The Americans had to assess, recruit, and train the Kurdish Peshmerga fighters they would lead against Iraqi forces.
But the special operations and CIA teams had a secondary mission: locate and assess the danger posed by Ansar al-Islam, a Sunni Islamic terrorist group associated with (but not part of) al-Qaeda, that was located in the region.
Ansar al-Islam terrorists were located in the far north of Iraq, close to the Iranian border, and posed a potential danger to the U.S.-Kurdish flank.
U.S. commandos and intelligence officers developed a rapport with the Kurds and began training them.
Everything seemed to be going well until Turkey, a NATO ally, jeopardized the operation by not only forbidding U.S. ground forces from using its territory to invade Iraq — the Army’s 4th Infantry Division was supposed to sweep in from the north — but also by banning U.S. military flights from using Turkish airspace.
Turkey’s decision increased the infiltration distance for the follow-on special-operations teams from 250 to 1,000 miles. Those teams now had to make either a 3.5-hour low-level flight from Romania or fly in from the south, close to Iraq’s formidable anti-aircraft umbrella.
Behind Enemy Lines
In the day before the invasion began, dozens of U.S.-trained Kurdish teams infiltrated Iraqi lines and conducted strategic reconnaissance and sabotage operations.
As the invasion began, the U.S. commandos led their Kurdish partners into the fray. Using the already proven combination of special operations and close air support, Task Force Viking pounded the Iraqis.
The British SBS frogmen, however, faced difficulties when their small force — which worked with the Kurds but focused on harassing Iraqi forces — was compromised by vastly superior Iraqi forces, and they had to fight their way out.
“To tell you the truth, we didn’t expect the Iraqis to put up such a fight. We didn’t believe they had it in them,” a former British SBS operator told Insider. “So it was quite a shock for us to face such resistance.”
“In our tactical retreat, we lost some vehicles … and some people used this as an excuse to belittle us, but that’s utter rubbish. They weren’t there” to see “60-odd guys against tens of thousands,” the former SBS operator said.
Meanwhile, behind the Kurdish lines, Green Berets and Peshmerga fighters attacked Ansar al-Islam’s mountain stronghold, capturing it after a fierce fight.
A Delta Force assault squadron also played a role in the feint, coming in from the west. The Delta operators were independent of Task Force Viking, but they had similar goals.
“The initial days were crazy. We had a lot of freedom and did a lot of old-school commando stuff, much like in the Gulf War, roaming the desert, making feints, and striking where the Iraqis didn’t expect us from,” a retired Delta Force operator told Insider.
In true commando style, the Delta operators were there to “develop the situation” and harass the Iraqis in any possible. They ambushed military convoys and hit suspected sites of weapons of mass destruction, every time coming up with a dry hole.
“Although there was some scrutiny from the top, we had good leadership on the ground, like ‘Panther,’ who covered for us and let us fly, as good officers and NCOs [non-commissioned officers] should,” the retired Delta operator said, using the nickname for Lt. Col. Pete Blaber.
“It’s funny, when the operational needs are great, as were during the invasion, the headshed usually cares less about imposing rules and restrictions and more about actually winning,” the retired operator added, using military slang for headquarters.
The CIA paramilitary officers, Green Berets, and Delta Force operators showcased the strategic utility that special-operations forces can have, even in a conventional conflict.
Task Force Viking captured the important cities of Mosul, Tikrit, and Kirkuk and secured the nearby oilfields. Equally important, it tied down several Iraqi divisions that could have been deployed to the south to counter the main invasion.
In a reflection of the fierceness of the campaign in the north, the Green Berets of Task Force Viking earned seven Silver Stars and 52 Bronze Stars for Valor — the third- and fourth-highest awards for bravery under fire, respectively — in just a few days of fighting.
This article was written by Stavros Atlamazoglou and originally published on Insider.
COMMENTS