The Battle of Qala-i-Jangi (sometimes also referred to as the "Battle of
Mazar-i-Sharif
, official_name =
, settlement_type = City
, image_skyline =
, pushpin_map = Afghanistan#Bactria#West Asia
, pushpin_label = Mazar-i-Sharif
, pushpin ...
") was a six-day military engagement following an uprising of prisoners-of-war on November 25, 2001. The battle took place between November 25 and December 1, 2001, in northern Afghanistan. It followed the intervention by United States-led coalition forces to overthrow the
Taliban
The Taliban (; ps, طالبان, ṭālibān, lit=students or 'seekers'), which also refers to itself by its state name, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a Deobandi Islamic fundamentalist, militant Islamist, jihadist, and Pasht ...
's
Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...
, which had been harboring
al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda (; , ) is an Islamic extremism, Islamic extremist organization composed of Salafist jihadists. Its members are mostly composed of Arab, Arabs, but also include other peoples. Al-Qaeda has mounted attacks on civilian and military ta ...
operatives.
More than 400 foreign fighters surrendered outside Mazar-i-Sharif and were held at
Qala-i-Jangi
Qala-i-Jangi (Dari/Pashto: ) is a 19th-century fortress located near Mazar-i-Sharif in northern Afghanistan. It is known for being the site of a bloody 2001 Taliban uprising named the Battle of Qala-i-Jangi, in which at least 470 people were ki ...
fortress by the Afghan
Northern Alliance
The Northern Alliance, officially known as the United Islamic National Front for the Salvation of Afghanistan ( prs, جبهه متحد اسلامی ملی برای نجات افغانستان ''Jabha-yi Muttahid-i Islāmi-yi Millī barāyi Nijāt ...
forces, where they were interrogated by Abdul Rashid Dostum's intelligence officers and
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...
(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 of
the conflict
''The Conflict'' is a 1916 American silent drama film directed by Ralph Ince and starring Lucille Lee Stewart, Huntley Gordon and Wilfred Lytell.Connelly p.51
Cast
* Lucille Lee Stewart as Madeleine Turner
* Jessie Miller as Jeanette Harcour ...
. It took Northern Alliance fighters, assisted by British and American
special forces and air support, six days to quell the revolt.
All but 86 prisoners were killed as well as a number of Northern Alliance fighters. The only U.S. fatality was the CIA officer
Johnny Micheal Spann
Johnny Micheal "Mike" Spann (March 1, 1969 – November 25, 2001) was an American paramilitary officer in the Central Intelligence Agency's Special Activities Division. Spann was the first American killed in combat during the United States ...
, 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
Yaser Esam Hamdi (born September 26, 1980) is a former American citizen who was captured in Afghanistan in 2001. The United States government claims that he was fighting with the Taliban against U.S. and Afghan Northern Alliance forces. He was ...
and
John Walker Lindh
John Philip Walker Lindh (born February 9, 1981) is an American convicted felon who was captured as an enemy combatant during the United States' invasion of Afghanistan
In late 2001, the United States and its close allies invaded Afghani ...
. Five American troops were wounded at Qala-i-Jangi on November 26, 2001, and were awarded the first
Purple Heart
The Purple Heart (PH) is a United States military decoration awarded in the name of the President to those wounded or killed while serving, on or after 5 April 1917, with the U.S. military. With its forerunner, the Badge of Military Merit, ...
s of the Afghanistan war. Navy SEALs Master Chief Petty Officer Stephen R. Bass was awarded a
Navy Cross
The Navy Cross is the United States Navy and United States Marine Corps' second-highest military decoration awarded for sailors and marines who distinguish themselves for extraordinary heroism in combat with an armed enemy force. The medal is eq ...
[Harnden, "First Casualty," p. 312] and Green Beret Major Mark Mitchell was awarded a
Distinguished Service Cross The Distinguished Service Cross (D.S.C.) is a military decoration for courage. Different versions exist for different countries.
