Jugroom Fort is a complex of fortified buildings south-west of Garmsir 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 the east bank of the

Helmand River The Helmand river (Pashto/Dari: ; Ancient Greek: Ἐτύμανδρος, ''Etýmandros''; Latin: '), also spelled Helmend, or Helmund, Hirmand, is the longest river in Afghanistan and the primary watershed for the endorheic Sistan Basin. It o ...

. The fort is several centuries old, and in 2007 it was used as a

Taliban , leader1_title = Supreme Leader of Afghanistan, Supreme leaders , leader1_name = {{indented plainlist, * Mullah Omar{{Natural Causes{{nbsp(1994–2013) * Akhtar Mansour{{Assassinated (2015–2016) * Hibatullah Akhundzada (2016–present) ...

base.

Operation Glacier

British forces assaulted the fort on 15 January 2007. During the attack,

Royal Marine 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 ...

Lance-Corporal Mathew Ford was killed by

friendly fire In military terminology, friendly fire or fratricide is an attack by belligerent or neutral forces on friendly troops while attempting to attack enemy or hostile targets. Examples include misidentifying the target as hostile, cross-fire while ...

. After a rescue mission by

Apache The Apache ( ) are several Southern Athabaskan language-speaking peoples of the Southwestern United States, Southwest, the Southern Plains and Northern Mexico. They are linguistically related to the Navajo. They migrated from the Athabascan ho ...

helicopter gunships, two of the pilots, including author Ed Macy, were awarded the

Military Cross The Military Cross (MC) is the third-level (second-level until 1993) military decoration awarded to officers and (since 1993) Other ranks (UK), other ranks of the British Armed Forces, and formerly awarded to officers of other Commonwealth of ...

and the other two pilots, including Captain Tom O'Malley, the Distinguished Flying Cross. The action became known as one of those in

Operation Herrick Operation Herrick was the codename under which all British operations in the War in Afghanistan were conducted from 2002 to the end of combat operations in 2014. It consisted of the British contribution to the NATO-led International Security Assi ...

of military failure, despite the application of huge firepower and considerable personal bravery. The fort had been under surveillance for two months and was thought to contain high-value Taliban leaders. After a diversionary attack to the North, the fort was bombarded by 155 mm heavy artillery and bombed by B1 Lancers. The assault began as 200 men from

45 Commando 45 Commando Royal Marines (pronounced "four-five commando") is a battalion sized unit of the British Royal Marines and subordinate unit within UK Commando Force, the principal Commando formation, under the Operational Command of the Fleet Comman ...

crossed the river in amphibious

Viking Vikings were seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway, and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded, and settled throughout parts of Europe.Roesdahl, pp. 9� ...

s and

Scimitar A scimitar ( or ) is a single-edged sword with a convex curved blade of about 75 to 90 cm (30 to 36 inches) associated with Middle Eastern, South Asian, or North African cultures. A European term, ''scimitar'' does not refer to one specific swor ...

light tanks, supported by Apache gunships and 105 mm artillery. A

Forward Air Controller Forward air control is the provision of guidance to close air support (CAS) aircraft intended to ensure that their attack hits the intended target and does not injure friendly troops. This task is carried out by a forward air controller (FAC). ...

or JTAC within the assault group co-ordinated air support. Despite considerable firepower, the Taliban within the fort continued resisting. One of the Viking machine gunners opened fire on a muzzle flash, despite it being outside their arc of fire, and caused a

incident on five of the Marines, four of whom were then evacuated as casualties. The continuing resistance and "shortfalls in combat power" led to the Marines retreating back across the river. A head-count on the far side of the river revealed that Lance-Corporal Ford was missing. Aerial reconnaissance images from an Apache showed that he was still within the fort. A rescue attempt was mounted, an Apache pilot suggesting an alternative to another land attack: two Apaches would carry a handful of Marines, riding on the outside of the helos, each on one of the stub-wing weapons pylons. Although not a regular tactic, the pylons are strong, have tie-down points fitted and are recognised for use with

casevac Casualty evacuation, also known as CASEVAC or by the callsign Dustoff or colloquially Dust Off, is a military term for the emergency patient evacuation of casualties from a combat zone. Casevac can be done by both ground and air. "DUSTOFF" i ...

or impromptu cargo moves. The two Apaches returned to the fort, Lance-Corporal Ford was located and recovered. However he died from his wounds before reaching safety. Air support for the rescue attempt was to be provided again by B1s, dropping precision-guided

JDAM The Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) is a guidance kit that converts unguided bombs, or "dumb bombs", into all-weather precision-guided munitions (PGMs). JDAM-equipped bombs are guided by an integrated inertial guidance system coupled to a Gl ...

s, and supported by

A-10 The Fairchild Republic A-10 , also infamously known under the nickname , is a single-seat, twin-turbofan, straight-wing, subsonic attack aircraft developed by Fairchild Republic for the United States Air Force (USAF). In service since 19 ...

s. A widely circulated report afterwards described how only prompt action by one of the A-10 pilots avoided a further serious friendly-fire incident, when the JTAC passed the wrong GPS coordinates to the B1 crew for their attack. Jugroom Fort was cleared in May 2008, by Charlie Company 1st Battalion 6th Marines USMC, helping the re-opening of a route through to Pakistan.

References

{{Coord, 31, 4, 0, N, 64, 10, 1, E, display=title Buildings and structures in Helmand Province Military installations of Afghanistan