By W.J. Hennigan
An ominous orangish glow lit upwardly the heaven for miles around. It was after midnight on Aug. 11, in addition to the metropolis of Ghazni, less than 100 miles from Kabul, was on fire. Approaching the outskirts of town inward a convoy of heavily armored 22-ton vehicles, the squad of Green Berets from Operational Detachment Alpha (ODA) Team 1333 took it every bit the outset sign that it wasn’t going to survive an slow night. The grouping was 1 of 3 USA Army Special Forces–led units converging on Ghazni to salve it from the Taliban, which had set siege to the metropolis over the previous 24 hours inward a surprise attack. And the closer the Green Berets got, the worse it looked. Approaching the city, ODA 1333 had to musculus their massive vehicles to a greater extent than or less bomb craters in addition to abandoned big-rig trucks that the Islamist insurgents had set upwardly every bit roadblocks. The dismal obstruction course of study wasn’t only proof that the insurgents had the upper manus over the 1,500 Afghan law in addition to soldiers based inward the city, fifty-fifty though those forces were even out alongside sophisticated American-supplied weaponry. The squad shortly discovered the wreckage-strewn approach to the metropolis had locomote a shooting gallery for hidden Taliban.
Rocket-propelled grenades in addition to machine-gun ship away came screaming inward from a tree line to the east—small bursts at first, in addition to then all at once. Streaks of heavy ship away glowed light-green inward the commandos’ night-vision goggles every bit two- in addition to three-man Taliban teams shot rockets at the Special Forces earlier vanishing into nearby scrubland. The USA forces returned ship away alongside rapid bursts from the .50-caliber machine guns perched atop the vehicles. At 1 point, 1 of the men shouted, “Where the f-ck are [the airstrikes]?” Almost on cue, a lumbering AC-130 gun ship circling inward a higher house began showering 105-mm cannon ship away on Taliban positions below. Apache onslaught helicopters, A-10 onslaught planes, F-16 fighter jets in addition to MQ-9 Reaper drones also delivered airstrikes. The route into the metropolis “was only a sh-t show,” 1 USA soldier tells TIME.
Back inward Washington, the state of war inward Transitional Islamic State of Afghanistan oftentimes seems similar an afterthought. According to the Pentagon, combat missions officially ended inward 2014, USA forces serve exclusively every bit “advisers,” in addition to peace may survive at hand. An unprecedented three-day June cease-fire was followed yesteryear surreptitious U.S.-Taliban talks inward Qatar inward July. “We’re seeing the strategy is fundamentally working in addition to advancing us toward reconciliation, fifty-fifty though it may non survive playing out the agency that nosotros anticipated,” General John Nicholson, the top USA commander inward Afghanistan, said on Aug. 22.
A Green Beret, left, in addition to a Special Tactics airman prepare to motility toward Ghazni from a makeshift outpost on Aug. 16.
Emanuele Satolli for TIME
A wall damaged yesteryear a Taliban mortar at a minor makeshift outpost inward Ghazni; ii Afghan soldiers were injured.
Emanuele Satolli for TIME
An Afghan soldier talks on a radio atop a Ghazni building.
Emanuele Satolli for TIME
But inward August, America’s 17-year enemy inward Afghanistan, the Taliban, launched a coordinated set of assaults to a greater extent than or less the solid reason ahead of the Muslim vacation of Eid al-Adha. With echoes of the Tet offensive carried out yesteryear the Viet Cong during the Vietnamese New Year's Day inward 1968, the Taliban onslaught targeted vulnerable outposts peppered across 7 provinces in addition to claimed the lives of scores of Afghan forces.
The set on on Ghazni, which engulfed nearly all of the city’s nineteen districts, was the most orchestrated functioning of this nationwide onslaught. And the Taliban’s surprising effectiveness—capturing districts, nearly toppling a provincial uppercase in addition to briefly cutting off the main north-south highway only threescore miles from the capital—raises troubling questions most the province of the war. The battle was a major exam of the Trump Administration’s long-term armed forces strategy, which hinges on defending population centers spell ceding much of the remote countryside to the Taliban. It proved that USA forces however routinely rush to salve Afghan forces struggling to incorporate a resurgent Taliban. That hard truth suggests the excogitation to train, advise in addition to assist Afghans thence they may 1 twenty-four threescore minutes flow defend themselves masks the costs the USA is however paying nearly ii decades into the war, in addition to a twelvemonth after President Trump announced a novel strategy to defeat the enemy. As Ghazni shows, the “assist” component is oftentimes hard to distinguish from a traditional American combat mission.
