First Casualty

On November 25, 2001, a beat up, dirt covered truck taxied David Tyson and Johnny Span, two CIA officers, through the narrow streets of Mazar-i-Sharif, a Taliban controlled city in Northern Afghanistan. The pair knew they were driving head first into danger, but they had little idea of where they were going or who might meeting them when they got there -- and they certainly didn't know that they're actions would set off the first armed conflict in the global war against terror. The six day battle that followed not only marked the start of America's longest ongoing war, but also proved to be bellwether for the complicated, often misinterpreted and misunderstood, forces at play in the Middle East.

Toby Harnden deftly brings to life the complex players, from Mulah Mohammad Fazl, an Afghan Tribal leader who sowed violence to entrap the US military, and John Walker Lind the infamous American who volunteered to fight on behalf of the Afghan Northern Alliance and was later interrogated by Span, to capture this unbelievable intersection of live that changed the course of history. THE FORT is a story of survival, of a changing combat landscape, of deceit and espionage and unpredictable allies. But above all else, it is a gripping, vividly narrated war tale that perfectly illustrates the tangled web of power behind the decades long war on terror.