The Battle of Qala-i-Jangi (Also wrongly referred to as the Battle of Mazar-i-Sharif) took place between November 25 and December 1, 2001, in Northern Afghanistan. It began with the uprising of foreign Taliban prisoners held at Qala-i-Jangi fortress, and escalated into one of the bloodiest engagements of the War in Afghanistan. Northern Alliance fighters, assisted by British and American Special Forces, took seven days to finally quell the revolt, leaving only 86 prisoners alive out of an original 300-500. Among the survivors were two American citizens fighting with the Taliban, Yaser Esam Hamdi and John Walker Lindh.
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On November 24, with their military situation in Northern Afghanistan becoming critical, many Taliban commanders agreed to surrender to Northern Alliance General Abdul Rashid Dostum. Between 300 to 500[1] foreign fighters (mostly Arabs and Pakistanis), under the impression that they would later be set free, drove to Mazar-i-Sharif and laid down their weapons. However, they were not freed, as the Americans wanted to question them about possible links with the Al Qaeda network. Instead they were transferred to Qala-i-Jangi (the war fortress in Persian), a 19th century fortress that Dostum used as his headquarters and ammunition depot. Dostum claimed the surrender was a "great victory" for the Alliance,[2] a bloodless success that would allow the future reconciliation of Afghanistan. But these claims were short-lived.
On November 24 the foreign Taliban prisoners were transported to and then herded inside the fortress, now turned prison. The prisoners had not been searched and it soon became evident that they had concealed weapons during the surrender. On the very day of the surrender, at the make-shift prison, two of Dostum's commanders were killed by prisoners with grenades in two separate suicide-grenade incidents. Despite these incidents, security at the prison was not reinforced.[3]
On the 25th, two CIA officers, one from the highly secretive Special Activities Division, Johnny "Mike" Spann, a retired Marine, and another, Dave "Dawson" Tyson, an Uzbek speaker and area expert,[4] arrived at Qala-i-Jangi to carry out the interrogations.[5] These CIA officers questioned the prisoners, especially an American captured fighting with the Taliban, John Walker Lindh. At that time they only recognized that Lindh was a western-looking prisoner and different from the others, so he was singled out. Part of the interview is shown on British Television (Channel 4 news), Spann asked "are you a member of the IRA?" (This question was asked because Lindh was told to claim he was Irish to "avoid problems.") Approximately two hours after the interviews began, the prisoners attacked Spann, Tyson and the few Northern Alliance Guards. [6]
The prisoners over-ran Spann and some of the other guards as well as capturing the southern half of the Qala-i-Jangi fortress, including the fort's armory. The prisoners helped themselves to a large store of AK-47s, RPG rocket launchers, mortars and ammunition.[7]
Spann was missing and Tyson managed to escape to the northern and more secure part of the fortress where he found himself trapped with a television crew from the German ARD network. He borrowed their satellite phone, and called the US embassy in Uzbekistan, requesting reinforcements.[8] Tyson specifically requested no air support, due to the proximity of allied Afghan forces. The Afghans also brought reinforcements: personnel and a T-55 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 one of the widest media coverages of the whole war. The successive stages of the fighting were filmed extensively, providing rare footage of special forces units in combat.
At 2:00 pm a mixed Special Ops team, formed with nine U.S. Special Forces and six British Special Boat Service operators, arrived and joined the Afghans firing at the prisoners from the northern part of the fort. Starting at 4:00 pm until nightfall, they directed nine airstrikes against the entrenched prisoners, who continued to put up a fierce resistance. Despite Tyson's requests, several 500-pound precision-guided bombs were dropped in an attempt to destroy the armory, which was now serving as a firebase for the prisoners.
The next day, the Alliance soldiers set up a command post near the Northern gate, to direct their tank and mortar fire. By mid morning they were joined by US forces divided into three teams, a close air support team designated CAS1 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 CAS2 that positioned itself near the main gate of the fortress and a QRF or Quick Reaction Force consisting of four more Special Forces soldiers, a Navy surgeon, and eight men of the 10th Mountain Division.
At 11:00 pm, a GBU-32 guided bomb, weighing 2,000 pounds (957 kg), directed by the Air Force combat controller on the CAS-1 team, mistakenly hit his own position, killing four (some sources say 30[2]) Northern Alliance soldiers on the northeast tower above the CAS-1 team, destroying a tank and injuring all members of the CAS-1 team, including five U.S. and two British Operators.[8]
That night two AC-130 Spectre gunships circled over the fortress (callsigns GRIM 11 and GRIM 14), firing thousands of rounds at the uprising prisoners. The main ammunition depot was hit, creating a huge explosion which continued to burn throughout the night.[9]
By the morning of the 27th the prisoner resistance had slackened, and the Alliance soldiers were able to mount an attack supported by tanks and APCs and by the end of the day they had recaptured most of the fort. The Americans recovered Spann's body, which the prisoners had booby trapped with a grenade.[8]
The original holding cell in the basement of a central building still held Taliban fighters who refused to surrender. In the attempts to finish the battle, Northern Alliance fighters shot rifles into, threw grenades into, and finally poured oil into the basement and lit it afire. This still failed to either kill all Taliban survivors or force them to surrender.