Nine Americans were evacuated from the battlefield yesteryear helicopter because of injuries incurred yesteryear the Taliban’s multiday barrage of roadside bombs, mortar shells in addition to rockets. At to the lowest degree ii soldiers received Purple Hearts after suffering serious wounds. Seven out of 10 armored vehicles inward ODA 1333’s convoy were lost to battle damage. The Special Forces squad considered themselves lucky: a shoulder-fired rocket had a nigh immature adult woman alongside a medevac helicopter retrieving an injured soldier.
The carnage inward this metropolis of 150,000 shows how devastating the state of war remains for Afghans. An average of 7 Afghan adults in addition to ii children were killed every twenty-four threescore minutes flow inward the outset half dozen months of this year, according to the latest UN data, alongside some other nineteen civilians injured each day. The figures present 2018 is on rails to survive the deadliest twelvemonth of the war. H5N1 generation of American armed forces officers who arrived hither after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks every bit fresh-faced lieutenants or majors have got lived through the ferocious fighting. Some are at 1 time multiple-tour colonels or generals, alongside children who have got inherited the burden of waging America’s longest war. Most of the soldiers—American in addition to Afghan—who battled to have got dorsum Ghazni were inward degree schoolhouse on Sept. xi in addition to unable to foresee the countless ways the attacks would shape their lives.
This line concern human relationship of the multiday siege of Ghazni, described to TIME inward on-the-ground interviews alongside dozens of USA in addition to Afghan soldiers, commanders in addition to citizens, offers a rare glimpse into the ongoing American armed forces elbow grease inward Afghanistan. The extent of the devastation has non been previously reported. The Pentagon doesn’t brand the information publicly available, in addition to TIME witnessed it exclusively after gaining approving for an embedded deployment inward Transitional Islamic State of Afghanistan after months of trying, long earlier the August offensive began.
Nakibullah Salwary, 35, who was injured during the Taliban set on on Ghazni, sits on a infirmary bed on Aug. 16.
Emanuele Satolli for TIME
The battle for Ghazni didn’t come upwardly out of nowhere. The Taliban sensed an chance inward the widening chaos created yesteryear years of war. For several months, 5 USA Special Forces teams, working alongside some 150 Afghan commandos, had left the expanse to struggle a different threat: a growing Islamic State affiliate known every bit ISIS-Khorasan, or ISIS-K. An offshoot of the Syria-based terrorist group, it formed inward Transitional Islamic State of Afghanistan inward 2015 in addition to has terrorized towns inward eastern Nangarhar province through populace executions, assaults on authorities buildings in addition to suicide attacks.
The elbow grease to repel ISIS-K was 1 of the largest articulation operations e'er conducted betwixt USA in addition to Afghan special forces. By August 2018, ISIS-K had lost nearly 200 fighters in addition to most its territory. The articulation mission did non locomote unnoticed. Over the summer, the USA armed forces received news that the Taliban was aware the Americans in addition to Afghan commandos based to a greater extent than or less Ghazni were gone, Special Forces sources tell TIME.
The Taliban couldn’t believe their skillful fortune. Moving weapons in addition to fighters into Ghazni isn’t a hard task. There are many ways to smuggle materiel into the city, through ancient trading lines or unassuming vehicles that blend inward alongside traffic. Some local officials believe security personnel guarding Ghazni’s perimeter granted the Taliban costless entry.
Despite the news tip, the Taliban’s initial attacks on Aug. 10 caught Washington in addition to Kabul flat-footed. An estimated 1,000 Taliban fighters stormed the metropolis in addition to surrounding districts. The insurgents attacked authorities buildings, assaulted the fundamental prison, destroyed a telecommunication tower in addition to set ship away to a local boob tube station. Afghan local law in addition to armed forces officials temporarily lost command of several areas of the city.
U.S. Special Operations Command headquarters scrambled to respond, deploying 3 12-man Green Beret teams from 1st Special Forces Group along alongside their Afghan partnered forcefulness from the sec Commando Kandak, in addition to conventional USA infantry soldiers from 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, quaternary Infantry Division.
