Operation Anaconda: Executive Summary

The United States’ War on Terror following the attacks on 9/11 began with the invasion of Afghanistan and an attempt to to overthrow the Taliban government for harboring Osama bin Laden, the one responsible for the devastating attacks, led to devastating casualties of American and Taliban soldiers, as well as countless civilians. The United States launched Operation Enduring Freedom on October 7, 2001 and began a ground and air attack in Afghanistan. In the first year of the war, it is reported that between 1537 to 2490 civilians were killed in the air assault led by U.S. forces (Guilliard 66). The U.S. swiftly defeated the Taliban but failed to capture Bin Laden before he escaped to Pakistan. It is reported that roughly 13,000 Talibani soldiers were killed in the first year of the war Guilliard 74). This led to very poor relations with Afghan “rebels” in which there were many sporadic battles with that led to Afghanistan becoming a

After the September 11 attacks, it was widely believed that the terrorists responsible were hiding throughout the hills and caves of Afghanistan. The United States chose to invade Afghanistan because it was searching for the terrorists. President Bush believed that the Taliban was hiding Osama Bin Laden and his people. The United States and our allies were successful at removing the threat during World War II, but while our military was able to overthrow the Taliban and capture some of Bin Laden’s associates, we are still involved in a war in the Middle East.

Operation Anaconda was a subordinate joint combat operation, during Operation Enduring Freedom, (Lyle 2012) to be carried out in the Shahi Kot Valley located in southeastern Afghanistan. Operations planning took place in February of 2002 and was executed from 2-16 March. The operational purpose was to capture or kill, what was reported to be, “The largest concentration of al Qaeda and Taliban forces in Afghanistan”. Operation Anaconda Case Study (2003) In order to undertake a mission of this magnitude and scope, unity of command would prove critical. The task organization of Operation Anaconda involved both joint and multinational assets. Operation Anaconda lacked unity

Operation Anaconda was the first major joint combat operation against the war on terror that the US was committed to winning. This operation would test our military’s readiness for joint operations against a hardened and willing adversary. The primary mission was to kill/capture Taliban/Al Qaeda forces occupying towns and villages in the vicinity of Shahi Khot in order to gain control of the valley.1 The US needed the towns, villages, mountains, and more importantly, the intricate and hard to access caves cleared of enemy fighters. Units participating in the operation included elements of the 101st Airborne Division, 10th Mountain Division, Special Operations Forces (SOF), and Coalition forces from seven nations

Many elite forces from around the world came together for operation Anaconda. The focal point of the operation was the Lower Shahikot Valley, which housed and protected a large number of foreign fighters – “Afghan Arabs” from al-Qaeda, Uzbeks, Tajiks, and Chechens from the Islamic Movements of Uzbekistan (IMU) 5. Takur Ghar was the highest point overlooking the Shahikot Valley and was a key terrain to capture for the mission. A noted Afghanistan specialist, Lester Grau, believes there were initially 600 estimated enemy fighters in the valley, which tallied with other credible sources6. The valley was protected by multilayered defenses. At the entrances to the valley, the insurgents maintained checkpoints, which allowed an early warning system of attempted ground attack7. The valley was “classic guerilla terrain – easily defendable, controlled access, numerous routes of escape, and near a sympathetic border”8.

There was an extreme group called Afghanistan’s government, Also known as The Taliban. They were protecting

Osama bin laden was seeking chemicals and nuclear weapons. After that, the Al-Quida tried to communicate and to tell the Americans that Osama Bin Laden had better of communication of technology. He was known as the most threating terrorist ever. He claimed that the whole world as a fair territory. Baker, Peter, Helene Cooper, and Mark Mazzetti. "Bin Laden Is Dead, Obama Says." The New York Times. The New York Times, 01 May 2011. Web. 28 Feb.

