Was there a winner and a loser in the Afghanistan War?
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(CNN) -
Here's a look at Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan, a mission that began on October 7, 2001 with airstrikes against Taliban and al Qaeda targets.
The United States linked the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, to al Qaeda, a group operating under the protection of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.
The operation was launched to prevent the Taliban from providing a safe haven for al Qaeda and to prevent it from using Afghanistan as a base of operations to commit terrorist activities.
Chronology
October 7, 2001
: Operation Enduring Freedom, OEF for its acronym in English, begins.
US President George W. Bush announces that US and British forces have begun air strikes against Taliban and al Qaeda targets in Afghanistan.
The air strikes continue for five days.
October 14, 2001
- The Taliban offer to discuss the handover of Osama bin Laden to a third country for trial if the United States provides evidence of bin Laden's involvement in the September 11 attacks.
The White House rejects the offer.
October 19, 2001
- The Pentagon reports that US forces have searched a compound used by Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar.
This is OEF's first recognized ground action.
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October 26, 2001
- British Armed Forces Minister Adam Ingram tells the House of Commons that Britain is deploying a force of 4,200 in Afghanistan.
Taliban increasingly control areas in Afghanistan 2:47
November 1, 2001
: Turkey announces that it will deploy troops to Afghanistan.
Australia and Canada also agree to send forces.
November 5, 2001
: US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld announces that the United States has doubled the number of its troops based in Afghanistan.
November 6, 2001
: German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder offers up to 3,900 soldiers.
November 7, 2001
: Italy says it will provide 2,700 soldiers.
November 9, 2001
: The Netherlands announce that they are prepared to send up to 1,400 soldiers to Afghanistan.
November 13, 2001
: American air strikes and ground attacks by the Afghan Northern Alliance anti-Taliban lead to the fall of Kabul.
November 16, 2001
: French troops deploy to Afghanistan.
November 20, 2001
: The bodies of four journalists disappeared in Afghanistan are recovered.
The journalists were on the road between Jalalabad and Kabul when their convoy was attacked.
November 22, 2001
: Poland agrees to contribute up to 300 soldiers to the OEF.
December 2-5, 2001 -
The United Nations holds the Bonn Conference in Germany.
The Bonn Agreement creates an Afghan Provisional Authority and marks the process for the creation of a new constitution and the election of a new government.
December 7, 2001:
The Taliban lose their last major stronghold when the city of Kandahar falls and opposition forces enter.
December 20, 2001
: The United Nations authorizes the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) to help provide security for Afghans.
Initially, the UK agrees to lead the initiative.
December 22, 2001:
Hamid Karzai is sworn in as head of an interim power-sharing government.
January 23, 2002 -
Wall Street Journal journalist Daniel Pearl is abducted in Karachi, Pakistan, by the National Movement for the Restoration of the Sovereignty of Pakistan, which claims that the kidnapping is retaliation for the detention of Pakistanis in Guantanamo Bay.
January 27, 2002:
The media receives the first email from Pearl's captors, which includes photos of the reporter in handcuffs with a gun to his head.
February 21, 2002
- FBI and Pakistani officials announce that they have received a videotape confirming that Pearl has been killed.
March 25, 2002
: Rumsfeld announces plans are in place for US and coalition forces to help train and create an Afghan national army.
June 13, 2002
: Karzai is elected to a two-year presidential term by the grand council, a gathering of Afghanistan's tribal leaders.
August 9, 2003
: NATO assumes responsibility for the ISAF mission.
January 2004:
Afghanistan passes a new constitution by consensus.
October 9, 2004:
The first direct democratic elections are held in Afghanistan.
December 7, 2004:
Karzai is sworn in as Afghanistan's first democratically elected president.
September 18, 2005
: The first parliamentary and provincial elections in more than three decades are held.
March 1, 2006
: Bush makes his first visit to Afghanistan and meets with Karzai.
February 15, 2007
: Bush calls on NATO to increase troops in Afghanistan.
There are already around 50,000 US and NATO soldiers.
