| Battle of Qala-i-Jangi | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of theWar in Afghanistan and theAfghan Civil War | |||||||
 Johnny Micheal Spann's memorial at Qala-i-Jangi in 2007. | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
Coalition: Northern Alliance United States United Kingdom | Prisoners: Taliban al-QaedaIslamic Movement of UzbekistanEast Turkistan Islamic Party | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| GeneralAbdul Rashid Dostum[1] MajorMark E. Mitchell[2] | Unknown | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| Unknown | 300–500[3] | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 73 Afghans killed 250 Afghans wounded 1 American killed 9 Special Operations soldiers (5 Americans and 4 British) wounded | 214–414 killed 86 re-captured[4] | ||||||
TheBattle of Qala-i-Jangi in Afghanistan (sometimes also referred to as the "Battle ofMazar-i-Sharif") was a six-day military engagement following an uprising of prisoners of war who had been taken into custody by US-led coalition forces on 25 November 2001. The battle took place from 25 November to 1 December, in northern Afghanistan. It followed the intervention by United States-led coalition forces to overthrow theTaliban'sIslamic Emirate of Afghanistan, which had been harboringal-Qaeda operatives.
More than 400 foreign fighters surrendered outside Mazar-i-Sharif and were held atQala-i-Jangi fortress by the AfghanNorthern Alliance forces, where they were interrogated by the anti-Taliban warlordAbdul Rashid Dostum's fighters andCentral Intelligence Agency (CIA) personnel hunting al-Qaeda suspects. The prisoners, who had not been searched properly when they surrendered, violently revolted and the ensuing fighting escalated into one of the bloodiest engagements ofthe conflict. It took Northern Alliance fighters, assisted by British and Americanspecial forces and air support, six days to quell the revolt.
All but 86 of the prisoners were killed as well as a number of Northern Alliance fighters. The only U.S. fatality was the CIA officerJohnny Micheal Spann, the first American to be killed in combat during the 2001 U.S. invasion of Afghanistan. Among the surviving prisoners were two American citizens suspected of fighting with the Taliban:Yaser Esam Hamdi andJohn Walker Lindh. Five American troops were wounded at Qala-i-Jangi on November 26, 2001, and were awarded the firstPurple Hearts[5] of the Afghanistan war.Navy SEALs Master Chief Petty Officer Stephen R. Bass was awarded aNavy Cross[6] and Green Beret Major Mark Mitchell was awarded aDistinguished Service Cross[7] for actions during the battle. The CIA agent, David N. Tyson, was awarded theDistinguished Intelligence Cross[8] and Spann was awarded a posthumousIntelligence Star. SBS members, Captain Jess and Corporal Tony, were awarded theConspicuous Gallantry Cross.[6]
In late November 2001, Taliban commanders, facing defeat in northern Afghanistan, agreed to surrender to theNorthern Alliance warlord GeneralAbdul Rashid Dostum, leader of the ethnic-Uzbek dominatedNational Islamic Movement of Afghanistan, outside the besieged city ofKunduz.[4] The surrender was negotiated at Qala-i-Jangi on November 21[9] between Dostum and Taliban commandersMullah Mohammed Fazl andMullah Norullah Noori. At 03:00 on November 24, more than 400Al Ansar "guest" foreign fighters (mostly from Arabic-speaking countries of the Middle East) also surrendered their weapons, including a large group that had arrived in a convoy one day earlier to a place 100 kilometres (62 mi) away from the agreed capitulation site, close toMazar-i-Sharif.[10] Dostum described the Taliban surrender as a "great victory" for the Alliance,[11] a bloodless success that would allow the future reconciliation of citizens of Afghanistan. Thousands of prisoners were transported to theSheberghan Prison whereit was alleged that many of them died due tomistreatment during and after the transport.
