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The War in Afghanistan (Operation
Enduring
Freedom)-(2001-Present):
Soldiers
carrying a wounded comrade in
Afghanistan Causes
of the Conflict |
Description
Of Conflict
|Casualty
Figures |
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Links |
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on this website The War in Afghanistan (Operation
Enduring
Freedom)-(2001-Present):
The War in
Afghanistan is the first major conflict of the 21st
Century. Though the origins of the war involve the
ongoing Afghan Civil War and the Soviet Invasion
and Occupation of the 1970s and 1980s, the current
war began in October, 2001 in response to the
September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United
States. UPDATE: U.S. Navy
Seals helicoptered into Pakistan on May 1, 2011 and
killed Osama
bin Laden
the founder and leader of al-Qaida and the
architect of many
attacks on Americans,
most significantly the terror attacks of September
11, 2001. The Seals took custody of bin Laden's
body after the firefight in which he was killed.
President
Obama announced bin Laden's death
on national
television that night. YouTube Video:
Heavily armed fighters launched two of the biggest
insurgent attacks in Afghanistan in years,
culminating early Tuesday with six suicide bombers
charging the second-largest U.S. base. (Aug. 19)
Danish forces in
Afghanistan U.S. Special Forces
Combat the Taliban Following the
Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan in 1989 and the
fall of the Afghan Communist government in 1992, a
protracted civil war raged on between the various
factions of anti-Communist Afghan fighters, who
called themselves the Mujahadeen (See the
Afghan
Civil War). In this realm of
chaos, some former Mujahadeen found a leader in
Mullah Mohammed Omar. A Mullah is an Islamic
religious leader. A former Mujahadeen fighter who
returned to his home village after the fall of the
Communist regime, this member of the Pashtun ethnic
group led a new armed group called the Taliban. The
word Taliban means "student," and many of the
original recruits to Omar's movement were Islamic
religious students. Other former Mujahadeen leaders
of Pashtun background joined with the Taliban
as this new group sought to impose law and
order on the country. The particular law they
sought to impose was an extreme version of Islamic
law. Under Taliban-imposed law, women are not
allowed to work outside the home or attend school.
Men are expected to grow beards and attend
religious services regularly. Television is banned,
and religious minorities such as the Hindus were
required to wear some sort of identifying clothing.
Also, in 2001, the Taliban ordered the destruction
of all non-Islamic idols and statues in areas under
their control. They also attracted the support of
Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida
organization. In 1994, the
Taliban attacked and defeated local warlords and
began to gather a reputation for order and military
success. Pakistan soon began supporting them,
partially as a means of establishing a stable,
friendly government in Kabul. The continual
fighting between the former Mujahadeen armies
caused waves of refugees to flood Pakistan's border
regions and interfered with Pakistani trade in the
region. In late 1994, the Taliban took control of
Kandahar, acquiring a large supply of modern
weapons, including fighter aircraft, tanks and
helicopters. In January of 1995, the Taliban
approached Kabul. From that point
onward, until they seized Kabul in September, 1996,
the Taliban fought against several militias and
warlords, eventually defeating them all. Several
anti-Taliban leaders and their forces fled to the
northern part of the country to continue fighting
against the Taliban. One of these leaders, or
warlords, was Ahmed Shah Massoud. From his loss of
Kabul until 1999, Ahmed Shah Massoud's forces
remained within artillery range of the capital
city, which he attacked regularly. After his
pullout from Kabul, Massoud also began receiving
military supplies from both Russia (now
non-Communist) and Iran, both of whom feared the
