:Battle of Qala-i-Jangi

{{main article|Siege of Kunduz}}

In late November 2001, Taliban commanders, facing defeat in northern Afghanistan, agreed to surrender to the Northern Alliance warlord General Abdul Rashid Dostum, leader of the ethnic-Uzbek dominated National Islamic Movement of Afghanistan, outside the besieged city of Kunduz. The surrender was negotiated at Qala-i-Jangi on November 21Harnden, "First Casualty", p. 158 between Dostum and Taliban commanders Mullah Mohammed Fazl and Mullah Norullah Noori. At 03:00 on November 24, more than 400 Al Ansar "guest" foreign fighters (mostly from 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 {{convert|100|km}} away from the agreed capitulation site, close to Mazar-i-Sharif. Dostum described the Taliban surrender as a "great victory" for the Alliance,{{cite magazine |url= http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1001390-1,00.html |first1= Alex |last1= Perry |title= Inside the Battle at Qala-i-Jangi |magazine=Time |date= 20 December 2001 |access-date= February 20, 2007 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20070930100844/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1001390-1,00.html |archive-date= 2007-09-30 |url-status= dead }} a bloodless success that would allow the future reconciliation of citizens of Afghanistan. Thousands of prisoners were transported to the Sheberghan Prison where it was alleged that many of them died due to mistreatment during and after the transport.

The CIA wanted to question the foreign fighters about the activities of al-Qaeda. On the evening of November 24, it was decided to transfer the prisoners to Qala-i-Jangi ("the war fortress" in Dari), a 19th-century fortress near Mazar-i-Sharif that Dostum had previously used as his headquarters and ammunition depot. None of the prisoners being moved to the Qala-i-Jangi fort were Afghans. Many of themHarnden, "First Casualty", p. 168 were Arabs, from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and the Gulf states. There were also Azerbaijanis, Dagastanis, Filipinos, Indonesians, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, Pakistanis, Tajiks, Tatars, Turks, Uighurs, and Uzbeks. The group also included Africans from Algeria, Morocco, Nigeria, and Sudan. A few fighters appeared to be white Westerners.Estimates of the number of prisoners vary: some sources place their number at 300 ({{cite magazine |url= http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1001390-1,00.html |first1= Alex |last1= Perry |title= Inside the Battle at Qala-i-Jangi |magazine=Time |date= 20 December 2001 |access-date= February 20, 2007 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20070930100844/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1001390-1,00.html |archive-date= 2007-09-30 |url-status= dead |postscript=)}}, others at 400 ({{cite web |url-status=dead |postscript=) |url=http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/archives/2002b_Monday19August2002.htm |title=The House of War |website=4C |publisher=ABC |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071213192320/http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/archives/2002b_Monday19August2002.htm|archive-date=2007-12-13 }}, others at 500 {{cite web |url-status=live |postscript=) |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/1678083.stm |title=UK forces help end fort uprising |date=28 November 2001 |website=BBC News |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080117210003/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/1678083.stm|archive-date=2008-01-17}}. 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.Perry, Alex, "Inside the Battle at Qali i Jangi", Time, Dec 1, 2001 John Kerry's report for the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations later alleged it was a preplanned "Trojan Horse"-style operation, a gambit that would allow a diehard force of foreign fighters to take over a strategically important fortified position at Qala-i-Jangi and capture a massive munitions stockpile.{{cite web |url-status=live |url=http://www.foreign.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Tora_Bora_Report.pdf |title=Tora Bora Revisited: How We Failed to Get Bin Laden and Why It Matters Today |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130822004138/http://www.foreign.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Tora_Bora_Report.pdf |archive-date=2013-08-22 |at=Page 37 (chapter "Qala-i-Jangi: The Trojan Horse") |date=Nov 30, 2009 |website=Senate Committee on Foreign Relations }}

