AFGHANISTAN
American forces invade Afghanistan in October 2001, after the country’s Taliban rulers refuse to give up Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda. America succeeds in removing the Taliban from power, but bin Laden and other al-Qaeda leaders escape to Pakistan. The tasks of rebuilding the nation, hunting for al-Qaeda and fighting a Taliban insurgency keeps US troops in Afghanistan for 16 years and counting. In recent years, ISIS has claimed territory and staged attacks in Afghanistan, adding another front in the longest war in American history.
PAKISTAN
When al-Qaeda’s leaders flee Afghanistan, they find refuge in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of northwestern Pakistan. There, in remote, rocky hills and canyons, they plot a resurgence. But al-Qaeda’s leadership also hides in plain sight. In 2010, the CIA discovers that Osama bin Laden may be living in a house in Abbottabad, near the Pakistan Military Academy.
IRAQ
The US leads a small coalition of nations in an invasion of Iraq in March 2003, in an attempt to overthrow the regime of Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, suspected of harboring terrorists and possessing weapons of mass destruction. Though those charges turn out to be exaggerated, the destruction of Saddam’s administration touches off an insurgency and a war that officially lasts another eight years, though the rise of ISIS has ensured that Iraq remains a crucial battleground.
LIBYA
Led by terrorist-sponsoring dictator Muammar Gaddafi, Libya erupts in violence in 2011 as rebels try to overthrow the “Brotherly Leader”’s regime. Gaddafi is killed in October 2011, ending a 42-year reign. A year later, an attack on a diplomatic compound and CIA station in Benghazi, Libya, leaves four Americans dead and ignites a political scandal in the US.
SYRIA
Rebels rise up against oppressive president Bashar al-Assad in 2011, sparking a civil war that continues to this day. As US leaders struggle with the question of whether to intervene, a new threat rises: ISIS, claiming Syrian territory for its worldwide caliphate.
YEMEN
In October 2000, al-Qaeda attacks a US Navy destroyer in the port of Aden. Over the next decade and a half, the country has become the site of multiple terror attacks, a civil war, and the base for one of al-Qaeda’s main branches.