growing power of the Taliban. Russia has fought
Muslim rebels in its own Chechnya region and on
behalf of the government of Tajikistan. Moscow
feared the Taliban as a source of aid and support
for the rebels it has fought in Chechnya and
Tajikistan. Iran, dominated by Shiite Islamic
fundamentalists, was at odds with the Sunni Muslim
Taliban, largely over the treatment of the Afghan
Shiite minority called the Hazaris. By 1997, Pakistan,
Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates
recognized the Taliban as the legitimate government
of Afghanistan. Pakistan's role in the Taliban
success is controversial, as it is generally
believed that several Taliban military victories
are directly attributable to armed Pakistani
intervention. After seizing
Mazar-i Sharif, the Taliban provoked the hostility
of the area's Shiite Hazari minority (who do not
meet the Taliban's strict religious
standards), and the warlord, General Malik, ended
his dalliance with the Taliban. The result was the
execution of at least 3,000 captured Taliban
soldiers by Malik and the Hazaris. In August, 1998,
the Taliban retook Mazar-i Sharif and summarily
massacred at least 2,000 Hazaris. Also, several
Iranian citizens, including diplomats, were killed,
nearly touching off an Iran-Taliban war. As this
crisis heightened, Iran massed nearly 250,000
troops on the Iran-Afghan border. Throughout the
years of the Taliban's ascendancy, Iran supplied
arms and military training to the "United
Front/Northern Alliance" forces in Northern
Afghanistan who were fighting the Taliban. The
Northern Alliance includes the Uzbek forces of
General Dostum, the Tajik troops of former
President Rabbani and the Shiite Hazaris led by
Haji Mohammed Mohaqiq. In 1998, following
the terrorist bombings of American embassies in
Africa, the United States launched a cruise missile
attack on training camps belonging to bin Laden's
Al-Qaida organization in Afghanistan. Through the Autumn
of 2001, the Taliban continued to pressure
the Northern Alliance, often with the aid of Osama
bin Laden and his Arab forces. On September 9,
2001, the Northern Alliance leader Ahmad Shah
Massoud was mortally wounded in an
assassination attempt carried out by two Arab men
posing as journalists. This attack was the work of
bin Laden's organization as a possible prelude to
the airline
hijackings and terrorism
in the United States on September 11. The Northern
Alliance responded to Massoud's killing with
an aerial attack on Kabul the night of September
11. It is now known
that the killing of Massoud was coordinated with
the terror attacks on the United States which took
place on September 11. As the United States
assigned blame for the attacks on bin Laden and
al-Qaida, plans began to take the fight to al-Qaida
and its Taliban sponsors as the first phase of what
became known as the Global War on
Terror. The War in
Afghanistan began on October 7, 2001 with allied
air strikes on Taliban and al-Qaida targets. On the
ground, American, British and other Allied special
forces troops worked with the Northern Alliance to
begin a military offensive to overthrow the
Taliban. This alliance between the Northern
Alliance and the Allies led to coordination between
Allied air attacks and ground attacks by the
Northern Alliance. These attacks led to the fall of
Kabul on Nov. 13, 2001, as the Taliban retreated
from most of northern Afghanistan. As more Allied
troops entered the war and the Northern Alliance
forces fought their way southwards, the Taliban and
al-Qaida retreated toward the mountainous border
region between Afghanistan and Pakistan. From 2002 onward,
the Taliban focused on survival and on rebuilding
its forces. From 2005 to the present (winter 2007),
the Taliban has increased its attacks and is using
suicide bombers and other tactics from
the
Iraq War. On February 27, 2007, while on a diplomatic trip
to Afghanistan, an apparent assassination attempt
was made by Taliban insurgents, who claimed that
Cheney was a target in the attack. A suicide bomber
blew up a checkpoint at Bagram Air Base outside of
Kabul, killing 20, including an American soldier.
