As there was no formal declaration of war between the USA and Afghanistan, there are no official dates when the war started -better when the military intervention started- and when it finished. However, for convenience, we will assume that the war started the first day the American and British planes started bombing Afghanistan, that is October 7, 2001, and that it finished when Hamid Karzai was elected president in June 2002. In this document the post war will be assumed to have started on July 1, 2002.
5.2.1 The war
According to the US, the purpose of Operation Enduring Freedom was to capture
or kill Osama bin Laden, suspected of planning and funding the September
11, 2001 Terrorist Attack, and to destroy his terrorist network al-Qaida.
The Taliban government of Afghanistan, which allegedly provided support
to al-Qaida and gave them a safe haven, was to be removed. Many journalists
have reported that plans to attack al-Qaida and the Taliban existed as early
as the Clinton administration.
There were reports that even before October 7, 2001, US and British special-forces soldiers had covertly entered Afghanistan. These operations, if they really took place, started some time after September 11, presumably for reconnaissance purposes. It was also reported that the Taliban captured several of these troops. The US, British, and Afghan governments officially denied these reports.
At approximately 16:30 UTC (17:00 local time) on Sunday October 7, 2001, US and British (one plane) forces began an aerial bombing campaign targeting Taliban and al-Qaida forces. Approximately 50 Tomahawk cruise missiles, launched by British and US submarines and ships, 15 strike aircraft from carriers and 25 bombers -B-1 Lancer, B-2 Spirit, B-52 Stratofortress and F-16 Fighting Falcon- were involved in the first wave. In addition, two C-17 Globemaster transport jets were to deliver 37,500 daily rations by airdrop to refugees inside Afghanistan on the first day of the attack. The bombing strikes were obviously very effective, if not accurate, and they destroyed what remained of the already devastated cities. Strikes were reported in the capital, Kabul (where electricity supply was interrupted), at the airport, at the military nerve-centre of Kandahar (home of the Taliban's Supreme Leader Mullah Omar), and also in the city of Jalalabad (military/terrorist training camps). The US government justified these attacks as a response to the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attack and to the failure of the Taliban to meet the US demands. The Taliban condemned these attacks, and called them an 'attack on Islam.'
At 17:00 UTC, Bush confirmed the strikes on national television and UK Prime Minister Tony Blair too spoke on British television. Bush stated that at the same time Taliban military and terrorists' training grounds would be targeted, food, medicine, and supplies would be dropped to "the starving and suffering men and women and children of Afghanistan."
Planes operating at high altitudes -well out of range of anti-aircraft fire- began bombing al-Qaida training camps and Taliban air defences. The strikes initially focused on the area in and around the cities of Kabul, Jalalabad, and Kandahar. Within a few days, most al-Qaida training sites had been severely damaged, and the Taliban's air defences had been destroyed. The campaign then focused on communications and "command and control". The Taliban soon were unable to coordinate their activities, and their morale began to sink. But their forces facing the Northern Alliance held, and tangible battlefield successes were slow to come. Two weeks into the campaign, the Northern Alliance, not seeing any breakthrough, asked the Americans to bomb the front lines. Civilian casualties also began to increase, and even several Red Cross warehouses were bombed. Meanwhile, thousands of Pashtun militiamen from Pakistan poured into the country, joining the fight against the US led forces. Strange enough, US Army Special Forces rode on horseback in the early days of the operation.
Hornet bombers hit Taliban vehicles, while other US planes began dropping cluster bombs on Taliban defences. For the first time, Northern Alliance commanders began seeing results and US Special Forces launched an audacious raid deep into the Taliban's heartland of Kandahar. However, the campaign's progress remained very slow.
At this time, bombers began pounding the Taliban front lines with 15,000-pound bombs, inflicting heavy casualties. AC-130 gunships joined, striking enemy positions with their cannons firing thousands of rounds per minute. By November 2, the enemy frontal positions were decimated, and a Northern Alliance march on Kabul looked possible. The Afghan Taliban troops' morale was very low; they were regarded as untrustworthy and foreign fighters with al-Qaida took over security in the Afghan cities. Meanwhile, the Northern Alliance and their CIA/Special Forces advisors planned the offensive. Northern Alliance troops would seize Mazar-I-Sharif, cutting Taliban supply lines. This would enable the flow of equipment stored in the countries to the north to arrive in Afghanistan. An attack on Kabul itself would follow.
After about four weeks -and much destruction and many dead Afghans- the Taliban forces collapsed. One after the other the main cities fell to the Northern Alliance. The Americans did not do much beside firing missiles and bombing from 30,000 feet. They left all the dirty fighting work to the Northern Alliance, mainly because they did not want to risk the life of their soldiers. In other times they would have been described as cowards but now, they are the stronger so ...
It is true that there were some Special Forces units -CIA agents and British SAS troops- on, or just behind the battlefields, but they did not participate actively in the battles. They were there to find the targets, and to guide the bombers. Even so, three American soldiers were killed by so-called friendly fire. At the same time five Northern Alliance men died too, but this did not interest the American media, as they were not Americans. In the US their death was described as "collateral damage".
On November 9, 2001, the battle for Mazar-I-Sharif began. US planes carpet-bombed Taliban defenders. Northern Alliance forces then swept in from the south and west, seizing the city's main military base and airport. Within 4 hours, the battle was over and, by sunset, the remaining Taliban were retreating south and east and Mazar-I-Sharif was taken. The next day, Northern Alliance forces combed the city, shooting suspected Taliban supporters on the spot. Five hundred and twenty young Taliban, demoralized and defeated, many of them foreigners who crossed into Afghanistan from Pakistan, were massacred when they were discovered hiding in a school. Looting was rampant.
On November 10, Northern Alliance forces swept rapidly through five northern provinces without meeting strong resistance, as the fall of Mazar-I-Sharif had triggered a complete collapse of Taliban positions. Many local commanders switched sides renouncing fighting. The regime was beginning to unravel throughout the nord and, even in the south, their hold on power seemed tenuous at best. The religious police stopped their regular patrols. A complete implosion of the Taliban regime seemed imminent.
Finally, in the night of November 12, the Taliban forces fled from the city of Kabul under cover of darkness. By the time Northern Alliance forces arrived on November 13, they only found bomb craters, massive destructions, and the burnt-out shells of Taliban gun emplacements and positions.
