Afghans wars against Britain ,soviet union and USA

 Anglo-Afghan War may refer to:

• British-Afghan Wars
• First Anglo-Afghan War (1839–1842)
• Second Anglo-Afghan War (1878–1880)
• Siege of Malakand & Tirah Campaign (1897)
• Third Anglo-Afghan War (1919)

• First Anglo-Afghan War
  Part of the Great Game
  Lithograph depicting British-Indian force storming the fortress during the Battle of Ghazni, 23 July 1839
  Date July 1839 – October 1842 Location Afghanistan Result Afghan victory British withdrawal[1] Dost Mohammad Khan reinstalled to the throne[1]
  Belligerents
  Emirate of Afghanistan	British Empire  East India Company  Durrani Dynasty
  Commanders and leaders
  Dost Mohammad Khan (POW)  Akbar Khan	William Elphinstone †  William Hay Macnaghten †  Sir Henry William Barnard  John Keane  Sir Willoughby Cotton  George Pollock  Shah Shujah †
  Strength
  20,000 militia infantry 30 guns 5,000 light tribal cavalry	10,000 line infantry soldiers 30,000 camp followers 200 guns 1,500 heavy cavalry 5,000 Shah Shuja Durrani local indian levy
  Casualties and losses
  12,000 militia infantry 15 - 20 guns 3,000 light tribal cavalry	4,700 line infantry soldiers 40 guns 12,000 camp follower 200 - 300 heavy cavalry[2]

  Second Anglo–Afghan War
  Part of The Great Game
  92nd Highlanders at Kandahar. Oil by Richard Caton Woodville Jr.
  Date 1878–1880 Location Afghanistan, and modern Pakistan Result British victory[1][2][3][4] Treaty of Gandamak[5] British protectorate over Afghanistan[6][7] British withdrawal from Afghanistan[5][6][8] Territorial changes Districts of Quetta, Pishin, Sibi, Harnai & Thal Chotiali ceded to British India[9]
  Belligerents
  Afghanistan	United Kingdom  India
  Commanders and leaders
  Sher Ali Khan Ayub Khan	Samuel Browne  Frederick Roberts  Donald Stewart  Pratap Singh
  Casualties and losses
  Total fatalities are unknown 5,000+ killed in major battles[10]	Total: 9,850 fatalities 1,850 killed in action or died of wounds 8,000 died of diseases[10]

  Siege of Malakand
  Part of the Anglo-Afghan wars
  South Malakand Camp, August 1897
  Date 26 July – 2 August 1897 Location Malakand, India 34°35′47″N 71°55′52″ECoordinates: 34°35′47″N 71°55′52″E Result Yousafzai victory
  Belligerents
  British Raj	Yousafzai
  Commanders and leaders
  William Hope Meiklejohn, Sir Bindon Blood	Fakir Saidullah[1]
  Strength
  10,630 on 26 July 1897[2]	10,000[3]
  Casualties and losses
  206: 173 killed and wounded in the Malakand camps,[4][5] 33 killed and wounded at Chakdara[6]	At least 2,000[7]

• Third Anglo-Afghan War
  Part of the Interwar Period
  Soldiers in action at Kohat during the Third Anglo-Afghan War
  Date 6 May – 8 August 1919 Location North-West Frontier of the British India and Afghanistan Result Treaty of Rawalpindi British strategic victory with the reaffirmation of the Durand Line as a border[1][2][3] Afghan diplomatic victory[4] and Afghan independence with full sovereignty in foreign affairs.
  Belligerents
  Afghanistan	United Kingdom  India
  Commanders and leaders
  Amanullah Khan  Nadir Khan	Sir Arthur Barrett  Reginald Dyer  Alexander Eustace
  Strength
  50,000 man standing army supported by up to 80,000 tribesmen	8 divisions 5 independent brigades 3 cavalry brigades, plus a number of modern aircraft, armoured cars and artillery
  Casualties and losses
  1,000 to 1,200 killed. Estimated 3,000 wounded.[5][6]	236 killed and 1,500 wounded[5][7]

