Eventually the outnumbered SEALs were forced to withdraw from the peak.Īt Bagram, the Task Force 11 Quick Reaction Force was launched to attempt a rescue of the SEALs. A ferocious firefight erupted resulting in the death of the Combat Controller and two SEALs being wounded. As the SEALs and their Air Force Combat Controller exited the helicopter they were immediately engaged by the al Qaeda defenders. The crippled Chinook managed to escape the ambush and land several kilometres away.Ī second Chinook was dispatched which picked up the SEAL team and flew them back to the peak of Takur Ghar in a desperate search for the missing SEAL.

In the process, a SEAL fell from the rear ramp and tumbled into the snow below.

The Chinook was struck by RPGs and small arms fire and banked away to escape. Anaconda brought together both conventional American forces and a large collection of US and Coalition special operations forces to hunt down the al Qaeda remnants.Īs the SEAL’s special operation Chinook, flown by the Nightstalkers of the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, attempted to land on the peak of the 11,000 foot Takur Ghar, hidden al Qaeda defenders sprang an ambush. Anaconda was designed to engage large numbers of foreign al Qaeda fighters who had fled to the valley after the overthrow of their hosts, the Taliban government and the later battle of Tora Bora in December 2001 which forced many of the foreign fighters toward the border and into the Shah-i-Khot, a traditional refuge of mujahideen in the 1980s.

Takur Ghar by Leigh Neville