Operation Anaconda (2-18 March 2002) was the largest U.S.-led battle of the early Afghan war and the first in which al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters stood and fought. Planners expected a few hundred fighters in the villages of the Shah-i-Kot valley, south of Gardez in Paktia province; instead the Afghan 'hammer' of TF Hammer stalled under mortar fire, while U.S. infantry of TF Rakkasan, landing by helicopter on 2 March, met fighters dug into the surrounding heights. Soldiers of the 10th Mountain and 101st Airborne held on through a day-long fight in 'Hell's Halfpipe', reinforced in the north, and over the next ten days cleared the ridges with heavy air support. On 4 March an attempt to put a SEAL observation post on Takur Ghar became the battle of Roberts Ridge. Afghan forces and Canadian and U.S. infantry swept the villages and the Whale before the operation was declared over on 18 March (the Army's history gives 19 March). Eight Americans were killed and about 80 wounded; enemy losses are uncertain, and many fighters escaped.
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Intelligence places a few hundred al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters in the Shah-i-Kot, a high valley about 9 km long and 4 km wide south of Gardez, where the mujahideen had fought the Soviets. Its floor lies at about 2,300-2,600 m; to the west rises the long humpbacked ridge the planners call 'the Whale', to the south an arrowhead spur called 'the Finger', and to the east a higher ridge peaking at Takur Ghar (3,191 m). Maj. Gen. Franklin Hagenbeck's CJTF Mountain plans a hammer and anvil: Zia Lodin's Afghan fighters with U.S. Special Forces (TF Hammer) will drive in from the west around the Whale to clear the villages of Serkhankhel, Babulkhel and Marzak (Objective Remington), while TF Rakkasan - 1-187 and 2-187 Infantry of the 101st Airborne and 1-87 Infantry of the 10th Mountain - air-assaults into seven blocking positions, Heather, Ginger, Eve, Diane, Cindy, Betty and Amy, on the eastern side. Afghan fighters of TF Anvil hold an outer ring. Special reconnaissance teams of the Advanced Force Operations cell - Juliet in the north, India on the Whale's southern tip, the SEALs of Mako 31 on the Finger - slip into hides in the snow. Australian SAS patrols also watch the area.
TF Hammer's convoy - Afghans in trucks with their Special Forces advisers, about 260 (CMH) to 400 (Kugler) - leaves Gardez in the night on muddy, broken tracks. About 05:30, a separate convoy heading for the northern entrance, the 'Guppy', is struck by the AC-130 gunship Grim 31, whose crew mistakes it for the enemy: Chief Warrant Officer 2 Stanley Harriman of the 3rd Special Forces Group is mortally wounded and two Afghans are killed. Before dawn Mako 31, helped by an AC-130, destroys a DShK heavy machine-gun position on the Finger that overlooked the landing zones. The planned pre-assault bombing of positions on the Whale and other ridges is mostly called off after a few targets are hit, and as the main column nears the Whale it is hit by mortars from its slopes; by the afternoon Zia, his men exposed and taking losses, pulls back to Gardez. The 'hammer' never reaches the valley.
Chinooks land the first wave of TF Rakkasan, about 200 soldiers, at first light. In the south, C Company, 1-87 Infantry, with Lt. Col. Paul LaCamera's command post, sets down at LZ 13A just south of Marzak, below the eastern ridge, bound for BPs Heather and Ginger; Col. Frank Wiercinski's brigade command post lands nearby on what becomes 'Rak TAC ridge'. A Company, 1-87, lands south of BP Eve, east of Marzak. Within minutes the southern landing comes under machine-gun, RPG and mortar fire from fighters dug in on the high ground - positions the planners had not known about. In the north, C Company, 2-187 Infantry, lands at LZ 1 in the center of the valley, taking fire by one account from a nearby ridge, and sends platoons to BPs Diane and Cindy.