*Distinguished Service Cross (Australia)
The Distinguished Service Cross (DSC) is a military decoration awarded to ...
for actions during the battle. The CIA agent, David N. Tyson, was awarded the
Distinguished Intelligence Cross
The Distinguished Intelligence Cross is the highest decoration awarded by the United States Central Intelligence Agency. It is given for "a voluntary act or acts of extraordinary heroism involving the acceptance of existing dangers with conspicuo ...
and Spann was awarded a posthumous
Intelligence Star
The Intelligence Star is an award given by the Central Intelligence Agency to its officers for "voluntary acts of courage performed under hazardous conditions or for outstanding achievements or services rendered with distinction under conditions ...
. SBS members, Captain Jess and Corporal Tony, were awarded the
Conspicuous Gallantry Cross
The Conspicuous Gallantry Cross (CGC) is a second level military decoration of the British Armed Forces. Created in 1993 and first awarded in 1995, it was instituted after a review of the British honours system to remove distinctions of rank in t ...
.
Background
In late November 2001, Taliban commanders, facing defeat in northern Afghanistan becoming critical, agreed to surrender to the
Northern Alliance
The Northern Alliance, officially known as the United Islamic National Front for the Salvation of Afghanistan ( prs, جبهه متحد اسلامی ملی برای نجات افغانستان ''Jabha-yi Muttahid-i Islāmi-yi Millī barāyi Nijāt ...
General
Abdul Rashid Dostum
Abdul Rashid Dostum ( ; prs, عبدالرشید دوستم; Uzbek Latin: , Uzbek Cyrillic: , ; born 25 March 1954) is an Afghan exiled politician, former Marshal in the Afghan National Army, founder and leader of the political party Junbish- ...
, leader of the ethnic-Uzbek dominated
National Islamic Movement of Afghanistan
The National Islamic Movement of Afghanistan ( prs, جنبش ملی اسلامی افغانستان, ''Junbish-i-Milli Islami Afghanistan''), sometimes called simply Junbish, is a Turkic political party in Afghanistan. Its founder is Marshal ...
, outside the besieged city of
Kunduz
, native_name_lang = prs
, other_name =
, settlement_type = City
, image_skyline = Kunduz River valley.jpg
, imagesize = 300
, image_alt =
, image_caption =
, image_ ...
.
[ The surrender was negotiated at Qala-i-Jangi on November 21 between Dostum and Taliban commanders Mullah Mohammed Fazl and Mullah Norullah Noori. At 03:00 on November 24, more than 400 Al 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 away of the agreed capitulation site, close to ]Mazar-i-Sharif
, official_name =
, settlement_type = City
, image_skyline =
, pushpin_map = Afghanistan#Bactria#West Asia
, pushpin_label = Mazar-i-Sharif
, pushpin ...
.[ Dostum described the Taliban surrender as a "great victory" for the Alliance,] a bloodless success that would allow the future reconciliation of citizens of Afghanistan. Thousands of prisoners were transported to the Sheberghan Prison
The Sheberghan Prison is a prison in northern Afghanistan.
Following the battle of Qali-Jangi, in Mazari Sharif, General Dostum sent many of the surviving captives to Sheberghan Prison.
He is reported to have sent them in industrial shipping ...
( it was alleged that many of them died due to mistreatment during and after the transport) .
The CIA wanted to question the foreign fighters about the activities of al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda (; , ) is an Islamic extremism, Islamic extremist organization composed of Salafist jihadists. Its members are mostly composed of Arab, Arabs, but also include other peoples. Al-Qaeda has mounted attacks on civilian and military ta ...
. On the evening of November 24, it was decided to transfer the prisoners to Qala-i-Jangi
Qala-i-Jangi (Dari/Pashto: ) is a 19th-century fortress located near Mazar-i-Sharif in northern Afghanistan. It is known for being the site of a bloody 2001 Taliban uprising named the Battle of Qala-i-Jangi, in which at least 470 people were ki ...
("the war fortress" in Dari
Dari (, , ), also known as Dari Persian (, ), is the variety of the Persian language spoken in Afghanistan. Dari is the term officially recognised and promoted since 1964 by the Afghan government for the Persian language,Lazard, G.Darī ...