On 25 November, two CIA officers, Johnny Micheal Spann from the paramilitary Special Activities Division, and David Tyson, a case officer, Uzbek speaker and regional expert,{{cite news| url = http://www.uga.edu/islam/turkmen.html| title = Shrine Pilgrimage in Turkmenistan as a Means to Understand Islam among the Turkmen| year = 1997| author = David Tyson| publisher = University of Georgia| access-date = 2009-08-02| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090801171747/http://www.uga.edu/islam/turkmen.html| archive-date = 2009-08-01| url-status = live}} arrived at Qala-e-Jangi to carry out prisoner interrogations in the fort's courtyard.{{cite book|last= Moore|first= Robin|title= The Hunt for Bin Laden: Task Force Dagger|publisher= Random House|year= 2003|location= New York|pages= [https://archive.org/details/huntforbinladent00moor/page/167 167–169]|isbn= 0-375-50861-9|url= https://archive.org/details/huntforbinladent00moor/page/167}} The CIA officers questioned selected prisoners, especially Sulayman al-Faris who was an American citizen born as John Walker LindhKukis, Mark, "My Heart Became Attached: The Strange Journey of John Walker Lindh." Brassey's, Inc., 2003 p. 122(at the time, they noticed only that Lindh was a European-looking prisoner and different from the others, so he was singled out for an interrogation). Approximately two hours after the interviews began, a number of prisoners, some of them with concealed grenades, suddenly stood up and attacked their captors, who were outnumbered about four to one.George Tenet, At the Center of the Storm: My Years at the CIA 2007, pp. 221-224. {{ISBN|978-0-06-114778-4}}. Attacking in a suicidal manner, revolting prisoners overran and killed Spann and several Afghan guards; they also appeared to be often much better trained than their Northern Alliance captors, many of whom were shocked and frightened by their enemies' display of skill and fanaticism.Mark Kukis, "My Heart Became Attached": The Strange Journey of John Walker Lindh, pages 126-146. 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, grenades, rocket-propelled grenade launchers, mortars and ammunition.Berntsen, Gary and Ralph Pezzullo. Jawbreaker: The Attack on Bin Laden and Al Qaeda: A Personal Account by the CIA's Key Field Commander 2005, p. 252. {{ISBN|978-0-307-23740-8}}

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 his wife RosannHarnden, "First Casualty", p. 200-201 at their home in Tashkent, before then calling the U.S. embassy in Uzbekistan. He spoke to Major Mike Davison, a United States Air Force (USAF) officer, telling him not to send any air support due to the proximity of allied Afghan forces. A 15-man rescue force was sent from the Turkish school, a base in Mazar-e-Sharif, made up of 9 Green Berets, and eight men from Z Squadron Special Boat Service. Northern Alliance reinforcements also arrived, sending fighters and a T-55 tank into the compound, where they started firing into the prisoner-controlled area. Several other television crews reached the battle, resulting in much of the fighting being filmed. At 14:00, the rescue force arrived, joining the Afghans in firing at the prisoners from the northern part of the fort. From 16:00 until nightfall, despite Tyson's requests, the force directed two U.S. Navy F/A-18 Hornets to drop nine 500-pound GBU-12 Paveway II laser-guided bombs on the armory, which was serving as a base of fire for the entrenched prisoners. Tyson, German journalist Arnim Stauth and others fled just before dusk. Navy SEAL Stephen Bass then advanced to the western tower of the fort, locating the body of Spann,Harnden, "First Casualty", p. 239 with his actions during the battle earning him the Navy Cross.

The next day, Dostum's forces set up a command post near the northern gate to direct their tank and mortar fire. By midmorning, they were joined by U.S./British forces divided into three teams: a close air support team 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 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 soldiers from the 10th Mountain Division. At 11:00, a GBU-31 JDAM guided bomb, weighing 2,000 pounds (957 kg), was dropped from a U.S. Marine Corps F-18C Hornet, mistakenly hitting a friendly position after the pilot entered the wrong coordinates. The bomb's explosion killed several Afghans and wounded many others on the northeast tower, flipped over a T-55 tank, and wounded five U.S. and four British operators.[http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/presents/shows/house.of.war/interactive/interactive/house.of.swfThe house of war – www.cnn.com]– Retrieved February 20, 2007 {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070322202231/http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/presents/shows/house.of.war/interactive/interactive/house.of.swf |date=2007-03-22 }} That night, two AC-130H Spectre gunships circled over the fortress, firing at the prisoners. The main ammunition store was hit, creating a massive explosion that continued to burn throughout the night.Dodge Billingsley on location account of the event and post-action interview with AC-130 105mm gunner. Some prisoners managed to escape from the fort, only to be captured and lynched by the local population.Kukis, "My Heart Became Attached", p. 126-146

On the 27 November, the third day of the fighting, the allied forces mounted a systematic assault supported by tanks and other armored vehicles, defeating a counterattack by the prisoners. By the end of the day, they had recaptured most of the fort, at that point facing sporadic gunfire and some suicide grenade attacks. Afghans recovered Spann's body early on 28 November.Harnden, "First Casualty", p. 267-268 It was assumed by this point that nearly all of the prisoners were dead, but over 100 surviving prisoners had retreated to the basement dungeon of a central building. They were discovered only when body collectors attempted to enter, with the prisoners killing them and injuring two others. Northern Alliance fighters fired and threw in grenades and explosives into the basement, and even poured oil in and tried to set it alight, but the resistance continued. Later on 28 November, General Dostum arrived and personally tried to persuade the last prisoners to surrender, to no effect. The next day, Dostum ordered the dungeon flooded with frigid irrigation water.{{cite book |last=Boot |first=Max |author-link=Max Boot|title=War Made New |url=https://archive.org/details/warmadenewtechno00boot |url-access=registration |year=2006 |page=[https://archive.org/details/warmadenewtechno00boot/page/373 373] |isbn= 978-1-59240-315-8}} This tactic worked and the last holdouts finally surrendered on 1 December. Of the more than 400 prisoners brought to the fortress, just 86 emerged alive from the flooded basement. Some survivors later claimed they did not participate in the battle. One also told The Observer reporter Luke Harding that some wanted to surrender earlier, but a group of seven Arabs took control and did not let them.

