Topic summary
Battle of Sabzak
TalibanTajik tribals
Ishan Khan
2 vehicles damaged
3 wounded
Major operations
- Mountain Viper
- Asbury Park
- 2006 Taliban offensive
- Perth
- Chora
- Firebase Anaconda
- Shewan
- Balamorghab
- Sabzak
- Derapet
- Doan
- Kunduz (2015)
- Omari
- Tarinkot
- Kunduz (2016)
- Boz Qandahari
- Darzab (2017)
- Farah
- Darzab (2018)
- Kunar (2019–2020)
- Ghazni
- 2021 Taliban offensive
Airstrikes
- Sayyd Alma Kalay
- Uruzgan wedding
- Hyderabad
- Gora Prai
- Haska Meyna/Deh Bala
- Azizabad
- Wech Baghtu
- Granai
- Kunduz (2009)
- Uruzgan helicopter
- Sangin (2010)
- Mano Gai
- Baraki Barak
- Kapisa
- Kunar
- Kunduz hospital
- Sangin (2017)
- Nangarhar
- Kunduz madrassa
Major insurgent attacks
2002
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
- Jalalabad
- Kabul hotel
- Kabul Parliament
- Khost
- Kabul police
- Kabul Airport
- Kabul NATO
- Ghazni
- Kandahar
- Kabul Spanish embassy
- Bagram
2016
- Jalalabad
- Kabul NDS
- Kunduz-Takhar highway
- Kabul Canadian embassy
- Wardak
- Kabul Hazara protest
- Kabul University
- Kabul Defense Ministry
- Mazar-i-Sharif
- Bagram
2017
- Bombings (Jan)
- Kabul hospital
- Camp Shaheen
- Kabul (May)
- Herat (Jun)
- June Lashkargah
- Herat (Aug)
- Gardez & Ghazni
- Kabul & Ghor
- Kabul Shi'ite
2018
- Kabul hotel
- Jalalabad (Save the Children)
- Kabul ambulance
- Kabul (Mar)
- Kabul (22 Apr)
- Kabul (30 Apr)
- Jalalabad (Jul)
- Baghlan
- Kabul (Sep)
- Jalalabad (Sep)
2019
- Maidan Shar
- Camp Shorabak
- Kabul mosque
- Kabul Defense Ministry
- Ghazni
- Kabul office
- Farah
- Kabul police
- Kabul wedding
- Kabul (Sep)
- Charikar & Kabul
- Qalat
- Jalalabad
- Haska Meyna
- Bagram
2020
2021
Massacres
Other
The Battle of Sabzak was an engagement between Spanish and Italian forces of NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and Taliban insurgents supported by militant Tajik tribals. The action took place from 3 to 4 September 2009 on Sabzak pass, in the province of Badghis, during the War in Afghanistan.
NATO sent Spanish troops to place a patrol on the pass, the only road supplying Qal'eh-ye and Herat after numerous attacks on military convoys throughout the summer and after the collapse of the Taliban's control on the area. Taliban mullah Jamuladdin Mansoor, allied with Tajik tribals on both sides of the road tried to prevent passage with the help of Tajik warlord Ishan Khan.
The Spanish forces took control of the road on Monday 31 July. The insurgents, after reorganizing themselves, ambushed the ISAF detachment on 3 September, resulting in two Spanish soldiers injured.
The next day, a convoy of 30 vehicles and 100 Spaniard soldiers oversaw the meeting between another convoy and the Afghan police for protection, but it was ambushed from four points in a planned operation. The troops returned fire, calling in aerial support. Two Italian Mangusta helicopters were brought in and opened fire on Taliban positions, but aerial bombardment by fixed wing aircraft was ruled out due to the proximity of a civilian settlement. After six hours of fighting, the Taliban and their allies withdrew to the village of Marghozar.
Sergeant José Enrique Serrano, commander of the Spanish company that defended the pass on 3 September, and a soldier who received a minor scratch on his face form a ricocheting bullet, were the only ISAF members wounded in the battle, while two vehicles were rendered unusable. 13 insurgents were eventually killed, and 3 were injured.