Both are awake, both unwilling to break the silence as their young child sleeps nearby. Spotlighting a Special Forces unit that went to Afghanistan soon after 9/11 to hunt and destroy al-Qaeda, "12 Strong" follows this dirty dozen led by Hemsworth's "Capt. Late in the afternoon, a convoy of mud-spattered off-road vehicles pulls up, and a dozen dusty Americans in tan chocolate chip camo climb out. He was later shot in the leg when the makeshift prison he was in became the scene of a violent Taliban uprising. What happened to General Dostum in Afghanistan? The CIA had begun to work with Massouds people in October of 1999 hoping to pay him to kill Osama bin Laden. That afternoon, Dostum and I set off for the fort, where the uprising has been all but quelled. It also means a great deal to our families, who sacrifice so much, that what we accomplished is finally being brought more into public light. Yes. You see the village; you see the bunkers, says a second Steve, one of the two Air Force men attached to the team to help coordinate air strikes. But back in 2001, Warlord Dostum who was head of the Jumbesh political party had simpler but identical goals: Align with the U.S. to return from exile in Turkey and bring the Taliban into the new government. Mitch Nelson (Aussie Chris Hemsworth, aka Thor) is the highly trained but not combat-tested leader of the small team dubbed Task Force Dagger and sent by Col. Mulholland (William. It took about an hour to get the aircraft. to talk. I whip my horse, it takes three steps, and stops. Dostum and the Green Berets drove by them as they headed for Kunduz. During the press conference with filmmakers and cast members after the movie screening, all expressed their pride in relaying the story of true-life heroes that had been classified until recently. Mitch Nelson, scanned the dark landscape around the landing zone. On the next pass, three more bombs went through the hole in the roof made by the first bomb, killing most of the holdouts inside. Their rooms are filled with green Army cots, dirty brown packs, and green flight bags. In the movie, Nelson and his men must link up with General Abdul Rashid Dostum and his small band of fightersa partnership as much diplomatic as military, according to 12 Strong's director. At first, the planes wouldnt fly below 15,000 feetthe brass was worried about surface-to-air missilesso targeting was sketchy. ), Commander Abdul Karim Fakir, who was in charge of the fortress while Dostum was in Kunduz, had worked with the Green Berets since they landed in Afghanistan. The Regulators job was to invent a new form of warfare: coordinating lightly armed horseback attacks with massive applications of American air powerall without hitting civilians or friendly forces. I wondered if they could adapt to these circumstances. The Taliban had dug-in, trench-line bunkers shooting machine guns, heavy ma-chine guns, and RPGs [rocket-propelled grenades]. He also used to compete in collegiate rodeos. Faizal has his prosthetic leg off. After that hit, all of them took off on foot to Mazar. I know because I counted the dead bodies. If the U.S. Special Forces team didnt work together with General Dostum and his militia, they would have had no chance against the tens of thousands of Taliban fighters. We accepted a huge amount of risk." He is a kingmaker who works the ethnic minority to choose who will rule and who will fail. Not everything goes to plan during a raid on a village Robert Young Pelton, all rights reserved. The doctors huddle around a steel-drum stove, smiling and talking, oblivious to the pain and suffering around them. Dostum points to the fresh dirt of new graves in the cemetery. The lead horsemen disappeared behind the rocks, and the Regulators all held their breath, praying the bombs would reach the bunkers before the cavalry did. Robert Young Pelton, all rights reserved. When it looked like they would break the back of the position, he would ride through as fast as he could and keep the Taliban on the run., With their knowledge of military history, the Regulators appreciated the ironies of this strange war: The Taliban had gone from the muj style of fightingin the mountains, on horsebackto working in mechanized columns, says Will, another member of 595. 