30 members of Golf Company, 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines 30 members of Force Recon Marines Timeline Major operations Airstrikes Major insurgent attacks 2002 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 Massacres Other The Battle of Shewan was a military engagement between Coalition forces and Taliban insurgents that took place on August 8, 2008, near the village of Shewan in the Bala Buluk district, Farah Province, Afghanistan.

[2][3][4][5][6][7] The village of Shewan was a Taliban headquarters used by several key leaders of the insurgency to plan and stage attacks on coalition forces in the area.

[2] Unknown to the Marines, there was a meeting of high-level Taliban commanders in the village that day, bringing with them an additional 100 well-trained fighters.

They were diehard, and they wanted a stand-up fight.”[8] The leaders of the Golf 2 and Force Recon platoons planned an assault on Shewan for several weeks.

The Marines departed in the early hours of the morning on 8 August in two different sections, Force Recon heading down Route 517 and Golf 2 around Saffarak Mountain.

[8] Just before noon, Force Recon began taking heavy small arms and RPG fire on the outskirts of Shewan from a long fortified trench line and ditches on the south side the village.

The temperature rose to 120 degrees during the fight, exhausting the Marines who had already covered many miles in their heavy protective gear, leading the corpsman to advise two soldiers they risked death if they rejoined the battle, which they did anyway.

[8][9] The platoon pulled off the road on line and sped towards the berm that ran parallel to the city, firing their crew-served weapons at the Taliban positions.

[8] By this time the attached Golf 2 81 mm mortar crew began firing volleys into the trenchlines from targets called in by their Forward Observer.

At Owen's insistence, pilot Col. Mark D. Kelly dropped a 500 lb bomb danger close, about 70 metres (230 ft) from the Marine's position.

The Force Recon platoon, reinforced by a squad from Golf 2, led a trench assault on the eastern portion of the Taliban fighting positions.

[11] The Marines attacked the vehicles and the occupants and fired another volley of mortars and airstrikes as Force Recon continued to assault their way into the Taliban fighting positions.

During the lull in the fighting, the remaining Taliban fighters attempted to retreat into the mountains, but Golf 2 killed them before they were able to reach the safety of the rocks.