The fall of Kabul marked the beginning of the end of the collapse of Taliban strongholds. Within 24 hours, all of the Afghan provinces along the Iranian border, including the key city of Herat, had fallen. Local Pashtun commanders had taken over throughout northeastern Afghanistan, including the key city of Jalalabad. Taliban holdouts in the north, mainly Pakistani volunteers, fled to the northern city of Konduz to make a desperate stand. By November 16, the Taliban's last stronghold in northern Afghanistan was completely besieged by the Northern Alliance. Nearly 10,000 Taliban fighters, led by foreign elements, refused to surrender and continued to put up stubborn resistance. By then, the Taliban had retreated all the way back to their heartland in southeastern Afghanistan around Kandahar.
Al-Qaida's infrastructure around the country had been decimated by the bombing campaign and their backers, the Taliban, were being swept from power. However, by November 13, some al-Qaida fighters had regrouped in the Tora Bora cave complex, 30 miles southeast of Jalalabad, to prepare for a last stand against the anti-Taliban and American forces. Nearly 2000 al-Qaida fighters were in positions within bunkers and caves. By November 16, US bombers began bombing the mountain fortress. Around the same time, CIA and Special Forces operatives were already at work in the area, enlisting and paying local warlords to join the fight, and planning an attack on this al-Qaida base.
The bloody siege of Konduz that began on November 16 was continuing but after heavy fighting and heavy American bombardment, the Taliban fighters surrendered on November 25. The prisoners were transferred into the Qala-e-Jangi prison complex near Mazar-I-Sharif. A few foreign Taliban attacked the Northern Alliance guards, taking their weapons, and opening fire. This incident soon triggered a widespread revolt by 600 detained fighters who began grabbing AK-47s, machine guns, and grenades and attacking Northern Alliance troops. One American CIA operative who had been interviewing prisoners, Mike Spann, was killed; this was the first American combat death of the war. The fighters seized the southern half of the complex but the revolt was put down after three days with the help of US helicopters. Less than one hundred of the several hundred Taliban prisoners survived, and around fifty Northern Alliance soldiers were killed. The end of the revolt marked the end of the combat in northern Afghanistan, where local Northern Alliance warlords were now firmly in control.
It is not clear who killed Mike Spann, but it is believed that he was shot by the Northern Alliance. Another major surprise came as the firing stopped. Among the wounded prisoners still alive there was a twenty-year-old American called John Lindh Walker. Walker was born and brought up in San Francisco, California, in a well to-do family. He converted to Islam and went to Pakistan to improve his religious knowledge. From there he moved to Afghanistan well before September 11, 2001, to join the Taliban. The American authorities must now decide if he is a traitor, and as such he could be condemned to death, or a naïve young American who made a wrong choice, and was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
By the end of November, Kandahar, the movement's birthplace, was the last remaining Taliban stronghold but it was under increasing pressure. Nearly 3,000 tribal fighters, led by Hamid Karzai and Gul Agha, the governor of Kandahar before the Taliban seized power, put pressure on the Taliban forces from the east and cut off the northern Taliban supply lines to the city. Meanwhile, the first significant US combat troops had arrived. Chinook helicopters flew in nearly 1,000 Marines; they set up a forward operating base in the desert south of Kandahar on November 25. The air strikes continued to pound Taliban positions inside the city, where Mullah Omar was holed up. Omar, the Taliban leader, remained defiant despite the fact that his movement only controlled 4 out of the 30 Afghan provinces and called on his forces to fight to the death.
By December 6, Omar finally began to signal that he was ready to surrender Kandahar to tribal forces. Recognizing that he could not hold his town much longer, he signalled his willingness to negotiate the surrender of the city to the tribal leaders. The US government rejected any amnesty for Omar and all the Taliban leaders. On December 7, Mullah Mohammad Omar slipped out of Kandahar with a group of his hardcore loyalists and moved northwest into the mountains of the Uruzgan province. He was last seen driving off with a group of his fighters in a convoy of motorcycles. Other members of the Taliban leadership fled into Pakistan through the remote mountain passes of Paktia and Paktika provinces. Kandahar, the last Taliban controlled city, had fallen, and the majority of the remaining Taliban fighters had disbanded. The Afghan tribal forces under Gul Agha seized the city while the US Marines took control of the airport where they established a US base. The border town of Spin Boldak surrendered the same day, marking the end of Taliban control in Afghanistan.
The US increased the bombing of the Tora Bora cave complex. Local tribal militias, numbering over 2,000, paid, and organized by Special Forces and CIA paramilitaries, continued to assemble for an attack and heavy bombing continued on suspected al-Qaida positions. Between one and two hundred civilians were reported killed when 25 bombs were dropped on a village at the foot of the Tora Bora and White Mountains. On December 2, a group of twenty US commandos was brought in by helicopter to support the operation. On December 5, Afghan militia wrested control of the low ground below the mountain caves from the al-Qaida fighters and set up tank positions to blast enemy forces. The al-Qaida fighters, mostly Arabs, withdrew with their arms -mortars, rocket launchers, and assault rifles- to higher fortified positions, and dug in for the battle.
The foreign al-Qaida fighters were holding out in the mountains of Tora Bora but the anti-Taliban tribal militia continued a steady advance through the difficult terrain, backed by air strikes guided in by US Special Forces. Facing defeat and reluctant to fight fellow Muslims, the al-Qaida forces agreed to a truce to give them time to surrender their weapons. In retrospect many people believe that the truce was a ruse to allow important al-Qaida figures, including perhaps Osama bin Laden, to escape. On December 12, the fighting started again, probably initiated by a rear guard buying time to allow the main force to escape through the White Mountains into the tribal areas of Pakistan. Tribal forces backed by US special troops and air support pressed ahead against the fortified al-Qaida positions in caves and bunkers. By December 17, the last cave complex had been taken, and their defenders overrun. A search of the area by US forces continued into January, but no sign of bin Laden or the al-Qaida leadership emerged. It is believed that they had slipped away into the tribal areas of Pakistan to the south and east. It is estimated that around 200 of the foreign jihadi fighters were killed during the battle, along with an unknown number of anti-Taliban tribal fighters. No American death was reported.
Following the battle of Tora Bora, the US forces and their Afghan allies consolidated their position in the country. The number of US-led coalition troops operating in the country eventually grew to over 10,000.