Of the 86 prisoners who survived the battle, one was found to be John Walker Lindh, an American convert to Islam who had moved to Afghanistan prior to the September 11 attacks in order 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 as an American. Lindh was then separated from other prisoners and his life was saved by an American Special Forces medic. Lindh was later repatriated to the United States to face charges of treason. In 2002, he was found guilty of aiding and supporting the enemy and sentenced to 20 years in prison without parole.

In early 2002, at least 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 there were also some nationals from other countries such as Russian national Rasul Kudayev (from Kabardino-Balkaria), who had allegedly joined the Afghanistan-based Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU),Oliver Bullough, Let Our Fame Be Great: Journeys Among the Defiant People of the Caucasus, page 417. 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.

File:Gen Brown awarding first DSC since Vietnam to Maj Mark Mitchell.jpg being decorated for his combat actions during the battle by General Bryan D. Brown, chief of the U.S. Special Operations Command]]

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.[https://www.army.mil/article/1666/afghanistan-sf-leader-gets-first-dsc-since-vietnam/ Afghanistan SF leader gets first DSC since Vietnam]; http://www.army.mil/ {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140416122509/http://www.army.mil/ |date=2014-04-16 }}; – Retrieved June 28, 2007. Additionally, a U.S. Navy corpsman, Chief Petty Officer Stephen Bass, was awarded the Navy Cross for his actions while attached to the British Special Boat Service.[https://archive.today/20130808075705/http://www.navytimes.com/article/20081027/NEWS/810270317/Lt-earned-Navy-Cross-he-can-t-wear "Lt. earned a Navy Cross he can't wear"]. Navy Times.{{cite news |author= |title=Coronado SEAL wins Navy Cross |url=http://legacy.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/military/20031101-9999_2m1seal.html |newspaper=San Diego Union-Tribune |agency=Copley News Service |date=1 November 2003 |access-date=2 November 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161104004945/http://legacy.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/military/20031101-9999_2m1seal.html |archive-date=4 November 2016 |url-status=dead }} Bass' Navy Cross was the first Navy Cross awarded since Operation Just Cause.{{cite web |url=http://valor.militarytimes.com/recipient.php?recipientid=3630 |title=Stephen Bass |author= |website=Hall of Valor |publisher=Military Times |access-date=2 November 2016 |quote=During the same battle for which Stephen Bass became the first Navy SEAL to earn the Navy Cross since the invasion of Panama in 1989, Army Special Forces Major Mark Mitchell also earned the Distinguished Service Cross. |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161104011232/http://valor.militarytimes.com/recipient.php?recipientid=3630 |archive-date=2016-11-04 |url-status=live }} A biography of Bass can be found within the book The Navy Cross: Extraordinary Heroism in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Other Conflicts.{{cite journal |author=Jeffery Cook, Ph.D. |date=August 2008 |title=James E. Wise, Jr. and Scott Baron, The Navy Cross: Extraordinary Heroism in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Other Conflicts, Annapolis, MD : Naval Institute, 2007, 272 pp. |url=http://www.ijnhonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/wisebaron-cook.pdf |journal=International Journal of Naval History |volume=7 |issue=2 |access-date=2 November 2016 }}
{{cite book|author1=James E. Wise|author2=Scott Baron|title=The Navy Cross: Extraordinary Heroism in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Other Conflicts|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i-kr4udbyuIC|year=2007|publisher=Naval Institute Press|isbn=978-1-59114-945-3}}

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.{{cite web |title=CIA Honors Slain Agency Officers at Annual Ceremony Press Release. Director of Central Intelligence, CIA. |url=https://www.cia.gov/cia/public_affairs/press_release/2002/pr05312002.html |access-date=2017-08-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070509072644/https://www.cia.gov/cia/public_affairs/press_release/2002/pr05312002.html |archive-date=2007-05-09 |url-status=dead }} He was buried in Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors due to his prior service in the Marine Corps, as well as his time in the CIA.Bob Woodward, Bush At War. Simon and Schuester, 2002, page 317. Spann's family visited the fortress after his death, and were told by Afghan doctors who were present on site at the time of the riot that 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 the 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."{{cite magazine| access-date= April 26, 2010| url= http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,186592-1,00.html| title= Inside the Battle at Qala-I-Jangi| magazine=Time | first= Alex| last= Perry| date= December 1, 2001| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20100629105751/http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,186592-1,00.html| archive-date= 2010-06-29| url-status= dead}}

