KABUL, Afghanistan — Soon after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the United States military’s attention turned to Afghanistan, where Al Qaeda’s leaders were based. The world awaited an invasion that many knew was sure to come.
What nobody knew was that the invasion to rout the Taliban and Al Qaeda would turn into a war that has now stretched into its 16th year — America’s longest.
It has vexed three American presidencies and outlasted a dozen American military commanders.
The war also opened a window into a country where modernity clashed with tribal customs and religious edicts.
On Monday night, President Trump announced a new strategy for the war, bringing with it a possible increase in troop levels and a seemingly open-ended commitment to American involvement.
Members of the First Battalion, 87th Infantry, tending to a wounded comrade in Kunduz, Afghanistan.Credit...Damon Winter/The New York Times
Soldiers boarded a helicopter in Kunduz in 2013.Credit...Damon Winter/The New York Times
A view of the outskirts of Lashkar Gah in Helmand Province
in 2016.
Afghan National Army soldiers, left, and American soldiers blew up a Taliban firing position in the village of Layadira, Kandahar Province, in 2013.Credit...Bryan Denton for The New York Times
Members of the 101st Airborne Division in Paktia Province in 2013.Credit...Sergey Ponomarev for The New York Times
Soldiers boarded a helicopter in Kunduz in 2013.Credit...Damon Winter/The New York Times
Marines on patrol looking for homemade bombs in Marja, Helmand Province, in 2010.Credit...Tyler Hicks/The New York Times
Afghan soldiers rushed a wounded Afghan National Police officer to a United States Army medevac helicopter in Kunar Province in 2010.Credit...Moises Saman for The New York Times
An American soldier looking over the Pech Valley, in Kunar Province, in 2010.
An American soldier looking over the Pech Valley, in Kunar Province, in 2010.Credit...Christoph Bangert for The New York Times
An American troop transport preparing to land in Mazar-i-Sharif in April 2010.Credit...Damon Winter/The New York Times
The aftermath of an accidental American airstrike on the Doctors Without Borders hospital in Kunduz in 2015.Credit...Victor J. Blue for The New York Times
Afghan National Army soldiers, left, and American soldiers blew up a Taliban firing position in the village of Layadira, Kandahar Province, in 2013.Credit...Bryan Denton for The New York Times
A suicide car bomber struck near a hotel in Kabul, killing at least eight people and wounding 40, in 2009.Credit...Adam Ferguson for The New York Times
Soldiers from the First Infantry Division on a foot patrol in Hutal, Kandahar Province, in 2009.Credit...Danfung Dennis for The New York Times
President Barack Obama with cadets from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 2009.Credit...Doug Mills/The New York Times
President George W. Bush, with President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan, during a visit to Kabul in 2008.Credit...Lynsey Addario for The New York Times
Wounded soldiers in the Korengal Valley in 2007.Credit...Lynsey Addario for The New York Times
Northern Alliance fighters on the way into Kabul in 2001 found a Taliban fighter in a ditch and killed him despite his pleas.Credit...Tyler Hicks for The New York TimesAmerican soldiers from the 10th Mountain Division took cover and yelled to others to get out of the line of fire after being ambushed in a valley by Taliban fighters while patrolling the village of Hazarbuz in southern Afghanistan in 2006.Credit...Tyler Hicks/The New York Times
An Eastern Alliance fighter watched as an American B-52 bomber circled above Afghanistan’s Tora Bora mountains in 2001.Credit...
Joao Silva for The New York Times
American soldiers at Bagram Air Base, north of Kabul, in 2002.Credit...
Tyler Hicks/The New York Times
Northern Alliance troops walked to the front lines at Bangi, outside the besieged Taliban stronghold of Kunduz in 2001.Credit...James Hill for The New York Times
CHAPTER 6: MUSTAFA MOURNS...
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