Often times when you hear about fighting in Afghanistan, you tend to think about the
Helmand Province in the south, or the various locations over in the east with places like the
Kunar province, which is home to the infamous
Korengal Valley.However, there is one corner of Afghanistan that most people may not know about (well until recently since a book was published about it). Situated in the northwestern corner of Afghanistan in the
Badghis Providence there lies a valley roughly 7 miles south of the Turkmenistan border. It's almost hard to believe that heavy fighting would be so close to another country that is outside of the conflict. This valley's name is the
Bala Murghab Valley( or
BMG ). In this post I will be giving some background info on the valley, pretty much the who, what, where, when and why of the valley. Feel free to skip around the post, I'm gonna be getting a bit detailed with this one. And a quick heads up, there is going to be a second part of this post that will talk about forces organic to Afghanistan.
An interesting map I found on Google, should provide a good idea of where this place is at, BMG is located in the upper left corner, inside the darker red splotch.
Location: As you can see from the map above, Bala Murghab is right next to the
Turkmenistan border, which is interesting because you have to wonder what role this valley played when the
Soviets invaded in the 80's ( I will be looking this up and will post what I find ). The valley, as mentioned before, is located in the
Badghis Province (if you are interested in the history of the province itself, you can find some info
here.) and is roughly 13 miles in length ( running north to south) and roughly 2 miles at it's widest, please note that in the provided map, that red splotch on Bala Murghab is not meant to highlight the actual valley, in fact all the red blops don't have anything to do with terrain. Anyways, the valley itself is pretty far off from any large villages, the closest one that would be found on a map is almost 40 miles away ( this would be the
provincial capital, Qala-I-Naw), keep in mind that there are smaller villages that are in between. The valley itself is lush with green trees and has a river that runs north to south down the middle, known as the
Murghab river and bald, steep, brown hills flank the valley. The winters are harsh, averaging 2 meters of snow a year and a lot of fog and rain. Many villages dot along the river, including
the Murghab district center, the village of Bala Murghab (sick of the name yet?) The Badghis Province has one of the highest concentration of
Pashto speakers in Afghanistan ( Pashto is a language spoken in Afghanistan, not to be confused with
Dari. The
Pashtun tribe is also one of the largest in the country, and there are many other tribes as well ). The valley once belonged to the
Tajik's until the last Afghan king placed Pahtuns in the valley over a century ago. The Pahstun people are a bit fearful that one day the Tajik's will take the valley back, and the fact that the Tajik's sided with the Soviets does not help for trust. The
province itself is extremely poor (one of the most poorest in the country) and the people of
Badghis got shafted by the Afghan government after the
fall of the Taliban in 2001. Just like else where in the country, the province got a pretty shady governor, so politics is not exactly clean up there (and that is sadly the same with a lot of places ). But because the province is so poor and rural, the government never cared much for them. There wasn't a lot of violence like the rest of the country, the Taliban wasn't causing much problems (other than
using BMG to rest and refit during the winters from the harsh summer battles in the south) so they got the bottom of the barrel when it came to political leaders.
The Players: Many have came and went through the valley, many from different nations. The following are those nations that fought in the valley. It was a bit challenging to find out about any info on nations who went through the valley before
Operation Enduring Freedom. I am going about as far back as
Russia having a presence (Russia as in
19th Century Russia,
this is a book that talks a little of Russia and the valley).
Great Britain: If you didn't know, the
British were messing around in Afghanistan for a while in the
19th Century. It does appear that the British passed through Bala Murghab, and that is all,
here is a very old book that talks about the valley and the Brits, it's pretty hard to find anything on them being there in the valley, so any help would be much appreciated.
Russia: During the mid-19th Century, Russia was trying to expand in
Central Asia, around the time the
British were in
India. Russia didn't really want to mess with things over there with India and Afghanistan is so close to India (although the
Brits and Russia did clash a little bit and may have even met in Afghanistan, I have nothing solid yet though). However, I did find something which might be pointing a finger to Russia having been in the area ( keep in mind the borders were not the same as they are today).
They may have set foot in BMG, the only things I have found about them being there is in the link I provided earlier, and another website which had only a small tid-bit saying there was some disputes from the people of the Bala Murghab valley getting a bit angry about a trade route being set up by Russia. As for any
Soviet occupation, there is actual proof of them being there, like old destroyed Soviet tanks and fighting positions, as mentioned in the book
Level Zero Heroes including an old Russian factory which was later turned into a
Spanish FOB (Forward Operating Base). The Soviets did fight in Bala Murghab back then.
