Air Force troops in the Afghan mountains
Credit: U.S. Air Force

President Joe Biden stuck to a deadline of Aug. 31, 2021, for the withdrawal of the remaining United States troops from Afghanistan. The withdrawal brought the 20-year Afghanistan War to a close and completed a rapid retaking of the country by the Taliban, a militant Sunni Islamic political group.

As U.S. and NATO troops began their withdrawal earlier in the year, Taliban attacks aimed at expanding the group’s control over additional territory increased. 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 the capital, Kabul. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled the country.

The United States quickly sent additional troops to Kabul. They were to secure and oversee the operation of the city’s airport during the evacuation of U.S. and NATO personnel, along with Afghan allies and their families. On August 26, a suicide bombing and gunfire attack killed at least 170 people in the large crowd waiting to enter the airport. The victims also included 13 U.S. troops. The militant group ISIS-K (Islamic State Khorason—a branch of the Islamic State terrorist organization) claimed responsibility for the attack. Nevertheless, the evacuations continued. About 123,000 civilians were evacuated on U.S. and coalition flights before the United States completed the withdrawal of its last military troops on August 30.

The Afghanistan War began in 2001. It started as a short but intense war in which the United States and its allies battled the Taliban. 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. Since the beginning of the Afghanistan War, more than 3,500 coalition soldiers, mostly Americans, have died in Afghanistan.

In 2013, international troops shifted into a supporting role. Nearly 10,000 U.S. troops remained in such noncombat roles as training Afghan soldiers, advising Afghan army units, and helping maintain equipment. In 2014, NATO and the United States formally ended their combat missions in Afghanistan. However, the Taliban increased their presence in the following years, and security forces continued to battle the insurgents. An additional 3,000 U.S. troops were sent in 2017 on combat duty.

In 2018, U.S. and Taliban representatives began negotiating the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan. They signed an agreement in 2020. 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. Nevertheless, fighting between Afghan government forces and the Taliban continued, leading up to the U.S. withdrawal and the government’s collapse.

October 16, 2015

American troops patrol a village along Afghanistan’s border with Pakistan. Department of Defense

Yesterday, October 15, U.S. President Barack Obama announced the extension of the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan. The president’s original plan had been to draw down all but a small number of troops based at the American embassy in Kabul by the end of 2016. In the revised plan, at least 5,500 troops will remain in Afghanistan through 2017. The soldiers will be stationed at Kabul, Bagram, Jalalabad, and Kandahar.

An increase in Islamist Taliban attacks has worsened the security situation in Afghanistan over the past year. The militant Sunni organization held power in Afghanistan from the mid-1990′s until 2001. After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the United States government demanded that the Taliban turn over a terrorist they were harboring, Saudi-born millionaire Osama bin Laden. Bin Laden and al-Qa`ida, his terrorist organization, orchestrated the September 11 attacks. After the Taliban refused to turn over bin Laden, the U.S. invaded Afghanistan and removed the Taliban from power. After that, the Taliban fought a sporadic guerrilla war against U.S. and coalition forces.

The war in Afghanistan became the longest deployment of American combat troops in U.S. history. At the war’s peak in 2010 and 2011, nearly 100,000 U.S. soldiers were serving in Afghanistan. Taliban attacks then dwindled to the point that the war was formally declared over on Dec. 28, 2014. U.S. troops were then steadily reduced, but the Taliban correspondingly grew in strength.

In April 2015, the Taliban began fighting for the northern Afghan city of Kunduz, which they briefly captured in late September. On October 3, while responding to a call for aid from the Afghan Army, the U.S. Air Force accidentally bombed a hospital in Kunduz run by Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders), killing 22 people. The growing Taliban threat (along with the emergence of Islamic State terrorists in Afghanistan) created the need for the U.S. military’s extended stay in strength.

December 29, 2014

NATO commanders yesterday formally ended the Afghanistan War during a brief ceremony in the Afghan capital, Kabul. At NATO mission headquarters in the city, the green-and-white flag of the United States-led coalition, known as the International Security Assistance Force, was ceremonially rolled up and sheathed. Then the flag of the new international mission, called Resolute Support, was raised. The ceremony marked the official end of a 13-year combat mission in Afghanistan. Beginning on Jan. 1, 2015, U.S.-led forces in the country will offer only training and support for the Afghan army.

