Together, the materials offer an unprecedented glimpse into the kind of killing that has come to define the war on terror, underscoring the inherent limitations, and human cost, of those operations. forces in the country over the course of a year.
The targets identified in the slides as killed or detained represent a range of militant groups, including alleged members of the Taliban and al Qaeda - but also local forces with no international terrorism ambitions, groups that took up arms against the U.S after American airstrikes brought the war to their doorsteps.Īn additional slide included in the materials charts mission statistics from September 2011 to September 2012 for Task Force 3-10, which was responsible for special operations across Afghanistan, breaking down in rare detail the more than 2,000 missions conducted by elite U.S. The secret documents obtained by The Intercept include detailed slides pertaining to Haymaker and other operations in the restive border regions of Afghanistan, including images, names, and affiliations of alleged militants killed or captured as a result of the missions examples of the intelligence submitted to trigger lethal operations and a “story board” of a completed drone strike. When contacted by The Intercept with a series of questions regarding the Haymaker missions, the United States Special Operations Command in Afghanistan declined to comment on the grounds that the campaign - though now finished - remains classified.
Nor did the campaign succeed in significantly degrading al Qaeda’s operations in the region. The vast majority of those killed in airstrikes were not the direct targets. The operators leading the campaign included some of the most highly trained military units at the Obama administration’s disposal, and they were supported by the world’s most powerful electronic surveillance agencies, equipped with technology that allowed for unmatched tracking of wanted individuals.ĭespite all these advantages, the military’s own analysis demonstrates that the Haymaker campaign was in many respects a failure. After more than a decade of war in Afghanistan, a robust network of intelligence sources - including informants on the ground - had been established in parts of the historically rebellious, geographically imposing provinces of Kunar and Nuristan. INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY DOCUMENTS obtained by The Intercept, detailing the purpose and achievements of the Haymaker campaign, indicate that the American forces involved in the operations had, at least on paper, all of the components they needed to succeed.
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