When was enduring freedom

Naval History and Heritage Command. Print Friendly. The Sextant. Social Media. Toggle left navigation Nav. Toggle navigation Menu. Toggle navigation. Navy Installations Historic Former U. Navy Women in the U. Navy Hispanic Americans in the U. And we will continue our counterterrorism mission against the remnants of al-Qaeda to ensure that Afghanistan is never again used to stage attacks against our homeland. Some 90 percent of our troops are home. And with growing prosperity here at home, we enter a new year with new confidence, indebted to our fellow Americans in uniform who keep us safe and free.

Thousands of Taliban supporters rally in Quetta, Pakistan, near the Afghan border, on October 1, Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is seen at an undisclosed location in this television image broadcast on October 7, Bin Laden praised God for the September 11 attacks and swore America "will never dream of security" until "the infidel's armies leave the land of Muhammad.

American and British forces began airstrikes in Afghanistan, targeting al Qaeda and the Taliban regime that had been giving al Qaeda protection. Members of the Afghan Northern Alliance, an anti-Taliban group, kill a wounded Taliban fighter they found while advancing toward Kabul, Afghanistan, in November US airstrikes and Northern Alliance ground attacks led to the fall of Kabul that month.

Afghan militia leaders declared victory in the battle of Tora Bora and claimed to have captured al Qaeda's last base. Renae Chapman holds her 2-year-old daughter, Amanda, during the funeral service for her husband, Army Sgt.

Chapman, in Fort Lewis, Washington, in January He was the first US soldier to be killed by enemy fire during the war in Afghanistan.

Mohboba, 7, stands near a bullet-ridden wall in Kabul as she waits to be seen at a health clinic in March She had a skin ailment that plagued many poverty-stricken children in Afghanistan.

US soldier Jorge Avino tallies the number of people that his mortar team had killed while fighting in Afghanistan in March A man and his son watch US soldiers prepare to sweep their home in southeastern Afghanistan in November Women wait in line to be treated at a health clinic in Kalakan, Afghanistan, in February Mohammaed Mahdi, who lost his foot in a mine explosion, waits for a Red Cross doctor at his home in Kabul in August This photo was taken by Associated Press photographer Emilio Morenatti, who five years later lost part of his leg when the armored vehicle he was in hit a roadside bomb.

Afghans in Kabul line up to vote in the country's first democratic election in October Hamid Karzai was sworn in as President in December of that year. An Afghan soldier provides security at the site where a US helicopter crashed near Ghazni, Afghanistan, in April At least 16 people were killed.

US President George W. It was Bush's first visit to Afghanistan. After the fall of the Taliban, millions of Afghan girls were able to attend school and get the education that their mothers couldn't. Many other countries also deployed troops to the country. Afghan students recite Islamic prayers at an outdoor classroom in the remote Wakhan Corridor in September US Army Spc. The Korengal Valley was the site of some of the deadliest combat in the region.

US Marine Sgt. Nicholas Bender launches a Raven surveillance drone near the remote village of Baqwa, Afghanistan, in March US soldiers take defensive positions after receiving fire from Taliban positions in Afghanistan's Korengal Valley in May Army Spc. Zachary Boyd was still in his "I love NY" boxers because he rushed from his sleeping quarters to join his fellow platoon members.

US soldiers shield their eyes from the rotor wash of a Chinook helicopter as they are picked up from a mission in Afghanistan's Paktika province in October Children watch a Canadian soldier conducting a dusk patrol in Kandahar, Afghanistan, in October US soldiers fire mortars from a base in Afghanistan's Kunar province in October Troops rest at an airfield in Afghanistan's Helmand province in February Afghan soldiers rush a wounded police officer to an American helicopter in Afghanistan's Kunar province in March Village elders meet in Marja, Afghanistan, in March Brian Keith sits with his wife, Sara, and their baby son, Stephen, just before his deployment to Afghanistan in March A few months earlier, President Barack Obama announced a surge of 30, additional troops.

US troops, aboard a C transport plane, head to Afghanistan in April US soldiers recover an armored vehicle that was hit by an explosive device in Afghanistan's Kunduz province in April Schoolgirls are seen through the window of a Humvee as they wave to a passing American convoy in Herat, Afghanistan, in June The man said Taliban fighters had forced their way into his home and demanded food and milk before getting into a firefight with American soldiers.

US soldiers were on a routine patrol when they came across Shokria, whose forearms were burned with scalding milk during a household accident five days earlier. Medics dressed the burns and began working with local Afghan military to have the girl driven to a nearby hospital.

US Marine Cpl. Burness Britt reacts after being lifted onto a medevac helicopter in June A large piece of shrapnel from an improvised explosive device cut a major artery on his neck near Sangin, Afghanistan. Two weeks into the campaign, the Northern Alliance demanded the air campaign focus more on the front lines.

The Northern Alliance commanders finally began to see the substantive result that they had long hoped for on the front lines. At the beginning of November, Taliban front lines were bombed with daisy cutter bombs, and by AC gunships. The Taliban fighters had no previous experience with American firepower, and often even stood on top of bare ridgelines where SF could easily spot them and call-in close air support.

Taliban frontal positions were devastated, and Northern Alliance march on Kabul seemed possible for the first time. Foreign fighters from Al-Qaeda took over security in the Afghan cities demonstrating the instability of the Taliban regime. The US forces and the Northern Alliance also began to diverge in their objectives. While the US was continuing the search for Osama Bin Laden, the Northern Alliance was pressing for more support in their efforts to finish off the Taliban and control the country.

These forces worked with Afghan opposition groups on the ground, in particular the Northern Alliance. The UK, Canada and Australia also deployed forces and several other countries provided bases, access and overflight permissions. Over the next three weeks several key towns fell and Taliban had to retreat from there. The prominent amongst them were Kunduz, Herat and Mazar-e-Sharif.

Kandahar, the stronghold and the real seat of power of Taliban fell on 9 November indicating complete rout of Taliban within a month of beginning of Operation Enduring Freedom. By mid-December, Taliban was completely out of power and an opposition government led by Hamid Karzai and recognized by the United Nations was installed on December 22, in Afghanistan.