page_title: United States invasion of Afghanistan
section_title: Consolidation: the taking of Kandahar
hierarchical_section_title: United States invasion of Afghanistan / 2001: Overthrow of the Taliban / Consolidation: the taking of Kandahar
caption_attribution_description: English: SOUTHERN AFGHANISTAN -- A Marine with the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit (Special Operations Capable), Camp Pendleton, Calif., leads a column of Marines to a security position after seizing a Taliban forward-operating base Nov. 25. Marines from the 15th and 26th MEU are currently deployed to the region in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. Thirteenth MEU Marines, embarked on USS Bonhomme Richard, left San Diego Dec. 1 enroute to the Arabian Sea in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. U.S. Marine photo by Sgt. Joseph Chenelly.
context_page_description: The United States invasion of Afghanistan occurred after the September 11 attacks in late 2001 and was supported by close US allies. The conflict is also known as the US war in Afghanistan. Its public aims were to dismantle al-Qaeda and deny it a safe base of operations in Afghanistan by removing the Taliban from power. The United Kingdom was a key ally of the United States, offering support for military action from the start of preparations for the invasion. It followed the Afghan Civil War's 1996–2001 phase between the Taliban and the Northern Alliance groups, although the Taliban controlled 90% of the country by 2001. The US invasion of Afghanistan became the first phase of the War in Afghanistan.
  US President George W. Bush demanded that the Taliban hand over Osama bin Laden and expel al-Qaeda; bin Laden had already been wanted by the FBI since 1998. The Taliban declined to extradite him unless given what they deemed convincing evidence of his involvement in the 9/11 attacks, and ignored demands to shut down terrorist bases and hand over other terrorist suspects apart from bin Laden.
context_section_description: ODA 574 and Hamid Karzai began moving on Kandahar, gathering fighters from friendly local Pashtun tribes. His militia force eventually numbered some 800 men. They fought for two days with the Taliban, who were dug into ridge-lines overlooking the strategic Sayd-Aum-Kalay Bridge, eventually seizing it, with the help of US air-power, and opening the road to Kandahar.
  By the end of November, Kandahar was the Taliban's last stronghold, and was coming under increasing pressure. Nearly 3,000 tribal fighters, led by Karzai and Gul Agha Sherzai, the governor of Kandahar before the Taliban seized power, pressured Taliban forces from the east and cut off northern supply lines to Kandahar. The Northern Alliance loomed in the north and northeast.
  ODA 583 had infiltrated the Shin-Narai Valley, southeast of Kandahar to support Gul Agha Sherzai, the former governor of Kandahar. By November 24, ODA 583 had established covert observations posts, which allowed them to call in devastating fire on Taliban positions.
  Meanwhile, nearly 1,000 US Marines, ferried in by CH-53E Super Stallion helicopters and C-130s, set up a Forward Operating Base known as Camp Rhino in the desert south of Kandahar on November 25. This was the coalition's first base, and enabled other operating bases to form. The first significant combat involving US ground forces occurred a day after Rhino was captured, when 15 Taliban armored vehicles approached the base and were attacked by helicopter gunships, destroying many of them. Meanwhile, airstrikes continued to pound Taliban positions inside the city, where Mullah Omar remained. Omar remained defiant although his movement controlled only four out of 30 Afghan provinces by the end of November. He called on his forces to fight to the death.
  On December 5, a 2,000 lb GPS-guided bomb landed among the Green Berets from ODA 574, killing 3 members and wounding the rest of the team. Over 20 of Karzai's militia were also killed and Karzai himself slightly wounded. A Delta Force unit nearby that had been operating nearby on a classified reconnaissance mission arrived in their Pinzgauers and secured the site, while Delta medics worked with wounded Green Berets. Along with a USMC CH-53 casualty evacuation helicopter onboard ODB 570 and ODA 524 were immediately dispatched by helicopter to assist with the wounded and to eventually replace the fallen operators of ODA 574.
  On December 6, Karzai was informed that he would be the next president of Afghanistan, he also negotiated the successful surrender of both the remaining Taliban forces around Sayd-Aum-Kalay and the entire city of Kandahar itself. ODA 524, ODB 570 and Karzai's militia began their final push to clear the city. The US government rejected amnesty for Omar or any Taliban leaders. On December 7, Sherzai's forces seized Kandahar airport and moved in the city of Kandahar. Omar slipped out of Kandahar with a group of loyalists and moved northwest into the mountains of Uruzgan Province, thus reneging on the Taliban's promise to surrender their fighters and their weapons. He was last reported seen leaving in a convoy of motorcycles.
  Other Taliban leaders fled to Pakistan through the remote passes of Paktia and Paktika Provinces. The border town of Spin Boldak surrendered on the same day, marking the end of Taliban control in Afghanistan. Afghan forces under Gul Agha seized Kandahar, while the US Marines took control of the airport and established a US base.
  Also in early December 2001, as the US invasion of Afghanistan was almost completed, it was reported that warlord Dostum's forces, who were fighting the Taliban alongside the US Special Forces, had intentionally suffocated as many as 3,000 Taliban prisoners in container trucks in an incident that has become known as the Dasht-i-Leili massacre. The Taliban prisoners were shot and/or suffocated while being transferred by US and Junbish-i Milli soldiers from Kunduz to Sheberghan prison in Afghanistan. The site of the graves is believed to be in the Dasht-i-Leili desert just west of Sheberghan, in the Jowzjan Province.
caption: A US Marine with the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit leads others to a security position after seizing a Taliban forward-operating base November 25, 2001
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