Battle of Ebrahimkhel The Battle of Ebrahimkhel was a pursuit action between the Allied forces and the Taliban forces during the War on Terror . In the end , the Battle at Ebrahimkhel was the largest ground - to - ground firefight since the Vietnam War in 1968 . Battle . The first actions were when the Taliban s raided the community of Qalat . Attacks went on for the nights before August 8 , 2006 and the Afghans there lost a rate of three officers a week . On hit - and - run missions , the Afghan police checkpoint was battered from RPG and mortar rounds . The Afghans and American s decided to chase down the Taliban and kill or capture them . The Afghans and Americans set off on a chase after the dozen Taliban insurgents who attacked the checkpount . The convoy was to meet up with Romania n soldiers who had the communications and a powerful machine gun . However , they misunderstood and returned to their base . As the unit neared the first village , a Taliban fired a few potshots at the lead truck , but was captured . He was part of a Taliban ploy where they gave him a weapon and if he didn ' t shoot the Allies , they would kill him . Later , an old man told the Allies that the Taliban passed through , and the Americans began to chase them to the border with Pakistan . Then , the Allied radio ( Icom ) informed them that the Al - Qaeda had joined the Talibans . When both were together , they had the tendency to fight to the last man . The Allies were stranded due to no or little communications . Since the road to Qalat was a four - mile walk in the darkness of night , the team stopped at the town of Ebrahimkhel . The insurgent convoy turned to attack them . As the insurgents fired RPGs , the Allies drove their car into the cul - de - sac of the village . The insurgent RPGs hit the area around the Americans , and they responded with more fire . The assault leader was killed by the Americans . Though the Afghans had two to three times more men than the Allies , the Allies troops fought hard still . The Americans used their LAW weapon , the cousin of the more modern AT4 . One of its missiles tore through a wall , followed by three others that imploded the insurgent weapons cache . IED s damaged the Allied lead truck late in the battle , but the explosion ' s embankment soon smoothened . The allies fought their way to the enemy convoy , destroying it . The Allies prepared to finish off the insurgents , the Americans assaulting the enemy at the right at a swamp , attacking and killing 12 . Later , the Americans received word that two Dutch F - 16 s were taking off from Bagram Airfield , 20 or 30 minutes away . The fight had reached its two - hour mark when the F - 16s arrived , and the Americans smoked the position where the enemy was to locate where they needed fire . The Dutch dropped flares on the enemy , trying make them flee . Then , the Americans took up positions on a hill which was raked by RPG fire . The Allies evacuated the area down Route 1 to Qalat for safety . The battle was the biggest since the Vietnam War . It was confirmed by the military that the Americans and their 35 Afghan comrades had faced a force of an estimated 300 Taliban and Al - Qaeda fighters , of which at least 25 were killed .