Taliban takeover: The Taliban's capture of Kabul on Sept. 27, 1996, set the stage for what would become today's long war in Afghanistan. After the extremist group took the Afghan capital, President Burhanuddin Rabbani was forced to retreat, along with anti-Taliban leader Ahmed Shah Massoud, who was commanding the government's forces. Once in the city, the Taliban asserted authority by torturing and killing Najibullah, a one-named former communist president, and hanging his body on a traffic signal outside the presidential palace. Above, Taliban soldiers patrol outside Kabul on July 25, 1996.
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Less than 24 hours after seizing Kabul, the Taliban imposed an extremely narrow interpretation of Islamic law: Women were not allowed to work, girls' schools were closed, and punishments such as amputation and stoning were introduced. Additionally, TV, most music, and games including chess and soccer were banned. Men without beards could be arrested, and women were required to wear burqas, like those seen above in Kalakan in 2003. By 1997, the Taliban government was officially recognized by only Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates; most of the international community protested the new repressive laws.
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After the Aug. 7, 1998, bombings of U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, the United States launched missile strikes on Aug. 20 against six sites in Afghanistan and Sudan designated as terrorist bases. The United States said the sites were part of a network financed by Osama bin Laden, who was living in Afghanistan and was blamed for orchestrating the embassy bombings. Bin Laden, shown above in an undated photo in Afghanistan, was unharmed by the missiles, and the Taliban government refused U.S. demands to hand him over, saying turning out guests was a cultural taboo.
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In March 2001, the Taliban faced international disapproval as it destroyed giant 1,500-year-old statues of Buddha in Afghanistan's Bamiyan valley, blasting them with shells and machine guns. The move drew condemnation and pleas from foreign governments, the Arab League, and UNESCO. The Taliban rejected all requests to stop, and its foreign minister defended the move to international reporters, citing "a religious obligation to destroy idols." Above, the niche where one statue used to reside stands empty on Feb. 1, 2002.
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Loss of the Lion: On Sept. 9, 2001, anti-Taliban rebel leader Ahmed Shah Massoud was killed at his home by a bomb hidden in the camera of two Arabs posing as journalists (now thought to have been agents of the Taliban or al Qaeda). Massoud, above near Kabul in 1997, was known as the "Lion of Panjshir" for his legendary defense of the Panjshir valley, home to his Tajik people, against Soviet offensives in the 1980s. Despite his death, Massoud's forces were later key in the U.S.-sponsored removal of the Taliban government, and images of Massoud became icons of the fight.
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People in New York stare aghast at the collapsing towers of the World Trade Center in the hours following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. On Sept. 29, U.S. President George W. Bush declared that the United States was "in hot pursuit" of Osama bin Laden and his companions in Afghanistan. The United States began preparing for military action, and Bush told the press he was "fully aware of the difficulties the Russians had in Afghanistan" with weather, terrain, and guerrilla tactics.
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On Oct. 7, 2001, U.S. and British forces launched airstrikes against Taliban positions after the regime continued to refuse to turn over Osama bin Laden. U.S. B-52 Stratofortress bombers, such as the one shown above in a file photo, were used. Starting in early October, U.S. and British special forces had entered Afghanistan, and CIA operatives had been on the ground building connections to anti-Taliban Northern Alliance forces since the end of September.
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On Nov. 11, 2001, Northern Alliance soldiers backed by U.S. Special Forces and air support captured the city of Mazar-e-Sharif, a strategic stronghold with two airports and key supply roads out of the country. The victory, billed as the first major win for the anti-Taliban coalition, was also powerfully symbolic: Mazar-e-Sharif was traditionally one of the more progressive cities in Afghanistan, and residents were particularly unhappy with the Taliban's harsh Islamist laws. Above, Northern Alliance forces protect the road into Mazar-e-Sharif on Dec. 15, 2001.
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Victory: With Taliban forces in full retreat, the Northern Alliance captured Kabul days after its victory in Mazar-e-Sharif. Above, a Northern Alliance soldier celebrates with locals as he rides into Kabul on Nov. 13, 2001. As children once again flew kites, forbidden under the Taliban, men shaved their beards and chanted "long live America." Many captured members of the Taliban were beaten and killed by the Northern Alliance, with foreigners, especially Arabs and Pakistanis, receiving particularly harsh treatment.
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A Northern Alliance soldier returns on Dec. 17, 2001, from fighting in Afghanistan's mountainous Tora Bora region, Osama bin Laden's hide-out. The soldier is displaying a U.S.-distributed flyer offering rewards for bin Laden and his top lieutenant, Ayman al-Zawahiri. Although more than 200 al Qaeda fighters were killed and traces of bin Laden's presence were found, the man himself remained elusive. He is now thought to have escaped across the border to Pakistan.
