After nearly 20 years, the U.S. has decided to withdraw all troops from Afghanistan. Let’s take a look back at the images of the longest war in American history just revealed by Reuters.
On September 11, 2001, al Qaeda terrorists kidnapped four civilian planes and flew them into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania. The 9/11 terrorist attacks left nearly 3,000 people dead. (Source: Reuters)
In October 2001, U.S. President George W. Bush announced the launch of a “war on terror” targeting al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden, who was supported by the Taliban administration in Afghanistan and provided shelter. Pictured: The Humvee of U.S. Marines throws dust as it passes through a group of light armored vehicles while patrolling from a Navy base in southern Afghanistan, December 2, 2001. (Source: Reuters)
In early November 2001, a small group of U.S. special forces soldiers were deployed to Afghanistan to fight alongside the Northern Coalition, an army formed primarily by guerrilla gunmen and government troops ousted by the Taliban in 1996. Pictured: William Olas Bee, a U.S. Marine from the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, fights the Taliban during a shooting near Garmsir in Afghanistan’s Helmand province, May 18, 2008. (Source: Reuters)
In December 2001, Taliban forces were knocked out of their strongholds in Kandahar. The caves in Tora Boca, southeast of Kabul, which is believed to be Bin Laden’s shelter, have been bombed by US B-52s over the course of two weeks. The Taliban collapsed, but Bin Laden escaped with Mullah Omar , the leader of the Taliban. Pictured: Capt. Melvin Cabebe of the U.S. Army’s 1st-320th Field Artillery Regiment stands near a burning M-ATV armored vehicle after it struck a homemade explosive device (IED) near the Arghandab Valley, north of Kandahar, July 23, 2010. (Source: Reuters)
A Stryker armoured vehicle of the U.S. Army’s 5th Stryker Brigade fires a mortar during a night patrol in Kandahar, April 27, 2010. (Source: Reuters)
On May 2, 2011, the U.S. military conducted a raid and killed Al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden in a village in Pakistan, marking a turning point in the war in Afghanistan. President Obama hailed the victory as “the most important result of the U.S. effort against Al Qaeda.” But violence in Afghanistan continues. Pictured: U.S. army soldiers fire artillery from a base in Panjwai district, southern Afghanistan’s Kandahar province, June 12, 2011. (Source: Reuters)
Two nearly 227 kg bombs explode at a fighting site with the Taliban Kamdesh, in Nuristan Province, Afghanistan, June 11, 2012. (Source: Reuters)
U.S. soldiers detonate a roadside bomb set up by Taliban gunmen near the town of Walli in Paktika province, near the border with Pakistan, November 4, 2012. (Source: Reuters)
Paratroopers of the Chosen Company of the 3rd Battalion, 509th Infantry on CH-47 Chinook helicopters, begin their offensive mission in Herrera, Paktiya Province of Afghanistan, July 15, 2012. (Source: Reuters)
U.S. Marines take prisoners to detention centers at Kandahar International Airport. (Source: Reuters)
A group of men are detained on suspicion of operating for the Taliban in Kuhak village, Arghandab district, north of Kandahar on July 9, 2010. (Source: Reuters)
After the fighting is a moment of rest and resuscitation. Pictured: An American soldier rests after a night patrol near the Honaker Miracle camp in the Pesh valley of Kunar province, Afghanistan. (Source: Reuters)
The war also inevitably casualties. Pictured: Members of the U.S. Navy shelter comrades injured by an explosion on a helicopter in Kandahar province, southern Afghanistan, October 2, 2010. (Source: Reuters)
A U.S. army officer tries to save the life of a Marine wounded in an IED explosion near the town of Marjah in Helmand province, August 22, 2010. (Source: Reuters)
U.S. Army soldiers of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), light candles in prayer during Christmas Eve at Bagram Airport, north of Kabul, December 24, 2014. (Source: Reuters)
U.S. Marine Chris Sanderson, 24, from Flemington, New Jersey tries to protect an Afghan man and his child after Taliban militants opened fire in the town of Marjah, Nad Ali district, Helmand province, February 13, 2010. (Source: Reuters)
Between mid-2013 and the end of 2014, U.S. President Barack Obama withdrew nearly 34,000 U.S. troops from Afghanistan and announced the official end of the war.Rammed U.S. combat operations in the country on December 28, 2014. However, attacks still occur. U.S. soldiers take care of wounded comrades at the site of an explosion in Kabul, Afghanistan, June 30, 2015. (Source: Reuters)
The Resolute Support campaign began on January 1, 2015. According to the NATO campaign, 13,000 soldiers, mostly U.S. troops, will be maintained in Afghanistan for two years to provide training and mentoring to Afghan security forces. (Source: Reuters)
Since the start of the war in Afghanistan, about 2,400 U.S. servicemen have been killed along with the deaths of thousands of Taliban and Al Qaeda gunmen and civilians and thousands wounded. This fierce battle has caused many families to lose relatives, many people lost comrades, friends … Pictured: Lesleigh Coyer, 25, of Saginaw, Michigan, lies in front of the grave of her brother Ryan Coyer, an American soldier who fought in both Iraq and Afghanistan, at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia on March 11, 2013. Ryan Coyer died as a result of lingering traumatic complications in Afghanistan. (Source: Reuters)
Boy Ryan Lemm, 4, raises his hand to say goodbye to his father, NYPD officer Joseph Lemm, killed in a suicide bombing in Afghanistan.Funeral held in the Manhattan borough of New York, December 30, 2015. Lemm was one of six U.S. soldiers killed by a suicide bomber near Bagram air base in Afghanistan. (Source: Reuters)
An American soldier of the 3rd Cavalry Regiment pay tribute during a memorial service for expert Wyatt Martin and Sergeant Ramon Morris at Bagram Airport in Afghanistan’s Parwan Province on December 23, 2014. The two men were killed by a homemade explosive device while patrolling near Bagram Airport. (Source: Reuters)
Not only the people of Afghanistan, the world is still waiting for peace to be restored on the territory of this Islamic country. Pictured: Two Northern Coalition soldiers watch as plumes of smog rise after U.S. troops attackEd Taliban positions on Kalakata Hill, near the village of Ai-Khanum in northern Afghanistan. (Source: Reuters)
Recently, according to sources, U.S. President Joe Biden decided to withdraw the country’s soldiers from Afghanistan before September 11, 2021, exactly 20 years after the Al-Qaeda attack, sparking America’s longest war. According to the source, the withdrawal will be based on specific assurances on security and human rights, before formalizing the decision. The sources did not provide further details. Pictured: A Chinook helicopter lands to pick up U.S. soldiers after a night raid in Yahya Khel, Paktika province, in 2011. (Source: Reuters)
(according to Reuters)
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