Ten years of US war in Afghanistan

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Ten years of US war in Afghanistan

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The US has been at war in Afghanistan for 10 years, the longest conflict in American history.

04 October,2011 10:44 am

American went to war in Afghanistan less than a month after the September 11, 2001 attacks. From the initial bombing strikes in early October of that year to the present day, more than 1,798 U.S. soldiers and tens of thousands of Afghan troops and civilians have been killed. As well, the political shape of the region has evolved uneasily as the United States seeks to extract its troops while leaving a bolstered Afghan national army to protect the nation.U.S. President George W. Bush announced from the White House he was dispatching troops to dismantle the Afghans Taliban government and destroy al-Qaeda and other groups intent on attacking American interests. But, 10 years on, the successor Afghan government of President Hamid Karzai governs precariously and the worlds most formidable military has yet to quell the Taliban insurgency.As the United States entered the war on October 7, 2001, its focus was on al-Qaeda and its leader, Osama bin Laden, and their benefactors in the Taliban government. By mid-November, the U.S.-backed Northern Alliance had conquered Kabul and, a few weeks later, they gained control of Kunduz, the last Taliban stronghold in the north of the country. Not long after, the birthplace of the Taliban had fallen in Kandahar, and by the end of the month, an interim government had been sworn in.The United States came close to capturing Osama bin Laden in December 2001 during an assault by special operations forces on the Tora Bora cave complex in eastern Afghanistan, but he slipped away.In March 2002, Operation Anaconda was launched with the aim of killing the remaining al-Qaeda fighters in Afghanistan. By September 2002, September, a major car bomb attack in Kabul killed 30 civilians and, within hours, Afghan President Hamid Karzai narrowly survived an assassination attempt in Kandahar.The course of the Afghan war shifted dramatically in 2003 when the United States launched its war in Iraq. The Afghan war became a sideshow to the Iraq conflict, which attacted the focus of Americas top military planners. In August of that year, NATO assumed command from the United States of peacekeeping in Kabul, its first operational commitment outside of Europe.In 2004, Afghanistan held an election, giving Afghanistan its first democratically elected president in more than a quarter century of war. That vote was followed by parliamentary elections in 2005.The United States suffered the death of 17 American troops in June 2005 when a helicopter on an anti-Taliban patrol crashed in eastern Afghanistan after it was hit by ground fire. It was the heaviest loss for U.S. forces since the invasion to overthrow the Taliban in 2001.Even as Afghanistan had become the Americas forgotten war, the toll of violence continued to shake Afghanistans people. In February 2007, the Bagram Air Base was bombed during a visit by U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney and, in November, a bombing at the Baglan sugar factory killed at least 75 people including some members of the Afghan parliament.Despite the presence of more than 50,000 foreign troops led by NATO and the U.S. military, as well as some 140,000 Afghan troops, the Taliban and other foreign militants inside Afghanistan were staging effective counteroffensives.In February 2008, a bombing in Kandahar killed more than 100 people, the deadliest suicide attack to date. In July, aTaliban suicide car bomber struck the Indian Embassy in Kabul, killing 41 people and wounding 139 others. In August, the Afghan government said more than 75 civlians had been killed in a U.S.-led coalition airstrike in western Herat, but the U.S. military claimed only armed Taliban militants were killed in the attack.In 2009, U.S. President Barack Obama launched a counterinsurgency campaign to reach the hearts and minds of the Afghan people. Troops now focused on the protection of Afghan civilians and the countrys infrastructure -- thereby, enabling Afghanistans government to concentrate on developing its own internal security force.Obama, in an address to cadets at the U.S. military academy, also issued a timeline for the withdrawal of Americas troops from Afghanistan. But that withdrawal would be precededed by a surge of U.S. forces.That year the death toll for American and allied forces in Afghanistan spiked to 521, including 317 U.S. troops. By 2010, those numbers increased to 711 U.S. and allied forces killed, with 499 Americans deaths among them. This year, 468 U.S. and allied forces have died in Afghanistan, including 352 Americans. All foreign forces are expected to leave Afghanistan by the end of 2014.