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A king's welcome: On Aug. 4, 2002, interim Afghan President Hamid Karzai welcomes Mohammed Zahir Shah, the former king of Afghanistan who was ousted in a 1973 coup, back to the country after 30 years in exile. Observers speculated that Zahir might attempt to restore the monarchy over which he had presided for four decades, but he deferred to Karzai instead, prompting the new interim president to constitutionally appoint Zahir Shah as "Father of the Nation." The former ruler died on July 23, 2007, at age 92.
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Show of force: By January 2002, NATO troops had arrived in Kabul as the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). Originally scheduled to withdraw from the city on June 20 of that year, ISAF's mission was extended another six months by the United Nations that May. ISAF's security responsibilities would later expand beyond the Afghan capital to cover the entire country. Above, a French soldier patrols a street in Kabul as two Afghan women pass by on Aug. 13, 2003.
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In Afghanistan's first major assassination attempt since the U.S. invasion, Vice President Haji Abdul Qadir was shot to death in his car on July 6, 2002, when gunmen fired nearly 40 rounds into the vehicle, killing him and his driver. Qadir was a prominent Pashtun warlord and one of five vice presidents appointed in June of that year. Just three months later, President Karzai survived an attempt on his own life. Above, a mourner is consoled as Qadir's coffin arrives at the airport in Jalalabad on July 7, 2002.
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Mightier than the sword? Interim President Karzai prepares to sign the country's new constitution on Jan. 26, 2004. The document called for a strong executive, with equal rights for men and women; it also declared Islam to be the state religion. Later that year after elections, Karzai was sworn in as the popularly elected president.
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Presidential review: President Bush arrives at Bagram Air Base on March 1, 2006, with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley in tow. In a pivotal speech shortly after Sept. 11, 2001, Bush outlined his response to al Qaeda with a clear ultimatum: The Taliban regime would face military consequences if it did not relinquish Osama bin Laden to U.S. authorities. As the air campaign began on Oct. 7, 2001, Bush delivered another address. "None of these demands was met," he said, "and now, the Taliban will pay a price."
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Waiting: Allegations of detainee abuse at Bagram military prison emerged in 2005, when the New York Times acquired a U.S. Army report detailing the internment of two suspected Afghan insurgents in 2002. The prisoners were subjected to intense beatings, the Times reported, and both died from their injuries. But despite the abuse, a military probe charged only seven of the nearly 30 said to be involved. Above, former Afghan detainees sit during a ceremony after their release on June 1, 2005.
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Empowerment: Women in Kabul queue up for the polls in Afghanistan's first parliamentary election on Sept. 18, 2005. Some 12 million ballots across 34 provinces were up for grabs in the race for the House of the People, the lower chamber in the country's bicameral legislature. Voters cast second ballots for provincial-level council members. Sixty-eight seats in the House of the People were reserved for women, and an additional six were ultimately elected.
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Hobbling along: Amid a worsening insurgency, 2006's Operation Mountain Thrust saw more than 10,000 coalition troops move into Afghanistan's lawless southern region as part of the largest military offensive undertaken in the country since 2001. The campaign was largely a strategic failure; by mid-July 2006, Afghan security was rapidly destabilizing. Above, U.S. Army Sgt. Billy Abbott marches on crutches on June 30, 2006, due to a foot injury sustained during the offensive.
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Handover: In October 2005, U.S. commanders relinquished their control over combat operations as NATO -- which had already assumed responsibility for forces in Afghanistan's northern, western, and southern reaches -- took over. The alliance's first out-of-theater deployment, the Afghan mission has also been NATO's largest, involving almost 65,000 troops. Above, Canadian Warrant Officer Anre Lamarre identifies positions for Afghan soldiers in Kandahar province on Nov. 9, 2007.
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Cash crop: Poppy farmer Abdul Rassod examines his fields in northeastern Afghanistan on May 29, 2005. Growing poppy is the country's most lucrative business; Afghanistan is now the world's largest producer of opium, responsible for 95 percent of the world's supply. According to a U.N. report, the amount of land allocated to growing opium here exceeds that used for coca production in Bolivia, Colombia, and Peru -- combined.
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Hooked: The plentiful supply of opiates and soaring unemployment rate in Afghanistan mean lots of dope, and lots of time to use it. It costs just $3 a day to feed a heroin habit, and hundreds of thousands are addicted to some form of illicit substance. "Of those," Reuters reports, "120,000 are women and 60,000 are children." There are only 39 foreign-supported drug clinics in the country. Here, heroin addicts smoke in an abandoned building in Kabul on Nov. 22, 2007.