The CIA wanted to question the foreign fighters about the activities ofal-Qaeda. On the evening of November 24, it was decided to transfer the prisoners toQala-i-Jangi ("the war fortress" inDari), a 19th-century fortress near Mazar-i-Sharif that Dostum had previously used as his headquarters and ammunition depot. None of the prisoners being moved to the Qala-i-Jangi fort were Afghans. Many of them[12] were Arabs, from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and the Gulf states. There were also Azerbaijanis, Dagastanis, Filipinos, Indonesians, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, Pakistanis, Tajiks, Tatars, Turks, Uighurs, and Uzbeks. The group also included Africans from Algeria, Morocco, Nigeria, and Sudan. A few fighters appeared to be white Westerners.[3] Foreign suspects were transported on flatbed trucks to the fortress, now turned into a prison. The prisoners had not been searched, and some had concealed weapons during the surrender. On the day of the surrender, two prisoners committed suicide with grenades and killed one of Dostum's commanders and some others in two separate incidents at the makeshift prison. Despite the deaths, the National Islamic Movement militia did not reinforce security at the prison.[13]John Kerry's report for theUnited States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations later alleged it was a pre-planned "Trojan Horse" style operation, a gambit that would allow a die-hard force of foreign fighters to take over a strategically important fortified position at Qala-i-Jangi and capture a massive munitions stockpile.[10]
On 25 November, twoCIA officers,Johnny Micheal Spann from the paramilitarySpecial Activities Division, and David Tyson, a case officer,Uzbek speaker and regional expert,[14] arrived at Qala-e-Jangi to carry out prisoner interrogations in the fort's courtyard.[15] The CIA officers questioned selected prisoners, especially Sulayman al-Faris who was an American citizen born asJohn Walker Lindh[16](at the time, they noticed only that Lindh was a European-looking prisoner and different from the others, so he was singled out for an interrogation). Approximately two hours after the interviews began, a number of prisoners, some of them with concealed grenades, suddenly stood up and attacked their captors, who were outnumbered about four to one.[17] Attacking in a suicidal manner, revolting prisoners overran and killed Spann and several Afghan guards; they also appeared to be often much better trained than their Northern Alliance captors, many of whom were shocked and frightened by their enemies' display of skill and fanaticism.[18] The prisoners managed to take over the southern half of the fortress, including the armory and ammunition depot, seizing a large store of small arms, grenades, rocket-propelled grenade launchers, mortars and ammunition.[19]
With Spann missing in the chaos, Tyson escaped to the northern and more secure part of the fortress, where he was trapped with a television crew from the GermanARD network. He borrowed theirsatellite phone, and called his wife Rosann[20] at their home inTashkent, before then calling the U.S. embassy in Uzbekistan. He spoke to Major Mike Davison, aUnited States Air Force (USAF) officer, telling him not to send any air support due to the proximity of allied Afghan forces. A 15-man rescue force was sent from the Turkish school, a base in Mazar-e-Sharif, made up of 9Green Berets, and eight men from Z SquadronSpecial Boat Service. Northern Alliance reinforcements also arrived, sending fighters and aT-55 tank into the compound, where they started firing into the prisoner-controlled area. Several other television crews reached the battle, resulting in much of the fighting being filmed. At 14:00, the rescue force arrived, joining the Afghans in firing at the prisoners from the northern part of the fort. From 16:00 until nightfall, despite Tyson's requests, the force directed twoU.S. NavyF/A-18 Hornets to drop nine 500-poundGBU-12 Paveway II laser-guided bombs on thearmory, which was serving as abase of fire for the entrenched prisoners. Tyson, German journalist Arnim Stauth and others fled just before dusk. Navy SEAL Stephen Bass then advanced to the western tower of the fort, locating the body of Spann,[21] with his actions during the battle earning him the Navy Cross.
The next day, Dostum's forces set up a command post near the northern gate to direct their tank and mortar fire. By mid-morning they were joined by U.S./British forces divided into three teams: aclose air support team that went inside the fortress along the bottom of the northeast tower to direct bombing strikes into the southern courtyard, a second close air support team that positioned itself near the main gate of the fortress, and a Quick Reaction Force consisting of four more Special Forces troops, aU.S. Navy surgeon, and soldiers from the10th Mountain Division. At 11:00, aGBU-31 JDAM guided bomb, weighing 2,000 pounds (957 kg), was dropped from a U.S. Marine Corps F-18C Hornet, mistakenly hitting a friendly position after the pilot entered the wrong coordinates. The bomb's explosion killed several Afghans and wounded many others on the northeast tower, flipped over a T-55 tank, and wounded five U.S. and four British operators.[22] That night twoAC-130H Spectre gunships circled over the fortress, firing at the prisoners. The main ammunition store was hit, creating a massive explosion that continued to burn throughout the night.[23] Some prisoners managed to escape from the fort, only to be captured and lynched by the local population.[24]
On the 27 November, the third day of the fighting, the allied forces mounted a systematic assault supported by tanks and other armored vehicles, defeating a counterattack by the prisoners. By the end of the day, they had recaptured most of the fort, at that point facing sporadic gunfire and some suicide grenade attacks.[18] Afghans recovered Spann's body early on 28 November.[25] It was assumed by this point nearly all of the prisoners were dead but over 100 surviving prisoners had retreated to the basement dungeon of a central building. They were discovered only when body collectors attempted to enter, with the prisoners killing them and injuring two others.[18] Northern Alliance fighters fired and threw in grenades and explosives into the basement, and even poured oil in and tried to set it alight, but the resistance continued. Later on 28 November, General Dostum arrived and personally tried to persuade the last prisoners to surrender, to no effect. The next day, Dostum ordered the dungeon flooded with frigid irrigation water.[26] This tactic worked and the last holdouts finally surrendered on 1 December. Of the more than 400 prisoners brought to the fortress, just 86 emerged alive from the flooded basement.[27] Some survivors later claimed they did not participate in the battle. One also toldThe Observer reporterLuke Harding that some wanted to surrender earlier, but a group of seven Arabs took control and did not let them.[4]
Of the 86 prisoners who survived the battle, one was found to be John Walker Lindh, an American convert to Islam who had moved to Afghanistan prior to the September 11 attacks in order to help the Taliban battle the Northern Alliance. Shortly after the battle, an embedded journalist working forCNN,Robert Young Pelton, managed to identify the badly injured andhypothermic Lindh as an American. Lindh was then separated from other prisoners and his life was saved by an American special forces medic.[18] Lindh was later repatriated to the United States to face charges oftreason. In 2002, he was found guilty of aiding and supporting the enemy and sentenced to 20 years in prison without parole.
