Fighting The Taliban

Fighting The Taliban is the exclusive first-hand account of one of the longest battles fought by British soldiers in Afghanistan. When John Reid dispatched British forces to Helmand province on a “peace keeping” mission he expected them to achieve their goals “without firing a shot”. Dispatches reveals how the war on terror is really being fought on the ground, and assesses the formidable scale of the task facing British troops in Afghanistan. Ignoring Ministry of Defense orders, filmmaker Sean Langan hitches a ride with the Afghan army who, along with British soldiers, are on a mission to retake the strategically critical town of Garmser in Helmand province.

The assault is expected to take 24 hours but it soon runs into difficulty, leading to six days of relentless attacks and counter attacks, captured from start to finish by Langan. The front line was often less than 100 yards from the compound where the 17 British troopers established their forward base and the ferocity of fighting saw the British officers call in a record number of NATO air strikes.