The United States built an alliance to fight terrorism, specifically the al-Qaeda network. The Taliban, a Muslim fundamentalist group, would not turn Bin-Laden

But Bin Laden, the object of the military campaign in Afghanistan, remained at large.” Many promises were made by the government that this terrorist would be found in no time. However, instead of finding their enemy, the government ended up killing several civilians in Afghanistan and Iraq just to make it look like as if they were working hard on their mission. What is even harder to believe is the fact that nearly seven years after the World Trade Center attacks, millions of civilians have been killed, but Osama has yet to be found.

til September 11, 2001 the Northern Alliance had lost almost all footing in Afghanistan. Post 9/11 Afghanistan became a hotspot for terrorism, the Taliban support for Al-Qaeda(group responsible for 9/11) and their loyalty to Osama Bin Laden made way for the US to intervene. The US made allies with the Northern Alliance and helped diminish Taliban forces. Today Afghanistan is still war torn throughout and full of corruption, all while trying to recover and move forward.

For the Afghanistan invasion, Operation enduring freedom which initiated after the 9/11 attacks. The aim of the war was to dismantle Al-Qaeda and deny it a safe base for its operations by removing the Taliban from power. Before the war, the US had requested the Taliban on two separate occasions to turn over those responsible for the 9/11 attacks, including Osama Bin Laden, in order to avoid preemptive action by the US. However, the Taliban refused as they sought for

Afghanistan is one of the poorest and most troubled countries in the world today (Goodson 4). Over many years there have been many different leaders and tribes ruling Afghanistan. The most recent regime was the Taliban. According to The 9/11 Encyclopedia, Taliban means “students” in Arabic and it was founded in 1994 by Mohammed Mullah Omar. Omar had his own way of interpreting the Quran and that led to many religious restrictions on the Afghan people. The Taliban took over power in 1996 and ended in 2001 after the United States invaded Afghanistan (Atkins). The Taliban was harboring Osama bin Laden who organized an attack on the United States. If the Taliban, along with al-Qaeda, had not harbored Osama bin Laden and conducted the attacks on September 11th 2001 then the United States may not have invaded Afghanistan.

This was the first war that the department of defense (DOD) has no real plan on how the invasion would take place. The central intelligence agency (CIA) was the mastermind behind the use of network centric warfare (NCW) which was transformation of the army in action. This plan seemed to work as they had the taliban’s  on the run through the use of airpower and the Northern Alliance infantry. The problem for the military was that the taliban learnt and adapted to their new environment and concealed themselves underground. The military had to adjust to an enemy that lurked in the dark, NCW was no longer an effective strategy.

Extreme growth and improvement after the attacks made the organization exploded in size over many countries, including Pakistan, Iraq, Egypt, Yemen, Somalia, and Syria. But at the same time United States declared war against terrorism and deployed troops in Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran. The air assaults and ground troops slowly but surely reading territory from the terrorist organizations and tried to put the government back on their feet. United States and the allies donated billions of dollars to try to help rebuild the country supplying them with firearms, ammunition, and training. On paper this seemed to work perfectly, but in reality the ten year struggle solves almost nothing. The terrorists went into hiding and it took twelve years to find Osama bin Laden. Where did the United States find this exclusive terrorist leader? They found him at his house, a compound in Pakistan. Seal team six with approximately twenty highly skilled personnel infiltrated the compound and eliminated the leader of the most known terroristic group. After this huge hit to the leadership of the organization, the Al-Qaeda laid low. Instead of doing terrorist attacks, they funded and trained other organizations to commit the acts that they couldn 't do at the time. Since they owned thousands of oil rigs there was a consistent income for their twisted beliefs. The organization that Al-Qaeda turned to during their time of despair was the

The terror attack placed much focus on Afghanistan, leading to the formation of the United States-led coalition of the willing. This coalition operated on the basis of Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) and focused on replacing the Taliban and al Qaeda (Urban, 2016, p. 9). The international forces in Afghanistan supported the Northern Alliance and set up an army in Afghanistan. Although started at the beginning of the new millennium, OEF in Afghanistan took longer than a decade. President Bush made the mission of the war clear. It informed the mission to the military to decimate terrorist camps and the infrastructure that