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Green Berets Battle Islamic State For Remote Afghan Valley
Published 4 years ago
Australian journalist Andrew Quilty embedded with US Army Green Berets over a several month period as they fought to drive Islamic State Khorasan Province (IS-KP) out of a remote valley in eastern Afghanistan's Nangarhar province during Operation Hamza.
Quilty had this to say about his epic collection of footage:Shot over the course of three trips to Achin, in eastern Afghanistan's Nangarhar province on a helmet-mounted GoPro, this short video looks at one U.S. Army Green Beret team's contribution to Operation Hamza, to rid the province of fighters claiming allegiance to the Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP). Although it took two years longer than General "Mick" Nicholson, the commander of international forces in Afghanistan when the operations began, had hoped, the militants were ultimately either killed or pushed out of southern Nangarhar's remote valleys. Most of those who survived the Nangarhar operations are believed to have crossed the border into neighbouring Pakistan and relocated to other areas in Afghanistan, such as Kunar province, where they were overcome in early 2020 by a combination of Afghan, American and Taliban forces. While they no longer hold any major tracts of territory, ISKP continue to claim responsibility for large scale, violent attacks, mainly against civilian targets in large cities including Kabul.