A Decade Of Operations: Reflecting On Afghanistan's Complex War

The War in Afghanistan was an armed conflict from 2001 to 2021. It was a direct response to the September 11 attacks. The conflict officially ended with the 2021 Taliban offensive, which overthrew the Islamic Republic, and re-established the Islamic Emirate.

The US launched an invasion of Afghanistan, declaring Operation Enduring Freedom as part of the earlier-declared war on terror. The invasion was a coalition effort, with the UK, Canada, France, and Germany pledging future support. The war's early phase mainly involved US airstrikes on al-Qaeda and Taliban forces, with the first wave of conventional ground forces arriving twelve days later.

The Taliban regime unravelled rapidly after its loss at Mazar-i-Sharif on November 9, 2001, to forces loyal to Abdul Rashid Dostum, an ethnic Uzbek military leader. Over the next week, Taliban strongholds crumbled after coalition and Northern Alliance offensives. On November 14, the UN Security Council passed Resolution 1378, calling for a central role for the United Nations in establishing a transitional administration and inviting member states to send peacekeeping forces to promote stability and aid delivery.

The US-led invasion of Afghanistan

The second phase, from 2002 until 2008, was marked by a US strategy of defeating the Taliban militarily and rebuilding core institutions of the Afghan state. The US military presence in Afghanistan bolstered the Northern Alliance, which had been locked in a losing fight with the Taliban during the Afghan Civil War. The Northern Alliance, along with anti-Taliban Pashtuns in southern Afghanistan, played a key role in the invasion, working with US and UK special forces to coordinate targeting for the air campaign.

The rapid progress of the invasion saw the coalition capture Kabul on November 13, and topple the Taliban by December 17. However, most members of al-Qaeda and the Taliban were not captured, and during the Battle of Tora Bora, several fighters, including Osama bin Laden, escaped into neighbouring Pakistan.

The third phase, a turn to classic counterinsurgency doctrine, began in 2008 and accelerated with US President Barack Obama's decision to temporarily increase US troop presence in Afghanistan. The larger force was used to implement a strategy of protecting the population from Taliban attacks and supporting efforts to reintegrate insurgents into Afghan society. Despite this, the Taliban continued to gain strength and carry out attacks, and by the time the US and NATO combat mission formally ended in December 2014, the Afghanistan War had become the longest war in US history.

The fall of the Taliban

The end of the Taliban regime is often associated with the date when the Taliban surrendered Kandahar and Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar fled the city, leaving it under tribal law administered by Pashtun leaders. This event took place in December 2001, marking the end of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.

The rise of the Islamic Republic

The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan was a presidential republic that ruled from 2004 until the Taliban's recapture of the country in 2021. The state was established to replace the Afghan interim (2001-2002) and transitional (2002-2004) administrations, which were formed after the US invasion in 2001 that toppled the Taliban-ruled Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.

Following the September 11 attacks, the US and its allies invaded Afghanistan, overthrowing the Taliban's first government. A transitional government was formed under Hamid Karzai, who was later elected as the first president of the Islamic Republic. The US-led international coalition helped maintain internal security, gradually transferring defence responsibilities to the Afghan Armed Forces after 2013-2014.

During this period, Afghanistan was one of the poorest countries in the world, facing challenges such as subsistence agriculture, lack of foreign investment, government corruption, and the ongoing Taliban insurgency. Despite these issues, the Afghan government, with foreign support, worked to improve the country's economy, healthcare, education, transport, and agriculture. ISAF forces also began training the Afghan National Security Forces.

The Islamic Republic's rule was marked by continued conflict with the Taliban, who controlled various areas of the country. ISAF and Afghan troops led many offensives against the Taliban, including operations such as Operation Mountain Fury, Operation Eagle's Summit, and Operation Cobra Strike. However, they failed to fully defeat the Taliban. The Taliban insurgency contributed to Afghanistan's struggles, as did the high infant and child mortality rates, low life expectancy, food shortages, and ruined infrastructure resulting from decades of war and famine.

In August 2021, the Taliban recaptured Afghanistan, overthrowing the Islamic Republic led by President Ashraf Ghani and reinstating the Islamic Emirate. This marked the end of the 2001-2021 war, the longest in US history.

The Taliban insurgency

The Taliban, a radical Afghan Islamist movement, ruled a large portion of Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001. During this time, they imposed a ban on girls' education and other strict social policies. The Taliban's support comes from tribal kinship networks and a charismatic mullah phenomenon, which has helped them mobilise a critical and dynamic rural base.

The war in Afghanistan began in October 2001, as Operation Enduring Freedom, in response to the 9/11 attacks. The invasion aimed to capture Osama bin Laden, destroy al-Qaeda, and remove the Taliban regime, which had provided them support. The Taliban, however, were not completely defeated and continued to receive support from Pakistan.

To counter the Taliban insurgency, the US-led Coalition conducted various operations, including:

• Operation Mountain Thrust in Kandahar, Helmand, Paktika, Zabul, and Uruzgan Provinces, which aimed to quell the Taliban insurgency in southern Afghanistan.
• Operation Mountain Viper in the mountains of the Dey Chopan District, Zabul province, sought to uncover Taliban rebels.
• Operation Mountain Fury, a NATO-led operation to clear Taliban rebels from the eastern provinces.
• Operation Moshtarak in Helmand Province, the largest military offensive ever launched by NATO troops in Afghanistan, aimed at clearing the city of Taliban militants and drug traffickers.

Despite these efforts, the Taliban insurgency persisted, and by 2022, they had stationed around 10,000 troops in the north of Afghanistan, indicating their continued strength and influence in the country.

The US-Taliban deal

The agreement was a result of nine rounds of discussions and was intended to be a stepping stone towards a comprehensive peace settlement. It included a conditional timeline for the withdrawal of US troops, with the number of troops to be reduced from 12,000 to 8,600 within 135 days. If the Taliban adhered to its commitments, all US and foreign troops would leave Afghanistan within 14 months. The deal also paved the way for intra-Afghan talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government, which the Taliban had previously resisted, calling the Afghan government a puppet of the US.

While the US-Taliban deal was a significant development, the bigger challenge lay in achieving a peace agreement between the Taliban and the Afghan government. There were concerns about continued Taliban violence, the weakness of the Afghan government, and potential objections from outside countries. The intra-Afghan negotiations were slow to make progress, with little discussion on key issues such as power-sharing, women's rights, and the future of democratic institutions.

Overall, the US-Taliban deal was a crucial step towards ending the war in Afghanistan, but it faced challenges in the form of ongoing violence, complex intra-Afghan negotiations, and regional dynamics that needed to be carefully navigated.

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