Due to the high number of prisoner casualties, and the use of massive firepower against them, the Northern Alliance and the foreign coalition forces were accused of breaking the Geneva Conventions by using disproportionate means.[https://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/dec/01/afghanistan.richardnortontaylor Luke Harding, Simon Tisdall, Nicholas Watt & Richard Norton-Taylor. "Fatal errors that led to massacre"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303203623/http://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/dec/01/afghanistan.richardnortontaylor |date=2016-03-03 }}, The Guardian. December 1, 2001. American soldiers found a number of the dead with their arms tied behind their back.Justin Huggler, "[https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/how-our-afghan-allies-applied-the-geneva-convention-618496.html How our Afghan allies applied the Geneva Convention]{{dead link|date=August 2021|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}", The Independent, 29 November 2001. Abdulaziz al-Oshan, one of the detainees, later summarized the incident and told American authorities at Guantanamo Bay: "They called it an uprising and it's not; it's some kind of massacre."Worthington, Andy, The Guantanamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America's Illegal Prison, Pluto Press. {{ISBN|978-0-7453-2665-8}}, 2007. Amnesty International called for an independent inquiry,Richard Norton-Taylor. "[https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2001/dec/15/afghanistan.politics SAS role in fort deaths questioned"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160721210328/https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2001/dec/15/afghanistan.politics |date=2016-07-21 }}, The Guardian, December 15, 2001. 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 airstrikes and heavy weapons against the revolting prisoners.

The Afghan forces were criticized for mismanagement of the prisoners, which is believed to have enabled the uprising. The captives 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 previously 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";[http://archives.cnn.com/2001/US/11/28/ret.spann.profile/ "Spann described as a hero"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070117224340/http://archives.cnn.com/2001/US/11/28/ret.spann.profile/ |date=2007-01-17 }}. CNN, Nov 28, 2001. in Bush at War, the journalist Bob Woodward described Spann as a hero whose actions saved the lives of many.

• In the documentary The House of War, Robert Young Pelton and filmmaker Paul Yule provided a detailed account of these events. Interviews and footage from CNN, ARD, and elsewhere (Dodge Billingsley and recovered interrogation footage) show Mike Spann and David Tyson moments before the uprising. Pelton's The World's Most Dangerous Places one-hour special "Inside Afghanistan" details his time with the U.S. Special Forces team (ODA 595) that fought with Dostum's troops.
• The incident was documented in the National Geographic documentary series Critical Situation "Taliban Situation" and by French reporter Damien Degueldre in Good Morning Afghanistan.
• Doug Stanton's nonfiction book Horse Soldiers: The Extraordinary Story of a Band of U.S. Soldiers Who Rode to Victory in Afghanistan opens with an account of the battle.
• Frederick Forsyth's novel The Afghan includes a partly fictional but detailed account of the battle and its context. Forsyth calls the captives the "six hundred most dangerous men in Asia." Out of 600, he counts 60 non-Arabs. The rest were "ultrafanatical" al-Qaeda Arabs who wanted to die and take an enemy with them to become a rewarded martyr.
• Damien Lewis's nonfiction book Bloody Heroes is a detailed account for the event with references and interviews from members of the SBS team.
• On the 19th anniversary of the battle, Tyson recounted the story of Spann's death, the battle that lead to it, and how he honored Spann's legacy in a podcast interview: Intelligence Matters.{{Cite web|title=Former CIA officer talks about first U.S. casualty in Afghanistan on anniversary of Mike Spann's death|url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/former-cia-officer-talks-first-us-casualty-in-afghanistan/|access-date=2020-11-28|website=www.cbsnews.com|language=en-US}}
• Toby Harnden's 2021 nonfiction book "First Casualty: The Untold Story of the CIA Mission to Avenge 9/11" contains eight out of 22 chapters on the Battle of Qala-i-Jangi

• Badaber Uprising, a similar uprising of the Soviet and Afghan communist captives in a fortress prison in Pakistan in 1985
• Fall of Mazar-i-Sharif, which involved a killing of hundreds of Taliban who were cornered by the Northern Alliance and U.S. forces in a school building in 2001
• Dasht-i-Leili massacre

{{reflist|30em}}

{{Afghanistan War}}

{{Controversies surrounding people captured during the War on Terror}}

{{Prison riots and uprisings}}

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