Afghanistan War (2001-2021) was a long and destructive international conflict. It started as a short but intense war in which the United States and its allies battled the Taliban, a militant Islamic group that controlled Afghanistan. International forces overthrew the Taliban regime and helped establish a new government in Afghanistan.
The conflict persisted in the years that followed, however, as the United States and its allies struggled to establish stability in the country. The war eventually became the longest deployment of American combat troops in U.S. history. From the beginning of the Afghanistan War until U.S. and allied forces withdrew in 2021, more than 3,500 coalition soldiers, mostly Americans, died in Afghanistan.
Background.
On Sept. 11, 2001, terrorists used hijacked commercial jetliners to attack the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon Building near Washington, D.C. Nearly 3,000 people were killed in the attacks. The U.S. government linked the attacks to an Islamic extremist group called al-Qa`ida (also spelled al-Qaeda). The Taliban had hosted the group in Afghanistan since 1996. Following the attacks, U.S. President George W. Bush called for a worldwide campaign against al-Qa`ida and other international terrorist networks. The campaign was commonly called the “war on terrorism” or the “war on terror.”
Afghanistan was a major focus of this campaign. The United States demanded that the Taliban shut down al-Qa`ida training camps and arrest al-Qa`ida leaders, including Osama bin Laden, the group’s founder and head. When the Taliban refused to do so, the United States and its allies launched a military campaign.
Toppling the Taliban.
The military campaign, called Operation Enduring Freedom, began on Oct. 7, 2001, with a series of U.S. and British air strikes against Taliban positions. Early in the conflict, the United States sent military special operations teams as well as agents from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) into Afghanistan. In November, U.S. Marines joined them. Afghan anti-Taliban forces, including an association called the Northern Alliance, fought on the ground. The anti-Taliban groups received assistance from U.S. and other allied forces.
Throughout November, the Afghan anti-Taliban forces established control over major cities and towns, including Kabul, Afghanistan’s capital. Kandahar was the last major city to fall. Afghan forces established their control of the city on December 9, bringing Taliban rule in Afghanistan to an end. The Taliban fell exactly nine weeks after the bombing began. However, the Afghanistan War did not end.
Some members of the Taliban and al-Qa`ida fled to the mountains along Afghanistan’s eastern border with Pakistan. American officials believed Osama bin Laden was among those hiding in a mountainous region known as Tora Bora. However, the United States held back from a full-scale attack on Tora Bora. American officials were concerned that the area was too heavily fortified and that they did not have enough troops available. At that point, the United States had begun preparations to invade Iraq (see Iraq War). The American decision to limit its attack at Tora Bora became highly controversial.
American jets bombed the Tora Bora region that December. Troops then searched the area for bin Laden, but they were unable to find him. The hunt for bin Laden continued for the next 10 years.
A new government.
From late November to early December 2001, the United Nations (UN) sponsored a meeting in Bonn, Germany. Delegates from Afghanistan’s main ethnic and regional groups gathered to organize a temporary government. The delegates selected Hamid Karzai, a member of the Popalzai tribe of the Pashtun ethnic group, to head the temporary government. Later in December, the UN established the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) to lead foreign forces providing security for the new Afghan government in and around the capital city of Kabul. Later, the UN expanded the ISAF’s activity to other parts of Afghanistan. Eventually, about 50 countries, including every member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), sent troops to Afghanistan.
In early 2002, U.S. military officials believed that Taliban and al-Qa`ida fighters were regrouping in the Shah-i-Kot Valley, about 80 miles (130 kilometers) south of Kabul. On March 2, American forces began a campaign to prevent the Taliban from using the region to prepare attacks elsewhere in the country. By mid-March, American forces had reclaimed the region, and the surviving Taliban and al-Qa`ida fighters had fled the valley.
In May 2003, U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld told the U.S. Congress that “major combat” in Afghanistan was over. At the time, about 8,000 American troops were stationed in Afghanistan. That August, NATO took command of the ISAF. In January 2004, the transitional Afghan government adopted the country’s first democratic constitution. Elections were held in November 2004, and Karzai was elected president.
Despite steps toward democracy and billions of dollars in foreign aid, the war dragged on. Fighters loyal to the Taliban and al-Qa`ida had taken refuge in the south and east of Afghanistan, and across the border in Pakistan. In 2003, insurgents began launching attacks on U.S. and allied forces from bases in Pakistan. The attacks increased over the next several years. To maintain security, the United States and its allies increased the number of troops in Afghanistan. By 2005, American forces in Afghanistan numbered nearly 20,000.
Counterinsurgency.
Since 2002, Taliban and al-Qa`ida militants had been staging ambushes, planting explosives, carrying out suicide bomb attacks, and using other guerrilla tactics against the U.S. military and its allies. Insurgents also attacked Afghan and Pakistani politicians and other leaders who opposed their efforts. The insurgents favored the use of homemade bombs known as improvised explosive devices (IED’s). Although such explosives were made by amateurs, they were often powerful enough to destroy heavily armored vehicles.
As the guerrilla attacks increased, the allied forces placed more emphasis on what is called counterinsurgency warfare. Counterinsurgency is military action against guerrillas and other insurgents. Allied forces in Afghanistan established outposts throughout much of the country. The allies worked to convince Afghan civilians not to support the insurgents. Troops provided security for villages and performed such humanitarian tasks as digging wells, building schools and roads, and providing medical care.
