Siege of Musa Qala - Under Siege

Under Siege

At one o'clock on July 17, the British observed several figures approaching the district centre through their night vision devices. Shortly afterward, the Taliban opened fire with a volley of four or five RPGs followed by small-arms fire. The Pathfinders responded with their SA-80 rifles, machine-guns and 51 mm mortars. Wight-Boycott ordered an artillery strike on a nearby building where a group of insurgents had taken refuge. The building, that happened to be a mosque, was heavily damaged by the strike, and a large number of Taliban were killed. When "Coco" the police chief, reported that Taliban trucks were moving down a nearby wadi, the garrison called for an airstrike, that destroyed one of them. Later two insurgents were killed by machine-gun fire as they were seen crawling towards the base. British intelligence suggested the Taliban had taken heavy losses, and in a report filed the next day, Wight-Boycott hoped he had given them a "bloody nose". This did not prevent the Taliban from regrouping and moving against the district centre again on the night of July 19. The defenders called an artillery fire mission, and several aircraft flew overhead, deterring the insurgents from attacking. After this, they returned every evening to launch limited harassment attacks.

By this time the Pathfinders had spent six weeks in the field, and they were beginning to show signs of exhaustion, while their equipment was becoming worn by constant use in difficult conditions. They were due to be relieved by the Danish Reconnaissance squadron, a 140-strong force equipped with MOWAG Eagle armoured vehicles. The Danish forces, accompanied by some British signals specialists, left Camp Bastion on July 21. As they approached Musa Qala from the West, the Pathfinders observed groups of Taliban regrouping to ambush them, and directed a Harrier GR7 against the insurgents, killing several. The Taliban had blocked the road with barrels, and attacked the Danish column from three sides with machine guns and RPGs. The column halted when one Eagle was destroyed by a mine and its three crewmen were wounded, and, after having directed an airstrike from a B-1 bomber against Taliban positions, it withdrew into the desert, much to the dismay of the Pathfinders. The garrison had now run out of food and water, and were reduced to drinking goats milk, while their ammunition was also running low, and they had no more batteries for their night vision devices. The Taliban chose December 24 to launch their largest attack against the district centre, in the form of a concerted assault by 300 militants against every side of the base. The attack opened with an RPG strike that destroyed one of the sangars, causing a Danish soldier to fall outside the compound. Private Mark Wilson of the Pathfinders used an old bedstead to climb the compound wall and help the injured Dane to safety under enemy fire, for which he was later awarded the Military Cross. Air support took 90 minutes to arrive, during which the base was subjected to continuous fire, which would have been even heavier, if the Danish column hadn't intercepted Taliban reinforcements coming from Now Zad. On July 26, after coalition aircraft dropped six 1000-pound bombs on known Taliban positions, the relief force finally broke into Musa Qala. There were no casualties, except for a Pathfinder sergeant who was accidentally shot by an ANP guard.

A Danish officer, Major Lars Ulslev Johannesen, now took command of the Musa Qala district centre. On July 27, an airstrike mistakenly destroyed the mosque adjoining the base, infuriating the police chief and the town elders. Johannesen had to convene a shura and promise that the mosque would be rebuilt at the coalitions expense. When asked whether the inhabitants should evacuate the town, Johannesen answered that they should stay, but over the following days, the population gradually abandoned their homes, leaving the area as a battleground between the Taliban and the coalition.

The long overdue evacuation of the Pathfinders was still a priority for the British. A first attempt, codenamed Operation Nakhod, was made on August 1, but ended in failure. The relief force, consisting of a patrol of D Squadron Household Cavalry Regiment, was ambushed on the outskirts of the town. A Spartan was destroyed by a roadside bomb, killing the patrol commander, Captain Alex Eida, and two soldiers, Second Lieutenant Ralph Johnson and Lance-Corporal Ross Nicholls. A Scimitar that came to their rescue was destroyed by multiple RPG hits, forcing its crew to bail out. The crews commander, Corporal Mick Flynn, took charge of the survivors, and gave covering fire to Lance-Corporal Andrew Radford as he rescued an injured colleague. For their actions, they were later respectively awarded the Military Cross and the Conspicuous Gallantry Cross. A company of British paratroops was later airlifted to the area to recover the bodies and destroy any sensitive equipment. The British drew several lessons from the failure of Operation Nakhod. The Household Cavalry, operating in their traditional role of long-distance armoured reconnaissance units, were commanded by the brigade headquarters in Kandahar, whose lack of situational awarenes and vague orders had contributed to the setback. As a result, they were transferred to the Battle group, and the idea of employing armoured units without infantry support in builtup areas was abandoned. The episode also demonstrated that the Taliban firmly controlled the area surrounding Musa Qala, and that nothing short of a full battle group operation could relieve the garrison.