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An al-Qaeda and Taliban Nexus
The United Nations Security Council adopts Resolution 1267, creating the so-called al-Qaeda and Taliban Sanctions Comitee, which links the two groups as terrorist entities and imposes sanctions on their funding, travel, and arms shipments.
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Terrorists Strike the United States
Link Al-Qaeda members hijack four commercial aeroplanes, and crash them into the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington D.C. Another crashes into a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, almost 3,000 people die in the attacks. President G. W. Bush vows to “win the war against terrorism,” and focuses on al-Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden, later he tells the Taliban to “deliver to the United States authorities all the leaders of al-Qaeda who hide in your land, or share in their fate." -
A War Footing
LinkPresident G. W. Bush signs a law of a joint resolution allowing the use of force against those who were responsible for causing the 9/11 attacks. This took extreme measures to combat terrorism, from invading Afghanistan, to spying on U.S. citizens without a court order, also standing up the detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, in Cuba. -
An Opening Salvo
LinkThe U.S. military, with British support, begin a bombings campaign against Taliban forces, officially launching Operation Enduring Freedom. Canada, Australia, Germany, and France pledge future support. -
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Bin Laden Escapes
Link After tracking Osama bin Laden to the Tora Bora cave complex southeast of Kabul. Afghan militias engage in a fierce two week battle for December 3 to December 17. It causes a few hundred deaths and the escape of bin Laden, who is assumed to have gone to Pakistan on horseback on December 16, one day before Afghan forces capture 20 of his remaining men. -
The Taliban Collapses
Link The end of the Taliban regime is ussually tied to this date, when the Taliban surrender Kandahar and Taliban leader Mullah Omar flees the city, leaving it under Pashtun leaders. Even though the Taliban has fallen, al-Qaeda leaders continue to hide out in the mountains. -
Reconstructing Afghanistan
Link President G.W. Bush calls for the reconstruction of Afghanistan in a speech at the Virginia Military Institute. “By helping to build an Afghanistan that is free from this evil and is a better place to live, we are working in the best traditions of George Marshall,” George says. The U.S. Congress appropriates over $38 billion in humanitarian and reconstruction assistance to Afghanistan from 2001 to 2009. -
A president of Afghanistan
LinkPrior national voting, Hamid Karzai becomes the first democratically elected head of Afghanistan. Karzai wins with 55% of the votes even though there were threats of violence and intimidation. His election is assumed as fraud by his opponents and by the kidnapping of three foreign UN election workers by a militant group. The election was considered a victory for such a fragile nation. -
Bin Laden Surfaces
Link Osama bin Laden releases a videotaped message three weeks after the country’s presidential election and only days before the U.S. polls an which G.W Bush will win reelection. In the vide, bin Laden taunts the Bush administration and takes responsibility for the September 11th attacks. “We want to restore freedom to our nation, just as you lay waste to our nation,” bin Laden says. -
A Taliban Commander Falls
Link A Taliban Commander Falls” May 2007, A notorious Taliban military commander, Mullah Dadullah is killed in a joint operation by Afghan, U.S., and NATO forces in the south of Afghanistan. He is belived to have been a leader of guerrilla forces in the war in Helmand Province, deploying suicide bombers and ordering the kidnapping of Westerners. -
Obama Recommits to Afghanistan
LinkPresident Barack Obama says he will deploy 17 thousand more troops to Afghanistan. As of January 2009 the Pentagon has 37 thousand troops in Afghanistan, roughly divided between U.S. and NATO commands. Speaking on the troop increase, Secretary of Defence Robert Gates describes the original mission in Afghanistan as “too broad” and asks for established goals an example being, preventing and limiting terrorist safe havens.