For the men of ODA 1333 in addition to their detachment of to a greater extent than or less 100 USA soldiers in addition to Afghan commandos, the orders sounded straightforward: assist secure ii Afghan helicopters downed yesteryear the Taliban nigh Ghazni. They knew they would have got to have got the long agency around, because the Taliban had buried thence many solid reason mines along the direct route leading into Ghazni that it was impassable. What was unremarkably a 60-mile trip westward from Paktia province would instead comprehend 160 miles of terrain. The troops loaded upwardly their weapons in addition to clambered aboard hulking RG-33 in addition to M-ATV armored vehicles, which rumbled into the nighttime toward Highway 1, an ancient 300-mile two-lane route that serves every bit the main artery linking the topographic point of authorities inward Kabul to Kandahar.
The Taliban knew the Americans were coming in addition to where they were coming from—there was exclusively 1 agency in. So the militants lay inward wait, armed alongside rocket-propelled grenades, mortars in addition to AK-47s.
The soldiers of ODA 1333 would never scope the downed helicopters. Instead, they spent the side yesteryear side 5 days fighting hundreds of Taliban fighters inward an endless serial of running battles that debilitated vehicles in addition to maimed members of their unit. “I’ve never seen that many [rocket-propelled grenades] inward my career,” says the team’s sergeant, who, similar others, spoke to TIME on the status of anonymity.
In the confront of recurring attacks, ODA 1333 in addition to their attached units weren’t able to breach the metropolis until some 17 hours later. The soldiers moved to a minor makeshift outpost on Ghazni’s outskirts, where USA Special Forces teams had been based earlier the 2014 troop drawdown. Even there, they could observe no refuge. Within 25 minutes of arriving, a mortar circular arched over the perimeter in addition to crashed through the dorsum wall of a plywood construction where ii Afghan soldiers were bedding down. The percussive thump of mortar ship away shook the the world nether the men, followed yesteryear the fissure of gunfire over their heads, ODA 1333’s news master copy recalls. As the Americans in addition to Afghans scrambled for protective cover, Apache helicopters wheeled depression exterior the base, hunting for the fighters responsible, blanketing the perimeter alongside gunfire in addition to briefly quieting the attacks.
Stenciled doors of ii armored vehicles at a armed forces outpost inward Ghazni.
Emanuele Satolli for TIME
Special Forces soldiers slumber at a armed forces outpost.
Emanuele Satolli for TIME
A Special Forces soldier reads a armed forces manual at the outpost on Aug. 15.
Emanuele Satolli for TIME
By that time, the Sun was out in addition to the fighting had died downwards plenty to set upwardly camp. When the Afghan troops were finally able to shed their combat gear, it was clear many of them had been toddlers when the state of war began inward 2001. Some infantry soldiers however had infant faces, dissimilar the bearded, tattooed Special Forces squad members. All were motivated to larn dorsum into the fight. The Taliban had non seized command of a provincial uppercase inward Transitional Islamic State of Afghanistan since 2015. It wasn’t going to tumble out over again on their watch.
On Aug. 12, ODA 1333 prepared to mountain a counterattack. USA Special Forces Team ODA 1212, which arrived overnight, would also force within the city. The teams would survive farther aided yesteryear threescore additional Afghan commandos in addition to aerial footage from MQ-9 Reaper drones. The destination was to secure the authorities facilities, law headquarters, prison theatre in addition to district pump nether attack. The operational excogitation was coordinated alongside Afghan forces, which had incurred to a greater extent than than 100 casualties from ii direct days of fighting. As they left the outpost in addition to headed into the city, squad members could come across decomposing corpses inward front end of burned-out buildings.
For those who lived inward Ghazni, the scene was apocalyptic. Gunfire rattled through the air, rockets hissed in addition to airstrikes crashed inward the distance. Sami Ahmadi, a 24-year-old English linguistic communication educatee at Ghazni University, gathered his menage unit of measurement in addition to huddled within his basement for shelter. “We were terrified,” he recalls. “Police were killed, their bodies lying inward the road.”
As forces pushed farther into the city, waves of citizens emerged, carrying what they could inward their arms to flee the fighting. They were migrating northward on human foot to seek security inward nearby towns, or fifty-fifty onto Kabul. Behind them, minor teams of Taliban were laced through Ghazni’s narrow, serpentine streets.