At the end of 2001 Afghanistan was fully in the hands of the Northern Alliance. The US participation was still limited to bombing missions with, in addition, some behind the scene interventions by American and British Special Forces limited in number to about 200 each.
Meanwhile, however, the Taliban and al-Qaida forces had not yet completely given up. The al-Qaida fighters began regrouping throughout January and February 2002 in the Shahi-Kot Mountains of the Paktia province. A Taliban fugitive, Mullah Saifur Rehman, began reconstituting some militia forces in Paktia province in support of the foreign fighters. They totalled over 1,000 by the beginning of March of 2002. Moreover, at the end of 2001 and, above all, at the beginning of 2002 some Taliban and al-Qaida fighters were also hiding west of Jalalabad and south east of Kabul; some were living in the sophisticated Tora Bora caves built at the time of the war against Russia and reoccupied after the battles with the coalition troops. Some others who escaped from Kandahar were believed to have found refuge in the mountains near Baghran, north west of Kandahar, in the Helmand province. Mullah Omar is supposed to be with them, while Osama bin Laden is believed to be hiding in the Tora Bora caves. These are suppositions as there was no evidence as to where they were hiding. Perhaps they had left Afghanistan.
A loya jirga, or grand council of major Afghan factions, tribal leaders, and former exiles, formed an interim Afghan government in Kabul under Hamid Karzai. After, in December 2001, but with more insistence at the beginning of January 2002, the Afghans authorities asked the US Government to stop, or at least reduce, their high altitude bombings that were still killing many civilians. The Americans did not always agree to stop these deadly attacks.
Since the beginning of their military actions, together with bombs, the US was dropping propaganda leaflets over Afghanistan, but without great results. They also threw some food packages -only about one million whereas the Afghan population exceed 20 millions- also for propaganda reason. Since Christmas 2001 these leaflets are saying that bin Laden and Mullah Omar are hiding in safe place, while their followers get killed. Of course, the American leaders, including President Bush, are on the front lines with the Northern Alliance soldiers. In fact the US troops kept out of the danger zones, happy with bombing from 30,000 feet!!
On January 5, 2002 the first US soldier died in battle near the town of Khost at the border with Pakistan, south of Kabul. He was a US Army Special Forces, Sergeant 1t Class Nathan Ross Chapman, 31 years old, from San Antonio, Texas. He was married and was the father of two young children. He was on his way back from a meeting with local Afghan tribal leaders when he was killed in an ambush. A CIA agent was badly hurt at the same time.
On January 28, 2002, a band of 80 fighters allied with the Taliban and Hezb-i-Islami were discovered and assaulted by US forces at the Adi Ghar cave complex 15 miles north of Spin Boldak. 18 rebels were reported killed but there were no US casualties. The site was suspected to be a base to funnel supplies and fighters from Pakistan.
A helicopter crashed in Afghanistan on Saturday January 19 due to mechanical failure. Two Marines were killed, and five others were wounded.
In the last days of January 2002, the US killed about 20 Northern Alliance soldiers in a bombing raid based on wrong intelligence. At first the US Government denied the news, but they soon had to admit their mistake. Their information came from a rival warlord, and they fell into the trap. A lot of money was paid to keep the story off the US media but, outside the US, the media was not so obedient, and the news was made public.
In Kandahar around February 15, 2002, some Taliban soldiers attacked the airport held by the Americans. A few Taliban were killed, but there were no American victim. This showed that there were still some pockets of Taliban resistance in the country. In addition the local warlords outside Kabul were fighting between themselves to regain their lost power. In Kabul, where the International Peace Force imposed a curfew, British soldiers killed an Afghan on February 16 when a few men tried to take a pregnant woman to the hospital in the middle of the night. She had the baby at home on her own later on. The soldiers said that they were shot at, but the family people were not armed. There will be an inquiry!
Around February 20, 2002, the US military authorities admitted that they were now bombing some tribes opposed to Interim Prime Minister Hamid Karzai who only control Kabul, and even that, up to a certain point. Now the US enemies are not only the Taliban and the al-Qaida fighters, but also those Afghans who oppose Hamid Karzai, some of them fought on the US side only a few weeks before. The US also admitted killing by mistake -wrong intelligence again- 15 anti-Taliban fighters. Each family received about $1,000 in compensation! This figure is to be compared with the more-than-one million dollars given to the families of the victims of the World Trade Centre in New York City. And these families complain that it is not enough!! This shows clearly the cost difference of an American life compared with that of foreigners, in this case, the poor Afghans.
On February 21, 2002, a patrol of British soldiers in Kabul came under fire. The soldiers were not hurt, but concern over security increased sharply. There were some indications that a civil war between rival warlords of different ethnic groups could start again in the near future. It was also reported that thousand of Pashtun living in northern Afghanistan are fleeing south under the pressure of Northern Alliance warlords. The western allies cannot agree on how to deal with the situation.
A huge military operation called Anaconda started on March 4, 2002. After heavy bombing, ground troops carried to the Paktia province by helicopters attacked the enemy. Something went wrong and two Chinook helicopters were shot down, probably by rocket-propelled grenades. Once on the ground, the crew came under heavy fire, seven US soldiers were killed and many (some reports said 40) were wounded. The troops had to withdraw from the mountains covered with heavy snow. In this operation a limited number of Australian, Canadian, Danish, French, German, and Norwegian soldiers participated in the fighting for the first time. In the last few days at least 8 Americans were killed, and more than 40 wounded.
On March 2, 2002, US and Afghan forces launched an offensive on the al-Qaida and Taliban forces entrenched in the mountains of Shahi-Kot southeast of Gardez. The rebel forces had small arms, rocket-propelled grenades, and mortars; they were entrenched into caves and bunkers in the hillsides at an altitude above 10,000 feet. They used "hit and run" tactics, opening fire on the US and Afghan forces, before retreating back into their caves and bunkers.
By March 6, eight Americans and seven Afghan soldiers had been killed. A so-called "friendly fire incident" killed one soldier and the downing of two helicopters by rocket-propelled grenades followed by small arms fire killed seven more soldiers. Ground fire from Afghan militia and American forces killed over 400 al-Qaida and Taliban rebels, according to US estimates. However, fewer than 50 bodies were found. It is clear that several hundred fighters somehow escaped and melted away, almost certainly by moving in small groups along mountain trails to the tribal areas across the border into Pakistan.