C Company's men take cover in a wide depression below the eastern ridge that they name 'Hell's Halfpipe' (the Army's CSI history calls it 'the Bowl'). Apaches attacking the ridge are hit by ground fire, and by mid-morning most have been driven off. A Company's handful of men works west toward Eve. Mortar rounds land among the troops in the bowl, wounding more than a dozen at once; fighters come down from the direction of Marzak to within a few dozen meters, and the soldiers fight on in thin air at about 2,600 m. Air controllers call in bombers and fighters all day; an Australian SAS signaller with the 10th Mountain, Martin Wallace, is later decorated for his part in the fight. In the north, C/2-187 sets up BPs Betty, Cindy and Diane by about 10:30, under lighter fire. At about 15:30 Hagenbeck weighs calling off the operation, then decides with Wiercinski to keep going: the second lift will go in, and the battered southern force will be pulled out after dark.
After dark an AC-130 covers the Halfpipe; about 20:00 HH-60 helicopters take out the most seriously wounded, and near midnight Chinooks lift out the rest of the southern 1-87 force - about 25 men wounded, none killed. Late on 2 March A Company, 2-187, lands about six hours behind schedule to secure BP Amy. On 3 March Hagenbeck orders the brigade reserve, 1-187 Infantry, into the north; it lands in the night of 3-4 March and begins working south along the eastern side. The plan has turned around: the blocking force is now the attacking force.
Before dawn the SEAL team Mako 30 tries to set up an observation post on Takur Ghar, the dominant peak over the southern valley. Its MH-47E, Razor 03, is hit by RPG and machine-gun fire from al-Qaeda fighters already on the summit, and Petty Officer 1st Class Neil Roberts falls from the ramp; the damaged helicopter lands some 7 km away. Senior Chief Britt Slabinski brings his team back to the summit aboard Razor 04. Air Force combat controller TSgt John Chapman clears one bunker and is hit; the wounded team withdraws down the north-east slope. Air Force analysis later concluded that Chapman fought on alone for about an hour, a reading Navy accounts dispute. The Ranger quick reaction force of TF 11 follows: Razor 01 is shot down on the summit; the door gunner Sgt Philip Svitak is killed, and Cpl Matthew Commons, Sgt Bradley Crose and Spc Marc Anderson fall as the Rangers fight their way out. Chalk 2 climbs from an offset LZ, and the Rangers take the peak about 11:00. Pararescueman SrA Jason Cunningham dies while treating the wounded. The survivors are lifted out after dark. Chapman (posthumously) and Slabinski received the Medal of Honor in 2018.
With the summit fight over, TF Rakkasan's battalions clear the eastern ridges from the north, cave by cave, with Apaches, bombers and fighters in support and mortars flown in; 2-187 pushes south toward BP Diane and Objective Ginger, the pass by Takur Ghar that served the fighters as a supply route. The theater reserve, TF Summit, built on 1-87 Infantry, is committed as well. By Kugler's account Zia's men return on 4 March to hold the pass near the Guppy, though not to make their original attack. By one account the last eastern pass at Ginger is closed by about 9 March; the Army's history has TF Summit reaching Objective Ginger on 13 March with light contact. Many fighters slip away through the mountains.
About 10-12 March Gen. Gul Haidar's Afghan force, roughly 700 strong with tanks, attacks from the north, takes the northern Whale and clears Serkhankhel and Babulkhel, while Zia's men clear Marzak; the villages are found nearly empty. From 13 March TF Commando - the 3rd Battalion, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, and 4-31 Infantry - air-assaults onto the Whale in Operation Harpoon, finding and destroying dozens of caves and mortar positions. Anaconda is declared over on 18 March (the Army's history: Franks, 19 March). Eight Americans were killed - Harriman and the seven at Takur Ghar - and about 80 wounded; Afghan allies lost several men. Estimates of enemy dead range from about 100 to 1,000, and few bodies were found.