A NATO coalition invaded Afghanistan in 2001 in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States. The intention behind the invasion was to crush the terrorist organization behind the attacks–al-Qa’ida–and to capture its leader–Osama bin Laden. NATO forces quickly brought down Afghanistan’s Taliban-controlled government, which had sheltered al-Qa’ida. However, much of the al-Qa’ida organization escaped into other countries, particularly across the border into Pakistan. (American military forces finally tracked down and killed bin Laden in Pakistan in 2011.)

American troops patrol a village along Afghanistan’s border with Pakistan. After the U.S. military overthrew the Taliban, some members of the Taliban and al-Qa`ida fled to the mountains along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. (Department of Defense)

In a prepared statement, President Barack Obama said, “Today’s ceremony in Kabul marks a milestone for our country. For more than 13 years, ever since nearly 3,000 innocent lives were taken from us on 9/11, our nation has been at war in Afghanistan. Now, thanks to the extraordinary sacrifices of our men and women in uniform, our combat mission in Afghanistan is ending, and the longest war in American history is coming to a responsible conclusion.” The president also paid tribute to the more-than 2,200 Americans killed in the war.

Despite the war, the Taliban continues to launch offensives and carry out terrorist attacks in Afghanistan. “Afghanistan remains a dangerous place,” the president said in his statement, “and the Afghan people and their security forces continue to make tremendous sacrifices in defense of their country.

Additional World Book articles:

• Terrorism: America’s New Enemy (a special report)

October 25, 2013

At least 22 people—primarily babies and toddlers—are now believed to have contracted polio in Syria, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported this week. The polio outbreak is the first in Syria in at least 14 years. Before the civil war in Syria began in 2011, an estimated 95 percent of Syrian children were vaccinated against polio. The war, however, has crippled public health systems; fully half of the country’s hospitals have been destroyed or are so severely damaged as to be inoperable. According to UNICEF (United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund) estimates, at least a half a million Syrian children, all under age 5, have not been immunized and are at risk of polio.

Some 5 million Syrians have been displaced by the civil war and generally live in overcrowded, unsanitary conditions. Desperately short of food and medicine, many are living hand-to-mouth in parks, vacant buildings, or in cramped quarters with relatives. At least 2 million Syrian have left the country, and people continue to flood across borders in an uncontrolled manner. UNICEF spokesperson Simon Ingram points out that this exodus “increases the possibilities and means by which the [polio] virus can spread.” WHO has also reported increases in cases of hepatitis A, measles, and typhoid in refugee camps in Egypt, Jordan, and Turkey.

An infant receives a polio vaccination as part of a UNICEF immunization program. Polio remains endemic in Afghanistan, Nigeria, and Pakistan. Conditions in Syria recently led to an outbreak of polio there, as well. (AP/Wide World)

In 1988, WHO launched an immunization campaign that has largely eradicated polio in developed countries. However, the disease remains endemic in Afghanistan, Nigeria, and Pakistan. A Taliban ban on vaccination in Afghanistan and Pakistan threatens to derail the dramatic progress made toward wiping out polio. The Taliban denounces vaccination as a Western plot to sterilize Muslims.

Additional World Book articles:

• Syria 2011 (a Back in Time article)
• Syria 2012 (a Back in Time article)
• Jordan 2012 Ia Back in Time article)
• Turkey 2012 (a Back in Time article)
• Fighting a Persistent Foe (a special report)
• Syria: The Roots of a Rebellion (a special report)

July 12, 2013

Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani schoolgirl shot by the Taliban, spoke today at the United Nations (UN) on the occasion of  “Malala Day.” She told a specially convened youth assembly that books and pens scare such extremist groups as the Taliban. A Taliban gunman shot Malala in the head on a school bus in October 2012 because of her campaign for girls’ rights, including the right to an education.