In the meantime, B52 and F-16 US bombers, as well as attack helicopters, were still hitting hard at the Taliban/al-Qaida strongholds in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan. Three Afghan soldiers working with the US forces were killed on March 7 after a fire broke out at an ammunition depot at the Kandahar airport. From March 7 to 9 the bombing stopped as the foggy weather prevented the planes to take off. One thousand more Afghan soldiers paid by the US and armed with heavy fighting equipment such as tanks (also supplied by the US) were brought in; the aim was to kill all the Taliban and al-Qaida fighters. These Tajik soldiers are not very popular in the Pashtun region of Gardez. Local commanders are complaining, but the Americans are able to impose what they want, having the power and the money on their side.
In March 2002 the US asked Great Britain for about 1,700 soldiers to participate in the war in the mountains. Apparently the American soldiers are not fit for fighting on this kind of terrain, and the risks are too high for their taste. Many British people, including some Members of the Parliament from Blair's own party, are not happy while the Conservative are all for it.
On March 5, 2002, five soldiers belonging to the Peace Force died in Kabul, two Germans and three Danes. They were destroying live ammunitions abandoned there after the previous wars and conflicts. The ammunitions exploded sooner that foreseen. Eight other soldiers were wounded, three very badly.
In March 2002, it looks like Turkey has agreed to replace Great Britain as leader of the peace force in Kabul starting sometime in April or May 2002. Of course, they accepted after receiving 160 million dollars from the US.
On March 28, 2002, a new offensive started in the mountains of the Paktia province, in the Neka district of Afghanistan, 30 miles south of Gardez where the operation Anaconda took place a few weeks ago. This is close to the border with Pakistan where hundred of Taliban are said to be regrouping. In the battle, about 50 Taliban/al-Qaida fighters were reported to have been killed; the allied side -that included Northern Alliance and western troops- reported no casualty.
On April 15 2002 we were told of three separate attacks by mortars, rockets, and gunfire against two coalition military bases and a patrol. In particular rockets were fired to the US controlled airfield outside the southeastern city of Khost. There was no victim, but this showed that the Taliban are still there and fighting. The Americans said that they killed several attackers but no proof was offered, and this looks like the usual propaganda. The Americans opened a new front in central Afghanistan, near the town of Ghazni. At the same time, Afghan Commanders working with the Americans said that al-Qaida fighters had infiltrated them.
Four Canadian soldiers were killed on April 17, 2002, and eight wounded -some badly- by so-called "friendly fire" of an US warplane. An F16 US bomber dropped one or two 500lb bombs near Kandahar on a group of Canadian soldiers during a night training exercise. Obviously the plane mistook them for Taliban or al-Qaida fighters. As this happened during the night, there was no possibility for the plane, flying at high altitude for the usual security reasons, to visually identify the nationality of the victims. President Bush offered his condolences to the families and to the Canadian people! On September 13, 2002, the two US F-16 pilots were charged with involuntary manslaughter for killing four Canadian soldiers and wounding eight when they mistook them for enemies. On April 15, four American soldiers were killed, and another one badly injured, while destroying unexploded bombs also near Kandahar.
On May 1, 2002, about one thousand British soldiers began operation Snipe against an al-Qaida base and some Taliban fighters in Southeast Afghanistan. It is the biggest British troops deployment since the Gulf War; Brigadier Roger Lane was leading them. Casualties were expected, but they hoped to remove the few hundred fighters loyal to Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar assumed to be hiding there, all al-Qaida and Taliban remaining forces in the region. The British will have the support of American planes and helicopters. In the first few days of the operation there was no fighting and no sighting of the enemy, all they found were some small-arms, ammunitions, and old defensive positions, but no terrorists. By early May 2002, the British forces had found some munitions in caves, but no fighters, the result of poor information, again.
American soldiers hunting al-Qaida and Taliban fighters in Pakistan came under rocket attack. It was the first time that we were told that American soldiers are operating in Pakistan.
On May 17, 2002, the British Marine were still involved in some kind of fighting in the Paktia province in southern Afghanistan; their help was required when some Australian SAS troops were attacked by unidentified local force. Like before, it seems that during this operation -called Condor- no opposition was met. Some reports even say that the fight was between two rival local chiefs.
Around June 20, 2002, we were told that 3,000 British soldiers would soon be going home and that only about 300 would stay in Afghanistan to be part of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). These 300 soldiers, from now on under Turkish leadership, would keep order in Kabul, and train the local police force. Officially the British soldiers have done a good job but, in fact, they were never engaged in combat, having failed to locate any Taliban or al-Qaida fighters. On the positive side, they found and blew-up large amount of ammunitions, although it is not clear who the owners were! The British soldiers were called in after the failure of the American-led Operation Anaconda in March 2002; the ill-prepared US soldiers were unable to fight efficiently on such a terrain.
Senior military officials in London said that the British SAS troops in Afghanistan killed scores of Taliban and al-Qaida fighters in search-and-destroy missions in the mountains of Afghanistan. Two SAS Squadrons -about 100 soldiers- operated on their own, without American minders. As usual the Ministry of Defence did not reveal the result of their actions. It is known, however, that four soldiers were wounded, one seriously; 18 enemies were killed in the action in the mountains near Kandahar in November 2001 and many more were killed in other operations.
At the end of June 2002, a munitions dump explosion at Spinboldak on the Pakistan border killed 19 Afghans, wounded at least 35 others, while 50 were missing. It looks like it was an accident, and that the Taliban or al-Qaida were not involved.
Following the battle at Shahi-Kot, it is believed that the al-Qaida fighters found sanctuaries among some friendly tribes in Pakistan. Guerrilla units, numbering between 5 and 25 men, still regularly cross the border from Pakistan to fire rockets at US bases, ambush American convoys and patrols, as well as Afghan National Army troops, militia forces, and non-governmental organizations. The area around the US base at Shkin in Paktika province has seen some of the heaviest such activities.
Taliban forces continued to hide in the four southern provinces of their former heartland, Kandahar, Zabul, Helmand, and Uruzgan. The few hundred remaining Taliban avoided combat with US forces and their Afghan allies during the summer of 2002, and melted away into the caves and tunnels of remote Afghan mountain ranges, or across the border into Pakistan. Locating small bands of 5-10 men in the rugged terrain that exist in southeastern Afghanistan and along the Pakistani border is an almost impossible task.
