101st Airborne Ambushed In Operation Dragon Strike

Combat footage from late 2010 shows infantrymen of the 101st Airborne’s 2nd Brigade Combat Team “Strike“ getting ambushed by Taliban insurgents during Operation Dragon Strike. The unit is able to identify that their foe is firing from well-protected “murder holes“ from within compound walls while they themselves are exposed in a narrow canal chokepoint. They quickly gain fire superiority and withdraw from the kill zone. Operation Dragon Strike was a three-and-a-half month op that was intended to dislodge the Taliban foothold from northern Kandahar. Interestingly, an Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander was captured in the fighting, which exposed a direct line of facilitation between the Iranian government and the Taliban. Exact figures for the Taliban losses in the operation are unclear but are described as “heavy,“ while 34 US troops and one Canadian were killed in action.