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The Persian Gulf War
The Persian Gulf War was fought between the U.S. and Iraq following Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait. Following the war, safe havens were established for minority Kurds in no-fly zones. The UN placed economic sanctions, hoping to hinder Iraq’s ability to produce weapons of mass destruction. -
Invasion of Afghanistan
On September 11th 2001 Taliban forces sent 4 planes to attack prominent buildings in the US. This included the Twin Towers, the pentagon and the capitol building. Only three out of four of the attacks were successful. The two planes that crashed into the towers and the pentagon. -
Response to attacks on 9/11
The US launched an Operation entitled Enduring Freedom whose goals were to locate Osama Bin Laden, remove the taliban from power and prevent Afghanistan from continuing to be a hub of terrorist activity. -
End of Taliban's rule in Afghanistan
December 7th 2001 - Kandahar which was the last stronghold of the Taliban and fell on December 7th. This marked the end of the Taliban's rule in Afghanistan. They were also excluded from the draft constitution drawn up for Afghanistan. -
Period: to
Gain back of international attention
In 2002 the Taliban began a long period of insurgency in an attempt to gain back power. During this time International attention started to focus on the conflicts in Iraq. In 2003 US led coalition forces invaded Iraq. In 2004 Hamid Karzai was elected president of Afghanistan. -
UNs Resolution
The UN Security Council passes Resolution 1441, following the September 11th attacks. This would require more weapons inspections to continue. -
UN inspections
Following suspicions that Iraq was hindering these UN inspections, Bush declared and end of diplomacy with Iraq, and issued an ultimatum to Saddam, giving the president 48 hours to leave Iraq. -
US and allied forces
The US and allied forces launched an attack on a bunker-complex, where it was assumed the Iraqi president was having a meeting with his senior staff. This was the first of many attacks on government and military installations. -
Mission conducted by the US Navy SEALs
In a Co-ops mission conducted by the US Navy SEALs and the CIA, operatives killed Osama Bin Laden May 2nd 2011. In June 2011 President Obama announced that 10,000 US troops would leave Afghanistan, an additional 23,000 would leave in 2012. -
2011 continued
Canada withdrew all its troops in 2011, and other Nato countries pledged to reduce their military presence. The US managed to achieve all three of the goals set out in Operation Enduring Freedom which effectively meant an end to the war on the US part but the effects of the war, fluctuation of power and terrorism still plague Afghanistan. -
Military declaration
n October, President Obama announced that the remaining 39,000 soldiers would leave the country at the end of 2011. The U.S. military formally declared the end of its mission in Iraq in a ceremony in Baghdad on December 15, as the final U.S. troops prepared to withdraw from the country. This ended the Iraqi-US war but left the country in turmoil with other Arab nations