The Battle of Bescham wwas fought on 23 October 2001 at the Taliban-occupied village of Bescham during the Invasion of Afghanistan. With assistance from US special forces soldiers from the US 5th Special Forces Group, Abdul Rashid Dostum's Northern Alliance forces were able to call in close air support against the Taliban fighters in Bescham and drive them out of the village.
History[]
On 19 October 2001, Operational Detachment Alpha 595 - consisting of 12 US Green Berets under Captain Mitch Nelson - was inserted into northern Afghanistan by Chinook helicopters. They were taken to "The Alamo" fortified camp in the mountains by a CIA agent and some local fighters, where they met with Abdul Rashid Dostum and brought him gifts of horse feed and vodka. Dostum had Captain Nelson and five other Americans accompany his main force to kill Taliban while six other men remained at the fortified camp to keep guard. The first target was the village of Bescham, which was ruled with an iron fist by Mullah Razzan. The Americans called in close air support from the Cobaki Caves 30,000 feet away after confirming that the concentration of fighters, pickup trucks, tanks, and armored vehicles below were Taliban (with Dostum radioing Razzan and telling his men to shout at the Americans who were about to kill them, confirming that the forces in the village were Razzan's Taliban). The first barrage missed the village, so Nelson moved to a cluster of rocks to call in more strikes. A Taliban element began to fire on Nelson and another US soldier, but the US soldiers and Northern Alliance fighters held off the Taliban until they called in danger-close airstrikes. The next strafing run hit the village and the Taliban vehicles, destroying the Taliban forces in the village.
A day later, the Northern Alliance forces decided to mount a charge against the village after more close air support was called in on Taliban tanks and buildings. Many Taliban fighters decided to surrender (having been forced to switch sides, including Dostum's own nephew), but Razzan began to shoot his own surrendering men. Soon, more Taliban armored vehicles and tanks arrived from a supply line, repelling the Northern Alliance charge with heavy losses. The Americans covered Dostum's retreat, and the Americans sent Sam Diller to lead a three-man unit to strike the Taliban supply route at the Tiangi Gap, as cutting the supply line would prevent the Taliban from sending more artillery to the village. As Diller's three-man unit set out to cut off the Taliban supply route, Nelson had Hal Spencer and the other six ODA 595 soldiers head from "the Alamo" to the Cobaki Caves with fresh horses. Spencer, who slipped a disk on his back during the horse ride, called in fresh airstrikes to attack the village, destroying more Taliban armor. The Northern Alliance then launched another attack on the village, where they faced the surviving Taliban fighters and a pickup truck technical. The Taliban put up a tough fight, but Dostum himself fired an RPG at the Taliban pickup, causing a large explosion which took out the last of the Taliban forces in the center of the town.
Aftermath[]
On 29 October 2001, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld sent Nelson an e-mail telling him to hurry up and get to Mazar-i-Sharif before winter set in and the advance would be impossible. Nelson responded with an e-mail telling Rumsfeld about the situation on the ground, emphasizing how he was teaching Northern Alliance fighters how to charge on horseback against T-72 tanks, mortars, and machine-guns. On 4 November, after a few more attacks on Taliban positions, the Americans and Northern Alliance forces set up camp at the Shulgareh Caves. It was then that Spencer broke the bad news to Nelson that the US sent Operational Detachment Alpha 555 to assist Dostum's rival Atta Muhammad Nur in taking Mazar-i-Sharif, believing that he could reach the city first. Upon discovering this from Nelson, Dostum and his army decided to abandon ODA 595, who launched an attack on the Taliban at Tiangi on 9 November.
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