Campaign Lore
OPERATION ENDURING SPEAR
17th Ranger Battalion
Lythium Province | 10-Week Campaign
“Rangers Lead The Way.”
LYTHIUMCAMPAIGN OVERVIEW
For nearly two decades, theLythium mountainsProvince has remained a persistent problem for coalition forces. Its mountainous terrain, isolated communities, tribal relationships, and valleysextensive network of Lythiumsecondary existedroads onand themountain peripheryroutes ofhave theallowed war.insurgent organizations to survive repeated attempts to disrupt their operations.
Coalition forces maintainedmaintain a presencepositions throughout the region,province and retain control of several important population centers and transportation routes, but geography,control tribaloutside influence,those areas remains inconsistent. Insurgent groups routinely use remote villages, compounds, and an extensive network of mountain routessettlements madeas permanenttemporary controlstaging difficult.areas Whenwhile pressureweapons, increased,personnel, insurgentand fighterssupplies disappeared into the mountains. When coalition forces withdrew, they returned.
Weaponsare moved through isolated passes.
Money changed hands in crowded markets.
Couriers traveled between villagesregions carryingusing messagesestablished thatsmuggling never touched a radio.networks.
Men who appeared to be farmers during the day became fighters after sunset.
For years, none of this was unusual.
Then something changed.
THE QUIET WAR
Over the past six months, coalition intelligence has recordeddocumented a significantnoticeable increase in coordinated insurgent activityactivity. throughout Lythium.
Weapons caches have grownbecome larger.
IED attacks have become more sophisticated.
Previouslyand independentlocal fighting groups have begundemonstrated sharingimproved equipment,coordination. intelligence,Equipment recovered in one portion of Lythium has later appeared in another, while known smugglers and personnel.facilitators have increasingly operated outside their traditional areas.
CoalitionThese patrols operating hundreds of kilometers apartdevelopments have encounteredraised identicalconcerns weapons,that explosives,the andinsurgency tactics.
SomeoneLythium is organizingbecoming them.more organized than previously assessed.
The question17th isRanger who.
Intelligence agencies disagree on whether Lythium is experiencing the emergence of a new organization or the consolidation of several existing groups.
What is known is that money, weapons, and fighters are moving through the province at an unprecedented rate.
Somewhere inside that system is a command structure.
Finding it has proven difficult.
Every captured fighter knows a commander.
Every commander knows a facilitator.
Every facilitator knows a courier.
And every courier seems to lead to another name.
The organizationBattalion has been builttasked deliberatelywith sodetermining the extent of that noorganization singleand individual understandsdismantling the entirenetworks network.
Coalitionfor intelligencesustaining has therefore stopped trying to find the man at the top.
Instead, they intend to dismantle the organization one piece at a time.it.
THE BATTLESPACE
For operational purposes, Lythium has been divided into five operationalAreas areas.of Operations.
AO VIKING encompasses the northern population centers and surrounding terrain.
AO APACHE covers the western and northwestern mountain regions, where terrain and limited coalition presence remainsprovide limited.insurgent groups considerable freedom of movement.
AO RANGER contains the central valley and several of the province's primary north-south transportation corridors.
AO SABER covers eastern Lythium and its network of settlements, valleys, and mountain approaches.
AO BASTOGNE encompasses southern Lythium and contains much of the primarycoalition's coalitionestablished support infrastructure.
CoalitionThe forces17th maintainRanger severalBattalion positionsis throughout the province, but their ability to operate beyondalready established routes remains limited.
The southern airfield has been designatedat Marauder Airfield andin willAO serveBASTOGNE. Marauder serves as the battalion's primary operating base and provides the staging locationarea for incomingRanger ground elements, aviation, intelligence, logistics, medical support, and other assets supporting Operation Enduring Spear.
Coalition positions elsewhere in Lythium provide additional support and limited regional presence, but Ranger forces.
Fromshould Marauder,expect theto battalionoperate willwell projectbeyond combatareas powerof throughoutconsistent allcoalition five AOs.control.
THE MISSIONENEMY
Coalition intelligence currently recognizes two significant insurgent organizations operating within Lythium Province.
The Northern Lythium Shura (NLS) is a predominantly Pashtun organization associated primarily with northern Lythium and the western mountain regions. The NLS relies heavily on tribal relationships and a network of local commanders, facilitators, weapons smugglers, couriers, financiers, and mountain routes. Current intelligence assesses the organization as decentralized, with individual cells and commanders maintaining considerable autonomy. No overall leader of the NLS has been positively identified.
The Lythium Islamic Movement (LIM) is a predominantly Uzbek organization operating primarily throughout Lythium's valleys and eastern regions. LIM elements have demonstrated greater emphasis on organized fighting groups, ambushes, explosives, and IED operations. Intelligence reporting has occasionally referenced a senior Uzbek commander associated with the organization, but his identity and position within LIM remain unknown.
Historically, coalition intelligence has treated NLS and LIM as separate threats. Their ethnic composition, operating areas, local relationships, and command structures support that assessment.
Recent reporting, however, has raised questions about whether the relationship between the two organizations is changing.
Weapons associated with one group have appeared in areas controlled by the other. Smugglers have traveled between territories where they previously had little reason to operate, and several investigations have identified financial and logistical activity that cannot be easily attributed to a single organization.
There is currently insufficient evidence to establish formal cooperation between NLS and LIM. Whether these connections represent shared criminal infrastructure, temporary cooperation between individual commanders, or something more organized remains an intelligence priority.