On the 28th General Dostum arrived on the scene of the battle, and tried to persuade the last prisoners still holding out in the basement to surrender. His entreaties had no effect. The basement was subsequently flooded with frigid irrigation water on November 29.[10] The final Taliban fighters surrendered on the 1st of December.[11] 86 of the estimated 300-600 prisoners who were brought to the fortress emerged from the flooded basement. Survivors included the "American Taliban" John Walker Lindh.[11]
Afghan soldiers looted the bodies, even extracting gold teeth. At least two wounded prisoners were executed.[11] A number of the dead were found to have been killed with their arms tied behind their back.[12]
Of the 86 prisoners who survived the battle, one was found to be American citizen John Walker Lindh, who had moved to Afghanistan to help the Taliban battle the Northern Alliance. Shortly after the battle, a journalist working for CNN, Robert Young Pelton, managed to interview Lindh. Lindh was later repatriated to the United States to face charges of treason.
The other surviving prisoners were transferred to Camp X-Ray at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
For his actions during the battle, Major Mark Mitchell, a U.S. Army Special Forces officer, was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, the first such decoration to be awarded since the Vietnam War.[13] Additionally Chief Petty Officer Stephen Bass was awarded the Navy Cross to for his actions while attached to the British Special Boat Service.
For his "extraordinary heroism" in fighting off the prisoners long enough to allow his colleagues to escape, Spann was awarded the CIA's rare Intelligence Star.[14] Because the Intelligence Star is considered analogous to the Silver Star, he was allowed burial at Arlington National Cemetery.[15] At Spann's memorial at the Arlington National Cemetery they stated that after being attacked, Spann "fought with his AK-47 until it ran out of ammunition, then drew his pistol and emptied it, before turning to hand to hand combat which saw him shot". [16] According to members of a German television crew who were later trapped in the fort with the other CIA officer named "Dave", Spann asked the prisoners who they were and why they joined the Taliban. They massed around him. "Why are you here?" Spann asked one. "To kill you," came the reply as the man lunged at Spann's neck. Mike Spann’s family visited the fortress after his death. Afghan doctors on site at the time of the riot gave the Spann family the following account. They said 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,” Spann’s father said. While watching Mike fight they were able to jump up and run to safety. They said 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".[2]
Due to the high number of prisoner casualties, and the heavy weaponry used to subdue them, the Northern Alliance and the coalition were accused of breaking the Geneva Conventions, by using disproportionate means.[17]
One of the prisoners, Abdulaziz al-Oshan, later summarised the incident telling American authorities at Guantanamo Bay, "They called it an uprising and it's not; it's some kind of massacre".[11] Amnesty International called for an independent inquiry,[18] but this was rejected by the U.S. and British governments, who argued that the fanatical resistance of the uprising fully justified the use of airpower and heavy weapons against them.
Another controversy surrounds the mismanagement of the prisoners that made the rebellion possible. The Taliban were not properly searched after their capture, enabling them for instance to smuggle grenades into the fortress. Dostum himself later admitted this had been a mistake.[2] Also, Qala-i-Jangi had been until recently a Taliban base, meaning that the prisoners knew the layout of the place and the location of the armory. It seems that Dostum had planned to hold them at a nearby airfield, but was denied this by the Americans, who were using the airfield to ferry in supplies.
By interrogating the prisoners in a group, rather than separately, protected by very few guards, they put themselves at the mercy of men who were known to be dangerous. George Tenet, then director of the CIA, dismissed the accusations of mismanagement and incompetence, and instead described his agents as "heroes".[19] In Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Bob Woodward's book Bush at War, Spann is described as a hero whose actions saved the lives of many.[20]
In the documentary "The House of War" film maker Paul Yule and Robert Young Pelton 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 Dave Tyson moments before the uprising.
Robert Young Pelton's The World's Most Dangerous Places one hour special "Inside Afghanistan" details his time with the US Special Forces team (ODA 595) working with Dostum's soldiers, and his part in the battle. It also covers how he discovered and interviewed Lindh, and later returned Lindh to his compound for protection.[21]
A partly fictional but detailed account of the battle and of its context can be found in the second part of Frederick Forsyth's novel The Afghan.
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