Shkin Naryab () is a town that is the capital of

Gomal District Gomal District (, ) is a district of Paktika Province, Afghanistan. The estimated population in 2019 was 45,873. The district is within the heartland of the Kharoti tribe of Ghilji Pashtuns.Paktika Province Paktika (Pashto: ) is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, located in the eastern part of the country. Forming part of the larger Loya Paktia region, Paktika has a population of about 789,000 residents, who are mostly ethnic Pashtuns but sma ...

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...

, located about a kilometer west of the newer town and bazaar of Angur Ada in the

Barmal District Barmal District (, ) is a district of Paktika Province, Afghanistan. It shares a border with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, Pakistan. The Angur Ada is the official border checkpoint and border crossing between the people of Paktika and K ...

of Paktika. As with the area immediately to the north, the Barmal Valley, the Gomal region is primarily populated by ethnic Pashtuns, which neighbours

South Waziristan South Mahsud Waziristan District () was a Districts of Pakistan, district in the Dera Ismail Khan Division of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan, before splitting into the Lower South Waziristan District and the Upper South Waziristan D ...

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

. Soil conditions near Shkin Naryab are marginal and only allow for limited agricultural seasonal use. Aside from small apple orchards/farms there is only minimal economic activity. The closest competent health care can be found in Wana, Pakistan, and

Urgun Urgun () is the main town of the Urgun District of Paktika Province, Afghanistan. With an estimated population of 10,665,firebase Firebase was a company that developed backend software. It was founded in San Francisco in 2011 and was incorporated in Delaware. In 2014, Firebase was bought by Google. Its name continues as a set of backend cloud computing services and ...

, a permanent road from

Urgun Urgun () is the main town of the Urgun District of Paktika Province, Afghanistan. With an estimated population of 10,665,Bloomberg News
September 22, 2010, Presence larger than thought The base was established in 2002. It was located six kilometers from the Pakistani border.
/ref> It was once considered the most dangerous location in Afghanistan.Google Books
Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army A 2003 article in ''Time'' magazine described the base:Time Magazine
October 27, 2003 On August 31, 2003, Army SPC Chad C. Fuller, 24, of Potsdam, NY., and Army PFC Adam L. Thomas, 21, of Palos Hills, Illinois were killed in a gun battle with Taliban forces. They were assigned to the 1st Battalion, 87th Infantry Regiment, 10th Mountain Division at Fort Drum. On October 25, 2003, paramilitary officers Christopher Mueller and William "Chief" Carlson from the

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...

Special Activities Division The Special Activities Center (SAC) is the center of the United States Central Intelligence Agency responsible for covert operations. The unit was named Special Activities Division (SAD) prior to a 2015 reorganization. Within SAC there are at le ...

were killed while conducting an operation to kill/capture high level

al-Qa'ida {{Infobox war faction , name = Al-Qaeda , native_name = {{Script, Arabic, القاعدة , native_name_lang = ar , war = {{Collapsible list , title={{Nbsp , {{Plainlist, * War on Terror * Afghanistan conf ...

leaders. On 21 May 2004, these Officers were honored with Stars on the

CIA Memorial Wall The Memorial Wall is a memorial at the headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency in Langley, Virginia.George J. Tenet told a gathering of several hundred Agency employees and family members of those killed in the line of duty. "Chris and Chief put the lives of others ahead of their own. That is heroism defined." Mueller, a former US

Navy SEAL The United States Navy Sea, Air, and Land (SEAL) Teams, commonly known as Navy SEALs, are the United States Navy's primary special operations force and a component of the United States Naval Special Warfare Command. Among the SEALs' main funct ...

and Carlson, a former Army Special Forces soldier,

Delta Force The 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment–Delta (1st SFOD-D), also known as Delta Force, Combat Applications Group (CAG), or within Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) as Task Force Green, is a Special operation forces, special operat ...

operator, and member of the

Blackfeet Nation The Blackfeet Nation (, ), officially named the Blackfeet Tribe of the Blackfeet Indian Reservation of Montana, is a federally recognized tribe of Siksikaitsitapi people with an Indian reservation in Montana. Tribal members primarily belong ...

in Montana, died while on a covert operation near Shkin, Afghanistan. Both officers saved the lives of others, including Afghan soldiers, during the engagement with al-Qa'ida forces. As described in

Bob Woodward Robert Upshur Woodward (born March 26, 1943) is an American investigative journalist. He started working for ''The Washington Post'' as a reporter in 1971 and now holds the honorific title of associate editor though the Post no longer employs ...

's book ''

Obama's Wars ''Obama's Wars'' is a 2010 book written by Pulitzer Prize–winning investigative journalist Bob Woodward. The book was published by Simon & Schuster and released on September 27, 2010. It focuses on the internal debates and divisions within the ...

'', the CIA created Counter-Terrorism Pursuit Teams (CTPT) starting in 2001 which reached 3,000 soldiers by 2010. They were considered the "best Afghan fighting force" and, unlike the

Afghan National Army The Islamic National Army (, ), also referred to as the Islamic Emirate Army and the Afghan Army, is the army, land force branch of the Afghan Armed Forces. The roots of an army in Afghanistan can be traced back to the early 18th century when th ...

, very well motivated. Firebase Lilley served as a nerve center for the covert war and a hub for these CTPT operations. These units had been considered highly effective in combat operations against the Taliban and al-Qa'ida forces and were also used to engage with the tribes in areas with no other official government presence. This covert war also included a large CIA expansion into the

Federally Administered Tribal Area The Federally Administered Tribal Areas, commonly known as FATA, was a semi-autonomous tribal region in north-western Pakistan that existed from 1947 until being merged with the neighbouring province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in 2018 through the ...

region of Pakistan to target senior al-Qa'ida and Taliban leadership. The CTPT units were considered key to any exit strategy for the U.S. government to leave Afghanistan, while still being able to deny al-Qa'ida and other transnational extremists groups a safe haven.Wall Street Journal
June 29, 2010, The CIA solution for Afghanistan

See also

References

Further reading