Operation Diesel was a raid by 700 British troops from the

Royal Marines The Royal Marines provide the United Kingdom's amphibious warfare, amphibious special operations capable commando force, one of the :Fighting Arms of the Royal Navy, five fighting arms of the Royal Navy, a Company (military unit), company str ...

45 Commando, 42 Commando, and the 3 Commando Brigade's Reconnaissance Force, as well as armoured infantry and close reconnaissance from 1st Battalion Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment (1 PWRR) on a Taliban drug factory and arms stronghold in the Upper Sangin Valley in

Helmand province Helmand (Pashto language, Pashto/Dari language, Dari: ; ), also known as Hillmand, in ancient times, as Hermand and Hethumand, is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, in the south of the country. It is the largest province by area, covering ...

, Afghanistan on February 7, 2009. The raid captured four drug factories and

heroin Heroin, also known as diacetylmorphine and diamorphine among other names, is a morphinan opioid substance synthesized from the Opium, dried latex of the Papaver somniferum, opium poppy; it is mainly used as a recreational drug for its eupho ...

and

opium Opium (also known as poppy tears, or Lachryma papaveris) is the dried latex obtained from the seed Capsule (fruit), capsules of the opium poppy ''Papaver somniferum''. Approximately 12 percent of opium is made up of the analgesic alkaloid mor ...

worth £50 million. In the early hours of February 7 the raid was launched. Within 20 minutes two waves of RAF Chinooks, Royal Navy Sea Kings, Lynx and American Sea Stallions delivered 500 troops from 45 Commando Royal Marines and both British and Afghan special forces into three landing zones half-a-mile from enemy positions. Large vats of opium were abandoned while still being boiled as the Taliban fled the assault. The Task Force Helmand commander, Brig Gordon Messenger called Operation Diesel a "clinical precision strike" that had "a powerful disruptive effect on known insurgent and narcotics networks in the area". Four drugs factories were captured along with gallons of chemicals used to process opium into heroin. Large numbers of machine guns were also recovered as well as a motor bike that had been primed as a suicide bomb. Twenty Taliban fighters defending the drugs were killed. No UK personnel were killed in the assault.

References

* * * * NATO operations in Afghanistan Military operations of the War in Afghanistan (2001–2021) involving the United Kingdom Military raids 2009 in the War in Afghanistan (2001–2021) Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment {{UK-mil-stub