page_title: Wasil Ahmad
section_title: Siege
hierarchical_section_title: Wasil Ahmad / Siege
caption_attribution_description: Map of the districts of Oruzgan province of Afghanistan. Created by Rarelibra 19:31, 29 March 2007 (UTC) for public domain use, using MapInfo Professional v8.5 and various mapping resources.
context_page_description: Wasil Ahmad was an Afghan child soldier, who is best known for commanding a police unit and his subsequent killing by the Taliban when he was eleven years old. His uncle Samad, trained him "in the use of AK-47 and PK machine guns, rockets and mortars as well as satellite phones and VHF radios."
context_section_description: At the height of the Dan Sango siege, Ahmad was commanding 75 pro-government soldiers against an attacking force of approximately "hundreds" of Taliban. The siege itself lasted for 71 days, and Ahmad commanded his squad for 43 of them. He fired both mortars and rockets as well as machine guns from the compound roof. As well as physical fighting, Ahmad was also responsible for communications with the outside world, and the point of contact for the Afghan special forces. When the latter raised the siege in August 2015, Ahmad and 35 surviving soldiers were airlifted out by Afghan and NATO helicopters to Tarin Kowt. According to Samad, the authorities "praised him and his nephew Wasil as heroes."
caption: Oruzgan districts
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