The insurgents had stormed the prison theatre on the southeastern border of the metropolis to costless captured fighters, but that endeavour was ultimately thwarted. Their elbow grease to breach the provincial authorities edifice was quashed every bit well. But the Taliban position upwardly a tough struggle inward the streets. At 1 point, every bit ODA 1333’s convoy inched forward, 3 Taliban emerged from an alleyway in addition to fired a rocket that slammed into 1 vehicle’s machine-gunner turret, injuring the Air Force pararescue jumper manning the position. Bits of metallic in addition to debris flew into the vehicle. The air was thick in addition to acrid. “There was thence much smoke in addition to dust,” says Tamim Ahmed, the team’s Afghan interpreter. “I couldn’t come across direct for a duet minutes.”
The vehicle’s other gunner turned his weapon on the Taliban fighters, who were dumbfounded they didn’t kill everyone within the truck. With a flare-up of fire, the gunner took out all 3 insurgents. But the pararescue jumper was severely wounded. H5N1 immature soldier inward some other vehicle was also striking alongside shrapnel that would ultimately claim an eye. Neither human has been publicly named, but both afterward received Purple Heart awards, according to USA armed forces officers inward Afghanistan. (Despite their perilous mission, the USA armed forces officially labels these soldiers every bit “advisers.”) When a rescue helicopter arrived to evacuate the wounded, a rocket came within 150 feet of hitting it.
It was clear from the nonstop attacks that USA forces would have got to rest within Ghazni Provincial Center, a local authorities headquarters building, to ensure it wouldn’t survive overtaken. ODA 1212 carve upwardly off from 1333 in addition to established a headquarters in that place alongside Afghan forces. The soldiers stayed away from opened upwardly windows in addition to tried to remain hidden on the roof from snipers positioned only exterior the facility’s fortified gates, waiting for a ready clean shot.
Over the next ii days, the Taliban switched its focus to Ghazni’s less-defended surrounding areas. Afghan commando in addition to Ktah Khas counterterrorism teams went theatre to house, clearing neighborhoods of Taliban fighters. It was the audacity of the Taliban’s tactics inward Ghazni that stuck out to USA soldiers. ODA 1333 in addition to other teams had been attacked inward Ghazni before, but typically inward hit-and-runs—Taliban fighters would hang a mortar circular or have got a pot shot at their enemies, in addition to then melt inward alongside the local population. During this siege of Ghazni, the insurgents walked the streets inward broad daylight, firing on American armored vehicles, knowing USA warplanes were hunting them overhead. “From a armed forces standpoint, it’s non real smart,” the Special Forces squad sergeant says. “Because they onslaught in addition to they unremarkably die. But if they larn off what they demand to larn off, I guess they experience similar they win.”
The Taliban seemed to have got a limitless provide of rockets, sometimes firing 20 or xxx at a time. One after another, USA vehicles were knocked out of the fight. When that happened, some other unit of measurement would brand it to claw upwardly a tow rope in addition to drag the vehicle out of the kill zone, all spell exposing themselves to enemy fire. The Taliban had all that firepower within the city, in addition to Afghan in addition to USA forces had to bargain alongside it.
But inward add-on to armor, advanced weaponry in addition to superior training, the USA had some other major advantage: air dominance. The armed forces said it dropped 73 bombs in addition to missiles inward the Ghazni operation. By Aug. 15, a 3rd Special Forces squad in addition to additional units had arrived inward Ghazni. Thanks to the airstrikes, the Taliban began falling back. The USA armed forces said 226 Taliban were killed during the operations.
Typically, both sides declared victory. Even every bit the fighting drove them from the city, the Taliban bragged that it had sent a clear message to President Donald Trump that “the conquest of this metropolis signifies the failure of yet the latest American strategy,” according to a released statement. “The experience of Ghazni has proven that no defensive belts of cities tin withstand the offensive prowess of the Mujahideen.” In truth, the strategic value of the Ghazni onslaught seems to have got been the tweets, headlines in addition to video footage that rippled across social-media feeds, showing armed Taliban brazenly roaming costless within the metropolis center. The message was clear: the Taliban remains a tearing enemy who tin strike whenever they choose, regardless of peace talks in addition to hopes of reconciliation.
