Battle of Qala - i - Jangi The Battle of Qala - i - Jangi ( also incorrectly referred to as the " Battle of Mazar - i - Sharif " ) was a prisoner - of - war camp uprising that took place between November 25 and December 1 , 2001 , in northern Afghanistan , following the armed intervention by United States - led coalition forces to try to overthrow the Taliban ' s Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan , which it had accused of harboring al - Qaeda operatives . Hundreds of men , including many non - Afghans , surrendered near Kunduz and were being held as enemy combatants at Qala - i - Jangi fortress by the Afghan Northern Alliance ( United Islamic Front for the Salvation of Afghanistan ) forces for an interrogation by the American Central Intelligence Agency ( CIA ) personnel interested in the suspected al - Qaeda members . The prisoners violently revolted and the ensuing fighting escalated into one of the bloodiest engagements of the conflict . Northern Alliance fighters , assisted by British and American special forces and air support , took seven days to quell the revolt . All but 86 prisoners and a number of Northern Alliance fighters were killed . The only U . S . fatality was the CIA officer Johnny " Mike " Spann , the first American to be killed in combat during the 2001 U . S . invasion of Afghanistan . Among the surviving prisoners were two American citizens suspected of fighting with the Taliban : Yaser Esam Hamdi and John Walker Lindh . Background . In late November 2001 , with their military situation in northern Afghanistan becoming critical , many Taliban field commanders agreed to surrender to the Northern Alliance General Abdul Rashid Dostum , leader of the ethnic - Uzbek dominated National Islamic Movement of Afghanistan , outside the besieged city of Kunduz . Hundreds of Al Ansar " guest " foreign fighters ( mostly from Pakistan and Arabic - speaking countries of the Middle East ) also surrendered their weapons , including a large group that had arrived in a convoy one day earlier to a place 100 km away of the agreed capitulation site , close to Mazar - i - Sharif . Dostum described the Taliban surrender as a " great victory " for the Alliance , a bloodless success that would allow the future reconciliation of citizens of Afghanistan . Thousands of prisoners were transported to the Sheberghan Prison ( that many of them died due to mistreatment during and after the transport ) . Meanhwile , as the U . S . forces wanted to question the captured foreign fighters about possible links with the al - Qaeda international terrorist network , the Afghans decided to transfer such prisoners to Qala - i - Jangi ( " the war fortress " in Persian ) , a 19th - century fortress near Mazar - i - Sharif that Dostum had previously used as his headquarters and ammunition depot . On November 24 , between 300 to 500 foreign suspects were transported on flatbed trucks to the fortress , now turned into a prison . The prisoners had not been searched , and some had concealed weapons during the surrender . On the day of the surrender , two prisoners committed suicide with grenades and killed one of Dostum ' s commanders and some others in two separate incidents at the makeshift prison . Despite the deaths , the National Islamic Movement militia did not reinforce security at the prison . John Kerry ' s report for the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations later alleged it was a pre - planned " Trojan Horse " style operation , a gambit that would allow a die - hard force of foreign fighters to take over a strategically - important fortified position at Qala - i - Jangi and capture a massive munitions stockpile . Uprising . On November 25 , two CIA officers , Johnny " Mike " Spann from the highly secretive Special Activities Division , and Dave " Dawson " Tyson , an Uzbek speaker and region expert , arrived at Qala - i - Jangi to carry out the interrogations in the courtyard . The CIA officers questioned the prisoners , especially John Walker Lindh ( at the time , the interrogators noticed only that Lindh was a European - looking prisoner and different from the others , so he was singled out ) . Approximately two hours after the interviews began , prisoners , some of them with concealed grenades , suddenly rose up and attacked their captors , who were outnumbered four to one . Attacking in a suicidal manner , the revolting prisoners overran and killed Spann and several Afghan guards ; they also appeared to be often much better trained than their Northern Alliance fighters , many of whom got shocked and frightened by their enemies ' display of skill and fanaticism . The prisoners managed to take over the southern half of the fortress , including the armory and ammunition depot , seizing a large