September 21, 2012

The last of the approximately 33,000 United States troops sent to Afghanistan in a “troop surge” by President Barack Obama in early 2010 have left that war-torn country about one week ahead of schedule, the Department of Defense has announced. The additional troops were posted to Afghanistan to improve the training and performance of Afghan soldiers and to push back resistant Taliban forces in southern Afghanistan. The deployment of the surge troops increased U.S. forces in the international coalition fighting in Afghanistan to more than 101,000. When he deployed the additional troops, President Obama vowed to withdraw them by September 30, 2012.

With the departure of the surge forces, some 68,000 U.S. troops and about 39,000 troops from coalition countries remain in Afghanistan. The United States planned to keep about 70,000 soldiers in Afghanistan until 2014, when the Afghan government was to take over security operations. As of September 21, 1,656 U.S. military personnel had been killed in action in the Afghanistan War, according to the Department of Defense. The number of wounded was 17,619.

Troops from the 101st Airborne Division arrive in Afghanistan in 2002. (Warren Zinn, Getty Images)

A United States-led alliance invaded Afghanistan in 2001 following the September 11 terrorist attacks, the worst acts of terrorism ever carried out against the United States. The U.S. government linked the attacks to al-Qa`ida (also spelled al-Qaeda), an Islamic extremist group that the Taliban, which controlled Afghanistan, had hosted since 1996. Although the Taliban regime was soon overthrown, allied forces struggled to establish security in the country. In 2006, NATO took over peacekeeping and security duties for Afghanistan from the U.S.-led alliance.

Additional World Book articles:

• Afghanistan (2001) (a Back in Time article)
• Armed forces (2001) (a Back in Time article)
• Terrorism: America’s New Enemy (a Special Report)