Pakistani schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai spoke today to a special youth assembly in the plenary chamber at the United Nations.  (© Mario Tama, Getty Images)

“They are afraid of women,” Malala told the forum, noting that the Taliban’s attack had only made her more resolute: “Weakness, fear and hopelessness died. Strength, courage and fervor was born. . . I speak not for myself but for those without a voice,” she continued, stating that she is fighting for the rights of women because “they are the ones who suffer the most.”

According to the UN Statistics Division, fully one-quarter of all young women worldwide have not completed primary school. Malala’s native Pakistan ranks among the lowest in terms of female literacy and the enrollment of girls in school.

After Malala presented UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon with a petition demanding universal education, he addressed the special assembly: “She is calling on us to keep our promises, invest in young people and put education first.” He credited Malala with bringing the issue of women’s education to worldwide attention. Her petition bore more than 3 million signatures.

After being shot, Malala Yousafzai was flown from Pakistan to the United Kingdom for treatment. She now lives in Birmingham, England.

Additional World Book articles:

• Pakistan 2012 (a Back in Time article)
• Fifty Years of Defending Human Rights for All (a special report)

June 18, 2013

NATO forces in Afghanistan today handed over responsibility for security for the whole country to Afghan troops for the first time since NATO forces invaded the country in 2001. At a ceremony in Kabul, the capital, Afghan President Hamid Karzai announced that “our own security and military forces will lead all the security activities.” There are currently 350,000 Afghans in uniform. NATO troops will remain in Afghanistan through 2014, providing military back-up when needed.

In Doha, capital of Qatar, a Taliban spokesperson, Mohammed Naim, declared today in a televised speech that the Taliban is prepared to take the first step toward peace negotiations with the Afghan government. The Taliban, a militant Islamic group that was once aligned with Al-Qa`ida, has tried for decades to establish a united Islamic state in Afghanistan.  Naim noted that their political and military goals “are limited to Afghanistan” and that they did not wish to “harm other countries.”

The Taliban has spent much of the past 12 years hiding in the rugged terrain along the Afghan-Pakistan border, from which they organized military raids into Afghanistan. © Piers Benatar, Panos Pictures

The Taliban announcement is the first indication that the chief antagonists in the Afghanistan War are interested in ending the 12-year conflict. NATO forces, led by the United States military, entered Afghanistan to rout Al-Qa`ida, the terrorist organization that carried out the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. NATO ended up fighting the Taliban. The Taliban, which had gained control of most of Afghanistan in the mid-1990′s, had allowed Osama Bin Laden to establish his Al-Qa`ida headquarters and terrorist training camps in Afghanistan. Driven from power in 2001, the Taliban has been battling NATO forces ever since.

Additional World Book articles:

• Afghanistan 2001 (a Back in Time article)
• Terrorism: America’s New Enemy (a special report)

January 4, 2013

Malala Yousafzai, the 15-year-old Pakistani schoolgirl who was shot in the head by the Taliban, was discharged yesterday from a British hospital where she has been undergoing treatment since October 15. According to the hospital staff, she is well enough to be treated as an outpatient until she returns for surgery in several weeks.

Taliban gunmen targeted Malala for “promoting secularism” through her championing of girls’ education. She had kept a diary for the BBC’s Urdu service in which she had also highlighted the atrocities carried out by the Taliban in Pakistan’s Swat valley.

The Pakistani government is paying for Malala’s treatment and for the upkeep of her family in the United Kingdom. Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, who visited her in the hospital in December, described her as a “remarkable girl and a credit to Pakistan.”

The Taliban, a militant Islamic political group, has declared its intention of targeting Malala again. The Taliban gained control of most of Afghanistan in the mid-1990′s and sought to turn it into an Islamic state. After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States, the United States and its allies launched a military campaign against the Taliban and drove it out of Afghanistan. Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of the terrorist attacks, had been living in Afghanistan under the protection of the Taliban. Many Taliban members crossed the border to regroup in Pakistan, where they have frequently clashed with police and government troops. Taliban forces continue to battle NATO troops in Afghanistan.

