Key Facts
- Date
- 7 February 2009
- Troops deployed
- 700 (500 inserted by air)
- Drug factories captured
- 4
- Narcotics seized (est. value)
- £50 million
- Taliban fighters killed
- 20
- UK personnel killed
- 0
Strategic Narrative Overview
In the early hours of 7 February 2009, RAF Chinooks, Royal Navy Sea Kings and Lynx helicopters, alongside American Sea Stallions, delivered 500 troops from 45 Commando Royal Marines in two waves to three landing zones half a mile from enemy positions. British and Afghan special forces joined the assault. Taliban fighters abandoned large vats of opium still being boiled and fled, with 20 defenders killed in the raid.
01 / The Origins
By 2009, Helmand province's Upper Sangin Valley had become a centre of Taliban-controlled narcotics production, funding insurgent operations across Afghanistan. British-led Task Force Helmand identified a cluster of drug factories and arms caches operated by Taliban networks, prompting NATO commanders to plan a targeted strike to disrupt both the insurgency's finances and its weapons stockpiles in the area.
03 / The Outcome
The operation concluded with four drug factories seized, gallons of opium-processing chemicals confiscated, large numbers of machine guns recovered, and a motorcycle suicide bomb neutralised. No British personnel were killed. Task Force Helmand commander Brigadier Gordon Messenger described it as a 'clinical precision strike' with a powerful disruptive effect on insurgent and narcotics networks in the region.
Belligerents & Mobilization Analysis
Side A
2 belligerents
Brigadier Gordon Messenger.
Side B
1 belligerent
Kinetic Engagement Axis
Scroll horizontally to view full axis. Events plotted relatively.