Operation Ptarmigan was one of a series of operations in Operation Jacana.  Operation Jacana was primarily designed to hunt down and “Clean-up” the remaining Al-Qaida and Taliban insurgents who had survived or escaped during the earlier Operation Anaconda.

On April 16, 2002, a taskforce of Royal Marines was dispatched to Bagram Airbase, participating in Operation Ptarmigan. This operation, lasting five days, was aimed at clearing high mountain valleys southeast of Gardez, elevating up to 11,000 ft, with the purpose of searching for and eliminating Taliban and Al-Qaeda forces, as well as destroying their bunkers and cave complexes. The operation was conducted in tandem with Coalition forces undertaking Operation Mountain Lion, which had commenced a day prior and had similar objectives. In the course of the operation, 400 troops from the Royal Marines reconnaissance troop, aided by the RAF, uncovered several uncharted cave complexes. Notably, one of these complexes in the Shah-i-Kot area housed over 20,000 rounds of anti-aircraft ammunition, which was subsequently destroyed.