), a 19th-century fortress near Mazar-i-Sharif that Dostum had previously used as his headquarters and ammunition depot. None of the prisoners were Afghans. Many of them 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.[Estimates of the number of prisoners vary: some sources place their number at 30]
, others at 40
, others at 50
. 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. John Kerry
John Forbes Kerry (born December 11, 1943) is an American attorney, politician and diplomat who currently serves as the first United States special presidential envoy for climate. A member of the Forbes family and the Democratic Party (Unite ...
's report for the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations
The United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations is a standing committee of the U.S. Senate charged with leading foreign-policy legislation and debate in the Senate. It is generally responsible for overseeing and funding foreign aid ...
later alleged it was a pre-planned "Trojan Horse
The Trojan Horse was a wooden horse said to have been used by the Greeks during the Trojan War to enter the city of Troy and win the war. The Trojan Horse is not mentioned in Homer's ''Iliad'', with the poem ending before the war is concluded, ...
" 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.
Tora Bora Revisited: How We Failed to Get Bin Laden and Why It Matters Today
'', page 37 (chapter "Qala-i-Jangi: The Trojan Horse")
Uprising
On 25 November, two CIA
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...
officers, Johnny Micheal Spann
Johnny Micheal "Mike" Spann (March 1, 1969 – November 25, 2001) was an American paramilitary officer in the Central Intelligence Agency's Special Activities Division. Spann was the first American killed in combat during the United States ...
from the paramilitary Special Activities Division
The Special Activities Center (SAC) is a division of the United States Central Intelligence Agency responsible for covert and paramilitary operations. The unit was named Special Activities Division (SAD) prior to 2015. Within SAC there are two ...
, and David Tyson, a case officer, Uzbek speaker and regional expert, arrived at Qala-i-Jangi to carry out prisoner interrogations in the fort's courtyard. The CIA officers questioned selected prisoners, especially Sulayman al-Faris who was an American citizen born as John Walker Lindh
John Philip Walker Lindh (born February 9, 1981) is an American convicted felon who was captured as an enemy combatant during the United States' invasion of Afghanistan
In late 2001, the United States and its close allies invaded Afghani ...
(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. 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 got shocked and frightened by their enemies' display of skill and fanaticism.[Mark Kukis, ''"My Heart Became Attached": The Strange Journey of John Walker Lindh'', pages 126-146.] 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.
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 German ARD network. He borrowed their satellite phone, and called his wife Rosann at their home in Tashkent. He told her: “Rose, listen. There are people dead. Some of our friends are dead.” Rosann Tyson dropped the phone but then picked it up and grabbed a piece of paper, knowing her husband's life might well rest on her getting the message right. David Tyson said: "I’m in Qala-i Jangi." Rosann Tyson had never heard the name of the fort. She wrote down: "Koala Jan Gi." Tyson then called the U.S. embassy in Uzbekistan and spoke to Major Mike Davison, a United States Air Force
The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal ...
(USAF) officer, and requested no 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, housing Green Berets
The United States Army Special Forces (SF), colloquially known as the "Green Berets" due to their distinctive service headgear, are a special operations force of the United States Army.
The Green Berets are geared towards nine doctrinal mis ...
and an eight-man team from Z Squadron Special Boat Service
The Special Boat Service (SBS) is the special forces unit of the United Kingdom's Royal Navy. The SBS can trace its origins back to the Second World War when the Army Special Boat Section was formed in 1940. After the Second World War, the Roya ...
. The rescue force was assembled hastily and contained a headquarters element from 3rd Battalion 5th Special Forces Group, a pair of USAF liaison officers, a CIA medic called Glenn and the SBS team.[Neville, Leigh, '' Special Forces in the War on Terror (General Military)'', Osprey Publishing, 2015 , p.73] The Afghans also brought reinforcements: their personnel and a T-55
The T-54 and T-55 tanks are a series of Soviet main battle tanks introduced in the years following the Second World War. The first T-54 prototype was completed at Nizhny Tagil by the end of 1945.Steven Zaloga, T-54 and T-55 Main Battle Tanks ...
tank entered the compound and started firing into the prisoner-controlled area. Several other television crews arrived on the scene of the battle, ensuring it got wide media coverage; the successive stages of the fighting were filmed extensively, providing rare footage of special forces units in combat. At 14:00, a mixed special ops team, formed with nine U.S. Army Special Forces and eight British Special Boat Service operators, one of them was U.S. Navy SEAL Chief Petty Officer Stephen Bass, arrived and joined the Afghans firing at the prisoners from the northern part of the fort. From 16:00 until nightfall, despite Tyson's requests, they directed two U.S. Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage o ...
