Afghanistan

Michael Kerrigan was educated at St. Edward’s College and University College, Oxford, England. He is the author of History of the World, Abandoned Places of World War II, The Cold War and Amazing Churches of the World. He is a columnist, book reviewer, and feature writer for publications including the Scotsman and the Times Literary Supplement. Michael Kerrigan lives with his family in Edinburgh.

• Contents:Prologue: Afghanistan longer history – British invasions, Soviet invasion 1980s.Introduction: 9/11 Terror Attack Al-Qaeda operatives hijack four commercial airliners, crashing them into the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, DC. A fourth plane crashes in a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Close to three thousand people die in the attacks.1: The Response: Operation Enduring Freedom President Bush signs into law a joint resolution authorizing the use of force against those responsible for attacking the United States on September 11. The U.S. military, with British support, begins a bombing campaign against Taliban forces, officially launching Operation Enduring Freedom. Taliban regime unravels rapidly after its loss at Mazar-e- Sharif on November 9, 2001, to forces loyal to Abdul Rashid Dostum, an ethnic Uzbek military leader. After tracking al-Qaeda leader bin Laden to the well-equipped Tora Bora cave complex southeast of Kabul, Afghan militias engage in a fierce two-week battle (December 3 to 17) with al-Qaeda militants. It results in a few hundred deaths and the eventual escape of bin Laden, who is thought to have left for Pakistan on horseback. March 2002: Operation Anaconda, the first major ground assault and the largest operation since Tora Bora, is launched against an estimated eight hundred al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters in the Shah-i-Kot Valley south of the city of Gardez (Paktia Province). Battle of Takur Ghar – The battle saw three helicopter landings by the U.S. on the mountain top, each greeted by direct assault from al-Qaeda forces.2: Reconstructing Afghanistan March 2002: Chairman of the Interim Administration of Afghanistan Karzai is picked is picked to head the country’s transitional government. May 2003: During a briefing with reporters in Kabul, U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld declares an end to “major combat.” August 2003: NATO assumes control of international security forces (ISAF) in Afghanistan, expanding NATO/ISAF’s role across the country. It is NATO’s first operational commitment outside of Europe. 2004: In historic national balloting, President Karzai becomes the first democratically elected head of Afghanistan. 2005.3: Lingering Insurgency 2006: Violence increases across the country during the summer months, with intense fighting erupting in the south in July. The number of suicide attacks quintuples from 27 in 2005 to 139 in 2006, while remotely detonated bombings more than double, to 1,677. With violence against nongovernmental aid workers increasing, U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates criticizes NATO countries in late 2007 for not sending more soldiers. 2009: U.S. Marines launch a major offensive in southern Afghanistan, representing a major test for the U.S. military’s new counterinsurgency strategy. President Obama announces a major escalation of the U.S. mission. In a nationally televised speech, the president commits an additional thirty thousand forces to the fight, on top of the sixty- eight thousand in place. 2010.4: Bin Laden Found Al-Qaeda leader bin Laden, responsible for the 9/11 attacks, is killed by U.S. forces in Pakistan. The death of the United States’ primary target for a war that started ten years ago fuels the long-simmering debate about continuing the Afghanistan war. President Obama outlines a plan to withdraw 33,000 troops by the summer of 2012.5: A Bloody Resurgence 2011: Amid a resilient insurgency, U.S. goals in Afghanistan remain uncertain and terrorist safe havens in Pakistan continue to undermine U.S. efforts. 2013: Afghan forces take the lead in security responsibility nationwide as NATO hands over control of the remaining ninety-five districts. The U.S.-led coalition’s focus shifts to military training and special operations-driven counterterrorism. 2017: The United States drops its most powerful non-nuclear bomb on suspected self-proclaimed Islamic State militants at a cave complex in eastern Nangarhar Province. 2018: The Taliban carry out a series of bold terror attacks in Kabul that kill more than 115 people amid a broader upsurge in violence. The attacks come as the Trump administration implements its Afghanistan plan, deploying troops across rural Afghanistan to advise Afghan brigades and launching air strikes against opium labs to try to decimate the Taliban’s finances. 2018.6: Peace Talks and Withdrawal U.S. envoy Khalilzad and the Taliban’s Baradar sign an agreement that paves the way for a significant drawdown of U.S. troops in Afghanistan and includes guarantees from the Taliban that the country will not be used for terrorist activities. President Biden announces that the United States will not meet the deadline set under the U.S.-Taliban agreement to withdraw all troops by May 1 and instead releases a plan for a full withdrawal by September 11, 2021. Facing little resistance, Taliban fighters overrun the capital, Kabul, in August 2021, and take over the presidential palace hours after President Ghani leaves the country.