store of small arms , rocket - propelled grenade launchers , mortars and ammunition . With Spann missing in the chaos , Tyson escaped to the northern and more secure part of the fortress , where he was trapped with a television crew from the German ARD network . He borrowed their satellite phone , and called the U . S . embassy in Uzbekistan , requesting reinforcements . Tyson specifically requested no air support , due to the proximity of allied Afghan forces . The Afghans also brought reinforcements : their personnel and a T - 55 tank entered the compound and started firing into the prisoner - controlled area . Several other television crews arrived on the scene of the battle , ensuring it got wide media coverage ; the successive stages of the fighting were filmed extensively , providing rare footage of special forces units in combat . At 2 pm , a mixed special ops team , formed with nine U . S . Army Special Forces and six British Special Boat Service operators , arrived and joined the Afghans firing at the prisoners from the northern part of the fort . From 4 pm until nightfall , they directed two U . S . fighter - bomber aircraft for nine airstrikes against the entrenched prisoners , who continued to put up a fierce resistance . Despite Tyson ' s requests , 500 - pound precision - guided bombs were dropped on the armory , which was serving as a firebase for the prisoners . He and the German journalists were rescued when a relief action by four U . S . troops enabled them to escape . The next day , the allied Afghan militia set up a command - and - control post near the northern gate to direct their tank and mortar fire . By mid - morning they were joined by U . S . / British forces divided into three teams : a close air support team designated CAS - 1 that went inside the fortress along the bottom of the northeast tower to direct bombing strikes into the southern courtyard , a second close air support team designated CAS - 2 that positioned itself near the main gate of the fortress , and a Quick Reaction Force consisting of four more Special Forces troops , a U . S . Navy surgeon , and eight soldiers of the 10th Mountain Division . At 11 pm , a GBU - 32 guided bomb , weighing 2 , 000 pounds ( 957 kg ) , directed by the Air Force Special Tactics combat controller on the CAS - 1 team , called in the JDAM strike . The pilot mistakenly punched in the wrong coordinates , hitting the combat controller ' s position . The bomb ' s explosion killed at least four ( some sources say 30 ) allied militiamen on the northeast tower above the CAS - 1 team , flipped over a friendly tank , and injured all members of the CAS - 1 team , including five U . S . and two British operators . That night two AC - 130 Spectre gunships ( callsigns GRIM 11 and GRIM 14 ) circled over the fortress , firing thousands of rounds at the prisoners . The main ammunition depot was hit , creating a massive explosion which continued to burn throughout the night . One prisoner managed to escape from the fort , only to be captured and lynched by the local population . By the morning of November 27 , prisoner resistance had slackened . The allied forces mounted a systematic assault supported by tanks and other armored vehicles , and defeated a counterattack by the prisoners . By the end of the day , they had recaptured most of the fort , at that point facing only sporadic gunfire and some suicide grenade attacks . The Americans recovered Spann ' s body , which the prisoners had booby trap ped with a grenade . Afghan fighters looted the bodies of prisoners , extracting gold teeth , and finished off at least two who were found to be still alive . All prisoners had retreated to the basement of a central building , where they hid and were discovered only when they killed the body collectors who tried to enter it . Northern Alliance fighters fired into the area , threw in hand grenades , and even poured oil in and lit it on fire , but nevertheless the resistance continued . On November 28 , General Dostum arrived and personally tried to persuade the last prisoners to surrender , to no effect . The next day , he ordered the basement flooded with frigid irrigation water ; the last half - dead holdouts finally surrendered on December 1 . Of the estimated 300 – 500 prisoners brought to the fortress , only 86 emerged still alive ( some of whom later died of their wounds ) from the flooded basement ( where more than 60 of them have died ) , including John Walker Lindh . Some survivors later claimed they did not take part in the riot ; one told " The Observer " reporter Luke Harding that they wanted to surrender earlier , but a group of seven Arabs did not let them . Aftermath . Of the 86 prisoners who survived the battle , one was found to be John Walker Lindh , who had moved to Afghanistan to help the Taliban battle the Northern Alliance . Shortly after the battle , an embedded journalist working for CNN , Robert Young Pelton , managed to identify the badly injured and hypothermic Lindh , who was then saved separated from other prisoners and saved by an American special forces medic , and later repatriated to the United States to face charges of treason . In 2002 , Lindh was found guilty of aiding and supporting the enemy and sentenced to 20 years in prison without parole . In early 2002 , at last 50 other surviving prisoners were transferred to Camp X - Ray at the newly constructed Guantanamo Bay detention camp at the U . S . naval base at Guantanamo Bay , Cuba . They were mostly Arabs , including 21 Saudis and nine Yemenis , but also Pakistanis and others , such as Russian national Rasul Kudayev ( from Kabardino - Balkaria ) , who had allegedly joined the Afghanistan - based Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan ( IMU ) , and Abdul Jabar , an Uzbek member of the IMU . In 2004 , after three years of detention without trial ( at first at Camp X - Ray , until his identity was discovered ) , the U . S . citizen Yaser Esam Hamdi won a landmark U . S . Supreme Court case , " Hamdi v . Rumsfeld " , which affirmed the right of U . S . citizens to " habeas corpus " and trial ; he was released from United States custody without charges and was deported to his native Saudi Arabia . For his actions during the battle , Major Mark E . Mitchell , a U . S . Army Special Forces officer , was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross , the first such decoration to be awarded since the Vietnam War . Additionally , U . S . Navy medic Chief Petty Officer Stephen Bass was awarded the Navy Cross to for his actions while attached to the British Special Boat Service . Johnny " Mike " Spann , the only U . S . fatality , was recognized as the first American killed in combat during the U . S . 2001 invasion of Afghanistan . For his " extraordinary heroism " in fighting off the prisoners long enough to allow his colleagues to escape , Spann was posthumously awarded the CIA ' s Intelligence Star ; because the Intelligence Star is considered analogous to the Silver Star , the Department of Defense allowed him to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery . At Spann ' s memorial at the cemetery , officials said that , after being attacked , Spann " fought with his AK - 47 until it ran out of ammunition , then drew his pistol and emptied it , before turning to hand to hand combat which saw him shot . " Mike Spann ’ s family visited the fortress after his death . Afghan doctors who were present on site at the time of the riot told the Spann family they " thought Mike might run and retreat , but he held his position and fought using his AK rifle until out of ammo , and then drew and began firing his pistol , " and that only reason that they and several others were able to live was " because Mike stood his position and fought off the prisoners while enabling them the time to run to safety . " Controversy . Due to the high number of prisoner casualties , and the use of heavy weaponry against them , the Northern Alliance and the foreign coalition forces were accused of breaking the Geneva Conventions by using disproportionate means . American soldiers found a number of the dead with their arms tied behind their back . Abdulaziz al - Oshan , one of the detainees , later summarised the incident and told American authorities at Guantanamo Bay : " They called it an uprising and it ' s not ; it ' s some kind of massacre . " Amnesty International called for an independent inquiry , but the U . S . and British governments rejected this , arguing that the fierce and well - armed resistance of the uprising fully justified the use of airpower and heavy weapons against the revolting prisoners . The Afghan forces were criticized for mismanagement of the prisoners , which was believed to enable the uprising . The fighters were not properly searched , and some carried grenades into the prison . Dostum later admitted this had been a mistake . Also , as Qala - i - Jangi had been until recently a Taliban base , many of the prisoners had been there before and knew its layout . Dostum had planned to hold the men at a nearby airfield , but the U . S . was using it to ferry in supplies . By questioning the prisoners in a group , rather than separately , protected by few guards , the interrogators put themselves at risk with men known to be dangerous . George Tenet , director of the CIA , dismissed the accusations of mismanagement and praised his agents as " heroes " ; in " Bush at War " , the journalist Bob Woodward described Spann as a hero whose actions saved the lives of many .