| Operation Mountain Fury | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the War in Afghanistan (2001–2021) | |||||||
 A soldier searches for weapons caches in the village of Alizai in Ghazni Province, Afghanistan. | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 Islamic Republic of Afghanistan Canada United States United Kingdom Netherlands Italy Estonia |
 Taliban  al-Qaeda | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
|
Gen. David Richards |
Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Osmani † | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
4,000 3,000Total: 7,000 [1] | Unknown | ||||||
Operation Mountain Fury was a NATO-led operation begun on September 16, 2006 as a follow-up operation to Operation Medusa, to clear Taliban insurgents from the eastern provinces of Afghanistan. Another focus of the operation was to enable reconstruction projects such as schools, health-care facilities, and courthouses to take place in the targeted provinces.
During the operation, the Taliban suffered heavy losses during direct battle with NATO coalition forces; as a result, they are expected to focus more on tactics such as the use of improvised explosive devices (IEDs), according to sources such as NATO's top commander James L. Jones and Canadian defence minister Gordon O'Connor. Jones also linked the large-scale production of opium to increased insurgent violence.