THE WORLD ATLAS

War · 7 October 2001 – 30 August 2021

War in Afghanistan (2001–2021)

After al-Qaeda's attacks on the United States on 11 September 2001 killed nearly 3,000 people, the Taliban government of Afghanistan refused to hand over Osama bin Laden. On 7 October US and British forces began air strikes, and with the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance they toppled the Taliban within weeks, though bin Laden escaped.

A new government under Hamid Karzai was formed, and a NATO-led force (ISAF), eventually drawing troops from 51 countries, helped build the Afghan state and army. From 2006 the Taliban, regrouping from sanctuaries in Pakistan, waged a growing insurgency, especially in the south and east. A US troop surge in 2009–11 and the killing of bin Laden in 2011 did not end the fighting. ISAF's combat mission ended in 2014, and Afghan forces took the lead. Under the 2020 Doha Agreement the United States agreed to withdraw. As foreign troops left in 2021 the Afghan Republic collapsed, and the Taliban took Kabul on 15 August.

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Dates
7 October 2001 – 30 August 2021
Casualties
An estimated 176,000 to more than 212,000 people were killed, including about 46,000 Afghan civilians, 66,000–92,000 Afghan security forces and about 3,500 coalition troops, 2,330 of them American.

The sides

US-led coalition, Northern Alliance and Afghan Republic

Taliban and al-Qaeda

Timeline of the War in Afghanistan (2001–2021)

  1. Northern Alliance commander Massoud assassinated

    By 2001 the Taliban, in power in Kabul since 1996, controlled most of Afghanistan and sheltered Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda. The main resistance was the Northern Alliance, led by Ahmad Shah Massoud, which held a corner of the north-east. On 9 September two al-Qaeda operatives posing as journalists killed Massoud with a bomb hidden in their camera. Two days later al-Qaeda hijackers attacked New York and Washington, killing close to 3,000 people.

  2. US and British air strikes begin

    The Taliban refused US demands to hand over bin Laden. On 18 September Congress authorised the use of force against those responsible for 9/11, and on 7 October US and British forces began bombing Taliban and al-Qaeda targets in Operation Enduring Freedom. Small teams of CIA officers and special forces joined Northern Alliance commanders, directing air strikes onto Taliban front lines.

  3. Mazar-i-Sharif falls to the Northern Alliance

    Supported by US air power and special forces, forces loyal to the Uzbek commander Abdul Rashid Dostum captured the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif on 9 November. Its fall broke the Taliban's hold on the north, and their front lines began to collapse across the country as commanders defected or retreated. Within days Northern Alliance forces were advancing on Kabul, while Pashtun anti-Taliban leaders, including Hamid Karzai, rallied support in the south.

  4. Taliban abandon Kabul

    As Northern Alliance troops advanced from the Shomali plain, Taliban fighters withdrew from Kabul overnight, and on 13 November coalition-backed forces entered the capital. Residents greeted the end of Taliban rule with music, shaved beards and uncovered television sets, all banned under the regime. Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters fell back to the south and to the eastern mountains near Pakistan.

  5. Battle of Tora Bora; bin Laden escapes

    Bin Laden and hundreds of al-Qaeda fighters retreated to the Tora Bora cave complex in the White Mountains near the Pakistani border. From 3 to 17 December Afghan militias, backed by US bombing and small special-forces teams, attacked the complex. Few US ground troops were committed to block escape routes, and bin Laden slipped away, reportedly around 16 December, probably into Pakistan.

  6. Taliban surrender Kandahar; Karzai to lead interim government

    On 5 December Afghan factions meeting in Bonn, Germany, signed an agreement naming Hamid Karzai, a Pashtun leader from Kandahar, head of an interim administration. Four days later the Taliban surrendered Kandahar, their spiritual capital, and their leader Mullah Omar fled. The UN Security Council then authorised an International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) to help secure Kabul. Within two months of the first air strikes, the Taliban regime had fallen, though its leaders and many fighters survived.

  7. Operation Anaconda in the Shah-i-Kot valley

    In March 2002 US and allied troops, with Afghan forces, attacked Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters gathered in the Shah-i-Kot valley in Paktia province, the first major ground operation since Tora Bora. The fighting in high mountains in winter was fierce and cost US lives, and many fighters escaped to Pakistan. In June a loya jirga, a grand assembly, chose Karzai to head a transitional government.

