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lowed by the crack of gunire over their heads ODA
1333’s intelligence chief recalls. As the Americans
and Afghans scrambled for protective cover Apache
helicopters wheeled low outside the base hunting
for the ighters responsible blanketing the perimeter
with gunire and briely quieting the attacks.

BY THAT TIMEthe sun was out and the ighting had
died down enough to set up camp. When the Afghan
troops were inally able to shed their combat gear
it was clear many of them had been toddlers when
the war began in 2001. Some infantry soldiers still
had baby faces unlike the bearded tattooed Special
Forces team members. All were motivated to get back
into the ight. The Taliban had not seized control of a
provincial capital in Afghanistan since 2015. It wasn’t
going to happen again on their watch.
On Aug. 12 ODA 1333 prepared to mount a
counterattack. U.S. Special Forces Team ODA 1212
which arrived overnight would also push inside the
city. The teams would be further aided by 60 addi-
tional Afghan commandos and aerial footage from
MQ-9 Reaper drones. The goal was to secure the gov-
ernment facilities police headquarters prison and
district center under attack. The operational plan

was coordinated with Afghan forces which had in-

curred more than 100 casualties from two straight

days of ighting. As they left the outpost and headed

into the city team members could see decomposing

corpses in front of burned-out buildings.

For those who lived in Ghazni the scene was

apocalyptic. Gunire rattled through the air rockets

hissed and airstrikes crashed in the distance. Sami

Ahmadi a 24-year-old English student at Ghazni

University gathered his family and huddled in-

side his basement for shelter. “We were terriied”

he recalls. “Police were killed their bodies lying in

the road.”

As forces pushed farther into the city waves of

citizens emerged carrying what they could in their

arms to lee the ighting. They were migrating north

on foot to seek safety in nearby towns or even onto

Kabul. Behind them small teams of Taliban were

laced through Ghazni’s narrow serpentine streets.

The insurgents had stormed the prison on the

southeastern edge of the city to free captured ight-

ers but that attempt was ultimately thwarted. Their

efort to breach the provincial government building

was quashed as well. But the Taliban put up a tough

ight in the streets. At one point as ODA 1333’s con-

Two Afghan boys

paint a blast wall

in Ghazni; the

Taliban attacked

the city ahead

of the Muslim

holiday Eid

al-Adha