Through the first decade of the 2000’s, the counterinsurgency effort required large numbers of troops. In December 2009, U.S. President Barack Obama announced a surge (increase) in troops to Afghanistan. By mid-2010, the United States had sent an additional 30,000 troops, bringing the American total to nearly 100,000. In addition, about 40,000 ISAF troops from other nations were serving in Afghanistan at that time. Obama argued that the surge would help end the war and prevent further al-Qa`ida attacks around the world.
Controversy.
Several aspects of the Afghanistan War became the subject of much public debate. One such aspect was the use of drones, also known as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV’s). Drones are unpiloted aircraft that can be controlled by operators who are hundreds, or even thousands, of miles away. Such aircraft are useful for surveillance and attack missions that would be highly dangerous for human pilots. However, many critics oppose the use of drone attacks. In some cases, civilians have been killed in drone attacks after they were mistaken for enemy fighters.
Additional controversy stemmed from the use of drones in regions where allied forces were not authorized to go. The U.S. and allied air teams repeatedly used drones to attack targets they believed to be Taliban and al-Qa`ida strongholds in Pakistan. Many Pakistanis opposed the use of drone strikes in their country.
The UN and other international organizations estimated that thousands of Afghan civilians were killed by allied air strikes—both by drones and piloted aircraft—during the course of the war. The killing of Afghan civilians contributed to criticism of the United States and caused tension between U.S. and Afghan leaders. However, the UN noted that a vast majority of the civilian deaths in the war were caused by the Taliban and al-Qa`ida.
Relations with Pakistan.
Pakistan became an important U.S. ally in the Afghanistan War. Afghanistan is a landlocked country, so the United States and its allies used the Pakistani port of Karachi as a transportation hub for equipment and supplies. Trucks carried supplies from Karachi into northwestern Pakistan, and across the border into Afghanistan. However, the war also strained Pakistan’s relationship with the United States.
A low point in relations between the United States and Pakistan came in late 2011, after a U.S. air strike killed Pakistani troops stationed along the border with Afghanistan. For several months, Pakistani forces blocked the road that NATO was using to transport supplies into Afghanistan.
Some international affairs experts accused Pakistan’s leaders of harboring top al-Qa`ida figures, including Osama bin Laden. Pakistan denied the allegations. However, American intelligence tracked bin Laden to a heavily guarded compound in Abbottabad, a Pakistani city northeast of Islamabad. A U.S. special forces team killed bin Laden there on May 2, 2011 (May 1 in the United States).
Ending the war.
In mid-2011, NATO began transferring national peacekeeping and security duties to Afghan forces. The transfer was complete in June 2013. By that time, Afghan security and military forces had been granted leadership over security operations for the entire country. International troops shifted into a supporting role.
In February 2013, President Obama announced that the United States would end the war in Afghanistan by the end of 2014. He later announced that nearly 10,000 American troops would remain in Afghanistan through 2016, serving in such noncombat roles as training Afghan soldiers, advising Afghan army units, and helping maintain equipment. In September 2014, the Afghan government signed a security agreement with the U.S. government that clarified the terms under which American troops would remain in Afghanistan. In December, NATO and the United States formally ended their combat missions in Afghanistan. On Dec. 28, 2014, the United States held a ceremony in Kabul to mark a formal end of the war. However, the Taliban increased their presence in Afghanistan in 2015, and security forces continued to battle the insurgents. In October 2015, President Obama announced that U.S. troops would remain in Afghanistan into 2017.
In 2017, as the Taliban continued its insurgency, U.S. President Donald J. Trump sent an additional 3,000 troops to Afghanistan. The additional forces brought the total number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan to about 15,000. The deployed troops were on combat duty, a significant change from former President Obama’s strategy to end troops’ combat roles. In 2018, representatives of the United States and the Taliban began to hold talks on conditions under which U.S. troops might be withdrawn from the country. However, the Taliban resisted engaging in negotiations with the Afghan government.
On Feb. 29, 2020, the United States and the Taliban signed an agreement aimed at ending the war in Afghanistan. The Taliban agreed not to allow such terrorist organizations as al-Qa`ida and the Islamic State (ISIS) to operate from bases in Afghanistan, and the United States agreed to a gradual withdrawal of the approximately 13,000 troops it had in the country at that time. Several thousand NATO troops also remained in the country, providing noncombat assistance to Afghan security forces. In September, representatives of the Afghan government and the Taliban began direct negotiations. The number of U.S. troops was cut to about 2,500 to 3,500 by mid-January 2021. Nevertheless, fighting between Afghan government forces and the Taliban continued. Taliban threats and violence against members and supporters of the Afghan government mounted.
In April 2021, U.S. President Joe Biden committed his administration to withdrawing the U.S. troops from Afghanistan. According to Biden, Afghanistan was no longer serving as a safe haven for militants who threatened the United States, as it had been when the war began. Biden set a deadline of Sept. 11, 2021, for the withdrawal of the remaining U.S. troops. The deadline was later advanced to August 31. The United States said it would continue to provide reconnaissance support (military survey of enemy activities) to the Afghan government forces from bases outside Afghanistan. In mid-April, NATO announced that it would also withdraw its forces, beginning in May.
As U.S. and NATO troops withdrew, Taliban attacks aimed at expanding the group’s control over additional territory increased. During the summer, the Taliban rapidly seized control of more districts. Hundreds of thousands of Afghans fled. The Afghan National Security Forces eventually collapsed before the advance, despite years of support and training by NATO and U.S. forces. In August, Taliban forces took over additional territory, including several major cities. On August 15, they entered and took control of Kabul. Afghanistan’s president Ashraf Ghani fled the country.