About 2,000 coalition personnel, more than half of them American, against several hundred fighters whose numbers U.S. estimates put anywhere from under 200 to about 1,000; U.S. figures are well documented, enemy figures are not.
| In the valley and on the heightsThe operation order estimated fewer than 200-250; Kugler gives a post-battle estimate of 700-1,000; a Naylor-based account puts the actual number at about 440 (Taliban, Uzbek and Chechen, and Arab fighters). U.S. Air Force, Operation Anaconda: An Air Power Perspective (2005); Richard L. Kugler, Operation Anaconda in Afghanistan (NDU, 2007); cawarstudies.com, 'Operation Anaconda: Victory and Defeat in Afghanistan' (after Naylor) | several hundred (150-250 (pre-battle estimate) to about 1,000 (later CENTCOM estimate)) |
| All coalition personnelMore than half U.S. conventional and special operations forces, with Afghan fighters and about 200 coalition special forces (Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Norway). GlobalSecurity.org, Operation Anaconda | about 2,000 |
| TF RakkasanFigure given by its commander, Col. Frank Wiercinski; Kugler counts about 600 infantry in the six rifle companies committed. Col. Frank Wiercinski interview, StrategyPage (2002); Richard L. Kugler, Operation Anaconda in Afghanistan (NDU, 2007) | 1,411 |
| Afghan allied forcesCMH gives TF Anvil about 600 (p. 32; its named contingents total about 500); TF Hammer is put at about 260 (CMH) to 400 (Kugler). Gul Haidar's force of about 700 joined later. Richard W. Stewart, CMH Pub 70-83-1; Richard L. Kugler, Operation Anaconda in Afghanistan (NDU, 2007) | about 760-1,000 at the start (TF Hammer about 260-400; TF Anvil about 500-600) |
| First air-assault wave, 2 MarchSix Chinooks landed about 200 troops; the second wave of about 200 was delayed (Kugler). Richard L. Kugler, Operation Anaconda in Afghanistan (NDU, 2007) | about 200 |
Eight Americans were killed and roughly 80 wounded, and several Afghan allies were killed; enemy losses are known only from U.S. estimates ranging from about 100 to 1,000. Certainty: fair.
| KilledThe Army's Center of Military History gives estimates ranging from 100 to 1,000 dead; Kugler (NDU) writes of several hundred killed with the rest fleeing; TF Rakkasan's commander said 'hundreds'. Few bodies were recovered, and all figures are U.S. estimates. Richard W. Stewart, The U.S. Army in Afghanistan: Operation Enduring Freedom, Oct 2001-Mar 2002 (CMH Pub 70-83-1); Richard L. Kugler, Operation Anaconda in Afghanistan: A Case Study of Adaptation in Battle (NDU, 2007); Col. Frank Wiercinski interview, StrategyPage (2002) | unknown (about 100 to 1,000 (U.S. estimates)) |
| Killed by the AC-130 on the eastern ridge, night of 2 MarchThe Christian Science Monitor reported that the gunship found 60 enemy dead on the eastern ridge and killed 28 more; a contemporary press account, not an official count. Christian Science Monitor, 'Anaconda: A war story' (1 August 2002) | about 88 (reported) |
| U.S. killedCWO2 Stanley Harriman (killed by friendly AC-130 fire on 2 March) and the seven killed at Takur Ghar on 4 March: Roberts, Chapman, Cunningham, Svitak, Crose, Commons and Anderson. U.S. Air Force, Operation Anaconda: An Air Power Perspective (2005); U.S. Department of Defense, Executive Summary of the Battle of Takur Ghar (2002), via GlobalSecurity.org | 8 |
| U.S. woundedThe Air Force study gives 80 wounded; GlobalSecurity's DoD-based summary gives 82; Kugler writes 'over 50'. About 25-26 of these were 1-87 Infantry soldiers in the Halfpipe on 2 March (CMH; Naylor-based accounts). U.S. Air Force, Operation Anaconda: An Air Power Perspective (2005); GlobalSecurity.org, Operation Anaconda; Richard L. Kugler, Operation Anaconda in Afghanistan (NDU, 2007) | about 80 (50 to 82) |
| Afghan allied killed (TF Hammer, 2 March)Two of Zia's men were killed in the Grim 31 friendly-fire strike (CMH; Kugler); Kugler also reports three Afghans killed in TF Hammer's day, and if his figures are additive the total is five. CMH gives twelve to fifteen Afghans wounded in the friendly-fire incident. Richard W. Stewart, CMH Pub 70-83-1; Richard L. Kugler, Operation Anaconda in Afghanistan (NDU, 2007) | 2-5 (2-5) |
| CiviliansKugler estimates 800-1,000 people normally lived in the valley's villages but says they were almost deserted when the battle began; U.S. soldiers reported meeting no civilians. No official civilian casualty count was found. Richard L. Kugler, Operation Anaconda in Afghanistan (NDU, 2007); Christian Science Monitor, 'Anaconda: A war story' (1 August 2002) | unknown |
| U.S. helicopters lost or damagedRazor 03 was forced down and Razor 01 shot down at Takur Ghar (DoD); on 2 March most of the Apaches supporting the landings were damaged by ground fire (Kugler; CS Monitor: five of six). U.S. Department of Defense, Executive Summary of the Battle of Takur Ghar (2002), via GlobalSecurity.org; Christian Science Monitor, 'Anaconda: A war story' (1 August 2002) | 2 MH-47Es brought down; several AH-64s damaged |
A remote high valley of mud-walled villages, terraced fields and bare ridges that looks much as it did in 2002; the main lasting changes are the wreckage cleared from Takur Ghar and unexploded cluster munitions still awaiting clearance.