Cheney was unhurt in the attack. In the spring and summer of 2008, the violence
in Afghanistan claimed more coalition (foreign)
troops than died in the concurrent Iraq War. The
Taliban, enjoying strong bases in Pakistan, enjoyed
a resurgence and showed that it could launch large,
coordinated, and effective attacks on coalition and
Afghan forces. One of the deadliest attacks came on
French troops in mid-August, with a force of about
100 Taliban ambushing French forces near Kabul. Ten
French troops were killed, and 21 wounded. The same
day also saw an attack by a squad of suicide
bombers on an American base near the Pakistani
border. The new Obama Administration called for
significantly increasing the size of the American
military presence in Afghanistan, and allies in
Europe are expecting President Obama to pressure
them to provide more troops as well. Taliban dead: At least 30,000+ Afghan Government Forces killed: Aghan civilians killed: 34,000+ As of
05.28.12 Coalition deaths in Afghanistan
by country US: 1,985 (includes
U.S. Military deaths in Pakistan and
Uzbekistan) UK: 341 Canada: 152 Germany: 45 France: 50 Denmark: 38 Spain: 30 Italy: 33 Netherlands: 24 Poland: 22 Romania: 17 Australia: 21 Estonia: 8 Norway: 9 Czech Republic: 3 Latvia: 3 Hungary: 4 Portugal: 2 Sweden: 2 South Korea: 2 Turkey: 2 Finland: 1 Lithuania: 1 Jordan: 1
Winning
the Afghan war, Dutch
style--AFP, Jan. 23,
2010 NATO
Forces in Race to Secure Kandahar
-New York Times, Jan.
23, 2010 Afghanistan:
NATO Intensifies Its First Asian
War --Australia.to
News, Jan. 13, 2010 Obama's
Afghanistan Speech at West Point on December 1,
2009 German
Limits on War Facing Afghan
Reality--New York
Times, Oct. 26, 2009 Fewer
airstrikes in Afghanistan mirrors tactical
shift --USA Today,
April, 7, 2009 Afghan
militants kill 10 French, strike at US
base--Associated Press, August 19, 2008 NATO
Needs More Troops for Afghanistan--Lolita C.
Baldor. The Associated Press, 02 March
2007. Pressed
by U.S., Pakistan Seizes a Taliban Chief UK
to Tackle Afghan Drug Lords in No-Go Valley U.S.
Forces Pursue Taliban into Pakistan The
State of Afghanistan's Jihad Opium
Trade Undermines Afghan Democracy, U.S. Says Good
and Bad News from the Poppy Fields Afghanistan
Lacks Capacity to Govern Cheney
Targeted in Afghan Blast Ruined
Poppy Farmers Join Ranks With the Taleban Watching
Afghanistan Fall Is
Pakistan Doing All It Should to Secure Its
Afghan Border? Informer
Killings Show Growing Taleban Control Extra
1,400 UK Troops to be Sent
to Afghanistan Former Afghan Warlords Rally for Amnesty Afghanistan:
Taliban Preps for Bloody Assault Town's
Elders Plead for Help With Taliban 27
July 1880. A Date Mr Blair Should Look Up Breaking
Point: Measuring Progress In
Afghanistan 2007 Fighting the Wrong War in Afghanistan Taliban
'In Control' in Helmand Denmark
to Increase Troops in Afghanistan after Iraq
Withdrawal Plan
Afghanistan: Another Colombia Mistake Afghans
in No Mood to Forgive Killers Afghan
Forces Retake District Briefly Held by
Taliban Afghan
Lawmakers Approve Amnesty For War Criminals U.S.
Beefing Up Afghan Army Afghan
Poppy War Alienates Farmers Remember
Al Qaeda? They're Baaack Conflicting
Reports Of Taliban
Capture Of Remote Town Al
Qaeda Chiefs Are Seen to Regain Power Taliban
Offensive Expected in Spring America's
Foreign Policy - Fighting Fires Afghanistan's
Proxy War Winning in Afghanistan: The Challenges and the
Response Afghanistan:
What the United States Has Spent Countering
The Insurgency In Afghanistan: Losing
Friends and Making Enemies US
Troop Numbers in Afghanistan Hit All-Time Peak
IMF
Warns of Slippage in Afghan Economic Program Second
Helmand District Falls to Taleban Hundreds
of Taliban Massing to Attack Dam: Official Afghanistan
Diary Afghans
Allow Themselves a Ration of Hope NATO
Asked to Meet Promises Already Made to
Afghanistan Helmand
Heads for Record Poppy Harvest Insights
from a Military Commander Nation-Building
or Nation-Neglecting? Just
Another Bush Success Story Taliban Too Quick Off the Mark British
Worry U.S. Approach to Afghanistan Will Play
Into Taliban's Plans From
Afghanistan to Iraq: Connecting the Dots with
Oil U.S.