OPERATION ENDURING SPEAR
The 17th Ranger Battalion has been ordered to Lythium.
Officially, the battalion will conduct direct-actiona operationsten-week inintelligence-driven supportcampaign ofagainst coalitioninsurgent effortspersonnel and infrastructure throughout Lythium Province.
The campaign is not intended to disruptestablish insurgentpermanent activitycontrol throughoutover every village or eliminate every armed fighter in the province.
Unofficially,The primary objective is to identify and dismantle the missioncommand, islogistical, considerablyfinancial, simpler.
Findcommunications the network.
Identify the men moving the weapons.
Find the people paying them.
Find the couriers carrying their messages.
Find the commanders protecting them.
Then follownetworks that chainallow asinsurgent farorganizations asto itcontinue goes.operating.
Operations will include airborne and air-assault missions, helicopter-bornedirect-action raids, air assaults, mounted interdictions, reconnaissance, high-value-target operations, personnel recovery, weapons interdiction, sensitive-site exploitation, personnel recovery, raids against high-value targets, and deliberate assaultsattacks against insurgent strongholds.positions when required.
IntelligenceTarget development will drivebe progressive. The battalion will not begin the campaign with a complete list of enemy commanders or locations. Initial operations will focus on individuals already associated with weapons movement, local cells, and other insurgent activity. Intelligence recovered from those operations will be exploited to identify additional personnel and relationships.
A local facilitator may identify a weapons supplier. That supplier may expose a smuggling route. The route may identify a courier or regional commander. Financial records may establish relationships between individuals previously believed to be unrelated.
The intelligence picture will develop as the campaign progresses.
INTELLIGENCE AND SSE
Sensitive Site Exploitation is therefore a central component of Operation Enduring Spear.
Enemy personnel are not the only objectives during a raid. Cellphones, radios, computers, photographs, maps, financial records, handwritten notes, weapons documentation, and captured personnel may provide intelligence required for future operations.
Operations will produce intelligence.
That intelligence will identify the next target.
Every compound matters.
Every detainee matters.
Every cellphone, ledger, photograph, map, radio, and scrap of paperInformation recovered during SSEone mission may directly determine the target of the next.
Whenever tactically feasible, designated high-value individuals should be captured rather than killed. A captured facilitator or commander may provide theinformation pieceunavailable through physical exploitation alone.
The battalion intelligence section will maintain an evolving picture of informationknown necessaryenemy personnel, organizations, locations, and relationships throughout the campaign. Information available to identifyRanger theelements nextwill manreflect inwhat thehas chain.actually been discovered through operations and intelligence reporting.
THECURRENT ENEMYINTELLIGENCE ASSESSMENT
At the beginning of Operation Enduring Spear, coalition intelligence understands only a portion of the insurgent structure operating within Lythium.
The Northern Lythium Shura is known, but its senior leadership remains unidentified.
The Lythium Islamic Movement is known, but the identity of the senior Uzbek commander referenced in intelligence reporting remains unresolved.
There is currently no single confirmed enemyevidence commanderof ina Lythium.unified command structure connecting the two organizations.
IntelligenceCoalition indicatesintelligence does not know that the presenceNLS ofis several Pashtun fighting groups operating throughout the mountainous regions and a growing number of Uzbek fighters operating throughout the valleys.
Historically, these organizations have maintained separate leadership structures.
Recent intelligence suggests that may be changing.
Weapons captured from one organization have appeared in the possession of another.
Known smugglers have been observed traveling between territories previouslyultimately controlled by competingQadir groups.Khan Shinwari — “The Mountain King.”
MoneyIt isdoes moving.
Weaponsknow arethat moving.
PeopleTursunov are— moving.
SomeoneButcher isof bringingthe themValley”
Whoeverat theythe are,top theyof havethe made one mistake.
They built aLIM network.
NetworksMost canimportantly, becoalition mapped.forces have not identified the Lythium Resistance Council (LRC), the clandestine mechanism through which senior elements of the NLS and LIM coordinate weapons, financing, communications, movement, intelligence, and major operations while maintaining their organizations as separate entities.
AndThese onceare theynot canfacts beavailable mapped...
theythe can17th beat dismantled.the beginning of the campaign. They represent the larger structure that Operation Enduring Spear will gradually uncover.
ENDURINGCAMPAIGN SPEARSTART
TheAs deploymentthe iscampaign expected to last approximately ten weeks.
There is no expectation thatbegins, the 17th Ranger Battalion willis pacifyfully established at Marauder Airfield and prepared to conduct operations throughout Lythium.
ThatThe initial intelligence picture remains limited. Coalition forces know which organizations are operating in the province and have identified a number of low-level individuals associated with insurgent activity, but the relationships between those individuals remain poorly understood.
The first operations of Enduring Spear will therefore focus on developing that picture rather than immediately pursuing senior leadership.
The battalion's first actionable target is a local weapons facilitator operating in Kunara:
Mohammad “Musa” Ahmadi.
Musa is not whybelieved theyto arebe beinga sent.senior commander. Intelligence indicates that he assists in moving weapons and ammunition between local insurgent elements and may have contact with individuals farther up the supply chain.
TheHis capture and the exploitation of his compound represent the first opportunity for the 17th Ranger Battalion to begin identifying that chain.
From that point forward, the direction of the campaign will be determined by what the Rangers have been given a narrower mission.
Enter the province.
Find the enemy.
Destroy the network.
And leave whoever remains wondering where the next helicopter is going to land.find.
Operation Enduring Spear beginsis now.underway.