At Operation Anaconda: Kalashnikov rifles.
Mikhail Kalashnikov's AK-47 became the world's most widespread military rifle thanks to its simplicity and reliability in mud, heat and rain. North Vietnamese and Viet Cong troops carried both Soviet AKs and the Chinese-made copy, the Type 56.
At Operation Anaconda: RPGs hit the Apaches and the Chinooks at Takur Ghar.
The most widespread anti-armor weapon in the world: cheap, simple and effective against light vehicles and buildings. Iraqi soldiers, Fedayeen and later insurgents and militias fired it in volleys from rooftops and alleys in every battle here.
At Operation Anaconda: Mortars on the ridges and the Whale stopped TF Hammer and fell among the troops in the Halfpipe.
The Soviet 82-BM-37 and its Chinese copy, the Type 53, were standard battalion mortars of communist forces in Vietnam. An 82 mm tube could also fire captured US 81 mm rounds, though not the other way around.
At Operation Anaconda: Infantry and special operations carbines.
A shortened, lighter M16 that became the standard weapon of U.S. Army infantry and special operations forces in Iraq and Afghanistan; Marine infantry in 2003–04 still mostly carried the full-length M16A4.
At Operation Anaconda: Apaches supporting the landings on 2 March; most were damaged by ground fire.
The Army's attack helicopter, built to kill tanks at night. In 1991 Apache battalions struck Iraqi armor ahead of the ground divisions, including the Medina Division's positions on 27 February.
At Operation Anaconda: Gunships covered the Halfpipe and Takur Ghar; Grim 31 struck the Harriman convoy by mistake.
A converted C-130 transport that circles a target firing side-mounted guns, a night killer of vehicles in the open. At Khafji the gunship Spirit 03 stayed on station past dawn to support the Marines and was shot down with all 14 crew on 31 January 1991.
At Operation Anaconda: Heavy bombers struck the ridges and caches around Takur Ghar.
Designed to carry nuclear weapons, the B-52 was adapted in Vietnam for massed conventional bombing under the code name Arc Light. Flying too high to be seen or heard from the ground, a formation could saturate a large box of terrain with bombs.
At Operation Anaconda: Strike Eagles flew close air support throughout.
The Air Force's two-seat strike fighter, a mainstay of the air campaign against ISIS in Iraq and Syria, carrying laser- and GPS-guided bombs for close air support.
Links go to the official records: the Congressional Medal of Honor Society and, where they exist, the service's own pages.
Free for everyone every year on its anniversary: March 2–18.
CMH Pub 70-83-1, CSI's A Different Kind of War, Kugler (NDU), the USAF Air Power Perspective, the DoD Takur Ghar summary and 2002 soldier briefings; no staff ride handbook, and the CSI chapter text was not readable online.
Only Takur Ghar's summit and LZ are surveyed points; villages, the Whale, the Finger, LZs and blocking positions are placed from the relations the sources give.
Order of the blocking positions, the LZs south and east of Marzak and the main moves are sourced; routes and later ridge-clearing moves are schematic.
Sources disagree on the end date, when Objective Ginger fell, wounded totals and enemy strength.
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