More than 100 people were killed in the blast in Kerman, Iran, on Jan. 3, 2024.
Mahdi/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images
The terrorist attack in Iran follows a concerted effort by the Islamic State affiliate to ‘internationalize’ its strategy.
Israeli tanks gather near the border with the Gaza Strip on Oct. 13, 2023.
Aris Messinis/AFP via Getty Images
The US response to 9/11 included a declaration that America would destroy its enemies. The effort took decades, and thousands of lives on both sides, and never really succeeded.
US marines with a female engagement team in southern Helmand province, Afghanistan, in May 2012.
Cpl. Meghan Gonzales/DVIDS
Women who served in unofficial combat and intelligence roles during the Afghanistan war offer brutally honest accounts of their experiences.
Prince Harry’s new book “Spare” is stirring discussion about whether he should have revealed the number of warfighters that he killed.
Anwar Hussein / Getty Images
A US Air Force professor of philosophy weighs in on Prince Harry’s decision to disclose his ‘body count’ from his service in Afghanistan.
V is for victory? Or vanquished?
Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Images
A military historian and U.S. Army veteran explains how wars are not easy to win – something political leaders often forget when looking at the calculus of conflict.
The Taliban came to the fore during Afghanistan’s civil war that followed the Soviet pullout of 1989.
Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images
A historian explains how the Taliban emerged out of the decades of chaos that followed the Saur Revolution in Afghanistan in 1978.
U.S. troops in Afghanistan had better equipment, training and funding than the Taliban.
AP Photo/Rahmat Gul
It may be attractive to think that promoting democracy in occupied foreign countries is an appropriate moral and effective path for restoring security and stability. But it’s not accurate.
Forced from their homes by fighting between the Taliban and Afghan government forces, thousands of families seek refuge in a Kabul park.
Haroon Sabawoon/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
When the US invaded Afghanistan in late 2001, Afghans had endured 22 years of war. The Taliban were on the rise. Little has changed after an additional 20 years of war and suffering.
The U.S. military is handing the keys over to Afghan forces.
Joe Marek/U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
For much of the country’s history, Americans won their wars decisively, with the complete surrender of enemy forces and the home front’s perception of total victory.
Afghan citizens at a March 2021 rally in Kabul to support peace talks between the Taliban and the government.
Haroon Sabawoon/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Burqas and male chaperones for women were features of the Taliban’s extremist rule of Afghanistan in the 1990s. Those policies are now back in some districts controlled by these Islamic militants.
In early 2021, some Taliban fighters surrendered their weapons to support peace talks with the Afghan government. Today the Islamic extremist group is battling government forces to control the country.
Xinhua/Emran Waak via Getty Images
Two decades have passed since the US invasion of Afghanistan toppled the Taliban’s Islamic extremist regime. Despite efforts to update its image, the group still holds hard-line views.
The Afghan military appears to be losing the battle against Taliban insurgents.
EPA-EFE/Ghulamullah Habibi
Afghanistan is descending into anarchy as Nato troops withdraw, leaving the country desperately fighting off a Taliban insurgency.
The people of Afghanistan that the author encountered live very different lives from Americans.
Brian Glyn Williams
As American troops leave Afghanistan, a scholar of the country’s history and culture reexamines his photos of the nation’s people.
Supporters of incumbent Ashraf Ghani at a rally in Kabul ahead of elections on September 28.
Ghulamullah Habibi/EPA
As Afghans head to the polls on September 28, peace still remains elusive.
An Afghan Taliban patrol in Ghazni, central Afghanistan, in June.
EPA
A ceasefire with the Taliban won’t make it safe to send more refugees back to Afghanistan.
Members of the Taliban attend a separate round of peace talks in Moscow in November 2018.
Sergei Chirikov/EPA
A Taliban perspective on recent peace talks for Afghanistan.
President Donald Trump speaks at Al Asad Air Base, Iraq.
(AP Photo/Andrew Harnik
Obama’s plan to withdraw from Afghanistan had several facets and was part of a wider strategy in the Middle East.
Afghan Northern Alliance fighters in 2001. Almost two decades later, the war continues.
AP Photo/David Guttenfelder
A strategy to shut down Taliban safe havens in Pakistan could bring the war to an end.
The scene of the April 22 attack.
EPA/Heydayatullah Amid
An attack on a voter registration killed at least 57 people, and left scores more deciding where to go now.
A Russian plane delivers 10,000 AK-47 rifles to the Afghan National Security Forces.
Hedayatullah Amid/EPA
Russia is pursuing influence in Central Asia and competing with the US. Afghanistan offers it a chance to do both.