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Lejay, Afghanistan is a small village where a Taliban commander named Kabir (Sub-Cdr of Mullah Wahid - Objective), executed an ambush on a U.S. Special Forces Reconnaissance element, consisting of seven Green Beret detachments (A-Teams) on February 10, 2003. The killzone for the ambush site was 2 km wide by 3 km long. The subsequent battle, initiated by the ambush, lasted for 43 hours. During this engagement, a multitude of munitions were dropped by CAS (Close Air Support) ranging from 500 lbs to 2000 lbs. Several of the Green Berets received shrapnel and grazing wounds, but none were medivaced from the area. At least 43 Taliban insurgents were killed during the engagement. As of February 2013, this remains the longest solely Green Beret battle of the Afghanistan conflict. The Green Berets who participated refer to this battle as the "Baghran Valley 3K Fun Run".〔Operations Log of MSG (Ret) J.Michael "Crusty" Mauldwin; SFODA 762; Participant〕 The Americans rounded up dozens of prisoners.〔(Summarized transcripts (.pdf) ), from Abdul Bagi's ''Combatant Status Review Tribunal'' - pages 1-12〕〔(Summarized transcript (.pdf) ), from Rahmatullah's ''Administrative Review Board hearing'' - page 49〕 By one account, the Americans rounded up 70 Afghans. Another account said they rounded up 40 Afghans. The Americans selected some of the men they rounded up;most of the men were released. They selected the men whose clothes appeared to have blood or gunpowder stains on them, or who were wearing army surplus jackets, or who appeared to have suffered temporary hearing impairment from firing weapons. American soldiers questioned a large number of men of fighting age regarding the fighters who participated in the ambush and subsequent battle. The majority of those questioned were released and permitted to return to their homes. The Americans transported approximately 53 men of fighting age back to Bagram Air Field for further questioning. They detained these individuals because of additional circumstances, including to gun residue, 107mm grease, and various other indicators indicative of being a combatant. Military clothing or ownership of a weapon was not a factor, as this was and continues to be common amongst tribal entities throughout Afghanistan. They were mostly captured in the vicinity of the cave network, dubbed "Mickey Mouse Ears" where the American unit continued to take sporadic fire for eight days after the initial battle.〔 According to the evidence produced at the Combatant Status Review Tribunals, some of the men who were not released were sent to the Guantanamo Bay detainment camp, in Cuba. ==Press reports of the military action in the neighborhood of Lejay== Coalition forces conducted an aerial campaign against the neighborhood of Lejay. Haji Pir Mohammad, the deputy governor of Helmand, led a six-man investigative team to the region, to investigate villager's reports of a massive American aerial bombardment.〔 〕 A Personal Security Detachment of 3 X A-teams, who accompanied the Karzai delegation.〔 Pir Mohammad reported that he had seen 17 Afghan casualties, but he could not state whether the casualties were Afghan civilians, or enemy fighters, wearing civilian clothes. The delegation was in Lejay for two days (15-17FEB02). They were escorted by Green Berets as a security precaution. During the two days, only one casualty was identify which was a boy of approximately twelve years of age. It was not apparent what or who caused the injury.〔 ''Reuters'' interviewed Afghan official Haji Mohammad Wali, by phone, from Lashkargah, Helmand's capital. According to his account the civilian casualties were mainly women and children. ''Reuters'' quoted a villager from the region who recounted seeing a home that had been demolished by the bombing, killing eight members of the family that had lived there. Colonel Roger King, a US military spokesman, told reporters that the US Special Forces hunting the ambushers believed they were hunting between thirty and one hundred fighters. He informed reporters that American troops had found ammunition casings and empty rocket tubes. He called the reports of civilian casualties "unsupported". He stated that the US aerial bombardment had been confined to caves, and the ridgeline east and west of Lejay. According to King: "Battle damage assessment conducted in support of operation Eagle Fury has not indicated any non-combatant casualties to date," 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Lejay, Afghanistan」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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