  Soviet-Afghan War

• The Soviet–Afghan War was a conflict wherein insurgent groups (known collectively as the Afghan mujahideen), as well as smaller Shi'ite and Maoist groups, fought a nine-year guerrilla war against the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan and the Soviet Army throughout the 1980s, mostly in the Afghan countryside. The Mujahideen were variously backed primarily by the United States, Pakistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, China, and the United Kingdom; the conflict was a Cold War-era proxy war. Between 562,000^[48] and 2,000,000 Afghans were killed and millions more fled the country as refugees,^{[52][53][49][50]} mostly to Pakistan and Iran. Between 6.5%–11.5% of Afghanistan's population is estimated to have perished in the conflict. The war caused grave destruction in Afghanistan, and it has also been cited by scholars as a contributing factor to the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, in hindsight leaving a mixed legacy to people in both territories. ^[54][55]

  The foundations of the conflict were laid by the Saur Revolution, a 1978 coup wherein Afghanistan's communist party took power, initiating a series of radical modernization and land reforms throughout the country. These reforms were deeply unpopular among the more traditional rural population and established power structures. ^[56] The repressive nature of the "Democratic Republic",^[57] which vigorously suppressed opposition and executed thousands of political prisoners, led to the rise of anti-government armed groups; by April 1979, large parts of the country were in open rebellion. ^[58]

  The communist party itself experienced deep internal rivalries between the Khalqists and Parchamites; in September 1979, People's Democratic Party General Secretary Nur Mohammad Taraki was assassinated under orders of the second-in-command, Hafizullah Amin, which soured relations with the Soviet Union. With fears rising that Amin was planning to switch sides to the United States,^[59] the Soviet government, under leader Leonid Brezhnev, decided to deploy the 40th Army across the border on 24 December 1979. ^[60] Arriving in the capital Kabul, they staged a coup (Operation Storm-333),^[61] killing General Secretary Amin and installing Soviet loyalist Babrak Karmal from the rival faction Parcham. ^[58] The Soviet invasion^{[nb 1]} was based on the Brezhnev Doctrine.

  In January 1980, foreign ministers from 34 nations of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation adopted a resolution demanding "the immediate, urgent and unconditional withdrawal of Soviet troops" from Afghanistan. ^[65] The UN General Assembly passed a resolution protesting the Soviet intervention by a vote of 104 (for) to 18 (against), with 18 abstentions and 12 members of the 152-nation Assembly absent or not participating in the vote;^[65][66] only Soviet allies Angola, East Germany and Vietnam, along with India, supported the intervention. ^[67] Afghan insurgents began to receive massive amounts of support through aid, finance and military training in neighbouring Pakistan with significant help from the United States and United Kingdom. ^[68] They were also heavily financed by China and the Arab monarchies in the Persian Gulf. ^{[69][15][70] [71]} As documented by the National Security Archive, "the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) played a significant role in asserting U.S. influence in Afghanistan by funding military operations designed to frustrate the Soviet invasion of that country. CIA covert action worked through Pakistani intelligence services to reach Afghan rebel groups."^[72] Soviet troops occupied the cities and main arteries of communication, while the Mujahideen waged guerrilla war in small groups operating in the almost 80 percent of the country that was outside government and Soviet control, almost exclusively^[73] being the rugged, mountainous terrain of the countryside. ^[74][75] The Soviets used their air power to deal harshly with both rebels and civilians, levelling villages to deny safe haven to the Mujahideen, destroying vital irrigation ditches, and laying millions of land mines. ^{[76][77][78][79]}