From the USA in addition to Afghan militaries’ view, the battle was a success. Afghan soldiers, though heavily reliant on American Special Forces in addition to airpower to plow the tide, stood, fought in addition to routed the enemy within 5 days. The Afghan commandos garnered observe for their performance. “They stepped up, no doubt,” says Noah Olson, a 20-year-old Army Specialist. “They desire to larn this over alongside every bit much every bit nosotros do.” USA armed forces brass declared the onslaught a misfire from a fading enemy. “Tactically, operationally in addition to strategically, the Taliban achieved naught alongside this failed onslaught except some other eye-catching, but inconsequential headline,” said USA Army Lieut. Colonel Martin O’Donnell, spokesman for the U.S.-led international armed forces coalition inward Kabul.
On Aug. 16, residents of Ghazni thought buildings damaged during a recent Taliban siege.
Emanuele Satolli for TIME
Nassarath Kadri, 27, within his damaged store inward Ghazni on Aug. 16.
Emanuele Satolli for TIME
Two Afghan boys pigment a nail wall inward Ghazni; the Taliban attacked the metropolis ahead of the Muslim vacation Eid al-Adha.
Emanuele Satolli for TIME
Like most narratives emanating from Afghanistan, the truth lies somewhere inward between. Looking at the harm within Ghazni, it was hard for anyone to declare a truthful victory. Carcasses of burnt-out buildings smoldered inward the sun. Stores that bristled alongside goods for the upcoming vacation became husks of blackened, twisted metal. “At a fourth dimension similar this, your neighbors are similar brothers,” says Said Mohammed, 63, whose eatery managed to emerge unscathed. “We grieve for them.”
The bloodshed was also apparent. At Ghazni Provincial Hospital, rooms were filled alongside patients of all ages who had suffered wounds inward the onslaught. doctor Abdul Basir Ramaki, the hospital’s medical director, said that the dead tallied 150, alongside 265 to a greater extent than injured, every bit of Aug. 16. “Many were women in addition to children,” he says. “All Afghan people are tired of this violence.” (A U.N. study quoted “unverifiable numbers” that position the civilian expiry toll at to a greater extent than than 150.)
Guma Khan, an elderly human alongside a long white beard, lay on his dorsum inward a infirmary bed, recovering from a bullet wound to his left leg. “I was only walking downwards the street,” he says. “How am I supposed to maintain living here?”
Brigadier General Dadan Lawang, the commander of the Afghan National Army’s 203rd Corps, told TIME that 112 Afghan armed forces in addition to law were killed, in addition to 56 were wounded. He said his squad was reviewing its security posture to guard against futurity attacks. “We demand to ensure this never happens again,” he says.
But the aftermath of the battle shows why that vow is unlikely to hold. On Aug. 17, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani arrived at the articulation armed forces headquarters inward Ghazni Provincial Center. He blamed Islamic Republic of Pakistan for the Taliban attack, maxim that many of the fighters were streaming dorsum across Pakistan’s borders. Islamabad has long been blamed for giving the Afghan Taliban prophylactic harbor, in addition to Ghazni lies nigh tribal regions inward Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in addition to Balochistan provinces.
Ghani claimed Pakistan’s armed forces chief, General Qamar Javed Bajwa, had assured him over the telephone that cross-border insurgent activeness would non survive allowed after the July 25 elections inward Pakistan. “I demand answers now,” Ghani said. “From where did they come upwardly from in addition to why are they receiving handling inward your hospitals?” (Pakistan denied whatsoever involvement.)
The initial success of the Taliban set on was aided yesteryear the apparent lack of coordination betwixt Afghan security forces. The local law were running depression on supplies in addition to ammunition in addition to had difficulty communicating, according to Afghan officers. In addition, ii American soldiers told TIME that they heard that the Afghan National Army had accidentally fired on their ain units, every bit good every bit American convoys. When asked most the eyewitness accounts, the USA armed forces command inward Transitional Islamic State of Afghanistan said those reports remained unconfirmed. If true, the lack of readiness suggests Afghan forces may demand “assists” from the USA Special Forces for some fourth dimension to come.
When the fighting finally died down, the USA soldiers were looking frontward to returning to their bases inward the region, where they had running water, toilets in addition to nutrient that wasn’t prepared inward a box. More than a week’s worth of combat made the prospect of returning to the amenities of a long-established headquarters especially appealing. Almost all the men had endured unopen calls in addition to considered themselves fortunate to have got made it out alive. “Our luck’s running out,” 1 soldier said, half-jokingly. “I however have got 5 months here. My number’s going to survive called eventually.”
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