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Known as Operation Enduring Freedom, the War in Afghanistan began October 7, 2001 as a joint United States-United Kingdom reaction to the 9/11 attacks. The invasion began as a way to find Osama bin Laden and other terrorists of the Taliban regime who resided in Afghanistan.
In 2006, the Taliban started to rebound, making international news with a wave of suicide attacks, riots and violence in Afghanistan that affected many civilians. Such acts of insurgent violence still occur, and it's argued that issues like this add to the country's instability.
In 2004, Hamid Karzai was elected the country's president for five years under the new constitution, and in August 2009 another presidential election took place, with Karzai ultimately emerging the victor over Abdullah Abdullah.
A record 62,000 U.S. troops are now in Afghanistan. More than 730 U.S. service members have died in the war since the original invasion, and close to 60% of these deaths happened since 2007.
In December 2009, President Barack Obama declared that an additional 30,000 U.S. troops would be sent to Afghanistan in the first part of 2010. After 18 months, the troops will begin to pull out. "These are the resources that we need to seize the initiative, while building the Afghan capacity that can allow for a responsible transition of our forces out of Afghanistan," the President said.
- iCasualties
Updated daily, this site is incredibly comprehensive and organized. First divided into the categories "deaths," "missing or captured" and "wounded," it then goes into separate months, countries, military forces and more. The site also features a newswire. And that's just the homepage. Go to the tabs at the top to look at more specialized statistics, ranging from ethnicity to gender to journalist deaths.
- Washington Post
The Washington Post's "Faces of the Fallen" acts as a tribute to the service members who have died in the invasion and war thus far. Click on a face to view the person's hometown, age, unit, details about the incident and related links. You can view by age, year of death, home state and military branch. The site also includes audio tributes from the Washington Metro area.
- CNN
View by date or name to read the details of every casualty of Operation Enduring Freedom (count updated daily).
- Wall Street Journal
Choose a year to see a monthly tally of the military toll since 2001.
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To read more news about Afghanistan and learn about the country, visit this resource on HeadlineSpot.
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