Qualla: Mohmand Valley Raid

Mohmand Valley Raid: Introduction

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Less than two weeks after the largest non-nuclear bomb ever dropped in combat shook the mountains of eastern Afghanistan, ninety soldiers boarded helicopters for a mission into the same valley. The date was April 26, 2017. The target was a compound in the Mohmand Valley of Nangarhar Province, believed to shelter Abdul Haseeb Logari, the emir of the Islamic State's Khorasan Province affiliate. Commanders had chosen a ground raid over an airstrike for a specific reason: women and children were thought to be inside. What followed was more than five hours of close-quarters combat that achieved its objective, degraded a terrorist network, and demanded the highest price from two soldiers who had enlisted out of high school and were serving their third deployments before either had turned twenty-four.

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Mohmand Valley Raid: The Valley the MOAB Shook

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

By spring 2017, the Mohmand Valley in Achin District had become the epicenter of the campaign against ISIL-KP in Afghanistan. The group had formed in January 2015 when former Taliban leaders pledged allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and at its peak commanded roughly 3,000 fight...

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Mohmand Valley Raid: Into the Kill Zone

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

At 10:30 p.m., fifty Rangers from the 3rd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, and forty Afghan commandos from the Special Security Forces fast-roped and landed near the target. Almost immediately, entrenched fighters opened fire from multiple directions -- 360 degrees of incoming ro...

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Mohmand Valley Raid: The Cost of the Breach

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

As a team from the primary assault force prepared to breach a compound door, a Ranger providing suppressive fire from a rooftop fell through it. Teammates rushed to help. On the other side of the structure, a suicide bomber detonated. In the chaos that followed, Rangers fought ro...

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Mohmand Valley Raid: What Held the Line

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The raid lasted until roughly 3:30 a.m. -- five hours from insertion to extraction. Staff Sergeant Michael Young, a squad leader in C Company, was later credited with saving the lives of twenty-two Rangers and destroying multiple enemy positions during the fight. He received the ...

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Mohmand Valley Raid: The Target Confirmed

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

On May 7, 2017, the Pentagon confirmed that Abdul Haseeb Logari had been killed in the raid, along with several other ISIL-KP leaders and approximately thirty-five militants. The Pentagon called the operation a success in degrading the group's ability to fight. Haseeb's replaceme...

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