February 27, 2007
- A suicide bomber blew himself up at a checkpoint at Bagram Air Base, killing more than 20 people.
Taliban insurgents claim that US Vice President Dick Cheney was the target of the attack.
May 11, 2007
: The Taliban's top military commander, Mullah Dadullah, is killed in a US-led coalition operation.
Al Qaeda grows and prepares to return 2:48
July 19, 2008
: The Democratic candidate for the presidency of the United States, Barack Obama, makes his first visit to Afghanistan.
December 15, 2008
: Bush makes a surprise visit to Afghanistan.
It is his second and last visit as president.
February 17, 2009
: Obama approves a 17,000 troop increase to send to Afghanistan.
There are currently about 38,000 US soldiers serving in Afghanistan.
June 30, 2009
: American soldier Bowe R. Bergdahl is taken hostage by the Taliban.
He is released five years later, in 2014.
August 20, 2009
: Afghanistan holds its second election.
The allegations of electoral fraud lead to the scheduling of a presidential runoff for November 7.
October 31, 2009
: A runoff is canceled when Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah retires, leaving Karzai as the sole candidate and winner by default.
November 19, 2009
: Karzai is sworn in for a second term as president.
December 1, 2009
- In 2010, Obama announces the deployment of an additional 30,000 US troops.
This new deployment will bring the total of US troops to nearly 100,000, in addition to NATO's 40,000.
January 2010
: Representatives from more than 60 countries gather in London for the International Conference on Afghanistan, pledging to support the development of the Afghan National Security Forces.
March 28, 2010
: US President Obama makes his first visit to Afghanistan as president.
August 1, 2010: The
Netherlands becomes the first NATO member to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan.
August 5, 2010
: Ten aid workers are killed by gunmen in Badakhshan, Afghanistan.
Among the dead are six Americans, two Afghans, a British and a German.
September 18, 2010
: Parliamentary elections are held.
Results are delayed following allegations of fraud.
December 3, 2010
: Obama visits Afghanistan for the third time, the second as president.
May 2, 2011
: In the early hours of the morning, a small group of US forces, including the Navy Seals, attack a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
During the shooting that broke out, bin Laden is killed.
DNA samples are taken to confirm his identity, then his body is buried in the sea.
The death of Bin Laden
June 22, 2011
: Obama announces that the 33,000 additional US forces deployed to Afghanistan in December 2009 will return home in the next 15 months.
It also announces that US combat operations in Afghanistan will end in 2014.
July 13, 2011
: The first group of US soldiers leaves Afghanistan.
About 650 US soldiers leave the northeastern province of Parwan.
August 6, 2011
: Insurgents shoot down a helicopter in central Afghanistan, killing 30 members of the US coalition, seven Afghan soldiers and a civilian interpreter.
August 10, 2011
- NATO announces that Coalition forces in Afghanistan have killed Mullah Mohibullah, the Taliban leader and insurgent responsible for the downing of the helicopter that left 38 Americans and Afghans dead.
August 2011
- August becomes the deadliest month for US forces in Afghanistan since the conflict began, with 71 US casualties.
September 10, 2011
- Two Afghan civilians are killed and 77 US soldiers and 25 Afghan workers are injured when a Taliban suicide bomber detonates a vehicle-carried improvised explosive device at the entrance to Sayed Abad combat post, an ISAF base in Wardak, Afghanistan.
September 13, 2011
- Taliban militants open fire near the US embassy and NATO's ISAF headquarters after breaking into a nearby abandoned building.
Three policemen and a civilian die and the security forces kill six militants.
Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid told CNN that his target is the US Embassy, government organizations and other foreign organizations.
February 1, 2012
: Defense Secretary Leon Panetta announces that the United States hopes to end its combat mission in Afghanistan in 2013, moving to a training role.
February 21, 2012
- Violent protests erupt in Afghanistan over reports of several Quran being burned at a US military base.
A military official says that the Koran were removed from the library of the detention center at Bagram airfield because they had "extremist inscriptions".
As of March 2, the riots had left at least 41 dead, including six US soldiers, and hundreds more wounded.
