Twenty-five years ago this week, the United States launched strikes in Afghanistan, targeting al-Qaeda training camps and Taliban military installations. It marked the beginning of the first military campaign in the US-led “global war on terror”.
This war, supported by an international coalition that grew to include about 50 nations, came in direct response to the September 11 2001 terrorist attacks. It was to be, in the words of then-US President George W. Bush:
