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| Nuristan (also spelled Nurestan) is a modern province in eastern Afghanistan, but to many, it is its own region, unconnected to any country. Nestled deep in the Hindu Kush mountains, the area was once known as "Kafiristan" - "Land of the Kafirs" or "Land of the Infidels" by the Pashtun dominated Sunni Islamic leadership of Afghanistan in the 1800s. But once Islam spread through the secretive valleys of the region, the populace adopted some of the most strict interpretations of Islam, and then called the region "Nuristan" - "Land of Light" - as in "Land of the Enlightened Ones." Nuristan lies to the north of the Kunar Province, shown in the map below. |
| Nuristan today continues to be a land little known by the outside world. Unfortunately, due to the extremely remote nature of the area, like that of the province to its south, the Kunar, and due to it abutting the border of Pakistan, many Islamic extremists have found safe haven in the area. |
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Location of the Kunar Province. Nuristan lies just to the north of the Kunar / Ed Darack
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U.S. Marines Near the village of Nangalam, coming out of the Waigal Valley, which connects the Kunar Province with Nuristan / Ed Darack |
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Nuristan, and its historical relevance to modern Islamic extremism in the Kunar, is discussed at some length in the non-fiction book, VICTORY POINT: Operations Red Wings and Whalers - The Marine Corps' Battle for Freedom in Afghanistan. The target of both operations was a terrorist / insurgent cell led by a man named Ahmad Shah, who based his operations, in part, out of the Korangal Valley (in the Kunar Province along the corridor between the Kunar and Nuristan). The Marine Corps planners of Red Wings brought in Navy SEALs for the opening phases of the op (for reasons to be disclosed for the first time in VICTORY POINT); the four-man SEAL reconnaissance and surveillance team tasked to positively identify Shah inserted near the summit of the mountain named Sawtalo Sar (which defines the eastern periphery of the Korangal Valley) on the night of 27 June, 2005. Just hours later, in the late morning of the 28th, they fell into a horrific ambush at the hands of Shah and his men, killing three, with only one survivor. 16 special operations personnell (8 Navy SEALs and 8 Army special operations aviators of the 160th SOAR(A)) subsequently perished when one of Shah's men shot the Army Special Operations MH-47 Chinook they were in down during the rescue attempt. Operation Whalers, which had the same goal as Red Wings, utilized only U.S. Marines with attached Afghan National Army Soldiers, had a much different outcome. |
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| Learn more about VICTORY POINT by going to the book's page on either Amazon.com or BarnesAndNoble.com. And please watch the VICTORY POINT video below: |
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