  The international community imposed numerous sanctions and embargoes against the Soviet Union, and the U.S. led a boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics held in Moscow. The boycott and sanctions exacerbated Cold War tensions and enraged the Soviet government, which later led a revenge boycott of the 1984 Olympics held in Los Angeles. ^[80] The Soviets initially planned to secure towns and roads, stabilize the government under new leader Karmal, and withdraw within six months or a year. But they were met with fierce resistance from the guerillas^[81] and had difficulties on the harsh cold Afghan terrain,^[82] resulting in them being stuck in a bloody war that lasted nine years. ^[83] By the mid-1980s, the Soviet contingent was increased to 108,800 and fighting increased, but the military and diplomatic cost of the war to the USSR was high. By mid-1987 the Soviet Union, now under reformist leader General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev, announced it would start withdrawing its forces after meetings with the Afghan government. ^[9][10] The final troop withdrawal started on 15 May 1988, and ended on 15 February 1989, leaving the government forces alone in the battle against the insurgents, which continued until 1992, when the former Soviet-backed government collapsed. Due to its length, it has sometimes been referred to as the "Soviet Union's Vietnam War" or the "Bear Trap" by the Western media. ^[84][85][86] The Soviets' failure in the war^[87] is thought to be a contributing factor to the fall of the Soviet Union. ^[54] It has left a mixed legacy in the former Soviet Union and in Afghanistan. ^[55] Additionally, U.S. policies in the war are also thought to have contributed to a "blowback" of unintended consequences against American interests, which led to the United States entering into its own war in Afghanistan in 2001.

  Soviet–Afghan War
  Part of the Cold War and the continuous Afghanistan conflict
  Top: Mujahideen fighters in the Kunar Province of Afghanistan, 1987 Bottom: Soviet soldier on watch in Afghanistan, 1988
  Date 24 December 1979 – 15 February 1989 (9 years, 1 month, 3 weeks and 1 day) Location Afghanistan Result Afghan mujahideen victory Geneva Accords (1988) Withdrawal of Soviet forces from Afghanistan Afghan Civil War continues[32]
  Belligerents
  Soviet Union  Afghanistan show Paramilitaries: show Supported by:	Sunni Mujahideen: show Factions: show Supported by: Shia Mujahideen: show Factions: show Supported by: Maoists: show Factions: show Supported by:
  Commanders and leaders
  Leonid Brezhnev  Yuri Andropov  Konstantin Chernenko  Mikhail Gorbachev  Dmitriy Ustinov  Sergei Sokolov  Dmitriy Yazov  Valentin Varennikov  Igor Rodionov  Boris Gromov  Yuri Drozdov  Babrak Karmal  Mohammad Najibullah  Abdul Rashid Dostum  Abdul Qadir  Shahnawaz Tanai  Mohammed Rafie  Aslam Vatanzhar	Burhanuddin Rabbani  Ahmad Shah Massoud  Naqib Alikozai  Ismail Khan  Gulbuddin Hekmatyar  Fazal Haq Mujahid  Abdullah Azzam  Wa'el Hamza Julaidan  Osama bin Laden  Ayman al-Zawahiri  Mulavi Younas Khalis  Abdul Haq  Haji Abdul Qadeer  Jalaluddin Haqqani  Nek Muhammad[33]  Mohammed Omar[33]  Abdul Rasul Sayyaf  Mohammad Nabi  Sibghatullah Mojaddedi  Ahmed Gailani  Abdul Rahim Wardak Muhammad Asif Muhsini  Abdul Ali Mazari Assef Kandahari Sayyid Ali Beheshti Mosbah Sade Mulavi Dawood  (AMFFF) Faiz Ahmad  Majid Kalakani (SAMA)
  Strength
  Soviet forces: KGB 40th Army 620,000 total personnel [34] 115,000 peak strength[35]  Afghan forces: 65,000 regulars at peak[36]	Mujahideen: 200,000–250,000[37][38][39]
  Casualties and losses
  Soviet forces: 14,453 killed (total) or 9,500 killed in combat[40] 4,000 died from wounds[40] 1,000 died from disease and accidents[40] 53,753 wounded[40] 264 missing[citation needed] 451 aircraft (including 333 helicopters) 147 tanks 1,314 IFV/APCs 433 artillery guns and mortars 11,369 cargo and fuel tanker trucks (Soviet estimation) 26,000 killed including 3,000 officers[41] (other sources)  Afghan forces: 18,000 killed[42]	Mujahideen: At least 90,000 casualties, including 56,000 killed and 17,000 wounded.[43][44] 150,000–180,000 casualties (other estimates)[44]  Pakistan: 5,775 killed[45] 6,804 wounded[45] 1 F-16 shot down due to friendly fire.[46]  Iran: 2 AH-1J helicopters shot down Unknown number killed[47]
  Civilians (Afghan): 562,000[48]–2,000,000 killed[49][50] 5 million refugees outside Afghanistan 2 million internally displaced persons Around 3 million Afghans wounded (mostly civilians)[51]

