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	OEF - Operation Anaconda
		Operation Anaconda began late Friday evening on March 1, 2002 in the mountainous Shahi Khot region south of the city of Gardez in eastern Afghanistan.
		Operation Anaconda is a force of about 2,000 soldiers of which more than half are U.S. conventional forces, Special Forces, and Special Operating Forces commanded by Major General Buster Hagenbeck of the 10th Mountain Division, headquartered at Fort Drum, New York.
		Operation Anaconda was part of the ongoing effort in Afghanistan to root out Taliban and al-Qaida forces holed up in the Pakitia Province area of the country.
	www.globalsecurity.org /military/ops/oef-anaconda.htm (277 words)

	The Airpower of Anaconda
		Ultimately, Operation Anaconda was a success, due in no small part to the contributions of airpower and the bravery and heroism of those on the ground and in the air alike.
		Operation Anaconda was born out of a plan to trap al Qaeda fighters regrouping in the mountains.
		Operation Anaconda's second flaw was that the plan was not tightly coordinated with the air component.
	www.afa.org /magazine/sept2002/0902anaconda.asp (3659 words)

	Operation Anaconda - Military Photos
		It was 4:30 am, March 2, D-Day of Operation Anaconda, when the pilots of the 159th Aviation Brigade and the 7th Battalion, 101st Aviation Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) started their pre-flight checks and began to turn the rotors of their CH-47 Chinook troop-transport helicopters.
		The role of escort for air-mobile operations is a specified mission for the Apache, as is the mission's mixed load-out of cannon, rockets, and Hellfire missiles.
		However, the conditions of Operation Anaconda were a stretch for the helicopter and its crews.
	www.militaryphotos.net /forums/showthread.php?t=5710 (5855 words)

	AEI - Events (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-09)
		The Anaconda plan was drawn up and executed by a gaggle of different task forces that Central Command had thrown together at virtually the last moment to fight the biggest battle of the war.
		Operational intelligence of that variety is extraordinarily hard to come by and had been lousy throughout the Afghan operation for a wide variety of reasons.
		Even at the time of Operation Anaconda, when you asked folks in Bagram why isn't this here, why isn't that here, folks would kind of shuffle and look at their shoes and sort of mention, like, well, you know, this isn't the only theater we're probably going to be fighting in.
	www.aei.org /events/filter.all,eventID.1030/transcript.asp (9570 words)

	Association of the United States Army: Operation Anaconda: Taking the Fight to the Enemy in Afghanistan (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-09)
		Operation Anaconda was the largest ground operation in the Afghanistan campaign of Operation Enduring Freedom, and it was the largest combat air assault since Operation Desert Storm.
		Secretary Rumsfeld said Operation Anaconda indicated America's intent to continue aggressive action to eliminate pockets of Taliban and al Qaeda fighters in Afghanistan, and he said that such operations will continue until the job is done.
		Operation Anaconda was pure offense -- a fight taken to the enemy by American soldiers.
	www.ausa.org /webpub/DeptArmyMagazine.nsf/byid/CCRN-6CCS38 (977 words)

	Operation Anaconda - Roberts Ridge, Shahikot Afghanistan
		While the military declares Anaconda a success, it, like the earlier operation at Tora Bora, appears to have allowed most of the Al Qaida fighters in the Shahikot area to slip away to fight another day.
		While the closing chapters are peppered with his political commentary on America's incursion into Iraq, his reporting on operations conducted by the elite forces of the world is a nice, tiddy historical record.
		Also included are pics of JTF2 Hummers and mountain operations,descriptions of their operations as well as Navy SEALs, Grom and a large chapter on the Aussie SAS (who come across really well as no-nonsense professionals.) There is also a good blow by blow account of the Moscow raid against Chechen terrorists in 2002.
	www.baseops.net /militarybooks/anaconda.html (675 words)

