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Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai and US President Barack Obama signed a strategic partnership agreement between the two countries on May 2, 2012. The US has pledged a long-term presence in Afghanistan even after 2014, when the last of the NATO-led forces officially leave the country.
In the fall of 2001, the first bombs fall on Afghanistan in the US-led anti-terror intervention. The Taliban government is toppled after a six-year reign of terror. Ground troops from the US and numerous other countries are deployed all across Afghanistan.
The assembly of tribal elders and dignitaries known as the loya jirga agrees on a new constitution in 2003. The document directed the concentration of power into the hands of interim President Hamid Karzai. In October 2004, Karzai is confirmed in office in Afghanistan's first presidential elections. The US support the country's political rebuilding from the very start.
But the fight against the Taliban continues. Time and again, self-proclaimed holy warriors carry out violent attacks. The US initially sends even more troops to Afghanistan to fight the still strong Taliban.
There are currently some 87,000 US troops stationed in Afghanistan; this figure still totaled 100,000 last year. The US wants to reduce its troop numbers further and complete the withdrawal by 2014. The military deployment costs some 100 billion euros ($130 billion) a year.
Since 2001, nearly 2,000 US soldiers have lost their lives in Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. The southern area of the country in particular continues to be hard-fought.
The news of Osama bin Laden's death is applauded in front of the White House in Washington on May 2, 2011. US Special Forces killed the al Qaeda leader in a covert operation in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Many people consider his death a major success in the war against terror and hope for a speedy return of US troops from Afghanistan.
The strategic partnership agreement pledges ongoing US support for Afghanistan after combat forces leave in 2014. President Obama stressed that the US was and would continue to be a friend and partner to Afghanistan.
Barack Obama and Hamid Karzai have signed a new partnership pact to govern Afghan-US relations after 2014. A look at Afghan-US relations.