F/A-18 Hornet for nine 500-pound GBU-12 Paveway II
The GBU-12 Paveway II is an American aerial laser-guided bomb, based on the Mk 82 500-pound (227 kg) general-purpose bomb, but with the addition of a nose-mounted laser seeker and fins for guidance. A member of the Paveway series of weapons, ...
laser-guided bombs against the entrenched prisoners, who continued to put up fierce resistance and were dropped on the armory
Armory or armoury may mean:
* An arsenal, a military or civilian location for the storage of arms and ammunition
Places
*National Guard Armory, in the United States and Canada, a training place for National Guard or other part-time or regular mili ...
, which was serving as a base of fire
In military terminology, a base of fire is a supporting force that provides overwatch and covering fire to other advancing units while they are executing fire and movement tactics. A base of fire can be a platoon during company fire and movement, ...
for the prisoners. He, German journalist Arnim Stauth and others fled just before dusk. Navy SEAL Stephen Bass then advanced to the western tower of the fort and spotted what appeared to be the body of Spann. The SEAL fired rounds next to the legs of the body to see if it would flinch, indicating life. There was no movement from the body. For his actions, Bass received 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: a close air support
In military tactics, close air support (CAS) is defined as air action such as air strikes by fixed or rotary-winged aircraft against hostile targets near friendly forces and require detailed integration of each air mission with fire and moveme ...
team designated CAS-1 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 designated CAS-2 that positioned itself near the main gate of the fortress, and a Quick Reaction Force consisting of four more Special Forces troops, a U.S. Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage o ...
surgeon, and soldiers from the 10th Mountain Division. At 11:00, a GBU-31 JDAM guided bomb, weighing 2,000 pounds (957 kg), was dropped from a U.S. Marine Corps F-18C Hornet. The pilot mistakenly entered in the wrong coordinates, hitting the friendly position. 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.[house of war'' – www.cnn.com](_blank)
Retrieved February 20, 2007 That night two AC-130
The Lockheed AC-130 gunship is a heavily armed, long-endurance, ground-attack variant of the C-130 Hercules transport, fixed-wing aircraft. It carries a wide array of ground-attack weapons that are integrated with sophisticated sensors, naviga ...
H Spectre gunships (callsigns GRIM 12 and GRIM 11) 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. Some prisoners managed to escape from the fort, only to be captured and lynched by the local population.
By the morning of 27 November, prisoner resistance had slackened. The allied forces mounted a systematic assault supported by tanks and other armored vehicles and defeated 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.[ Afghans recovered Spann's body early on 28 November. It was assumed nearly all of the prisoners were dead but over 100 surviving prisoners had retreated to the basement dungeon of a central building, where they hid and were discovered only when they killed the body collectors who attempted to enter it and injured two others.][ The fighting resumed. 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. 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, including John Walker Lindh.] Some survivors later claimed they did not participate in the battle. One also told ''The Observer
''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the w ...
'' reporter Luke Harding
Luke Daniel Harding (born 21 April 1968) is a British journalist who is a foreign correspondent for ''The Guardian''. He was based in Russia for ''The Guardian'' from 2007 until, returning from a stay in the UK on 5 February 2011, he was refus ...
that some wanted to surrender earlier, but a group of seven Arabs took control and did not let them.[
The Uyghur ]Turkistan Islamic Party
The Turkistan Islamic Party (TIP) or the Turkistan Islamic Movement (TIM), formerly known as the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) and other names, is a Uyghur Islamic extremist organization founded in Western China. Its stated goals ar ...
