The Battle of Sayyd Alma Kalay was a battle that took place near the

Arghandab River Arghandab is a river in Afghanistan, about in length. It rises in Ghazni Province, west of the city of Ghazni, and flows southwest passing near the city of Kandahar, and then joins the Helmand River below Grishk. In its lower course, it is mu ...

in Afghanistan during the

United States invasion of Afghanistan In late 2001, the United States and its close allies invaded Afghanistan and toppled the Taliban government. The invasion's aims were to dismantle al-Qaeda, which had executed the September 11 attacks, and to deny it a safe base of operatio ...

. The

Taliban The Taliban (; ps, طالبان, ṭālibān, lit=students or 'seekers'), which also refers to itself by its state name, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a Deobandi Islamic fundamentalist, militant Islamist, jihadist, and Pasht ...

were defeated by the United States and its Afghan allies, setting the stage for the

Fall of Kandahar The Fall of Kandahar took place in 2001 during the War in Afghanistan. After the fall of Mazar-i-Sharif, Kabul and Herat, Kandahar was the last major city under Taliban control. Kandahar was where the Taliban movement had originated and where it ...

Battle

On 3 December 2001, following previous combat at the Battle of Shawali Kowt, as the Afghans scaled to the top of a ridge overlooking the Taliban-controlled town of Sayyd Alma Kalay, they were hit by machine gun fire and RPGs. The Afghans began retreating, so Captain

Jason Amerine Jason Amerine (born 1971) is a retired lieutenant colonel in the United States Army Special Forces. He served in the Invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, in which he aided tribal leader Hamid Karzai in fighting a guerrilla war against the Taliban. F ...

and his men ran forward and fired down on the enemy. Despite being exposed to intense fire, Sgt. Alan Yoshida, the air-combat controller, advanced toward the hilltop and directed airstrikes that wiped out three Taliban positions.Zullo, Allan: ''Battle Heroes: Voices from Afghanistan'' The battle continued on 4 December, and Amerine's team finally drove off the Taliban and took control of the town and bridge while

Hamid Karzai Hamid Karzai (; Pashto/ fa, حامد کرزی, , ; born 24 December 1957) is an Afghan statesman who served as the fourth president of Afghanistan from July 2002 to September 2014, including as the first elected president of the Islamic Repub ...

's men held the ridge. As combat eased, the leaders from the army's Third Battalion headquarters arrived by helicopter on 5 December to give Amerine and his men a break. For the first time in weeks, they received care packages and letters from home. After this, the Taliban planned to formally surrender

Kandahar Province Kandahār ( ps, ; Kandahār, prs, ; ''Qandahār'') is one of the thirty-four provinces of Afghanistan, located in the southern part of the country, sharing a border with Pakistan, to the south. It is surrounded by Helmand in the west, Uruzga ...

References

Afghanistan conflict (1978–present) Conflicts in 2001 Battles of the War in Afghanistan (2001–2021) Military operations of the War in Afghanistan (2001–2021) involving the United States Operations involving American special forces 2001 in Afghanistan History of Urozgan Province December 2001 events in Asia Battles in 2001 {{battle-stub