{"id":106686,"date":"2018-04-01T12:00:59","date_gmt":"2018-04-01T10:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lesaint.abvent.com\/?post_type=serie&p=106686"},"modified":"2021-03-25T12:17:49","modified_gmt":"2021-03-25T11:17:49","slug":"the-last-americans-to-fight-in-afghanistan-2018","status":"publish","type":"serie","link":"https:\/\/agencevu.com\/en\/serie\/the-last-americans-to-fight-in-afghanistan-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"The Last Americans to Fight in Afghanistan, 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Last Americans to Fight in Afghanistan, 2018<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section>\n

Andrew Quilty<\/a><\/h5>\n<\/div><\/section>\n

In April and July 2018, Andrew Quilty accompanied the US Special Forces Operational Detachment. He had an exceptional access at the front lines in Afghanistan, where is one of the last American units still in active combat, 17 years after the war began.<\/p>\n

When Andrew Quilty met the 12 men of the Operational Detachment Alpha team in July, they had been fighting the Islamic state in Khorasan for four months. Better known as the “Green Berets”, this division of the US Army Special Forces specializes in commando actions, unconventional warfare, and formation of allied troops. Based on a farm located at the mouth of the remote Mohmand Valley in eastern Afghanistan, their mission is to work with their Afghan Special Forces counterparts to defeat the Islamic state in the region, and to increase the presence of the Afghan government in the valleys that extend from Nangarhar province to the Pakistan border.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>

The fighting in the Mohmand Valley began in April 2017, after the United States opened the jihadists’ front line by dropping the largest non-nuclear bomb ever used in combat. They bombed relentlessly from the air, then they went on foot, securing the villages one by one with their Afghan counterparts.<\/p>\n

The emergence of the Islamic state in Afghanistan has demonstrated the country’s growing instability. It also strengthened the role of the United States, at a time when it had begun to withdraw. While U.S. joint military operations killed 600 Islamic state fighters in 2018, experts point out that the Islamic state has a large pool of potential recruits on both sides of the border. “It is difficult to defeat the I.S.K.P militarily without first addressing the reasons for the group’s emergence,” said Borhan Osman, the International Crisis Group\u2019s senior analyst for Afghanistan.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>

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Series | <\/span>In April and July 2018, Andrew Quilty accompanied the US Special Forces Operational Detachment<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":106752,"menu_order":0,"template":"","categories":[],"tags":[4022,17860],"photographe":[12093],"section_taxonomy":[5484],"yoast_head":"\nThe Last Americans to Fight in Afghanistan, 2018 - Agence VU'<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Last Americans to Fight in Afghanistan, 2018 - Agence VU'\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Series | In April and July 2018, Andrew Quilty accompanied the US Special Forces Operational Detachment\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Agence VU'\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/VUagence\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-03-25T11:17:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/agencevu.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/00_QUIL22935-2018CL24.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"435\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"290\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@agence_vu\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/agencevu.com\/en\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/agencevu.com\/en\/\",\"name\":\"Agence VU'\",\"description\":\"Agency of photographers founded in 1986\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":\"https:\/\/agencevu.com\/en\/?s={search_term_string}\",\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"#primaryimage\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/agencevu.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/00_QUIL22935-2018CL24.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/agencevu.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/00_QUIL22935-2018CL24.jpg\",\"width\":435,\"height\":290,\"caption\":\"Afghanistan, Nangarhar Province, Mohmand Valley, 22 April 2018 A member a U.S. Army Green Beret Operational Detachment Alpha (ODA) team uses his rifle scope to try to identify ISIS-K fighters in Takhte Valley, (spelling is phonetic, based on the pronunciation of ODA members - I cannot find it on any maps) reacting to mortars fired into an area of the valley previously known to house ISIS-K fighters. While he and others surveilled the valley, others tried to intercept radio communications and others assessed how to upgrade a small hydroelectric generator that services residents of the Takhte Valley and Pekha Valley, further downstream, into which residents have flooded since ISIS-K were pushed out and up into the Takhte Valley toward the border with Pakistan. South of the valley mouth, upstream, in the direction the ODA team member is looking, ISIS-K, the ODA team said, controls the battle-space. Although the team members didn't spot any ISIS-K members on their patrol, they nonetheless fired mortars into one hillside where fighters had been identified previously. While returning to base an Apache Attack Helicopter surveilling in the skies above identified a Defensive Fighting Position (DFP) which was destroyed by a 500lb bomb dropped from an F16 approximately half an hour later. Soon after the strike, radio chatter was intercepted by ODA communication specialists. They recorded a suspected ISIS-K fighter lamenting that \\\"they have destroyed everything [inside the DFP], even my clothes.\\\" Afghanistan, Province de Nangarhar, Vall\\u00e9e de Mohmand, 22 avril 2018 Un membre de l'\\u00e9quipe du D\\u00e9tachement Op\\u00e9rationnel Alpha (ODA) des B\\u00e9rets Verts de l'arm\\u00e9e am\\u00e9ricaine utilise la lunette de son fusil pour essayer d'identifier les combattants ISIS-K dans la vall\\u00e9e de Takhte r\\u00e9agissant aux mortiers tir\\u00e9s dans une zone de la vall\\u00e9e connue pour abriter les combattants de l'ISIS-K. Pendant qu'il surveillait la vall\\u00e9e, d'autres soldats pr\\u00e9voyaient d'\\u00e9valuer comment modernise\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"#webpage\",\"url\":null,\"name\":\"The Last Americans to Fight in Afghanistan, 2018 - Agence VU'\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/agencevu.com\/en\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"#primaryimage\"},\"datePublished\":\"2018-04-01T10:00:59+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-03-25T11:17:49+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[null]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"item\":{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/agencevu.com\/en\/home\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/agencevu.com\/en\/home\/\",\"name\":\"Home\"}},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"item\":{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/agencevu.com\/en\/serie\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/agencevu.com\/en\/serie\/\",\"name\":\"Series\"}},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"item\":{\"@id\":\"#webpage\"}}]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/agencevu.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/serie\/106686"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/agencevu.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/serie"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/agencevu.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/serie"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/agencevu.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/serie\/106686\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":123996,"href":"https:\/\/agencevu.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/serie\/106686\/revisions\/123996"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agencevu.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/agencevu.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agencevu.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agencevu.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106686"},{"taxonomy":"photographe","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agencevu.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/photographe?post=106686"},{"taxonomy":"section_taxonomy","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agencevu.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/section_taxonomy?post=106686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}