A U.S. Solider stands on top of Soviet T-62 in BMG
Spain: The
Spanish were in BMG for a little bit. They helped out with the opening of
FOB Columbus (which I believe was turned into
FOB Todd shortly after) and may have stirred up trouble as well. In the
Badghis province, Spain was being used as a
Provincial Reconstruction Team beginning in
2006. It wasn't until
2008 where a mission was created in order to help the people of Bala Murghab with infrastructure issues such as building a
new bridge in the village of Bala Murghab, which would soon be built on
Ring Road, which cuts down through the valley( Ring Road is a highway that goes around the entire country and is mostly paved) and to help with recent security issues, such as fighting between the
Taliban and
Afghanistan National Police (ANP). During this operation, the Spanish helped
Italian troops and the
U.S. Army, along with the
Afghanistan National Army (ANA) by providing combat engineers to help clear
IED's along the route to BMG, set up the bridge and potentially build a FOB. The convoy was greeted with a rough firefight in the north part of the valley, resulting in
2 ANA dead and 1 U.S. killed and multiple wounded. Eventually getting to the town of Bala Murghab where they lived in poor conditions for a few months before setting up the bridge and the FOB. The Forward Operating Base being located on the west side of the
Murghab river, just opposite the district center, Bala Murghab. The Spanish operated shortly before handing the area of operations to the Italians. This is not official, but apparently the Spanish had
made a deal with the Taliban in the valley to prevent further casualties. The Spanish were given a safety radius of 500 meters from the FOB, allowing them to go to the bazaar and district center.
Some troops looked at the Spanish negatively for leaving such a violent area in a province they were primarily responsible for. Whatever the case, they at least helped get the foot in the door.
Italy: Italy's involvement in BMG was a bit more significant than Spain. Staying longer than the Spanish did and sticking around to fight along side the American troops, the Italians put in some work. They were there during the initial push into the valley when a bridge was needed on Ring Road. After the Spanish left, FOB Todd ( which was renamed from Columbus in the honor of
Sergeant First Class Todd of the U.S. Army, who was killed around the time of the building of the bridge ) came under Italian control. The Italians had stricter
ROEs (Rules of Engagments) but they helped out where they could and put in hard work. The Italians fought alongside the U.S. and ANA forces during significant operations like
Operation Hero Recovery or
Operation Buongiorno.
Here is a good video on some of the things the Italians did over there.
An Italian solider in Bala Murghab
United States: And finally we have the U.S. The Badghis province was never under the U.S.'s realm of responsibility, as mentioned before, that belonged to the Spanish. The U.S. sent troops to advise and aid where they could. The U.S. Army sent embedded training teams (ETT) during the initial push with Spanish and Italian troops to build a bridge in the valley. In November, the 82nd Airborne lost two soldiers in the Murghab River, Operation Hero Recovery resulted and eventually ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) wanted to get this valley cleared out. Around the time of the drowning of the two U.S. Soldiers, a Marine Corps special forces team came into the valley. MSOT (Marine Special Operations Team )8222 of MARSOC (United States Marine Corps Forces Special Operations) came into the valley just in time to get into the fight. The 82nd and the MARSOC team both conducted outstanding missions alongside Italian forces and ANA troops. The fighting these guys did are pretty intense compared to an average combat deployment. Some described it as "trench warfare" and the Taliban was even surprised by the level of aggressiveness ISAF forces displayed. After these clearing operations, MSOT 8222 went stateside, and Bulldog Troop 7-10 Cav came in (I assume to replace the 82nd Airborne). 7-10 conducted the infamous Operation Red Sand, an effort to clear Taliban out of the area which resulted in intense fighting (don't worry, this Op and many others will be covered on this blog shortly). After Cav 7-10, the valley came under ANSF (Afghanistan National Security Forces) control. For a detailed run down of US operations in BMG, look right here for a good account of the events that happened.
MARSOC forces fighting in the Bala Murghab Valley
Those were the primary players in the fight against the Taliban and a couple for some historic value. Keep in mind that other nations may have sent troops to aid during missions, nothing as serious as sending an entire unit to fight, but a team or a squad to aid in the fight. The next post will be covering ANSF and Taliban presence in the valley. The next post won't be nearly as long as this one was and keep in mind, this is a very general overview of the valley and it's history. Actual operations and fights will be posted in the near future. If you feel I have made any mistakes, or left out a unit/ country, let me know! And please feel free to subscribe for some insight into Afghanistan and it's recent conflict. Until next time.