's ''Islamic Turkistan'' magazine in its 5th edition published an obituary of its member Turghun (Ibn Umar al Turkistani) speaking of his time training at the Al Khaldan training camp
The Khalden training camp (also transliterated ''Khaldan'') was one of the
oldest and best-known military training camps in Afghanistan. It was located in the mountains of eastern Paktia Province, near to Tora Bora.
While some reporters repeat d ...
and his meeting with Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi
Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi (; ALFB transliteration: ''Ḁbnʋ ălŞɑỉƈ alLibi''; born Ali Mohamed Abdul Aziz al-Fakheri; 1963 – May 10, 2009) was a Libyan national captured in Afghanistan in November 2001 after the fall of the Taliban; he was i ...
. The Uyghurs in Afghanistan fought against the American bombing and the Northern Alliance after the September 11, 2001 attacks. Ibn Umar died fighting against Americans at Qala-i-Jangi that month.
Aftermath
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 to help the Taliban battle the Northern Alliance prior to the September 11 attacks. Shortly after the battle, an embedded journalist working for CNN
CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...
, Robert Young Pelton
Robert Young Pelton (born July 25, 1955) is a Canadian-American author, journalist, and documentary film director. Pelton's work usually consists of conflict reporting and interviews with military and political figures in war zones.
Pelton has ...
, managed to identify the badly injured and hypothermic
Hypothermia is defined as a body core temperature below in humans. Symptoms depend on the temperature. In mild hypothermia, there is shivering and mental confusion. In moderate hypothermia, shivering stops and confusion increases. In severe h ...
Lindh as an American. Lindh was then separated from other prisoners and his life was saved by an American special forces medic.[ Lindh was later repatriated to the United States to face charges of ]treason
Treason is the crime of attacking a state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplo ...
. 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[ other surviving prisoners were transferred to Camp X-Ray at the newly constructed Guantanamo Bay detention camp at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. They were mostly Arabs, including 21 ]Saudis
Saudis ( ar, سعوديون, Suʿūdiyyūn) are people identified with the country of Saudi Arabia. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. The Saudis are composed mainly of Arabs and primarily speak a regional dialect ...
and nine Yemenis
Yemenis or Yemenites ( ar, يمنيون) are the nationals of Yemen.
Social hierarchy
There is a system of social stratification in Yemen that was officially abolished at the creation of the Republic of Yemen in 1962 but, in practice, this syst ...
,[ but there were also some nationals from other countries such as Russian national Rasul Kudayev (from ]Kabardino-Balkaria
The Kabardino-Balkarian Republic (russian: Кабарди́но-Балка́рская Респу́блика, ''Kabardino-Balkarskaya Respublika''; kbd, Къэбэрдей-Балъкъэр Республикэ, ''Ķêbêrdej-Baĺķêr Respublik ...
), who had allegedly joined the Afghanistan-based Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan
The Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU; uz, Ўзбекистон исломий ҳаракати/Oʻzbekiston islomiy harakati; russian: Исламское движение Узбекистана ) was a militant Islamist group formed in 1998 ...
(IMU), and Abdul 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. citizen Yaser Esam Hamdi
Yaser Esam Hamdi (born September 26, 1980) is a former American citizen who was captured in Afghanistan in 2001. The United States government claims that he was fighting with the Taliban against U.S. and Afghan Northern Alliance forces. He was ...
won a landmark U.S. Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
case, ''Hamdi v. Rumsfeld'', which affirmed the right of U.S. citizens to ''habeas corpus
''Habeas corpus'' (; from Medieval Latin, ) is a recourse in law through which a person can report an unlawful detention or imprisonment to a court and request that the court order the custodian of the person, usually a prison official, t ...
'' 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, Major Mark E. Mitchell
Mark Edward Mitchell (born September 15, 1965) was the Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations/Low Intensity Conflict & Interdependent Capabilities, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low-Intensity Confl ...
, a U.S. Army Special Forces officer, was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross The Distinguished Service Cross (D.S.C.) is a military decoration for courage. Different versions exist for different countries.