March 11, 2012
: Sergeant Robert Bales, a US soldier based out of Camp Belambay, Afghanistan, carries out a house-to-house shooting in two villages in Kandahar province, killing 16 Afghan civilians.
In 2013, he is sentenced to life imprisonment.
April 8, 2012: The
United States and Afghanistan sign a landmark agreement that gives Afghan authorities an effective veto on nightly special operations raids.
The agreement prevents NATO's ISAF from carrying out raids without the permission of Afghan officials.
April 18, 2012
: The Los Angeles Times publishes photos believed to have been taken in 2010 of paratroopers from the US 82nd Airborne Division posing with the body parts of insurgents killed in Afghanistan.
May 2, 2012
: Obama marks the first anniversary of bin Laden's death with an unannounced trip to Afghanistan.
According to the White House, his speech is the first televised speech to the nation from a war zone on foreign soil.
Obama and Karzai also sign a strategic partnership agreement for 10 years of US support for Afghanistan after the 2014 troop withdrawal.
June 9, 2012
: French President Francois Hollande announces his plan to withdraw combat forces before the end of the year.
September 1, 2012
: Two suicide bombers attack a joint US-Afghan military base, killing 13 people and wounding 78 others. One bomber attacks the base on foot and another detonates a truck.
No member of the international coalition service was killed in the attack, but two were injured.
The Taliban claim responsibility for the attack.
This is how Afghanistan would change without US troops 4:12
September 2, 2012
: U.S. Special Operations Forces temporarily suspend training for about 1,000 Afghan local police recruits while double-checking the current police force's background, following an increase in internal attacks against NATO troops by Afghan forces.
September 14, 2012
: Fifteen insurgents dressed in US Army uniforms attack Camp Bastion, a US-British military complex.
Fourteen insurgents and two US Marines are killed, another nine are wounded.
September 20, 2012
- US military officials report that the surge of US forces in Afghanistan has ended and the last hundreds of troops have left the country.
December 2012
: France withdraws from Afghanistan its last troops directly involved in combat.
The remaining French troops, some 1,500, will remain in Afghanistan for about six months to withdraw equipment and help train Afghan forces.
June 18, 2013
- Afghanistan National Security Forces formally take over combat operations.
March 12, 2014
: A flag-raising ceremony is held in Kabul to mark the end of Canada's military mission in Afghanistan.
May 27, 2014
- President Obama announces that the US combat mission in Afghanistan will end in December 2014.
September 30, 2014
- The United States and Afghanistan sign a joint security agreement that will allow US troops to remain in Afghanistan beyond the previous December deadline to withdraw.
October 26, 2014
- The UK formally ends its combat mission in Afghanistan with a flag-raising ceremony in Helmand province.
December 28, 2014
: The United States and NATO end their combat mission with Afghanistan.
In an official ceremony, the ISAF commander officially marks the end of the coalition's combat in Afghanistan by rolling up the ISAF flag.
January 1, 2015
- After more than 13 years of combat operations in Afghanistan, the United States begins Operation Freedom Sentinel (OFS). The new mission carries out counterterrorism operations targeting groups such as al Qaeda and the local ISIS affiliate and also focuses on strengthening local Afghan security forces to help fight the Taliban. The new US mission will also assist and coordinate with the new NATO-led mission, Resolute Support.
December 9, 2019
: Confidential documents obtained by The Washington Post reveal that senior American officials misled the American public about the war in Afghanistan to hide doubts that the United States could be successful in the nearly 20-year effort since its inception. days, the newspaper reports.
The document states that the interviews "expose the major failures of the war that persist to this day," as "US officials recognized that their war strategies were fatally flawed and that Washington wasted huge sums of money trying to turn Afghanistan into a modern nation. "
April 14, 2021
- US President Joe Biden formally announces his decision to withdraw US troops from Afghanistan before September 11, 2021, considering that the protracted and intractable conflict in Afghanistan is no longer aligned with priorities Americans.
"It's time to end America's longest war," he says.
The cost to the US of 20 years of war in Afghanistan 2:08
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