During the summer 2002 the attacks increased in frequency in the "Taliban heartland." Dozens of Afghan government soldiers, non-governmental organization and humanitarian workers, and several US soldiers died in the raids, ambushes, and rocket attacks. Taliban fighters began building up their forces in the district of Dai Chopan, the perfect area to make a stand against the Afghan government and the coalition forces.
After managing to evade US forces throughout the summer of 2002, the remnants of the Taliban got ready to start a renewed "jihad," or holy war, against the Afghan government and the U.S-led coalition, a war that Mullah Muhammad Omar had promised during the Taliban's last days in power. During September, the Taliban also launched a recruitment drive in Pashtun areas of both Afghanistan and Pakistan. Small mobile training camps were established along the border with Pakistan by al-Qaida and Taliban fugitives to train new recruits in guerrilla warfare and terrorist tactics. Most of the new recruits were drawn from the religious schools of the tribal areas of Pakistan, from which the Taliban had originally arisen. Slipping across the border in small groups is a relatively simple task.
The Taliban continued the reorganization and reconstitution of their forces over the winter, preparing for a summer offensive. They established a new mode of operation: groups of around 50 fighters attacked isolated outposts and convoys of Afghan soldiers, police, or militia and then spread into small groups of 5-10 men to evade subsequent offensives. The US forces were not attacked directly but rocket would be fired on US bases and improvised mines planted in the roadside. However, al-Qaida forces in the east used a bolder strategy; they concentrated on the Americans, ambushing their convoys as often as possible.
American and British forces alone carried out the attacks on the first
day of the war. On the second day, only American forces were involved. Later
on, a small number of countries provided support of limited value, sometimes,
purely symbolic. The level of contribution were roughly:
- Albania
- Armenia
- Australia, about 300 SAS troops, air-to-air refuelling tankers, Navy frigates,
two Orion electronic intelligence gathering aircraft, and F/A-18 fighter
aircraft.
- Azerbaijan
- Bahrain: Naval vessels
- Belgium
- Bulgaria
- Canada: about 2,500 troops, six ships and six aircraft.
- Czech Republic
- Denmark, six F-16 fighters.
- Djibouti
- Egypt
- Eritrea
- Estonia
- Ethiopia
- Finland
- France.
- Germany: approximately 2,250 troops including Special Forces, naval vessels,
etc.
- Grand Britain
- Greece
- Hungary
- Italy
- Japan, in its first military deployment since World War II, contributed
naval support for non-combat reinforcement of the operation
- Jordan
- Kazakhstan
- Kenya
- Kuwait
- Kyrgyzstan
- Latvia
- Lithuania
- Macedonia
- Netherlands
- New Zealand: 50 Special Air Service soldiers, two C-130 Hercules
- Norway: six F-16 fighters, logistic teams, mine clearance teams, a commando
group and C-130 transports
- Romania: 25 military police and a C-130 transport aircraft.
Despite the reluctance of the Arab states towards any forms of retaliation against the al-Qaida network in Afghanistan, the Pakistani leader General Pervez Musharraf offered support although Pakistan has traditionally supported the Taliban. Pakistan and Iran agreed to open their borders to receive the expected increased migration of refugees. Uzbekistan allowed the US troops to cross their country as well as to use an airfield for humanitarian relief. Thirty-four nations participated in the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) for Afghanistan.
Afghan police killed four Taliban guerrillas Wednesday May 3, 2006, during heavy fighting in the south, while suspected Taliban gunmen shot dead a judge in the west. The governor of the eastern province of Nangarhar also escaped an apparent assassination attempt when a car bomb exploded outside his offices.
Ten US soldiers have been killed after their helicopter crashed in Afghanistan late on Friday May 5, 2006. The CH-47 Chinook came down in Kunar province near the provincial capital, Asadabad, close to Pakistan and near a "mountaintop landing zone" 240km east of Kabul. The soldiers were reportedly involved in operations against the Taliban, although military officials said the crash was not caused by enemy fire.
5.2.2 American and British view of the war
President Bush was unusually quiet during the initial phase of military
intervention in Afghanistan; when he talked, he was not very clear, and
even less convincing. He gave silly talks, more adapted to a bad western
that to a US President ("We want bin Laden dead or alive, at any cost".
"We will take the time necessary to get him anywhere he is!!").
However, the majority of the American people, and the media, were behind
him. His popularity was very high (about 80%), but this is probably normal
in the US where the president, once elected, is not put into discussion
anymore. This so-called war will increase his probability to be re-elected,
whereas before it was far less certain.
The men who appear to run the American show are the Defence Secretary, Donald H. Rumsfeld; the Vice-President Dick Cheney; the Secretary of State, Colin Powel; and the Army General Tommy Frank in charge of the operations. General Frank is based at Mac Dill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida.
Some politicians in Britain are afraid that the British soldiers will found themselves in the middle of a Vietnam-style civil war in Afghanistan with no end in view. It also looks as if the British soldiers are doing the fighting for America, becoming Bush's new proxy forces together with the Afghans of the Northern Alliance. Increasingly the British troops are doing the dangerous ground battles in this American war. This British presence is also justified by the poor performance on the ground of both the American and Afghan soldiers, especially in the Tora Bora Mountains in winter and in the attack on Shah-I-Kot. The Pentagon denies it, of course, because it would confirm that the American soldiers are not as good as claimed. In other words, Britain is taking a central role in a war it did not start, does not direct, and cannot finish. However, sooner or later, the British proxies could be the fall guys. And Blair will have to live with it!
General Franks, visiting London on April 26, 2002, said that the future operations in Afghanistan would not involve large-scale missions similar to Operation Anaconda (that was a failure, not a success). What will be needed, according to him, can be described as "rooting out, sweep, and clear" smaller pockets of resistance. He expected that the remaining al-Qaida fighters will try to regroup, but intelligence from the leaders of Afghan communities is better everyday, and should help limiting the damage. He also confirmed that British and US troops are operating on Pakistani soil in collaboration with Pakistan.
In April 2002, more and more people in Great Britain have doubt about the usefulness of the Royal Marine mission in Afghanistan. They were called in too late following the failure of the previous US military actions in the southeastern mountains near Tora Bora. The remaining of the Taliban and al-Qaida forces were supposed to be there, with or without bin Laden himself. The delay allowed these remaining enemies to escape to Pakistan from where they will probably come back, once the British soldiers have left, to try to destabilise Afghanistan once more. Up to now the British have found some ammunition, but no enemies.
