This latest book in Osprey's 'Elite' series covers the work of special operations forces that were sent into Afghanistan once it was learned that al Qaeda, who were being allowed free reign to train and operate by the ruling Taliban government, had pulled off the New York city bombings in 2001.

Afghanistan has always been a crossroads of conflict, and one where fighting was extremely difficult, as was recently learned by the Soviet Union. The rough terrain provides a plethora of hiding places from which rooting out the enemy is extremely difficult. What is means for an attacking army is that one can control the major towns, but securing the countryside is a formidable if not impossible task.

Once the perpetrators of the New York bombings were known, it was a mere 15 days before the US, with the backing of some of the rival Afghan war loards, started to set up a base of operations. From there, large scale operations were held that finally pushed out most of the Taliban's fighters into the hills or into Pakistan. However, they were not there to stay and over the years have begun to return to Afghanistan and wreak similar havoc on the  US and UN forces as one has seen in Iraq.

In this book one is able to put together the series of operations and the current state of affairs of special ops forces based in Afghanistan. It starts with the major US attack in Operation Enduring Freedom, covers the later operations in the Panjshir Valley (in cooperation with a group of warlords called the 'Northern Alliance'. and then continues with the major push in Operation Anaconda in 2002.

Included in all of this is a look at the forces of the United Kingdom and the other UN forces sent by various countries such as Canada, France, Germany, Poland and a goodly number of other nations. It includes those operations since Anaconda in 2002 and also has a look at the various weapons and equipment used by these forces. I found it particularly interesting that for many units, standard civilian trucks were used and in many cases, not even painted in a warlike scheme.

All of this is enhanced by a great number of period photos in both black and white and color. Something that the reader may find odd, is that just about all the faces in these pictures have been blurred out to prevent identification of the men involved. It does make for a rather odd sight when one is reading through the book. In addition to the photos, there are the illustrations of Ramiro Bujeiro to add some clarity and to give us a look at the way these men are outfitted.

In all, it is an interesting book that shows how difficult it is to operate in these areas and provides insight into past and on-going operations. One that I enjoyed reading and I know you will as well.

August 2008

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