*Distinguished Service Cross (Australia)
The Distinguished Service Cross (DSC) is a military decoration awarded to ...
, the first such decoration to be awarded since the Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...
. Additionally, a U.S. Navy corpsman, Chief Petty Officer Stephen Bass, was awarded the Navy Cross
The Navy Cross is the United States Navy and United States Marine Corps' second-highest military decoration awarded for sailors and marines who distinguish themselves for extraordinary heroism in combat with an armed enemy force. The medal is eq ...
to for his actions while attached to the British Special Boat Service. Bass' Navy Cross was the first navy cross awarded since Operation Just Cause
Operation or Operations may refer to:
Arts, entertainment and media
* ''Operation'' (game), a battery-operated board game that challenges dexterity
* Operation (music), a term used in musical set theory
* ''Operations'' (magazine), Multi-Ma ...
. A biography of Bass can be found within the book ''The Navy Cross: Extraordinary Heroism in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Other Conflicts''.
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's Intelligence Star
The Intelligence Star is an award given by the Central Intelligence Agency to its officers for "voluntary acts of courage performed under hazardous conditions or for outstanding achievements or services rendered with distinction under conditions ...
. The Intelligence Star is considered analogous to the Silver Star. He was buried in Arlington National Cemetery
Arlington National Cemetery is one of two national cemeteries run by the United States Army. Nearly 400,000 people are buried in its 639 acres (259 ha) in Arlington, Virginia. There are about 30 funerals conducted on weekdays and 7 held on Sa ...
with full Military honors due to his prior service in the Marine Corp where he obtained the rank of Captain as well as his time in the CIA.[Bob Woodward, ''Bush At War''. Simon and Schuester, 2002, page 317.] At Spann's memorial at the cemetery, officials said that, after being attacked, Spann "fought with his AK-47
The AK-47, officially known as the ''Avtomat Kalashnikova'' (; also known as the Kalashnikov or just AK), is a gas-operated assault rifle that is chambered for the 7.62×39mm cartridge. Developed in the Soviet Union by Russian small-arms d ...
until it ran out of ammunition, then drew his pistol and emptied it, before turning to hand to hand combat which saw him shot." Spann's family visited the fortress after his death. Afghan doctors who were present on site at the time of the riot told the Spann family 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."
Controversies
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 the Geneva Conventions
upright=1.15, Original document in single pages, 1864
The Geneva Conventions are four treaties, and three additional protocols, that establish international legal standards for humanitarian treatment in war. The singular term ''Geneva Conven ...
by using disproportionate means. American soldiers found a number of the dead with their arms tied behind their back.[Justin Huggler,]
How our Afghan allies applied the Geneva Convention
, ''The Independent'', 29 November 2001. 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."[ Worthington, Andy, ''The Guantanamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America's Illegal Prison'', ]Pluto Press
Pluto Press is a British independent book publisher based in London, founded in 1969. Originally, it was the publishing arm of the International Socialists (today known as the Socialist Workers Party), until it changed hands and was replaced ...
. , 2007. Amnesty International
Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...
called for an independent inquiry, 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 air-power 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. 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
George John Tenet (born January 5, 1953) is an American intelligence official and academic who served as the Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) for the United States Central Intelligence Agency, as well as a Distinguished Professor in the P ...
, director of the CIA, dismissed the accusations of mismanagement and praised his agents as "heroes"; in ''Bush at War
''Bush at War'' is a 2002 book by ''The Washington Post'' reporter Bob Woodward recounting President George W. Bush's responses to the September 11 attacks and his administration's handling of the subsequent War in Afghanistan (2001–present), War ...
'', the journalist Bob Woodward
Robert Upshur Woodward (born March 26, 1943) is an American investigative journalist. He started working for ''The Washington Post'' as a reporter in 1971 and now holds the title of associate editor.
While a young reporter for ''The Washingto ...
described Spann as a hero whose actions saved the lives of many.
