NEFA Foundation (video): "The Wanat-Kamdesh Battle"
By Evan Kohlmann
The NEFA Foundation has released exclusive raw video footage obtained by NEFA Senior Investigator Claudio Franco depicting the July 13, 2008 Wanat-Kamdesh battle in which 9 U.S. soldiers died. The video follows the progress of the battle from early morning, when the firefight first broke out at around 4:45am, until the point at which a Taliban squad appears to approach the perimeter of the U.S. outpost. In an exclusive interview that the NEFA Foundation will release at a later stage, Maulvi Manibullah describes how a thirty-strong suicide squad attempted to penetrate the perimeter of the outpost wreaking havoc among U.S. troops, while approximately 150 Taliban fighters were attacking the base from 4 sides. The video also depicts the Taliban fighters’ exploration of the U.S. base, which was finally abandoned by U.S. forces only days after the Wanat-Kamdesh battle.
This video documents for the first time the dynamics of a Taliban assault on a U.S. outpost in Afghanistan, demonstrating the degree of organization and motivation achieved by Taliban fighters in the last few years. It can be viewed on the NEFA Foundation website.
