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War in Afghanistan (2001–2021): A Visual History

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America's longest war: the Taliban toppled in weeks after 9/11, twenty years of insurgency and nation-building, and the Taliban back in Kabul as the last US planes left.

Fought
2001 to 2021
Duration
20 years
Dates
7 October 2001 to 30 August 2021
Deaths
About 176,000 in Afghanistan (Costs of War): 46,000 civilians, 69,000 Afghan forces, 53,000 Taliban; 2,461 US, 457 UK, 1,144 other coalition troops
Coalition
US, UK and NATO/ISAF (up to 50 nations); Afghan government forces
Insurgents
Taliban, Haqqani network, al-Qaeda; ISIS-K from 2015; Pakistani sanctuary
Result
Taliban victory; Islamic Emirate restored

The War in Afghanistan (2001-2021) began on 7 October 2001 when the United States and Britain bombed the Taliban for sheltering al-Qaeda after the 11 September attacks; Northern Alliance forces with US special forces took Kabul in November and Kandahar in December, though bin Laden escaped at Tora Bora. A NATO-led coalition and the Karzai government tried to build a state while the Taliban regrouped in Pakistan and returned from 2006; Obama's surge to 100,000 troops in 2010-2011 and bin Laden's killing in 2011 did not break them. Trump's Doha agreement with the Taliban in February 2020 set a withdrawal date; Biden completed it, the Afghan army collapsed, and the Taliban entered Kabul on 15 August 2021 as a chaotic airlift evacuated 120,000. About 176,000 died in Afghanistan, including 46,000 civilians and 2,461 US troops.

When it was fought: the era ribbon

The bold bar is War in Afghanistan (2001-2021). The lighter bars are empires and wars from the same era and the same part of the world. Click any bar to jump to its page.

15501600165017001750180018501900195020002050War in Afghanistan (2001-2021) (2001 to 2021)Open: British EmpireBritish Empire (1583 to 1997)Open: United StatesUnited States (1776 to present)Open: Soviet Union (USSR)Soviet Union (USSR) (1922 to 1991)Open: Cold WarCold War (1947 to 1991)Open: Soviet-Afghan WarSoviet-Afghan War (1979 to 1989)Open: Gulf WarGulf War (1990 to 1991)Open: Somali Civil WarSomali Civil War (1991 to present)Open: Iraqi conflictIraqi conflict (2003 to present)

US troops in Afghanistan

02550751002002: 52005: 192008: 322010: 982011: 1002014: 102019: 132021: 02005201020152020thousands

Timeline of the War in Afghanistan (2001-2021)

  1. 2001
    9/11; invasion; Kabul and Kandahar fall; Tora Bora
  2. 2004
    Karzai elected
  3. 2006
    Taliban resurgence in the south
  4. 2009
    Obama's surge announced
  5. 2011
    Bin Laden killed2 May.
  6. 2014
    ISAF combat mission ends
  7. 2020
    Doha agreement29 February.
  8. 2021
    Taliban take Kabul; airlift; last US flight15 to 30 August.

2001-2005: swift victory, slow drift

Operation Enduring Freedom used air power, CIA teams and the Northern Alliance to rout the Taliban in ten weeks; Mullah Omar and bin Laden fled to Pakistan. The Bonn conference installed Hamid Karzai; ISAF secured Kabul and later the country; elections were held in 2004. Bush's turn to Iraq starved the mission, warlords ruled the provinces, opium boomed, and Pakistan's ISI kept the Taliban's Quetta shura alive.

2006-2014: insurgency and surge

The Taliban returned in force in Helmand and Kandahar in 2006 as British and Canadian troops deployed south; roadside bombs became the main killer. Obama tripled US forces to 100,000 in 2010 for a counter-insurgency surge in Marjah and Kandahar; SEALs killed bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan on 2 May 2011. Karzai's disputed re-election, corruption, 'green-on-blue' killings and civilian casualties from air strikes eroded support; ISAF handed security to Afghan forces and ended combat operations in December 2014, leaving 13,000 trainers under Resolute Support.

2015-2021: erosion and collapse

The Taliban briefly took Kunduz in 2015 and controlled or contested half the districts by 2018; ISIS-K bombed Kabul's Shia; the US dropped the 'mother of all bombs' in 2017. Trump's envoy Khalilzad signed the Doha agreement on 29 February 2020: US withdrawal by May 2021 for Taliban counterterrorism promises, with the Kabul government excluded. Biden set 31 August; as US contractors left, Afghan forces disintegrated in a summer offensive; Ghani fled on 15 August and the Taliban walked into Kabul. An ISIS-K bomb at the airport gate killed 13 US troops and 170 Afghans on 26 August; the last C-17 left on 30 August. The Taliban banned girls' secondary education and women from most public life.

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8 surprising things about the War in Afghanistan (2001-2021)

  1. The US spent about 2.3 trillion dollars on the war, including future veterans' care, according to Brown University's Costs of War project.
  2. The Kabul airlift of August 2021 evacuated over 120,000 people in 17 days, the largest non-combatant evacuation in US history.
  3. Afghanistan produced about 80 to 90 percent of the world's opium during the war; the Taliban banned it again in 2022.
  4. The Taliban's leader Mullah Omar died in 2013 and the movement hid it for two years.
  5. The Afghan government's own report found ghost soldiers on the payroll numbered in the tens of thousands.
  6. The war's British toll of 457 was concentrated in Helmand's 'Sangin valley'.
  7. Bagram airbase, the war's hub, was handed over in July 2021 without telling the Afghan commander.
  8. The Taliban's return made Afghanistan the only country in the world to ban girls from secondary school.

Sources

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