Two American pilots -Major William Umbach and Major Harry Schmidt- were charged with involuntary manslaughter for dropping a bomb on Canadian soldiers near Kandahar, killing four of them on April 17, 2002. Their lawyers said that they had been given amphetamines to keep them awake in the long mission, and that the drug caused them to make an error of judgment. They were not told that friendly troops were in this place, and they misunderstood these soldiers for Taliban or al-Qaida fighters. On January 14, 2003, they appeared before a military court that had to decide if they should be sent to a court martial. If found guilty, they could be condemned to 64 years in military prison. On January 22, 2003, the Air Force general who conducted the enquiry, Brigadier General Stephen T. Sareant, said to the Court, that the two accused did not follow the orders given them, nor the military procedures to use in cases like this. On January 23, 2003, they apologised to the victims' families while defending their actions. Two US military pilots who bombed Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan will not face a court martial or go to prison. They will instead be disciplined at an "administrative forum," Lt.-Gen. Bruce Carlson of the 8th Air Force in Barksdale, La., said Thursday June 19, 2003. The pilots were facing charges of involuntary manslaughter, aggravated assault and dereliction of duty for the April 2002. On June 26, 2003, Major Schmidt turned down an air force offer of lesser charges and will face a court martial. It is a high-stakes gamble since he could be exonerated of the charges he faces or end up with a prison term of up to 64 years. A military spokesperson confirmed the air force had accepted Schmidt's request, but had not set a date for the trial. The Court martial that was supposed to punish him reduced Schmidt's original charges of manslaughter and aggravated assault to a charge of dereliction of duty. Found guilty of this "charge", he was given a reprimand and a fine of a month's pay. He is no longer allowed to fly in the Air Force, but he can remain in the Illinois National Guard. In other words, he got off with a slap on the wrist.
On January 18, 2002, the US media reported that Saudi Arabia would probably ask the American military forces to leave the country as soon as the Afghanistan non-war is finally finished.
President George Bush claimed that God told him to invade Iraq and attack
Osama Bin Laden's stronghold in Afghanistan. His comments have been met
with a mixture of derision and outrage. Bush's claims were made in a meeting
with Palestinian leaders in June 2003. According to former Palestinian Foreign
Minister, Nabil Shaath, Bush said to the Palestinian delegation: "I'm
driven with a mission from God. God would tell me, 'George, go and fight
those terrorists in Afghanistan.' And I did, and then God would tell me,
'George go and end the tyranny in Iraq,' and I did." Perhaps one shouldn't
be surprised by the comments, given Bush's staunch religious beliefs. A
born again Christian, at the age of 40 he converted to evangelical Methodism.
Bush apparently made the comments as part of his wish to resolve the Middle
East conflict between Palestine and Israel. He told the Palestinians: "I
feel God's words coming to me: 'Go get the Palestinians their state and
the Israelis their security, and get peace in the Middle East.' And by God,
I'm going do it." It would therefore have been a setback to him that
he was banned from entering the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem, only a
few months earlier, in the light of the war against Iraq. Bush was prohibited
from entering along with his Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, British
Prime Minister, Tony Blair, and Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw. Church Parishioner,
Father Panaritus, said at the time: "They are war criminals and murderers
of children. Therefore the Church of Nativity decided to ban them access
into the holy shrine for ever."
Nine officers, including up to four generals, should be held accountable for missteps in the aftermath of the friendly fire death of Army Ranger Pat Tillman in Afghanistan, according to a March 24, 2007, Pentagon report. The Defence Department inspector general will cite a range of errors and inappropriate conduct as the military probed the former football star's death on the battlefront in 2004, said one defence official. Dozens of soldiers -those immediately around Tillman at the scene of the shooting, his immediate superiors and high-ranking officers at a command post nearby- knew within minutes or hours that his death was fratricide. Even so, the Army persisted in telling Tillman's family he was killed in a conventional ambush, including at his nationally televised memorial service 11 days later. It was five weeks before his family was told the truth, a delay the Army has blamed on procedural mistakes.
On March 26, 2007, US military investigators looking into the friendly fire death of former professional football star Pat Tillman found no criminal negligence but are recommending that nine officers, including a three-star general, be held accountable for missteps in the aftermath of the his shooting. The findings end twin inquiries into whether the soldiers who opened fire on Tillman committed criminal acts, and whether the government covered up the circumstances of the army ranger's death.
A California congressman, Mike Honda, called for hearings into the friendly-fire death of Army Ranger Pat Tillman on March 27, 2007. Honda said the latest reports on the matter "raise more questions than they answer." The family of the former NFL player has said it's not satisfied with the military reports. A central issue is why the Army waited several weeks after it suspected Tillman's death was due to friendly fire before telling his family. But the military found no criminal wrongdoing in the shooting itself.
A suicide car bomber blew himself up on Sunday April 1, 2007, near an Afghan army convoy in eastern Laghman province killing five civilians. Three men from the Southern province of Helmand were arrested and allegedly "confessed to their crime" of being spies for NATO and the Afghan Government. Two Taliban commanders were killed as a result of information from these three men.
Britain could be stuck in Afghanistan for 10 years and lose thousands of troops unless it alters its strategy in the lawless south of the country we were told on April 20, 2007. The high-intensity fighting they were engaged in was stoking antagonism among local people angry over the deaths of Afghan civilians and fearful for the opium industry, which provides their livelihood.
Britain's Prince Harry will, after all, go to war, on a secret Afghanistan mission, it has been reported on May 21, 2007. Harry will reportedly carry out 'low-risk' operations and could also join a NATO command unit. His deployment will only be revealed after he has returned safely to Britain. The Afghanistan posting is seen as a safer option because there are British troops placed all over the country and Harry could serve at several locations. The joke is going on!
After the fiasco over plans to send Prince Harry to Iraq, there is now -June 10, 2007- a move to deploy him in Afghanistan to give some respectability to his nascent military career. Army chiefs are planning to send him "quietly'' to join British troops in Afghanistan in an attempt to "deter him from quitting the army''. The Prince, a junior officer, had expressed disappointment when heavily-trailed plans to send him to Iraq were dropped last month over fears for his safety following threats from militant groups. He said at the time that he would rather quit the army than be treated differently from his army colleagues because of his status. Reports are sayings the Prince was training at a remote British army base in Alberta, Canada, from where he could be "flown to the war against the Taliban without attracting attention''.