12 Strong, from Warner Bros. Pictures, will release on January 19, 2018. Early in the afternoon on November 10, Dostum reached Mazar. The now declassified mission, code-name Task Force Dagger, included joining forces with the loosely organized Northern Alliance to help take back certain provinces, as well as act as the tip of the spear in the initial fighting against Al Qaeda and the Taliban. "I don't need food for my horses," he said. Some hide their faces, others convulse and shiver. But I never travel without a few Mr. Dostums strategy was now their strategy: to ride roughshod over Taliban positions up the Darra-e Suf Valley, roll north over the Tingi Pass in the Alborz Range, then sweep north across the plains and liberate Mazar-e Sharif, Afghanistans second largest city. It's true that Dostum said that he would rather see 500 of his own men killed than see a scratch on an American soldier. Aside from the challenges of cultural differences and a sense of distrust on both sides, the Americans, with their state of the art technology and equipment, had to learn to navigate the treacherous mountains and desert landscape the same way the locals did: on horseback. In Hollywood I was asked to join meetings during which actors and producers pitched the story, read half a dozen books in which the idea of John Wayne like cavalry charges and Dostums ogre like cruelty were fictionalized into cartoons. It turns out theyre staying next door, guests in Dostums house. What we are doing now has not occurred since Vietnam. William Fichtner portrays Mulholland in the movie and Homeland's Navid Negahban plays General Dostum. It took a few hours for bombers to arrive from their carriers. . He studied Arabic in Yemen and then enrolled in a madrasah, or religious school, in northern Pakistan. Green Berets work in secrecy, so only their first names can be used: Theres Andy, the slow-talking weapons expert who is never without his grenade launcher; back home, he keeps the guns in his collections loaded so they are ready when I am. Both he and Paul, a quiet, bespectacled warrant officer, have been in the unit 11 years. -BUILD Series. He told them his name was Abdul Hamid. The real-life base wasn't built up at that point and amounted to little more than a series of Soviet-era bunkers. Only two characters in 12 Strong . After four times or so, they didnt get bombed, so they just stayed there. I get off the horse and say, Screw this; Im walking.. And I believe it will mean a lot to the Afghan people because it shows their service in that conflict.. When a Marxist government came to power in a bloody coup in 1978, the new regimes radical reforms ignited a guerrilla war with the mujahidin who based themselves in the countrys remote mountain ranges. When an American team finally recovered Spanns body, they discovered it had been booby-trapped with a live grenade (which they removed without incident). In an effort to trim Dostums control the CIA would insist that rival commander Ustad Atta Mohammed get his own Green Beret escort several weeks later as he raced Dostum to claim Mazar. Dostums first stop was the blue mosque at the tomb of Hazrat Ali, the revered son-in-law of the Prophet. Theres one time Ill never forget, he says. That, says Dostum, was when the war against terror began., Living in caves and raiding Taliban positions, Dostums men slowly began to harass the well-entrenched Taliban along the Darra-e Suf. Horse Soldiers Analysis - eNotes.com "They didn't expect us to survive," Mark Nutsch said. The Uzbeks and Hazara took to the mountains to escape the mechanized columns of the Taliban, Those among Dostums men who had remained in Afghanistan now became guerrilla fighters, moving on horseback holed up in the mountains under the command of his former number two La. At the end of the Soviet period Dostum had 45,000 troops with about half of them as village reserves. Officials had been unaware that Dostum's army still used a horse cavalry. Beyond the high steel gates is a confusion of trucks, headlights, and guns, and the sound of men moaning in pain. Then the war began. Open your eyes! Paul, Andy, and I drive past villages of round, domed huts, past a checkpoint manned by Dostums men, and up along the winding road to the Tingi Pass. On 19 October . Then the bombs are dropped, and I look through the scope and see body parts flying everywhere. The post was in an uproar, says Paul. Bill and the team were wearing armor decorated with my logo when he died. In the afternoon, when I visit the 1985 fort called Qala i Jangi or Fort of the Soldiers, bullets sing over my head. The idea that that Dostum would actually savethe day for an embattledAmerica is an irony that has not fully played out. It feels even more odd when I discover that these are Green Beretssoldiers who truly specialize in the worlds hot spots. They have Beretta pistols strapped to their thighs like gunslingers and short M-4 rifles slung across their chests. We thought Kunduz was [going to be] a full-scale attack, says Captain Mark. What made working with him particularly dangerous was that he was known for switching sides during several conflicts with Afghanistan. The first words I wanted to learn in Dari were, How do you make him stop?, Their most important immediate order of business was to establish themselves in Dostums eyes. My friends were struggling against the Taliban, and I was sitting there., Dostum says that to help him get back into the fray, the former president of