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Planning and executing a full-spectrum operation in the Afghan theater
In 2005, members of a special-operations task force conducted an offensive operation in the Tagab Valley, located in the southeastern corner of the Kapisa Province in Central Afghanistan. This assault sent insurgent fighters into nearby Pakistan to escape the coalition offensive. Once the coalition troops stabilized the security situation in the Tagab Valley, they shifted to other parts of the theater, leaving the valley undefended. By the fall of 2006, insurgent Taliban fighters had returned to the Tagab Valley from Pakistan and had firmly regained control.
The Tagab Valley was as deadly in September 2006 as it had been prior to the 2005 offensive. Local leaders reported to coalition forces that there were almost 500 Taliban fighters living in the 40- kilometer- long valley, some of whom had trained at one of the three nearby suicide- bomber training facilities. Only weeks before the cold winter months, in defiance of the coalition, Tagab Valley residents burned blankets and winter clothing from humanitarian- assistance, or HA, drops in the southern portion of the Valley. Taliban fighters set up fighting positions and weapons caches in the Kohi Safi Mountains, which separate the Tagab Valley from Bagram Airfield, so that they could fire on coalition forces. Until November 2006, coalition ground convoys could not pass through the valley without receiving small- arms fire in a series of pre-planned ambushes.
The Tagab Valley, only 60 miles northeast of Kabul, was an ideal safe haven from which Taliban commanders could project suicide bombers and other insurgent activity into nearby Bagram, Jalalabad, Kabul and Kapisa. A stable and peaceful Tagab Valley would have significant effects on the security of central Afghanistan.
Special Operations Task Force 33, or SOTF-33, composed of the 3rd Battalion, 3rd Special Forces Group, worked hand- in- hand with the Kapisa provincial governor and soldiers from the United Arab Emirates Special Operations Task Force 8, or TF-8, to bring long-term stability to the Tagab Valley. On Oct 31, 2006, members of the two task forces began Operation Al Hasn (Arabic for "fortress" or "castle") as a joint, multinational, multi- agency operation designed to implement the clear, hold and build strategy in the Tagab Valley. The operation included more...