Gen. Stanley McChrystal is relieved of his position as commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan after he and his advisers were quoted in a controversial Rolling Stone article criticizing the government. President Barack Obama appoints Gen. David Petraeus, head of the military`s Central Command and architect of Iraq`s 2007 recapture, to succeed McChrystal. The change of command comes at a crucial time in the war, as additional reinforcement forces are expected to arrive in Kandahar before a crucial operation. Obama points out that his acceptance of McChrystal`s resignation does not reflect disagreement over the counterinsurgency strategy he helped shape. “We are in complete agreement on our strategy,” Obama said. “This is a change in personnel, not a change in policy.” On the 23rd.

In July 2016, Afghan and U.S. forces launched an offensive to liberate Nangarhar province from Islamic State militants hours after the Kabul attack, the operation was dubbed the “wrath of the storm,” involving both the Afghan regular army and special forces, and is the Afghan army`s first major strategic offensive in the summer. Isil-KP`s estimated size in January 2016 was about 3,000, but by July 2016 its number had been reduced to just under 1,000 to 1,500, 70 percent of which came from the TTP. [329] [396] [397] The majority of civilian casualties were attributed to anti-government elements each year, although the number fluctuated between 61% and 80%, with an average of about 75% due to the Taliban and other anti-government elements. [489] [490] [491] [492] [493] The United Nations Mission of Support in Afghanistan (UNAMA) began publishing figures on civilian casualties in 2008. These figures attribute about 41% of civilian casualties to pro-government forces in 2008; This percentage will fall to about 18% in 2015. [494] The 2009 global survey found that majorities or majorities in 18 of the 25 countries wanted NATO to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan as soon as possible. [593]: 22 Despite U.S. requests to NATO allies to send more troops to Afghanistan, there was majority or majority opposition to such action in each of the NATO countries studied. [593]: 39 paramilitary teams from the CIA Special Activities Division of the CENTRAL Intelligence Agency (CIA) participated in covert operations in Afghanistan in the 1990s to locate, kill, or capture Osama bin Laden. These teams planned several operations, but President Clinton was not ordered to continue. Their efforts helped to establish relations with the Afghan leadership, which proved essential during the 2001 invasion.

[125] The United Nations Security Council adopts Resolution 1267 establishing the Al Qaeda and Taliban Sanctions Committee, which binds the two groups as terrorist units and imposes sanctions on their financing, travel, and arms shipments. The UN decision follows a period of rise by al-Qaeda and its leader, Osama bin Laden, who led the terror group in Afghanistan and Peshawar, Pakistan, Sudan in the late 1980s, Sudan in 1991 and returning to Afghanistan in the mid-1990s. The Taliban, born from the ashes of the post-Soviet civil war in Afghanistan, provide al-Qaeda with a safe haven for operations. The Battle of Kandahar (2011) was part of an offensive that followed the April 30 announcement that the Taliban would launch their spring offensive. [257] On May 7, the Taliban launched a major offensive on government buildings in Kandahar. The Taliban said their goal was to take control of the city. At least eight places were attacked: the governor`s compound, the mayor`s office, the NDS headquarters, three police stations and two high schools. [258] The battle continued on a second day. The BBC called it “the worst attack in Kandahar province since the fall of the Taliban government in 2001 and an embarrassment to the Western-backed Afghan government.” [259] After the talks were suspended, the Taliban intensified the attacks, with the last quarter of 2019 becoming one of the bloodiest since the US invasion in 2001. The U.S.-Taliban agreement, signed in February, included four key elements: a Taliban guarantee that they would not allow foreign armed groups to use Afghanistan as a launching pad for attacks, the complete withdrawal of U.S.-led forces, an intra-Afghan dialogue, and a ceasefire. According to Cara Korte, climate change has played an important role in increasing instability in Afghanistan and strengthening the Taliban.

More than 60 percent of Afghanistan`s population depends on agriculture, and Afghanistan is the sixth most vulnerable country in the world, according to the United Nations Environment Programme and the Afghan Environmental Protection Agency. The Taliban have used resentment over the government`s inaction in the face of drought and flooding caused by climate change to increase their support, and Afghans have been able to make money from Taliban support rather than agriculture. [544] After the Taliban came to power, Western countries suspended humanitarian aid, and the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund also stopped making payments to Afghanistan. [628] [629] The Biden administration froze about $9 billion in Afghan central bank assets and prevented the Taliban from accessing billions of dollars held in U.S. bank accounts. [630] President Obama outlines a plan to withdraw thirty-three thousand troops by the summer of 2012 — the reinforcement troops deployed in December 2009 — including ten thousand by the end of 2011. . .