In early 2002, at least 50[4] other surviving prisoners were transferred toCamp X-Ray at the newly constructedGuantanamo Bay detention camp at the U.S. Naval Base atGuantanamo Bay, Cuba. They were mostly Arabs, including 21Saudis and nineYemenis,[4] but there were also some nationals from other countries such as Russian nationalRasul Kudayev (fromKabardino-Balkaria), who had allegedly joined the Afghanistan-basedIslamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU),[28] andAbdul Jabar, an Uzbek member of the IMU. In 2004, after three years of detention without trial (at first at Camp X-Ray, until his identity was discovered), the U.S. citizenYaser Esam Hamdi won a landmarkU.S. Supreme Court case,Hamdi v. Rumsfeld, which affirmed the right of U.S. citizens tohabeas corpus and trial; he was released from United States custody without charges and was deported to his native Saudi Arabia.
For his actions during the battle, MajorMark E. Mitchell, a U.S. Army Special Forces officer, was awarded theDistinguished Service Cross, the first such decoration to be awarded since theVietnam War.[29] Additionally, a U.S. Navy corpsman, Chief Petty Officer Stephen Bass, was awarded theNavy Cross for his actions while attached to the British Special Boat Service.[30][31] Bass' Navy Cross was the first navy cross awarded sinceOperation Just Cause.[32] A biography of Bass can be found within the bookThe Navy Cross: Extraordinary Heroism in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Other Conflicts.[33]
Spann, the only U.S. fatality, was recognized as the first American killed in combat during the U.S. 2001 invasion of Afghanistan. For his "extraordinary heroism" in fighting off the prisoners long enough to allow his colleagues to escape, Spann was posthumously awarded the CIA'sIntelligence Star.[34] He was buried inArlington National Cemetery with full military honors due to his prior service in the Marine Corps, as well as his time in the CIA.[35] Spann's family visited the fortress after his death, and were told by Afghan doctors who were present on site at the time of the riot that they "thought Mike might run and retreat, but he held his position and fought using his AK rifle until out of ammo, and then drew and began firing his pistol", and that the only reason that they and several others were able to live was "because Mike stood his position and fought off the prisoners while enabling them the time to run to safety."[36]
Due to the high number of prisoner casualties, and the use of massive firepower against them, the Northern Alliance and the foreign coalition forces were accused of breaking theGeneva Conventions by using disproportionate means.[37] American soldiers found a number of the dead with their arms tied behind their back.[38] Abdulaziz al-Oshan, one of the detainees, later summarized the incident and told American authorities at Guantanamo Bay: "They called it an uprising and it's not; it's some kind of massacre."[27]Amnesty International called for an independent inquiry,[39] but the U.S. and British governments rejected this, arguing that the fierce and well-armed resistance of the uprising fully justified the use of airstrikes and heavy weapons against the revolting prisoners.
The Afghan forces were criticized for mismanagement of the prisoners, which is believed to have enabled the uprising. The captives were not properly searched and some carried grenades into the prison. Dostum later admitted this had been a mistake.[36] Also, as Qala-i-Jangi had been previously a Taliban base, many of the prisoners had been there before and knew its layout. Dostum had planned to hold the men at a nearby airfield, but the U.S. was using it to ferry in supplies. By questioning the prisoners in a group, rather than separately, protected by few guards, the interrogators put themselves at risk with men known to be dangerous.George Tenet, director of the CIA, dismissed the accusations of mismanagement and praised his agents as "heroes";[40] inBush at War, the journalistBob Woodward described Spann as a hero whose actions saved the lives of many.[35]
Or, as ground commander Major Mark Mitchell put it, 'Brains before bullets. Outthink 'em so you don't have to outshoot 'em.'
During the same battle for which Stephen Bass became the first Navy SEAL to earn the Navy Cross since the invasion of Panama in 1989, Army Special Forces Major Mark Mitchell also earned the Distinguished Service Cross.