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Jailbreak: Some 400 imprisoned insurgents and 1,000 criminals in total broke free June 13, 2008, when Taliban militants staged a brazen operation on the Sarposa Prison in Kandahar. A truck packed full of explosives rammed into the main gate before exploding, allowing at least 30 attackers on motorcycles into the prison. The incident reversed years of coalition efforts and raised doubts about the Karzai government's ability to bring stability to the area.
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New kid on the block: Gen. David H. Petraeus disembarks from a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter near the Pakistani border. Petraeus received U.S. Senate confirmation on July 10, 2008, to replace Adm. William J. Fallon as head of U.S. Central Command (Centcom), the body responsible for overseeing U.S. military assets across the Middle East and into Central Asia. Petraeus's appointment heralded a turn in strategy for the Afghan conflict; the 1974 West Point graduate had previously made great strides in taming the Iraqi insurgency by reaching out to insurgent groups and aggressively targeting what he called the "irreconcilables." By giving him control of both wars, the White House hoped he could replicate his successes in a completely different environment.
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Quiet surge: With Petraeus safely at the helm, Bush tried another tactic that had worked well in Iraq: the surge. Nearly 4,500 additional troops were ordered to Afghanistan on Sept. 10, 2008, to supplement the nearly 33,000 U.S. soldiers already deployed there. The so-called quiet surge reflected a shift in priorities for Bush, who justified the redeployment by pointing to improved Iraqi security. Meanwhile, the German parliament on Oct. 16 of that year authorized Chancellor Angela Merkel to commit another 1,000 troops to the war, raising the country's overall cap to 4,500. Some were senet, -- at least 300 -- but it doesn't look lokke Germany reached its cap. Above, U.S. Marines arrive at Kandahar air field on March 10, 2008.
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Sad return home: A Taliban spokesperson rejected President Karzai's offer of peace negotiations on Nov. 17, 2008, saying that until foreign troops withdrew from the country, "the Taliban will pursue jihad against foreign forces and [Karzai's] government." This was the ISAF's bloodiest year yet, with 294 fatalities in 2008 alone. 2008 was also the year in which cumulative coalition fatalities topped the 1,000 mark. Above, Spanish soldiers in Spain on Nov. 11, 2008, carry the coffins of two comrades killed in a suicide attack two days earlier.
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Back to the earth: An Afghan man on Aug. 23, 2008, prays by the graves of victims of a U.S. airstrike in Herat province earlier that month. The civilian death toll has risen 24 percent in the first half of 2009 compared with the same period last year, U.N. officials say. The death of civilians in such strike has become a hot-button political issue, and the increased toll is likely to hurt President Karzai's chances of re-election.
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Stan the Man: Then Lt. Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal meets with U.S. President Barack Obama on May 19, a few weeks prior to his June 10 Senate confirmation. McChrystal, head of the shadowy Joint Special Operations Command, was nominated to replace Gen. David D. McKiernan in May. McKiernan was known as a "cautious and conventionally minded" armor officer -- the wrong combination in a war as unconventional as Afghanistan's. McChrystal has expressed great interest in the counterinsurgency philosophy now gaining traction among military thinkers.
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Pep talk: U.S. Marines receive words of encouragement on July 2 before embarking upon Operation Khanjar, ISAF's latest venture into southern Afghanistan's Helmand province. The U.S.-led offensive, which began on July 2, involves some 4,000 Marines and 650 Afghan soldiers. In a marked shift in strategy, however, the campaign is subject to strict rules of engagement to avoid civilian casualties and underscores the importance of cooperating with village leaders to ensure stability.
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Seeking the upper hand: Supporters of Afghan presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah welcome him at a campaign rally in Kabul on Aug. 3. Abdullah is second in the polls after President Hamid Karzai and is one of more than 40 candidates vying for the incumbent's position. Ashraf Ghani, a former World Bank executive and U.N. official, is Karzai's next-closest challenger, in a distant third place. Afghans go to the polls Aug. 20.
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Slow going: Stability has been a long time coming in Afghanistan. Coalition forces are still grappling with a potent enemy, and the drug trade remains as active as ever. An insecure border region gives militants virtually unrestricted access to supplies and safe haven. And Karzai now struggles for his political survival, though competitive elections may in fact be a sign of improvement. No matter how far the country gets this year, one thing is clear: The road ahead will be even longer.
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