Qualla: Battle of Qala-i-Jangi https://qualla.com/battle-of-qala-i-jangi en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:32 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/t/q/x/8/battle-of-qala-i-jangi-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Battle of Qala-i-Jangi https://qualla.com/battle-of-qala-i-jangi Battle of Qala-i-Jangi: Introduction https://qualla.com/battle-of-qala-i-jangi/ Photo credit Cflorcke, Public domain. The name translates to 'the war fortress' in Dari, and for six days in late November 2001, Qala-i-Jangi earned it. More than 400 foreign fighters, captured during the fall of the Taliban's northern strongholds, were transported to this 19th-century fortress near Mazar-i-Sharif. They had not been properly searched. Some carried concealed grenades. On November 25, as two CIA officers began interrogating prisoners in the courtyard, the captives rose up, overwhelmed their guards, and seized the fortress's armory. What followed was the first major close-quarters battle of America's war in Afghanistan, fought with air strikes, tanks, and flooding, inside the walls of a mud-brick castle.

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Image: Cflorcke | Public domain

]]> Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/t/q/x/8/battle-of-qala-i-jangi-wp/tqx8-battle-of-qala-i-jangi-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Battle of Qala-i-Jangi: A Fortress Full of Fighters https://qualla.com/battle-of-qala-i-jangi/ Photo credit Cflorcke, Public domain. The fighters held at Qala-i-Jangi were not Afghans. They were foreign jihadists drawn from across the Islamic world: Arabs from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen; Central Asians from Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kazakhstan; Southeast Asians from Indonesia and the Philippines; African...

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Image: Cflorcke | Public domain

]]> Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/t/q/x/8/battle-of-qala-i-jangi-wp/tqx8-battle-of-qala-i-jangi-a-fortress-full-of-fighters.mp3 0:06 2 full Battle of Qala-i-Jangi: Two Hours to Chaos https://qualla.com/battle-of-qala-i-jangi/ Photo credit Cflorcke, Public domain. CIA officer Johnny Micheal Spann arrived at the fortress on the morning of November 25 with his colleague David Tyson. They were hunting al-Qaeda operatives among the prisoners. Spann interrogated several men in the courtyard, including Lindh, whom the Americans had singled out b...

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Image: Cflorcke | Public domain

]]> Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/t/q/x/8/battle-of-qala-i-jangi-wp/tqx8-battle-of-qala-i-jangi-two-hours-to-chaos.mp3 0:06 3 full Battle of Qala-i-Jangi: Six Days of Fire https://qualla.com/battle-of-qala-i-jangi/ Photo credit Cflorcke, Public domain. Tyson escaped to the fortress's northern section, where he found himself trapped alongside a German television crew. He borrowed their satellite phone, called his wife in Tashkent, then called the U.S. embassy in Uzbekistan. A rescue force of nine Green Berets and eight British S...

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]]> Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/t/q/x/8/battle-of-qala-i-jangi-wp/tqx8-battle-of-qala-i-jangi-six-days-of-fire.mp3 0:06 4 full Battle of Qala-i-Jangi: Honors and Hard Questions https://qualla.com/battle-of-qala-i-jangi/ Photo credit Cflorcke, Public domain. The battle produced extraordinary decorations. Major Mark Mitchell received the Distinguished Service Cross, the first awarded since the Vietnam War. Navy SEAL Stephen Bass earned the Navy Cross for recovering Spann's body under fire. Spann himself received a posthumous Intellige...

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]]> Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/t/q/x/8/battle-of-qala-i-jangi-wp/tqx8-battle-of-qala-i-jangi-honors-and-hard-questions.mp3 0:06 5 full