Operation Snakebite: The Explosive True Story of an Afghan Desert Siege

by StephenGrey (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2009

  $49.80

• Used

  Paperback
  2010

  $3.29

  Coming up to Christmas, and reporter Stephen Grey is embedded with B Company, 2 Yorks, in southern Afghanistan during Operation Snakebite. Their mission: to take the Taliban stronghold of Musa Qala. For some this battle will be their last. In the thick of the fighting, Grey provides a breathtaking boots-and-bullets glimpse of combat chaos as British, American and Afghan forces struggle to secure a dusty little desert town known to be crucial to the drug trade. Operation Snakebite reveals everything you need to know about the brutal conflict in Afghanistan: from the political infighting and bureaucratic interference to the frontline troops soldiering on with unsuitable gear and poor intelligence.

• Used

  Hardcover
  2009

  $4.25

  In December 2007, Stephen Grey, a Sunday Times reporter, was under fire in Afghanistan as British and US forces struggled to liberate the Taliban stronghold of Musa Qala. Taking shelter behind an American armored Humvee, Grey turned his head to witness scenes of carnage. A car and a truck were riddled with gunfire. Their occupants, including several children, had died. Taliban positions were pounded by bullets and bombs dropped on their compounds. A day later, as the operation continued, a mine exploded just yards from Grey, killing a British soldier. Who, he wondered in the days that followed, was responsible for the bloodshed? And what purpose did it serve? A compelling story of one military venture that lasted several days, Operation Snakebite draws on Grey's exclusive interviews with everyone from private soldiers to NATO commanders. The result is a thrilling and at times horrifying story of a war which has gone largely unnoticed back home.