Representation in other media
*In the documentary ''The House of War'', Robert Young Pelton and filmmaker Paul Yule provided a detailed account of these events. Interviews and footage from CNN, ARD, and elsewhere (Dodge Billingsley and recovered interrogation footage) show Mike Spann and David Tyson moments before the uprising. Pelton's ''The World's Most Dangerous Places
''The World's Most Dangerous Places'' is handbook of survival tactics for high-risk regions first published in 1994, written by National Geographic Adventure columnist Robert Young Pelton and his contributors. The fifth edition was published in 20 ...
'' one-hour special "Inside Afghanistan" details his time with the U.S. Special Forces team (ODA 595) that fought with Dostum's troops.
*The incident was documented in the National Geographic
''National Geographic'' (formerly the ''National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as NAT GEO) is a popular American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. Known for its photojournalism, it is one of the most widely ...
documentary series '' Critical Situation'' "Taliban Situation" and by French reporter Damien Degueldre in ''Good Morning Afghanistan''.
* Doug Stanton's non-fiction book ''Horse Soldiers: The Extraordinary Story of a Band of U.S. Soldiers Who Rode to Victory in Afghanistan'' opens with an account of the battle.
*Frederick Forsyth
Frederick McCarthy Forsyth (born 25 August 1938) is an English novelist and journalist. He is best known for thrillers such as ''The Day of the Jackal'', ''The Odessa File'', '' The Fourth Protocol'', '' The Dogs of War'', ''The Devil's Alter ...
's novel ''The Afghan
''The Afghan'' is a 2006 thriller novel by British writer Frederick Forsyth.
Plot summary
A joint operation by MI6, the CIA, and Pakistan's ISI against al Qaeda operatives in Pakistan uncovers documents concerning a planned terrorist attack ...
'' includes a partly fictional but detailed account of the battle and its context. Forsyth calls the captives the "six hundred most dangerous men in Asia." Out of 600, he counts 60 non-Arabs. The rest were "ultrafanatical" al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda (; , ) is an Islamic extremism, Islamic extremist organization composed of Salafist jihadists. Its members are mostly composed of Arab, Arabs, but also include other peoples. Al-Qaeda has mounted attacks on civilian and military ta ...
Arabs who wanted to die and take an enemy with them to become a rewarded martyr.
*Damien Lewis's non-fiction book ''Bloody Heroes'' is a detailed account for the event with references and interviews from members of the SBS team.
*On the 19th anniversary of the battle, Tyson recounted the story of Spann's death, the battle that lead to it, and how he honored Spann's legacy in a podcast interview: ''Intelligence Matters''.
*Toby Harnden
Toby is a popular, usually male, name in many English speaking countries. The name is from the Middle English vernacular form of Tobias. Tobias itself is the Greek transliteration of the Hebrew טוביה ''Toviah'', which translates to ''Good i ...
's 2021 non-fiction book "First Casualty: The Untold Story of the CIA Mission to Avenge 9/11" contains eight out of 22 chapters on the Battle of Qala-i-Jangi
See also
* Badaber Uprising, a similar uprising of the Soviet and Afghan communist captives in a fortress prison in Pakistan in 1985
* Fall of Mazar-i-Sharif
The fall of Mazar-i-Sharif (or Mazar-e-Sharif) in November 2001 resulted from the first major offensive of the Afghanistan War after American intervention. A push into the city of Mazar-i-Sharif in Balkh Province by the United Islamic Front ...
, which involved a killing of hundreds of Taliban who were cornered by the Northern Alliance and U.S. forces in a school building in 2001
*Dasht-i-Leili massacre
The Dasht-i-Leili massacre occurred in December 2001 during the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan when 250 to 2,000 Taliban prisoners were shot and/or suffocated to death in metal shipping containers while being transferred by Junbish-i Milli soldi ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Qala-I-Jangi
2001 in Afghanistan
Afghanistan conflict (1978–present)
Battles of the War in Afghanistan (2001–2021) involving the United Kingdom
Battles of the War in Afghanistan (2001–2021) involving the United States
Conflicts in 2001
History of Balkh Province
Operations involving American special forces
Prison uprisings
November 2001 events in Asia
December 2001 events in Asia
Battles in 2001