From October 7, 2001, until December 28, 2014, US and NATO forces carried out combat operations in Afghanistan.
While those operations were meant to end and the US had begun withdrawing troops from the country by the end of 2014, the Taliban continued success on the battlefield, coupled with the ineffective performance Afghan security forces, led the US to continue its deployment in the country, which has seen decades of wars fought by numerous combatants.
Overall, the US has a force of nearly 10,000 Afghanistan, though President Barack Obama intended to reduce that force to 5,500 in 2017, the continued Taliban threat has caused a change of plans, with some 8,400 troops slated to remain in Afghanistan at the end of next year.
Most NATO forces withdrew from Afghanistan at the end of 2014.
By the end of that year, foreign-military losses amounted to 3,500 killed and 33,000 wounded. Those loses included 2,400 dead and 20,000 wounded for the US; 453 and 7,500 for Great Britain; 159 and 1,859 for Canada; and 89 and 725 for France, though those numbers do not include private-security contractors.
Since 2001, the US has spent about $110 billion on Afghanistan's reconstruction, more than the cost of the Marshall Plan that reconstruct Europe after World War II. Washington has allocated more than $60 billion since 2002 to train and equip Afghan troops.
The US money spent in Afghanistan has yielded limited results, however.
Security in the country remains precarious and the Taliban is believed to control more territory in Afghanistan than at any time since 2001. A record 5,100 civilian casualties, including 1,600 deaths, were recorded in the first half of 2016, according to the UN.
Below, you can see a selection of photos documenting the last 15 years the US's war in Afghanistan.
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Osama bin Laden is seen at an undisclosed location in this television image broadcast Sunday, October 7, 2001. Bin Laden praised God for the September 11 terrorist attacks and swore America "will never dream of security" until "the infidel's armies leave the land of Muhammad," in a videotaped statement aired after the strike launched Sunday by the US and Britain in Afghanistan.
The US and Britain on October 7, 2001, launched a first wave of air strikes against Afghanistan and then US President George W. Bush said the action heralded a "sustained, comprehensive and relentless" campaign against terrorism.
Eyewitnesses said they saw flashes and heard explosions over the Afghan capital of Kabul in the first phase of what the US has said will be a protracted and wide-ranging war against terrorism and the states that support it. The attack had been prepared since the September 11 suicide attacks on the US.
Mohammed Anwar, left, and an unidentified boy in Kabul, Afghanistan, display pieces of shrapnel from bombs dropped Monday morning, October 8, 2001.
The US and Britain hit Afghanistan and key installations of the Taliban regime with cruise missiles Sunday night for harboring suspected terrorist Osama bin Laden. Many residents of Afghanistan seem unfazed by the bombing after living in war like conditions for more than 20 years.
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