the first stage a success on 27 July 2009.
The Battle of Nawzad (2006–2014) was a battle between ISAF (coalition) forces and Taliban insurgents in Nawzad at the center of Nawzad district in the northern half of Helmand Province, southern Afghanistan.
Operation Moshtarak, also known as the Battle of Marjah, was an International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) pacification offensive in the town of Marjah, Helmand Province, Afghanistan. It involved a combined total of 15,000 Afghan, American, British, Canadian, Danish, and Estonian troops, constituting the largest joint operation of the War in Afghanistan up to that point. The purpose of the operation was to remove the Taliban from Marja, thus eliminating the last Taliban stronghold in central Helmand Province. The main target of the offensive was the town of Marjah, which had been controlled for years by the Taliban as well as drug traffickers.
The Battle for Sangin was an extended campaign during the War in Afghanistan. Sangin is considered the bloodiest battleground of Afghanistan by both United States and United Kingdom alike. With both nations suffering the loss of over 100 killed in action, and several hundred moderate to severe casualties. The volatile campaign in the Sangin Valley was extensively covered in the media.
Events in the year 2017 in Afghanistan.
This article summarizes the history of the War in Afghanistan (2001–2021).
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Islamic Republic of Afghanistan 
United Kingdom 
Canada 
United States 
Denmark 
Estonia 
Netherlands 
Taliban 
1,000 relief forces