  8. NATO takes command of ISAF

    On 11 August 2003 NATO took over command of ISAF, the alliance's first operational commitment outside Europe. Over the next three years ISAF expanded from Kabul across the whole country, completing the process in October 2006, while a separate US-led force continued counter-terrorism operations. At its height ISAF had more than 130,000 personnel from 51 NATO and partner countries, by far the largest contingent coming from the United States, followed by Britain and Germany.

  9. Karzai wins Afghanistan's first presidential election

    A loya jirga agreed a new constitution with a strong presidency in January 2004. On 9 October millions of Afghans, including many women, voted in the country's first direct presidential election, and Karzai won with a majority. Western governments hailed it as a milestone, but the state remained weak, dependent on foreign aid and troubled by corruption and warlord power.

  10. British troops deploy to Helmand as the Taliban resurge

    Regrouped in Pakistan's border areas, the Taliban stepped up their insurgency; suicide attacks rose from 27 in 2005 to 139 in 2006. As ISAF expanded into the south, Britain sent more than 3,000 troops to Helmand province in April 2006, based at Camp Bastion, while Canadian, Dutch and US forces fought in Kandahar and neighbouring provinces. Fighting in the south soon became far heavier than expected.

  11. US surge: 30,000 more troops ordered to Afghanistan

    With the Taliban gaining ground, President Barack Obama announced on 1 December 2009 that 30,000 more US troops would be sent, on top of the 68,000 already deployed, but set a date to begin withdrawing them in 2011. US numbers peaked at about 100,000 in 2010–11, with most of the surge forces sent to the south. The surge pushed back the Taliban in parts of Helmand and Kandahar but did not defeat them.

  12. US special forces kill Osama bin Laden in Pakistan

    After years of intelligence work, US Navy SEALs raided a compound in Abbottabad, a Pakistani garrison town, on the night of 1–2 May 2011 local time and killed bin Laden. The discovery that he had been living close to Pakistan's military academy strained US–Pakistani relations. Al-Qaeda's founder had evaded capture for almost a decade. In June 2011 Obama announced the withdrawal of 33,000 surge troops by summer 2012, as the focus shifted to handing security over to Afghan forces.

  13. Britain hands over Camp Bastion

    Security responsibility passed gradually to Afghan forces from July 2011, and they took the lead nationwide in June 2013. On 26 October 2014 British forces handed Camp Bastion to the Afghan army, ending the UK's combat mission in Helmand, where some 9,500 British troops had served at the peak. About 450 British personnel died in Afghanistan, many from improvised explosive devices.

  14. ISAF's combat mission ends

    At the end of 2014 ISAF was wound up and Afghan forces assumed full responsibility for security. From 1 January 2015 a smaller NATO mission, Resolute Support, trained and advised Afghan forces, while US forces kept up counter-terrorism operations. Afghan troops and police took very heavy casualties as the Taliban captured rural districts and briefly seized cities such as Kunduz.

  15. US–Taliban Doha Agreement

    After talks that excluded the Afghan government, the United States and the Taliban signed an agreement in Doha, Qatar, on 29 February 2020. The US committed to withdraw all its forces, and the Taliban promised to stop al-Qaeda and other groups from using Afghanistan to threaten the US and to negotiate with Kabul. Talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government began in Doha in September but made little progress.

  16. Taliban enter Kabul as the Republic collapses

    On 14 April 2021 President Joe Biden announced that all US troops would leave by 11 September. As foreign forces pulled out, the Taliban launched a rapid offensive, taking rural districts and then provincial capitals, often after local forces surrendered. On 15 August President Ashraf Ghani fled the country and Taliban fighters entered Kabul and the presidential palace, ending the Islamic Republic.

  17. Suicide bombing at Kabul airport

    Tens of thousands of Afghans crowded around Kabul airport hoping to be evacuated. On 26 August a suicide bomber from the local branch of the Islamic State struck at the Abbey Gate, killing 13 US service members and at least 170 Afghans. The evacuation continued; more than 120,000 people were flown out in the final weeks of the withdrawal. Many Afghans who had worked with foreign forces or the Republic were left behind.

  18. Last US troops leave Afghanistan

    The last US military aircraft left Kabul airport shortly before midnight on 30 August 2021, ending nearly 20 years of war, the longest in US history. The Taliban declared an interim government of their Islamic Emirate in September, imposing severe restrictions on women and girls, including bans on secondary schooling, while the country faced economic collapse and a humanitarian crisis as foreign aid was cut off.

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Sources