2014 Winter Olympics

War in Afghanistan (2001–present)

The War in Afghanistan (2001–present) refers to the intervention by NATO and allied forces in the ongoing Afghan civil war. The war followed the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, in an effort to dismantle al-Qaeda and eliminate its safe haven by removing theTaliban from power.
U.S. President George W. Bush demanded that the Taliban hand over Osama bin Laden and expel al-Qaeda. The Taliban requested that bin Laden leave the country, but declined to extradite him without evidence of his involvement in the 9/11 attacks. The United States refused to negotiate and launched Operation Enduring Freedom on 7 October 2001 with the United Kingdom. The two were later joined by other forces, include the Northern Alliance.^[23][24] The U.S. and allies drove the Taliban from power and built military bases near major cities across the country. Most al-Qaeda and Taliban were not captured, escaping to neighboring Pakistan or retreating to rural or remote mountainous regions.
In December 2001, the United Nations Security Council established the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), to oversee security in the country and train Afghan National Security Forces. At the Bonn Conference in December 2001, Hamid Karzai was selected to head the Afghan Interim Administration, which after a 2002 loya jirga in Kabul became the Afghan Transitional Administration. In the popular elections of 2004, Karzai was elected president of the country, now named the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.^[25]
In 2003, NATO assumed leadership of ISAF, with troops from 43 countries. NATO members provided the core of the force.^[26] One portion of U.S. forces in Afghanistan operated under NATO command; the rest remained under direct American command. Taliban leader Mullah Omar reorganized the movement and in 2003 launched an insurgency against the government and ISAF.^[27][28]
Though vastly outgunned and outnumbered, the Taliban insurgents, most notably the Haqqani Network and Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin, have waged asymmetric warfare with guerilla raids and ambushes in the countryside, suicide attacks against urban targets and turncoatkillings against coalition forces. The Taliban exploited weaknesses in the Afghan government, among the most corrupt in the world, to reassert influence across rural areas of southern and eastern Afghanistan. ISAF responded in 2006 by increasing troops forcounterinsurgency operations to "clear and hold" villages and "nation building" projects to "win hearts and minds".^[29][30]
While ISAF continued to battle the Taliban insurgency, fighting crossed into neighboring North-West Pakistan.^[31] In 2004, the Pakistani Army began to clash with local tribes hosting al-Qaeda and Taliban militants. The U.S. military launched drone attacks in Pakistan to kill insurgent leaders. This resulted in the start of an insurgency in Waziristan in 2007.
On 2 May 2011, U.S. Navy SEALs killed Osama bin Laden in Abbotabad, Pakistan. About three weeks later, NATO leaders endorsed an exit strategy for withdrawing their forces. UN-backed peace talks began between the Afghan government and the Taliban.^[32] As of 2013, tens of thousands of people had been killed in the war. Over 4,000 ISAF soldiers and civilian contractors as well as over 10,000 Afghan National Security Forces had been killed.