Afghan Crisis

The Taliban, a Sunni Islamic fundamentalist and predominantly Pashtun movement, controlled most
of Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001. In October 2001, U.S. and allied forces invaded the country and
quickly ousted the Taliban regime following its refusal to hand over terrorist leader Osama bin Laden
in the wake of al-Qaeda’s 9/11 attacks. Following the U.S.-led invasion, Taliban leadership relocated
to southern Afghanistan and across the border to Pakistan, from where they waged an insurgency
against the Western-backed government in Kabul, Afghan national security forces, and international
coalition troops.
When the U.S.-led coalition formally ended its combat mission in 2014, the Afghan National Defense
and Security Forces (ANDSF) was put in charge of Afghanistan’s security; however, the forces faced
significant challenges in holding territory and defending population centers. The Taliban continued
to attack rural districts and carry out suicide attacks in major cities, with the ANDSF suffering heavy
casualties in recent years. The war largely remained a stalemate for nearly six years, despite a small
U.S. troop increase in 2017, continuing combat missions, and a shift in U.S. military strategy to target
Taliban revenue sources, which involved air strikes against drug labs and opium production sites. The
Taliban briefly seized the capital of Farah Province in May 2018, and, in August 2018, it captured the
capital of Ghazni Province, holding the city for nearly a week before U.S. and Afghan troops regained
control.
In February 2020, after more than a year of direct negotiations, the U.S. government and the Taliban
signed a peace deal, the so-called Doha Agreement [PDF], that set a timeline for the withdrawal of
U.S. troops from Afghanistan. Under the agreement, the United States pledged to draw down U.S.
troops to approximately 8,500 within 135 days and complete a full withdrawal within fourteen
months. In return, the Taliban pledged to prevent territory under its control from being used by
terrorist groups and to enter into negotiations with the Afghan government. However, no official
ceasefire was put in place. After a brief reduction in violence, the Taliban quickly resumed attacks on
Afghan security forces and civilians. Direct talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban
began months after the agreed-upon start of March 2020; however, the negotiations faced multiple
delays and ultimately made little progress. Violence across Afghanistan continued in 2020 and 2021
as the United States increased air strikes and raids targeting the Taliban. The Taliban, in turn,
attacked Afghan government and ANDSF targets and made significant territorial gains.
Civilian casualties across Afghanistan have remained high over the past several years. The United
Nations documented a then–record high of 10,993 civilian casualties in 2018. Although 2019 saw a
slight decline, civilian deaths and injuries exceeded ten thousand for the sixth year in a row, bringing
the total UN-documented civilian casualties from 2009 to 2020 to more than one hundred thousand.
Despite another slight decline that year, the first half of 2021 saw a record-high number of civilian
casualties as the Taliban ramped up their military offensive amid the withdrawal of international
troops. In addition to the Taliban’s offensive, Afghanistan faces a threat from the Islamic State in
Khorasan (ISIS-K), which has also expanded its presence to several eastern provinces, increased its
activity in Kabul, and targeted civilians with suicide attacks.
In April 2021, U.S. President Joe Biden announced that U.S. military forces would leave Afghanistan
by September 2021. The Taliban, which had continued to capture and contest territory across the
country despite ongoing peace talks with the Afghan government, ramped up attacks on ANDSF
bases and outposts and began to rapidly seize more territory. In May 2021, the U.S. military
accelerated the pace of its troop withdrawal. By the end of July 2021, the United States had
completed nearly 95 percent of its withdrawal, leaving just 650 troops to protect the U.S. embassy in
Kabul.
In the summer of 2021, the Taliban continued its offensive, threatening government-controlled
urban areas and seizing several border crossings. In early August, the Taliban began direct assaults
on multiple urban areas, including Kandahar in the south and Herat in the west. On August 6, 2021,
the Taliban captured the capital of southern Nimruz Province, the first provincial capital to fall. After
that, provincial capitals began to fall in rapid succession. Within days, the Taliban captured more
than ten other capitals, including Mazar-i-Sharif in the north and Jalalabad in the east, leaving Kabul
the only major urban area under government control. On August 15, 2021, over two weeks before
the official U.S. withdrawal deadline, Taliban fighters entered the capital. Afghan President Ashraf
Ghani subsequently fled the country and the Afghan government collapsed. Later that same day, the
Taliban announced they had entered the presidential palace, taken control of Kabul, and were
establishing checkpoints to maintain security.

Afghan Crisis

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The Taliban, a Sunni Islamic fundamentalist and predominantly Pashtun movement, controlled most

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