In the initial airstrikes during the coalition invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, a garrison of 055 Brigade fighters near Mazar-i-Sharif was one of the first targets for US aircraft. The US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld described the troops as "the al-Qaida-dominated ground force". The units tended to be much better motivated than regular Taliban soldiers and regarded as better fighters than the Afghans. They were used to "give backbone" to the fight and prevent defections. Some 055 Brigade members escaped with as many as several hundred al-Qaeda during the Battle of Tora Bora.