The UK presence in Afghanistan will need to remain for decades to help
rebuild the country, British ambassador Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles said on
June 20, 2007. He added that the Afghan people wanted the UK presence to
help resist the Taliban and develop the country. Extra diplomatic staff
is being deployed to Afghanistan this year.
Canadian Pte. Robert Costall and an American soldier were shot from behind
by bursts from a machine-gun fired from a compound manned by US Special
Forces last year in Afghanistan during an insurgent attack, a US army report
said on July 2, 2007. The gunner shot at two friendly positions in quick
succession during the fierce battle early on March 29, 2006.
A senior British commander in Helmand province has asked the US military to withdraw its special forces from his area of operations because the level of civilian casualties is making it difficult to win the battle for hearts and minds. In particular, the British fault the US for its predilection for air strikes, and their potential for killing and injuring civilians. Mr Brown at his joint press conference with the US president, George Bush, last month, told reporters that Afghanistan was the frontline in the struggle against terrorism rather than Iraq.
On August 13, 2007, Defense Secretary Des Browne defended Britain's continued
presence in Afghanistan despite a rising death toll among troops. Seventy
soldiers have died there since operations began in 2001. But Mr. Browne
said it was essential that troops remained to prevent Afghanistan from becoming
a training ground for terrorists.
On August 21, 2007, families sending parcels to troops out in Afghanistan and Iraq have been granted free postage by Royal Mail after a public appeal on their behalf by General Sir Richard Dannatt, the head of the Army.
British troops in Afghanistan may have to take ground gained this summer
again next year, the Nato chief has warned on September 28, 2007. This because
Afghan security forces might not be able to retain security as the Taliban
regroup over winter.
On December 10, 2007, Gordon Brown pledged continued UK support for Afghanistan in fighting the Taliban "for the next few years". The prime minister visited British troops at Camp Bastion, the UK's largest military base in the country.
On January 8, 2008, we were told that the US Marine Corps opened a special tribunal into the deaths of Afghan civilians last March. As many as 19 Afghan civilians were allegedly killed when Marines opened fire in Nangarhar province after their convoy was attacked by a car bomb. An Afghan inquiry said the US troops opened fire indiscriminately but the marines said they were fired on and the civilians were caught in the crossfire. The tribunal is to recommend if two officers should face criminal charges.
US Defence Secretary Robert Gates will consider sending some 3,000 Marines to Afghanistan to thwart any spring offensive by Taliban militants, we were told on Wednesday January 9, 2008.
An American aid worker has been kidnapped with her driver On January 25, 2008, while travelling to work in southern Afghanistan. Gunmen took the pair outside of the southern city of Kandahar, said provincial governor Asadullah Khalid.
On February 6, 2008, the British prime minister and the US secretary of state called for the burden of fighting the Taleban in Afghanistan to be shared by Nato allies. Gordon Brown and Condoleezza Rice discussed ways to get more out of Nato members who were not allowing troops to serve in the south. Ms Rice said Nato was facing a "real test" as some countries were staying out of the more dangerous areas.
Shortages of equipment were blamed on February 15, 2008, for the deaths
of British soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan as two coroners in separate
inquests made withering attacks on the Ministry of Defence. One coroner
attacked the MoD's "unforgivable" failure to supply basic equipment,
and accused it of a breach of trust. Both inquests showed that an acute
lack of equipment had played a part in the deaths of a young officer in
Afghanistan and two soldiers in Iraq. His colleagues told an inquest in
Oxford that they were "totally outgunned", and lacked basic equipment,
including Minimi machineguns, rifles with under-slung grenades and night-vision
kits.
An American website, the Drudge Report, broke a news blackout on February
27, 2008, by revealing that Prince Harry has been serving in Afghanistan
for more than two months.
Prince Harry, third in line to the British throne, has been secretly serving
as a combat soldier on the front lines in Afghanistan for 2-1/2 months,
the Ministry of Defence said on Thursday February 28, 2008. Harry was deployed
to Helmand, a dangerous region of southern Afghanistan, in December, seven
months after plans to send him to Iraq were scrapped following threats from
Iraqi militants to kidnap or kill him. The army posted him to Afghanistan
only after the British and selected members of the international media agreed
not to report his presence until he had returned from a scheduled 4-6 month
deployment.
Prince Harry has been withdrawn from Afghanistan on February 29, 2008, after news of his secret deployment leaked out. He spent the last 10 weeks serving in Helmand Province but now he is flying back to the UK amid concerns for his safety. The move follows the collapse of a news blackout deal over his tour of duty, which was broken by foreign media.
Prince Harry was back in the UK after being withdrawn 10 weeks into a front-line deployment in Afghanistan. The prince landed at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, where he was met by Prince Charles and Prince William, and left the base after more than an hour. The Prince of Wales spoke of his "great relief" at his 23-year-old son's safe return from Afghanistan.
Speaking on March 2, 2008, Prince Harry said that he wants to go back to Afghanistan but this is not very probable for the near future
Some of the 3,200 U.S. Marines slated for a seven-month deployment to South
Afghanistan have begun arriving at the region's largest base following a
call from Canada for more troops there. About 2,300 troops will be based
in Kandahar, the Taliban's former power base. Canada has 2,500 troops in
Kandahar province but has threatened to end its combat role in Afghanistan
unless other NATO countries provide an additional 1,000 troops to help the
anti-Taliban effort there.
Prince William made a secret visit to meet British troops in Afghanistan
on April 29, 2008. William spent three hours with UK service personnel at
an airfield in Kandahar.
On May 4, 2008, we were told that the US is drawing up plans to send 7,000 additional American troops to Afghanistan to combat the Taliban and al-Qaeda, at a time when Nato countries appear unwilling to contribute further forces. The increase is being considered by the Pentagon after President Bush returned from a Nato summit in Romania last month disappointed by few pledges of extra troops by his European allies.
On May 5, 2008, Prince Harry and other soldiers who served in Afghanistan have been awarded campaign medals. The prince was among 170 members of the Household Cavalry, who recently served in the country, to receive decorations at the Windsor ceremony that were presented by the Princess Royal.
On May 19, 2008, Sunni insurgents attacked a mini bus carrying police recruits,
killing 11, near the rural town of Baaji, west of Mosul, near the Syrian
border.
