Special Publications
CMH Pub 70-83-1, Paper
2022; 103 pages, illustrations, Maps
GPO S/N: Pending
When Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda network executed the deadly 11 September 2001 attacks, the United States responded with a global offensive against international terrorists and those who harbored them. War with al-Qaeda meant war with its hosts—the Taliban—who had gained control of most of Afghanistan in the 1990s. In October 2001, U.S. military forces began a campaign against both groups. With the help of various anti-Taliban militias, American troops fought to remove the Taliban from power, destroy al-Qaeda, find bin Laden, and preclude terrorists from using Afghanistan as a refuge. Afghanistan, therefore, would be the first conflict in the decades-long Global War on Terrorism.
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