Additional World Book articles:

• Terrorism
• Terrorism: America’s New Enemy (a special report)

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)

May 22, 2012

An historic plan for winding down NATO combat operations in Afghanistan was approved on May 21 by leaders of the 28-member military bloc meeting in Chicago. The plan, advanced by United States President Barack Obama, maps out an “irreversible” transition under which Afghan forces are to take control of all security operations in their country during 2013 and most NATO forces are to withdraw by the end of 2014. After 2014, any remaining NATO personnel will serve only in  training, advisory, or assistance roles. The pact marks a major milestone in the Afghanistan War, which began in 2001 in response to attacks on the United States by al-Qa`ida. At that time, al-Qa`ida was based in Afghanistan, which was controlled by the Taliban, a militant Islamic group.

Questions about long-term funding for Afghan security forces remain unresolved. The United States is pressing its allies to contribute at least $1.3 billion of the $4 billion needed annually to support a replacement army of 230,000 Afghans. However, the current European Union economic crisis is constraining Europe’s ability–and willingness–to contribute funds to sustain both the Afghan military and NATO security backup. Newly elected French President Francois Hollande said France would not contribute additional funds to compensate for the early withdrawal of its troops by the end of 2012, two years earlier than originally planned.

Afghans cheered the arrival of Northern Alliance rebel troops in Kabul, Afghanistan's capital, on Nov. 13, 2001. Northern Alliance and United States military forces drove the oppressive Taliban regime out of the city. (Koji Harada, Kyodo News International)

Military and political leaders at the summit expressed concerns about the ability of an independent Afghan military to resist the Taliban, which President Obama admitted remains a “robust enemy.” An advisor to British Prime Minister David Cameron also commented on the risk that al-Qa`ida could replace NATO troops in regions where the Afghan government has little control.

Additional World Book articles:

• Afghanistan 2001 (a Back in Time article)
• Afghanistan 2002 (a Back in Time article)
• Crisis in the Eurozone (a special report)

March 13, 2012

Militants in Afghanistan launched an attack on a delegation of Afghan government officials visiting the site in Panjwai in Kandahar province where an American soldier killed 16 civilians on March 11. The attack on the delegation was made “from several directions,” and Afghan forces returned fire. An Afghan soldier and three militants were killed in the melee. The delegation, which was there to offer condolences to villagers and meet tribal elders, included Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s brothers and several top security officials.

The U.S. soldier said to have carried out Sunday’s attacks–38-year-old staff sergeant–is under arrest. After leaving his base in the early hours, the soldier went on a rampage through village homes, killing as he moved from house to house. Among the 16 dead were 9 children. The sergeant had served three tours of duty in Iraq before being deployed to Afghanistan in December.

In the eastern city of Jalalabad, some 600 students took part today in a rally, condemning the Kandahar attack and chanting “Death to America! Death to Obama!” In Kabul, the capital, the U.S. embassy issued warnings of possible new anti-American reprisals. Anti-U.S. sentiment was already high in Afghanistan in the wake of an incident in February in which Qur’ans were accidentally desecrated by American troops. Although American officials, including President Barack Obama apologized for that incident, they failed to quell a series of protests and attacks that left at least 30 people dead, including 6 U.S. troops.

United States forces in Afghanistan. (Warren Zinn, Getty Images)

On Sept. 11, 2001, members of a terrorist organization called al-Qa’ida launched a series of terrorist attacks against the United States. The United States accused Afghanistan, then under the control of the Taliban, of harboring and assisting al-Qa’ida, which was led by a Saudi national, Osama bin Laden. The United States demanded that the Taliban arrest bin Laden and other Qa’ida leaders and shut down their training camps. When the Taliban refused, the United States and its allies launched a military campaign against the Taliban. In 2006, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) took over peacekeeping and security duties for Afghanistan from the U.S.-led alliance. In 2012, NATO and the U.S.-led alliance continues to fight Taliban and Qa’ida forces in Afghanistan.

Additional World Book articles

• Afghanistan War
• In Harm’s Way: Reporting from the Front Lines (a special report)
• Terrorism: America’s New Enemy (a special report)
• Afghanistan 2001 (Back in Time article)
• United States, government of the 2001 (Back in Time article)