General in Afghanistan Seen Tough on Taliban Afghanistan
Losing War on Drugs, General Says Taliban
'Must Not Hold This Town' The
Road to Helmand A Political Curtain-Raiser for the Taliban Former
British-Patrolled Town 'Falls to Taliban' Pakistan
to Fence Border of Afghanistan Afghanistan
Approves Amnesty for Warlords U.K.
to Boost Afghanistan Troop Numbers Al
Qaeda 2006: Fighting in Iraq, Regrouping in
Afghanistan, Enlisting in Europe The
Other War Afghanistan's Local Insurgency Afghan
Rebuilding Hit by 'Violence and Waste' Security
and Stability in Afghanistan: Opportunities and
Challenges 1,000
Afghan Civilians Killed in 2006, Report Says
Discarding
An Afghan Opportunity Afghanistan:
Slow Progress on Security and Rights The
Big Afghanistan Push Comes to Shove Multipronged
Drug-Eradication Effort Set For Helmand New
U.S. Commander in Afghanistan Expects Rise in
Suicide Attacks in 2007 Rebuilding and Reconciliation Afghanistan's
Endangered Compact A Cautionary Tale on Afghanistan Karzai
Increasingly Beset by Problems Afghan
Elders Speak of War, Not Peace Two
Vodkas, one Pepsi Dam
Holds Back Force of the Taliban Former
Afghan Customs Chief Says Afghanistan Losing War
Against Drugs Afghanistan's
Judge of Last Resort Softly, Softly in the Taliban's Den U.S.
Warns of Bloody Taliban Spring Fightback Afghanistan:
NATO Begins Fund For Civilian War Victims U.S.
Troops to Form Flexible Afghanistan Force Afghanistan,
the Other 'Surge' No
Exit Bush
Plans New Focus On Afghan Recovery Pakistani
Premier Faults Afghans for Taliban Woes on
Border The
Winter of the Taliban's Content Doctors
Propose Using Afghan Opium as NHS
Pain-Killer NATO:
Taliban Weakened in S. Afghanistan Nato
General: We Need One More Year to Defeat Taliban
Burdened
U.S. Military Cuts Role in Drug War Opium
War Revealed: Major New Offensive in
Afghanistan In
Remote Afghan Camp, Taliban Explain How and Why
They Fight Afghan
Women's Quiet Revolution Hangs by a Thread At
Border, Signs of Pakistani Role in Taliban Surge
Afghanistan's
Taliban Say To Open
Schools More Evidence of Taliban Leader Hiding in Pakistan
Tribal Tribulations in Afghanistan Gates
Signals Troop Surge in Afghanistan Iranian
Involvement in Afghanistan Troop
Buildup for Afghanistan? What
the Iraq Study Group said about America's 'Other
War' Ending
an Opium War Some
at Guantanamo Mark 5 Years in Limbo Afghanistan's
Efforts to Boost Women Falter Afghan
Rebel Chief Sends Fighters to Their Deaths Local
Taliban Defeat Raises Hopes For
Dam Project Afghan
Army 'Unfit to Take Over Security Role in
2009' Afghanistan:
Post-War Governance, Security and U.S.
