U.S.-led military campaign begins

After capturing Mazar-i-Sharif, Taliban forces carried out indiscriminate shootings, executions, mass detention, abductions and rape, HRW reported. Death estimates vary; Hazara residents and other...

The United States launched cruise-missile strikes on alleged al-Qaeda facilities in Afghanistan after the embassy bombings in East Africa. The strikes occurred without Afghan consent and did not...

Taliban forces retook Yakaolang in Bamiyan. Human Rights Watch later documented witness accounts that civilians, including Hazara men and local aid workers, were rounded up and executed.

Ahmad Shah Massoud, a leading commander of the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance, died after a suicide attack by assassins posing as journalists. His death weakened a major Afghan political-military...

Al-Qaeda carried out attacks in the United States, killing nearly 3,000 people. The attacks became the immediate trigger for the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan, although most of the hijackers were not...

Northern Alliance forces entered Kabul as Taliban forces withdrew. The rapid collapse of Taliban control followed U.S. air power, local alliances, and the pre-existing Afghan opposition; it did not by...

Afghan delegates at UN-sponsored talks signed an agreement creating an interim administration and a roadmap for a new political order. The Taliban were excluded, and representation among Afghan...

The Security Council adopted Resolution 1386, authorizing the International Security Assistance Force to support the Afghan Interim Authority in Kabul and surrounding areas. The initial mandate was...

Delegates to the Emergency Loya Jirga chose Hamid Karzai to lead the Transitional Islamic State of Afghanistan. The assembly was an Afghan political institution, but was formed in a post-invasion...

NATO took command of the UN-mandated International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), initially operating in and around Kabul. The alliance’s first mission beyond the Euro-Atlantic area later...