	Anaconda: Object Lesson In Poor Planning Or Triumph Of Improvisation? by Elaine Grossman
		The most widely discussed concern dogging Anaconda is a view, held by many senior Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force officers, that the battle's Army commander failed to draw upon their expertise and resources in the weeks of planning that led up to the operation.
		Though the operation was Army-led, even some officers in that service have questioned why ground leaders vastly misjudged the number of al Qaeda and Taliban fighters on the ground as being one-tenth the number U.S. forces and their Afghan allies ultimately encountered (Inside the Pentagon, Oct. 3, 2002, p1).
		One of Anaconda’s two battalion commanders brought in two of his four mortars on the first day of battle, but his troops were unable to get the weapons set up because their landing zones were under fire all day long, Army officials said.
	www.d-n-i.net /grossman/anaconda_object_lesson.htm (8338 words)

	Operation Veritas: Summary
		The Secretary of State for Defence announced the deployment of a battlegroup formed around 45 Commando RM to conduct ground operations against other pockets of Al Qaida and Taliban resistance.
		Operation Anaconda continued in the Gardez region, with tactical and strategic aircraft engaged on air support missions.
		Afghan and Coalition forces began operations against Taliban and Al Qaida forces in caves south of Gardez.
	www.operations.mod.uk /veritas/summary_jan-mar02.htm (639 words)

	WorkingForChange-Reinventing Operation Anaconda
		Operation Anaconda failed the smell test: It did not achieve its mission and the continuously changing stories by Pentagon spokespersons stand as a monument to the old cliché that truth may actually be the first casualty of war.
		From the first of March, when Operation Anaconda began, until it ended, there was "a minefield of contradictory statements and unanswered questions," writes O'Neill.
		Operation Mountain Lion was kicked off Monday, April 1, "when Charlie Company of the 1st Battalion was inserted by helicopter from Kandahar -- a two-and-a-half hour flight north and east by CH-47 Chinooks -- to establish a blocking position to keep any al-Qaeda and Taliban crossing over from Pakistan to attack the Americans."
	www.workingforchange.com /article.cfm?ItemId=13138 (1340 words)

	Why War? Analysis: The Questionable Outcomes of Operation Anaconda
		Operation Anaconda signals the beginning of a new phase of the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan.
		Operation Anaconda, the fiercest battle in the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan, continued March 8, with the U.S. command claiming that complete victory was near after the deaths of several hundred al Qaeda fighters.
		Islamic news agencies, meanwhile, claimed the operation has been a failure: They say only a few dozen militants holed up in snowy mountain caves have been killed and that U.S. losses have been significantly higher than the eight dead and 40 wounded that officials have acknowledged.
	www.why-war.com /news/2002/03/12/thequest.html (542 words)

	Operation Anaconda: Success or Failure? by Tommy Ates - Democratic Underground
		On March 18th, the Pentagon announced that today was last day of maneuvers for Operation Anaconda, the military campaign to route out the largest known pocket of ex-Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters near the town of Gardez, in eastern Afghanistan.
		The military's view of a successful military operation is that the enemy either 'surrenders or die.' To which, the holy warriors produced small arms fire and a downed a U.S. helicopter early in the battle.
		In terms of the war on terror, and Western interests, the real issue remains that Operation Anaconda cannot hide the illogical argument that fighting disparate rebels does not make 'nation-building,' and like it or not it is an idea that Bush administration must address in order to preserve the peace in Afghanistan.
	www.democraticunderground.com /articles/02/03/20_anaconda.html (895 words)

	Not a Good Day to Die, the Untold Story of Operation Anaconda Infantry Magazine - Find Articles (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-09)
		Operation Anaconda mistakes start with the decision in Washington to limit troop levels to prevent political fallout.
		As usual with operational decisions made at the strategic level, reality is not fully considered, and the ground-level troops take the brunt of the mistakes in killed and wounded.
		A highlight of the operation, the successes of the classified Advance Force Operations unit, a select Special Operations group of 13 elite Soldiers from the Army's Delta Force and the Navy's Seal Team Six are retold in detail.
	www.findarticles.com /p/articles/mi_m0IAV/is_1_95/ai_n16346583 (915 words)

