Siege of Kunduz

The siege of Kunduz took place in 2001 during the War in Afghanistan. After the fall of Mazar-i-Sharif on 9 November, the focus of the Northern Alliance advance shifted towards the city of Kunduz, which was the last remaining Taliban stronghold in northern Afghanistan.[5]

Siege of Kunduz
Part of the War in Afghanistan and the Afghan Civil War

U.S. Army Special Forces soldiers with Northern Alliance fighters outside Kunduz in November 2001.
Date11 November 2001 – 25 November 2001
(2 weeks)
Location
Kunduz, Afghanistan
Result Northern Alliance and U.S. victory
Belligerents
Northern Alliance
 United States		 Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan
Taliban
al-Qaeda
IMU
Commanders and leaders
Afghanistan Mohammed Daud Daud
Afghanistan Abdul Rashid Dostum
United States Tommy Franks		 Mullah Fazl[1] Surrendered
Mullah Noori[1] Surrendered
Strength
Afghanistan Unknown
United States 12 advisers		 5,000 Taliban[1]
3,000 foreign fighters[2]
Casualties and losses
Afghanistan Unknown
United States None		 Unknown casualties, 2,000-5,000 airlifted by ISI[3][4] (denied by the US and Pakistan)

Timeline

The battle

Forces under the command of General Mohammed Daud Daud met up with American Special Forces advisers and advanced to the city of Taloqan, arriving outside that city on November 11. There, Daud persuaded the local Taliban leader to switch sides, thus capturing the city without firing a single shot.[6]

After seizing control of Taloqan, Daud's forces moved on to besiege Kunduz. They initially met heavy resistance, leading Daud to entrench his forces around the city and use American air support to weaken the Taliban. For the next eleven days, American aircraft bombarded Taliban positions, destroying 44 bunker complexes, 12 tanks, 51 trucks as well as numerous supply dumps.[4] The defenders of Kunduz included a proportionally large number of foreign fighters, including Arab, Chechen and Uzbek jihadists[7] as well as Pakistani trainers and ISI operatives.[1]

On 22 November, Daud's forces captured the nearby town of Khanabad. With their position deteriorating, the Taliban forces inside Kunduz entered negotiations to surrender on 23 November.[4] Many of the defenders inside Kunduz were able to escape with Pakistani assistance. At least 2,000 of the defenders inside Kunduz, including senior Al-Qaeda members, were airlifted out of the city by Pakistan with tacit US approval.[7][1] Although both countries denied the event.[8] Some Northern Alliance leaders blamed the US for allowing the airlift to occur and expressed a desire for revenge against the foreign fighters who had been inside the city.[9] After the final Taliban surrender on 25 November,[1] reports began to surface of looting by Northern Alliance soldiers as well as reports of the executions of Taliban prisoners.[10] The foreign fighters were treated much more harshly than the Afghan Taliban.[7] The two Taliban commanders that had led the defense of Kunduz, Fazl and Noori, would later be shipped off to the Guantanamo Bay prison on the island of Cuba.[1]

Dasht-i-Leili massacre
Main article: Dasht-i-Leili massacre

Human rights groups estimate that several hundred or several thousand captured prisoners died in or after transit to Sherberghan prison.[11] The deaths have become known as the Dasht-i-Leili massacre. Allegations have been made, notably by columnist Ted Rall and Jamie Doran's 2002 documentary Afghan Massacre: The Convoy of Death, that U.S. troops were involved.[12] A July 2009 report in the New York Times caused United States President Barack Obama to order a probe into how the Bush administration handled calls for investigation of the massacre.[13]

References
  1. Malkasian 2021, p. 66.
  2. "Alliance says Kunduz has been captured". The Independent. 25 November 2001.
  3. Gall, Carlotta (8 April 2014). The Wrong Enemy: America in Afghanistan, 2001–2014. ISBN 9780544045682.
  4. The United States Army in Afghanistan - Operation ENDURING FREEDOM - October 2001-March 2003
  5. Harding, Luke; Watt, Nicholas; Whitaker, Brian (22 November 2001). "Northern stronghold ready to capitulate". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 August 2009.
  6. Filkins, Dexter (15 September 2008). The Forever War (1st ed.). Vintage. p. 52.
  7. Maley 2020, p. 340.
  8. Rashid, Ahmed (2008). Descent Into Chaos: The US and the Failure of Nation Building in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Central Asia. Penguin. pp. 91–92. ISBN 978-0-670-01970-0.
  9. "The 'airlift of evil'". NBC News.
  10. "Kunduz falls, and a bloody vengeance is executed". The Independent. 27 November 2001.
  11. James Risen (10 July 2009). "U.S. Inaction Seen After Taliban P.O.W.'s Died". New York Times. Retrieved 14 July 2009.
  12. Rall, Ted (17 July 2009). "Ted Rall: Obama is ignoring an atrocity that dwarfs My Lai". The State Journal-Register. Retrieved 1 August 2009.
  13. Anderson Cooper (12 July 2009). "Obama orders review of alleged slayings of Taliban in Bush era". CNN. Retrieved 14 July 2009. President Obama has ordered national security officials to look into allegations that the Bush administration resisted efforts to investigate a CIA-backed Afghan warlord over the killings of hundreds of Taliban prisoners in 2001.

Bibliography

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