Special operations forces kill Taliban’s commander of Tangi Valley

Coalition and Afghan special operations forces killed the Taliban commander who led forces in an area in central Wardak where 38 US and Afghan troops, including 17 Navy SEALs, were killed when their helicopter was shot down in early August.

Qari Tahir, who the International Security Assistance Force described as the Taliban’s commander in the Tangi Valley in Wardak province, was killed yesterday in an airstrike in the Sayyidabad district. He was killed “after the security force located Tahir and an associate in a dry riverbed,” ISAF stated in a press release.

ISAF described Tahir as “a significant Taliban leader” who “coordinated ambush attacks against Afghan forces and led fighters under his control to conduct hijackings of convoy vehicles” and who also “facilitated abductions and held his hostages for ransom.”

Tahir was the target of the special operations raid on Aug. 6 in which the Taliban shot down a US Army Chinook. Thirty-eight US and Afghan troops, including 17 US Navy SEALS from the Naval Special Warfare Development Group (more commonly referred to as SEAL Team 6), were killed in the crash.

Tahir is the second Taliban leader involved in the Chinook shootdown to have been killed during an airstrike. On Aug. 9, a US special operations team killed Mohibullah, the commander who claimed credit for downing the helicopter, along with several of his fighters during a raid in the Chak district in Wardak.

Wardak, which is adjacent to Kabul province, has been the scene of controversy over the past two months. The Taliban are in control of the Tangi Valley following the withdrawal of US forces from Combat Outpost Tangi in April and its subsequent abandonment by Afghan forces. Earlier this month, the Taliban released a propaganda tape that shows hundreds of fighters mustering at the base and senior commanders taking a tour. And on Sept. 10, the Taliban detonated a massive suicide bomb outside of Combat Outpost Sayed Abad, killing four Afghans and wounding more than 100 people, including 77 US soldiers.

ISAF said security forces have “conducted more than 40 security operations in the Sayyidabad district” and “killed 35 insurgents and detained more than 80 suspected insurgents.”

Bill Roggio is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Editor of FDD's Long War Journal.

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8 Comments

  • mike merlo says:

    Another ‘kill box/grid’ luring in Afghanistan’s adversaries. Well done.

  • Neo says:

    That didn’t take long.

  • Soccer says:

    I asked on the forums about this incident. They said they had contacted Qari Yousef Ahmadi through an email, and this was the response:
    “This is a fake news story by the American war machine. The same mujahideen who shot down the chinook helicopter are alive and well as we speak and no mujahideen from that operation have been harmed by the Americans since the operation took place.
    In other news, in Sayedabad, 14 Americans were killed along with 2 tanks destroyed when their convoy rolled over a land mine. Medical helicopters were quick to fly to the scene and airlift all the dead, and the tank wreckage is still lying at the scene along with an entire field stained with blood from the incident.
    Less than 5km from where the tank attack took place, 9 NDS puppet agents were killed when their armored car rolled over a land mine, killing all on board. Mujahideen Of the Islamic Emirate quickly came to the scene in order to steal whatever weapons they could which included 2 silenced pistols, one radio, 3 cell phones and 1 Kalashnikov. Mujahideen also seized valuable documents, but left the scene in order to avoid American airstrikes, which harmed nobody. The Mujahideen then came back to set fire to the dead bodies and armored car and then safely left the area. ” ===== End quote
    And of course, this was read on the AMEF forums.

  • Alex Barnham says:

    Once people realize they have been sold a bill of goods that is so rotten and toxic, the old adage begins to take root. All of the people all of the time. No matter how stupid, human aggression has always proven toxic.

  • Alex Barnham says:

    Take a nation with lots of natural resources and simple people and make them fight with each other and while they are fighting, pick their pockets. Aren’t we sophisticated? We are really honest, good people? We are as low on the spiritual plane as possible and still walk upright.

  • Jim Cregg says:

    Bill, having an insight into the Seal and USMC mind, I expect severe revenge on all of them. I hope they succeed.

  • futbol says:

    Yeah, because the forums are where the real stories exist. Go read your 9/11 books, hippie.

  • Soccer says:

    futbol,
    You are arrogant and uninformed. I really don’t feel like explaining the whole story behind it, but your willingness to jump the gun and start personally attacking me doesn’t say much. Read around on the recent comments on the forum and you’ll see why I’m on those forums in the first place.
    Oh, and just for the record, when it comes to videos, it is a literal goldmine of information. A “jack-pot”, if you will. They promise they will release a video of a certain nature and then it is released soon after. I have access to a private forum full of info and I will take up that opportunity, regardless of what people like you think.
    And I’m also no hippie, either. Thanks for trying to judge my personality over a computer screen, dude. Good job. I was invited to the forums by jihadists so I could “learn the truth” and now I am using that opportunity to my advantage.
    And, finally, if Bill and the administrators here had a problem with me posting such material if would not be approved in the first place.

Iraq

Islamic state

Syria

Aqap

Al shabaab

Boko Haram

Isis