Ansar al-Islam was established by former Al-Qaeda members in 2001 as a Kurdish Salafist movement that imposed a strict application of Sharia in villages it controlled.

[3] After Turkey had denied the U.S. 4th Infantry Division passage through their borders, the burden of carrying out the northern front of the war in Iraq fell on an ad hoc coalition of Americans to include CIA Special Activities Division (SAD) paramilitary operations officers, Special Forces soldiers from 10th SFG, U.S. Army 10th Mountain Division, 2nd Battalion, 14th Infantry Regiment and airborne units that parachuted into northern Iraq (however, the 173rd and 10th Mountain played no part in Operation Viking Hammer), and Kurdish Peshmerga forces of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and Kurdish Democratic Party.

[8][9][10][11] Ansar al-Islam fighters held a series of mountaintop positions that offered them an advantage and a commanding view of the surrounding areas, but also left them vulnerable to airstrikes.

On the day before the battle, the Kurdistan Islamic Group, led by Ali Bapir, which had been allied with Ansar al-Islam, surrendered after having around 100 of their men killed in the March 21 strikes and being unable to move forward.

[1] The ground attack consisted of a six-pronged advance, with each prong was composed of several ODAs from 3rd battalion, 10th SFG and upwards of 1,000 Peshmerga.

Pursuing Ansar fighters into the hills, American and Peshmerga forces were again pinned down by machine-gun fire and had to call in more airstrikes before darkness put an end to the day's fighting.

American intelligence personnel inspected the suspected chemical weapons site in Sargat and discovered traces of Ricin in the ruins, as well as potassium chloride.