The ISAF [International Security Assistance Forces] command was handed over to US General David McKiernan on June 3, 2008. He is the former commander of US infantry troops in Europe. He has also played a role in US preparations for the attack on Iraq.
Laura Bush flew by helicopter deep into central Afghanistan on Sunday June 8, 2008, on a one-day visit to highlight the United States' continued commitment to the country and to President Hamid Karzai, ahead of an international donor conference this week in Paris. Her trip came as concerns grew over the Afghan president's ability to address the country's economic and political problems. As on her two previous visits to Afghanistan, Mrs. Bush emphasized her support for women's development and educational and training projects. She flew to Bamian, one of the country's poorest provinces, which is overseen by Afghanistan's only female governor, Habiba Sarabi, a former minister of women's affairs.
The Bush administration's Iraq policy suffered two major setbacks Friday
June 13, 2008, when Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki publicly rejected key
U.S. terms for an ongoing military presence and anti-American Shiite cleric
Moqtada Sadr called for a new militia offensive against U.S. forces.
Attacks by Taliban militants in eastern Afghanistan were up 40 percent in the first five months of 2008 compared with the same period last year, we were told on Tuesday June 24, 2008. The attacks on the border with Pakistan represented 12 percent of the attacks in eastern Afghanistan.
US President George W Bush said on June 2, 2008, more US troops will be deployed in Afghanistan by next year. Mr Bush said June had been a "tough month" -it was the deadliest month for foreign troops in Afghanistan since the 2001 fall of the Taliban. At least 45 foreign soldiers died in fighting or accidents. They were serving either with the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) or the US-led coalition in the country. There are currently about 60,000 -33,000 US soldiers and some 28,000 Nato forces from 40 countries- foreign soldiers in Afghanistan, most of them are part of Isaf.
Senator Barack Obama arrived in Afghanistan on Saturday July 19, 2008;
he met with American forces and is expected to meet Sunday with Afghan President
Hamid Karzai. The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee was visiting
the Central Asian nation before he embarks on a tour of the Middle East
and Europe, a trip aimed at boosting his foreign policy credentials.
Gordon Brown was on a surprise visit to British troops, en route to the Olympics in Beijing on August 21, 2008. The PM told troops at Camp Bastion, the main British base in Helmand, that they were "the heroes of our country". He also paid tribute to Cpl Barry Dempsey, the latest British soldier to die, before holding talks in Kabul with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
After reviewing a disputed airstrike on a village, US officials concluded on Thursday August 28, 2008, that the civilian death toll was far lower than claimed by the Afghan government and the UN Afghan officials have been given the US findings, which say 25 militants were killed, plus five civilians. Afghan officials have said that between 76 and 90 civilians were killed. Who is lying?
A US investigation into UN and Afghan allegations that dozens of civilians were killed in fighting around a village found Tuesday September 2, 2008, that seven of the dead were civilians. An Afghan government commission concluded that 90 civilians were killed in the August 22 fighting in Azizabad -a claim backed by a preliminary UN report. The US report Tuesday said 30 to 35 of those killed were Taliban fighters.
After a weeklong journey through Afghanistan's most dangerous Taliban territory, dodging persistent attacks by insurgents and bumping over rough desert terrain riddled with mines, a snaking convoy of 4,000 coalition forces, guarded by dozens of attack helicopters and fighter jets, arrived successfully with its cargo on September 3, 2008: a turbine for a US-funded dam project that could provide more than 6 percent of the country's electricity. More than 200 Taliban militants were killed by forces protecting the convoy. No deaths were reported among coalition forces but a British soldier had his pelvis crushed as he tried to repair a broken down vehicle.
Western forces in Afghanistan will never be able to win the war against insurgents and may need to include the Taliban in any long-term solution, Britain's senior commander in the country, Brig.-Gen. Mark Carleton-Smith, said on October 5, 2008. What foreign forces must now come to grips with, he said, is reducing the level of insurgency so that it can be managed by Afghan forces and no longer poses a major threat.
The head of the French military General Jean-Louis Georgelin on Wednesday October 8, 2008, backed comments by a senior British military officer's view that the war in Afghanistan was unwinnable. A British officer "was saying that one cannot win this war militarily, that there is no military solution to the Afghan crisis and Georgelin share this feeling,".
A female suicide bomber detonated an explosives vest Wednesday October 8, 2008, in front of a courthouse in Baquba, killing 11 people and wounding 19. A man accompanying the woman failed to detonate his vest and was arrested at the scene.
A motorcycle bomb struck a convoy carrying a senior Sadrist lawmaker, Saleh
al-Ogayly, in Baghdad. He has been seriously wounded and two other people
have been killed in Thursday October 9, 2008's blast. al-Ogaili is a senior
member of the political bloc loyal to anti-US cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Sadrist
lawmaker Falah Hassan Shanshal says al-Ogayli has been taken to the military
hospital in the US-protected Green Zone for treatment. The motorcycle was
parked in the Habibiyah area near Baghdad's main Shiite district of Sadr
City when it exploded.
Mourners shouted anti-American slogans as gunfire gripped the Baghdad Shiite
district of Sadr City ahead of the burial on Friday October 10, 2008, of
Shiite MP Saleh al-Ogayly, a radical member of parliament killed in a roadside
bombing. "Americans get out. Americans get out," shouted mourners
as relatives hugged each other and wept while the wooden coffin of Ogayly
was brought out of his home draped in the tri-colour Iraqi flag.
An Army interpreter serving in Afghanistan, Tehran-born Daniel James, became
an agent for Iran, a court has been told. He translated for Gen David Richards,
the former UK commander in Afghanistan. It is alleged he sent coded messages
to an Iranian military attaché in Kabul telling him "I am at
your service". Mr James denies two charges under the Official Secrets
Act and wilful misconduct in public office.
A military investigation on two US service members suspected abusing Afghan prisoners in eastern Afghanistan was launched on Monday December 1, 2008. The initial investigation of Capt. Roger T. Hilland 1st Sgt.Tommy L. Scott was prompted by a report from within the unit about potential detainee abuse.
The number of US casualty in Afghanistan has increased in 2008 as 155 US troops were killed. The number of casualty was at 117 soldier deaths in 2007. Some 630 US troops have been killed so far in Afghanistan since the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.