In the history of the war in Afghanistan Musa Qala has become an iconic name for the British Army. Fought between 2006 and 2007 it represents a defeat which was turned into victory following the spilling of a great deal of blood. During the first stage the understrength British 3 Para Battlegroup assisted by Danish and Estonian troops came under fierce Taliban pressure and according to the National Army Museum in London “in the bitter siege that followed, it was only the sheer professionalism and skill-at-arms of these troops that ensured a successful defence.”
The fighting ended in October 2006 when, in a controversial move, control was ceded to local tribal elders but the truce failed. In a carefully planned and well executed operation the town was finally retaken on December 12 the following year by Nato’s Helmand Task Force led by the British Army’s 52 Infantry Brigade. It was also the first time that the Afghan army played a key allowing the overall British commander Brigadier Andrew MacKay to claim: “Clearly the retaking of Musa Qala has quite substantially altered how we can view Helmand and it’s really a question of squeezing this insurgency to limit its effect throughout Helmand.”
At the same time he conceded that a battle won did not signify an end to the war and that he feared that the Taliban would regroup for the new campaigning season in the following summer. Not only were they driven by a common desire to eject Nato soldiers but during the operation they revealed a worrying ability to conduct low intensity operations. Mackay also noted that they could afford to pay their fighters well by Afghan standards and that they possessed a substantial arsenal of modern weapons.
As Nato intelligences sources noted at the time there had also been a worrying increase in suicide bombing tactics. Until then those were unknown in Afghanistan but in the first week of February 2008 the Taliban scored a singular success when a Taliban bomber blew himself up in a mosque in Helmand’s capital Lashkar Gah killing seven Afghans including the deputy provincial governor Pir Mohammed. Coupled with the earlier bombing of an Afghan army bus Kabul earlier in the day the incidents reinforced a growing belief that Nato forces would be unable to contain the threat posed by Taliban fighters. In that sense Musa Qala was both a high point in the west’s operations against the Taliban and a foretaste of things to come as Helmand province became the main battleground for the next five years.
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