Afghanistan, Burhanuddin Rabbani, sliced offabout $40,000 from the CIA funds. At the time, General Dostum did have a reputation for violence and turning on allies during battle. Drop a bomb on that grid. Pretty straightforward stuff.. It moves past politics and rhetoric to provide a picture of what our military members choose to go through willingly. We had two days to plan, another Regulator says. This part of Afghanistan is ancient, arid, windblownand is the real cradle of its history and wealth. Privacy Policy Dostum tells me that he has fought on every inch of Afghan soil and can recite the names of his men who have died, describe each battle in detail, and tell you what he has learned from every encounter. He went on to serve in the US Army, although he did not see combat until the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. This is the back jacket of The Hunt for Bin Laden ghostwritten by the late Jack Idema and published as non fiction by Random House editor Bob Loomis. We were at the right place at the right time, says Steve. Down the road at the Regulators make-shift barracks, a call comes over the Motorola: Pack your shit. The men quickly gather their gear, as they have so many times before. I talk to an Iraqi, as well as to Pakistanis and Saudisall of whom speak English. As we drive through a drought-ravaged wasteland, he points out battlefields and the sites of ambushes and skirmishes. I had jumped a train in Tajikistan, snuck into Uzbekistan and remained holed up in a dusty border town. The general climbs out of the tiny black car and tucks his hands into his belt. In contrast to the Americans high-tech warfare, some of Dostums tactics would have seemed familiar to the British troops who tried and failed to pacify this region in the 19th century. Dostums men are touring the battle scene. There were some deep unresolved internal conflicts because of the death of Mike Spann and why they over their protests had been sent to Kunduz. A man who is said by some journalists to define violence and treachery. This story needed to be shared with the rest of the country. However, when the 2009 Horse Soldiers book was being written, Mark Nutsch had requested that his name be changed to protect his identity, as was the case with most of the other Horse Soldiers. As we approach the village, the men and boys are lined up in a perfect row a hundred yards long, waiting to greet Dostum. General Abul Rashid Dostum Robert Young Pelton, all rights reserved. It took just a few months for American and Afghan forces to defeat the Taliban in Afghanistan; thus ousting them from power. They were setting up fixed positionsbunkers with Y-shaped fighting trencheson the northern side of the gap. We jump in a Toyota off-road vehicle and set off. When the regime fell in 1992, three years after the Soviets departed, Dostum fought alongside the mujahidin and helped the Northern Alliances legendary Ahmad Shah Massoud battle the fundamentalist Pashtun forces of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and gain control of the capital. The rest of the time they travel. Wrapped in blankets, members of the mullahs entourage fix me with soulless stares. The then-secret Uzbekistan air base, also known as K2, is depicted as a sort of tent city in the movie. He takes me to the hilltop above the village. The Turks, long staunch enemies of Islamic extremism, contributed a small sum as well, and, on April 22, 2001, General Dostum and 30 men were ferried into northern Afghanistan on Massouds aging Soviet helicopters. How Accurate is 12 Strong? The True Story of the Real Horse Soldiers vs In response to the September 11, 2001 attacks, the elite U.S. Special Forces unit, Operational Detachment-Alpha 595 (ODA 595 for short), was one of three teams of Special Forces soldiers sent into Afghanistan. It was put on display across from Ground Zero in 2012. (In his book Taliban, author Ahmed Rashid reports a tale he heard that Dostum once ordered his men to drag a thief behind a tank until all that was left was a bloody pulp of gore. Arent you the guy who goes to all those dangerous places?. When he returns, the dark weariness has lifted. There is an emotional landscape here I cannot see. -Legion of Brothers, No. He is a thick man with a pug nose, bad skin, tiny teeth, and a cruel stare. The team set up on the roof of a building about 400 meters from the madrasah and called in a strike. Weve spent years apart from our spouses due to Middle East deployments, and some of us, like me, are now sending our sons and daughters to fight the same war in the same places. is the manner in which military members tend to downplay their service or push aside thanks, rarely focusing on themselves, but on their team or country as a whole. 21st Century Horse Soldiers - Special Operations Forces and Operation

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