	Operation Anaconda - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
		This was the first operation in the Afghanistan theater to involve a large number of U.S. conventional (i.e.
		Special operations teams from the Advanced Force Operations (AFO) detachment lead by Lieutenant Colonel Pete Blaber were to provide on-location reconnaissance in the Shahi-Kot Valley for the operation.
		In the wake of Operation Anaconda, relations between US and UK forces on the ground soured when Stars and Stripes, the magazine for American forces and their families, openly criticized the Royal Marines for returning "empty-handed" from their search for al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters claiming that Britain's contribution to the campaign was "disappointing".
	en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Operation_Anaconda (2992 words)

	Operation Anaconda: Win-win, lose-lose
		ISLAMABAD - The results of the just-ended 16-day Operation Anaconda, the biggest and most important military engagement of US forces in Afghanistan, are richer in statistics than in substance.
		Operation Anaconda involved about 1,000 US troops, including Special Forces, 200 commandos from allies including Canada and Australia, and a couple of thousand Afghan forces, including a thousand-man detachment of the Afghan interim government.
		The results of Operation Anaconda, which was declared a "victory" by the US, was followed by a day later by another attack on US bases and Afghan allied forces on Wednesday in Khost in eastern Afghanistan, a stark reminder of the limitations of US military power.
	www.atimes.com /c-asia/DC22Ag01.html (858 words)

	spiked-politics \| Article \| The strange battle of Shah-i-Kot
		Operation Anaconda was 'an unqualified and absolute success', said US General Tommy Franks on 18 March 2002, as the US offensive against al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters in the Shah-i-Kot region of Gardez in east Afghanistan finally came to an end (1).
		Operation Anaconda began on 1 March 2002 as a battle against 'the last remaining' al-Qaeda and Taliban forces holed up in the Shah-i-Kot mountains - with US commanders talking about 'wrapping up the operationin little more than 24 hours' (9).
		Surprise or not, five days into Operation Anaconda the US military reassured us that it was 'on top' in east Afghanistan, and that the battle 'should be won in a couple of days' time' (14).
	www.spiked-online.com /Articles/00000006D851.htm (2176 words)

	Rumsfeld, Franks Brief on Operation Anaconda
		Indeed, we have lost eight American service members in this current operation thus far, and many hundreds at this moment are putting their lives at risk to deal with this brutal and determined adversary.
		And so I believe that tactical surprise was, in fact, gained when the operation went in, keeping in mind that there were a great many landing zones involved and a great many approaches involved as we moved into this objective area.
		Franks: What we'll do inside this operational area is we will continue to search and clear, confirm and deny until we have cleared the entirety of this particular area which we named as the objective: that is, the mission that the force entered with.
	www.usembassy.it /file2002_03/alia/a2030602.htm (6123 words)

	DefenseLINK News: Anaconda Over, but Operations Continue in Afghanistan (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-09)
		WASHINGTON, March 18, 2002 -- Operation Anaconda is officially over, but skirmishes near Gardez and west of Kandahar prove the Defense Department's premise that actions in Afghanistan are not complete.
		Operation Anaconda was important because it showed al Qaeda and Taliban that the United States was serious, "that our troops are up to the task," Rosa said.
		She did say that Operation Anaconda had effects on the al Qaeda.
	www.defenselink.mil /news/Mar2002/n03182002_200203185.html (403 words)

	UPI: American Green Beret Operates on dozens of wounded soldiers through the battle
		Soldiers of a locally raised garrison headed by General Zia, troops who played a key role in the pincer movement to surround al Qaida in Shah-i-Kot, wore freshly delivered American green camouflage uniforms and boots when UPI interviewed them at their base in a medieval fortress overlooking the town of Gardez.
		No actual figure has been released yet for prisoners taken in Operation Anaconda, but the number was believed to be small.
		The most serious U.S. casualties of operation Anaconda occurred when a Blackhawk helicopter was shot down by an RPG.
	www.superpatriots.us /newsarchives/upi1.htm (1130 words)

