AFGHANISTAN WAR.

AFGHANISTAN

• Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a country located within South Asia and Central Asia. It has a population of approximately 31 million people, making it the 42nd most populous country in the world.Its territory covers 652,000 km2 (252,000 sq mi), making it the 41st largest country in the world.

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• Afghanistan is a country that's always in periods of war and it's constantly getting in trouble.

1990'S

• The Afghan War began after the Soviet Union withdrew from Afghanistan, leaving the Afghan communist government to fend for itself against the Mujahideen.

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• After several years of fighting, the government fell in 1992. However, the civil war continued with insurgents such as the Taliban attempting to bring down the new government.

2001

• period in which the United States invaded the country after the September 11 attacks, supported initially by close allies, beginning in 2003. The conflict is also known as the U.S. war in Afghanistan. Its public aims were to dismantle al-Qaeda, and to deny it a safe base of operations in Afghanistan by removing the Taliban from power.Key allies supported the U.S. from the start, including the United Kingdom.

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WHY WAS THERE A WAR?

• During the time that the Taliban controlled Afghanistan, they allowed an organisation called al-Qaeda to have training camps there. In September 2001, nearly 3,000 people were killed in the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The United States believed that Osama Bin Laden - who was the head of al-Qaeda - was the man behind these attacks.

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• In October 2001, the USA began bombing Afghanistan. They targeted bin Laden's al-Qaeda fighters and also the Taliban. In November 2001,

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• ten years after the war in Afghanistan began that Osama bin Laden was eventually found by American soldiers in Pakistan, where he was shot and killed.

FACTS

• There is currently no end date for the war in Afghanistan.
• There is no set plan for removing the remaining 68,000 troops left in Afghanistan.
• Reports indicate that the Pentagon wants to keep between 6,000 and 20,000 US troops in Afghanistan until at least 2024.

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• 4. The "support" mission will not necessarily be small, nor will it be free of combat missions.
• 5. Obama's "surge" is not over.
• 6. There are less than 100 al Qaeda left in Afghanistan--but there are over 600,000 Afghan and international forces there to fight them.