Policy Rebel:
'We Aided bin Laden Escape' A
Voice From Gitmo's
Darkness Shut
Down Guantanamo - And Make Sure It Never Happens
Again The
Taliban's Fire Spreads Afghan Government Recruiting Thousands of
Auxiliary Police to Battle Insurgents How
the Taliban Keep their Coffers Full Tackling the Taleban in the Cold Former
CIA Analyst Says West Misunderstands Al-Qaeda
Commanders
Seek More Forces in Afghanistan Taliban
Leader's Powerful Vanishing Act Afghan
War Needs Troops Starving
Afghans Sell Girls of Eight as Brides Taliban
Leader Promises More Afghan War Taliban
Walk Right In, Sit Right Down ... Mullah
Omar Says Hasn't Seen bin Laden for Years Special
Deals and Raw Recruits Employed to Halt the
Taliban in Embattled Helmand Securing
Tyrants or Fostering Reform? U.S. Internal
Security Assistance to Repressive and Transition
Regimes Official:
NATO Killed Too Many Civilians in Afghanistan in
'06 Afghan-Pakistani
Tension Could Create Opening for Iran FBI
Reports Duct-Taping, 'Baptizing' at Guantanamo
Forces
in Afghanistan Shift Focus to Taliban Leaders Europe's
Afghan Test White
House Line on War Cost Called Too Low The Secret War in Afghanistan 1,373
Miles Into the Heart of
Afghanistan Mullah
Omar Pledges to Expel NATO Iran
Is Seeking More Influence in Afghanistan Pakistan
Army Told to Plan Fence and Mines Along Afghan
Border Afghan
Heroin's Surge Poses Danger in U.S. Al-Qaeda's
Sanctuary Afghanistan:
The Choice Leaving
NATO, Marine General Still Seeks Troops for
Afghanistan Pakistani
City Serves as a Refuge for the Taliban Taliban
Line Up The Heavy
Artillery A
Tipping Point in Afghanistan Afghanistan
Government Fires Governor In
Afghanistan, Money Tips the Scales of Justice
Copyright
© 1998-2012 Roger A. Lee; Last Modified:
01.14.13 Citation "The
History Guy" is a Registered Trademark. |
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Marketing You Can Trust Operation
Veritas --United Kingdom
Ministry of Defense site covering
the UK's contribution to the
US-led Operation Enduring Freedom
. The
Black Rod: War in Afghanistan
2009 Week One--Ongoing blog
about the war in Afghanistan. War
in Afghanistan --Wikipedia
article New
York Times: Iraq, Afghanistan
& The Reach of
War--Features news and
updates on the conflicts in Iraq
and Afghanistan, including
interactive graphics and
background information.
Registration required. ZNet:
The War in Afghanistan --47
questions and answers, with
additional links for further
information. Special
Report: War in Afghanistan
--News stories and reports.
From Guardian Unlimited. National
Geographic Adventure: Inside the
Afghan War Machine --Features
an excerpt from a March 2002
article by Robert Young
Pelton. Afghanistan
Today --2002 photo essay
about a post-Taliban Afghanistan.
From TIME magazine. Operation
Fingal --Details the
operations by the International
Security Assistance Force. The
Fall of Kabul --Photo-essay
from the BBC. Operation
Anaconda al-Qaida
Stronghold under siege
--BBC
News report on the March 2002
Operation Anaconda, an
offensive into the mountains
and caves of eastern
Afghanistan. Washington
Post: Killed in Battle
--Profiles
the seven soldiers who died in
the ambush and rescues efforts
at Takur Ghar. Report
from front of Operation
Anaconda
--March
2002 article from CNN on the
casualties suffered and the
resistance met during the
first days of the
offensive. Operation
Herrick Casualty and Fatality
Tables--From the UK Ministry
of Defense In
the line of duty: Canada's
casualties--From
the CBC
DATES
OF CONFLICT: BEGAN:
October
7, 2001, with the beginning of the
American and Coalition attack on the
Taliban ENDED:
Continuing,
as American, NATO, and Afghan government
forces fight against Taliban and al-Qaida
insurgents Belligerents
in the Conflict: vs. The Taliban
and al-Qaida ALTERNATE
NAMES FOR THE
CONFLICT: Operation
Enduring Freedom
(USA) Operation
Veritas (UK) Predecessor
Conflicts: (Related conflicts that
occurred before or led up to the current
conflict) Soviet
Invasion and Occupation of Afghanistan
(1979-1989) Concurrent
Conflicts: (Related conflicts occurring at
the same time) bin
Laden's Terrorist War
(1992?-Present) The
War in Iraq
(2003-Present) |