	USATODAY.com - Operation Anaconda complete, commander says (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-09)
		BAGRAM, Afghanistan (AP) — The commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan declared Monday that the operation to destroy Taliban and al-Qaeda in the eastern mountains was "an unqualified and absolute success" despite claims by Afghan allies that most of the enemy fighters got away.
		Operation Anaconda was launched March 2 to clear al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters from the Shah-e-Kot valley in Paktia province.
		Franks refused to speculate on the number of enemy fighters who may have been killed in Operation Anaconda but insisted the area "is a very different place" than it was when the operation began.
	www.usatoday.com /news/sept11/2002/03/18/afghan-fighting.htm (543 words)

	AV Press: Fog lifts on Operation Anaconda
		David Gray, the chief of operations for all coalition forces engaged in Anaconda.
		Though many details have yet to come out, a clearer picture of Operation Anaconda has emerged from interviews with the officers who planned and commanded it and with Afghan fighters and wit-nesses on the ground.
		Planning for the operation be-gan in early February, Gray said, after intelligence information indi-cated a large number of al-Qaida and Taliban had massed in the mountain area of Paktia province.
	www.avpress.com /n/sp/attack/sty696.hts (1310 words)

	Operation Anaconda ends but fresh troops set to fly in - theage.com.au
		US forces, moving to destroy the still potent threat from surviving al Qaeda and Taliban fighters, killed 16 people in an attack on a convoy in south-eastern Afghanistan and detained 31 while searching a compound near the southern city of Kandahar, senior military officials said yesterday.
		It will be the biggest British deployment for combat operations since the Gulf War 11 years ago and Britain's Defence Secretary, Geoff Hoon, warned MPs to expect casualties.
		During Operation Anaconda, America relied on its own troops and a large contingent of Western allies to clear out the Arma mountains south of Kabul.
	www.theage.com.au /articles/2002/03/19/1016519809251.html (529 words)

	Lessons Learned: Operation Anaconda Military Medicine - Find Articles (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-09)
		Anaconda was also the highest elevation engagement ever recorded by the United States.
		Operational awareness has to be gained, movement to a base or position must be accomplished, development of gun emplacements, and much more must be addressed before a chow/rest program can be implemented.
		During Operation Anaconda, the first 2 days were very demanding.
	www.findarticles.com /p/articles/mi_qa3912/is_200410/ai_n9464206 (1145 words)

	Was Operation Anaconda ill-fated from start? by Elaine Grossman
		One of the enduring casualties from Operation Anaconda has been trust between the services, with Air Force and Army officers most seriously divided over how the battle was planned and waged, evidenced in extensive interviews on the topic.
		In addition, CENTCOM’s designated special operations element “was noticeably absent in the early phase of the [Afghan] campaign, despite being responsible for the command and control” of special operations forces, according to the paper.
		Mulholland and his staff “were forced to operate at an increased level of responsibility that they were not manned, trained or equipped adequately to perform without significant personnel and technical augmentation,” he writes.
	www.d-n-i.net /grossman/army_analyst_blames.htm (4008 words)

	Military.com -- IN FOCUS
		When the commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, Gen. Franks, called Operation Anaconda "an unqualified and absolute success," many Afghan commanders were quick to disagree.
		Afghanistan chief of intelligence said Thursday that about 340 al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters were killed during Operation Anaconda, an estimate far closer to figures cited by U.S. commanders than previously cited by Afghan officials.
		The plan was to seal all escape routes from the Shah-e-Kot valley and then slowly squeeze al-Qaida and Taliban fighters who had massed in the frigid hills of eastern Afghanistan.
	www.military.com /ContentFiles/FC_index_032202.htm (145 words)

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