• War in Afghanistan (2001–2021)

• The War in Afghanistan was a conflict that took place from 2001 to 2021 in Afghanistan. ^[73] It started when the United States and its allies invaded Afghanistan^[74] and toppled the Taliban-ruled Islamic Emirate. ^[75][76] The war ended with the Taliban regaining power after a 19 years and 8 months insurgency^[77] against allied NATO and Afghan Armed Forces. ^{[78][79][80][36]} It was the longest war in United States history, surpassing the Vietnam War (1955–1975) by roughly five months.

  Following the September 11 attacks in 2001, US president George W. Bush demanded that the Taliban, then-de facto ruling Afghanistan, hand over Osama bin Laden, mastermind of the attacks and until then freely operating within the country. ^[81] The Taliban's refusal to extradite him^[82] led to the invasion of the country;^[83] the Taliban and their Al-Qaeda allies were mostly defeated and expelled from major population centers by US-led forces and the Northern Alliance, which had been fighting the Taliban since 1996.

  Despite failing to find Bin Laden after his escape to the White Mountains,^[84] the US and a coalition of over 40 countries (including all NATO members) remained in the country and formed a UN sanctioned security mission called International Security Assistance Force to consolidate a new democratic authority in the country and prevent the return of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda. ^[85] At the Bonn Conference, new Afghan interim authorities (mostly from the Northern Alliance) elected Hamid Karzai to head the Afghan Interim Administration. A rebuilding effort across the country was also made following the collapse of the Taliban regime. ^[86][87][88]

  Meanwhile, the Taliban reorganized under Mullah Omar and in 2003 launched an insurgency against the new Afghan government. ^[89][90] Insurgents from the Taliban and other groups waged asymmetric warfare with guerrilla raids and ambushes in the countryside, suicide attacks against urban targets, turncoat killings against coalition forces and reprisals against perceived collaborators. ^[91] The Taliban exploited weaknesses in the Afghan government to reassert influence across rural areas of southern and eastern Afghanistan. Violence eventually escalated to a point where large parts of Afghanistan were "falling" into Taliban hands by 2007. ^[92][93] ISAF responded by massively increasing troops for counter-insurgency operations to "clear and hold" villages,^[94] reaching its peak in 2011 when roughly 140,000 foreign troops operated under ISAF and US command in Afghanistan. ^[95]

  Following the killing of Osama bin Laden in 2011 (the original casus belli), leaders of the NATO alliance commenced an exit strategy for withdrawing their forces^[96][97] On 28 December 2014, NATO formally ended ISAF combat operations in Afghanistan and officially transferred full security responsibility to the Afghan government. The NATO-led Operation Resolute Support was formed the same day to assist in consolidating the newly transferred responsibilities. ^[98][99]

  Unable to eliminate the Taliban through military means, coalition forces and separately the government of president Ashraf Ghani^[100] turned to diplomacy to end the conflict. These efforts culminated on 29 February 2020, when the United States and the Taliban signed a conditional peace deal in Doha^[101] which required that US troops withdraw from Afghanistan within 14 months so long as the Taliban cooperated with the terms of the agreement not to "allow any of its members, other individuals or groups, including Al Qaeda, to use the soil of Afghanistan to threaten the security of the United States and its allies". ^[102][103] The Afghan government was not a party to the deal and rejected its terms regarding release of prisoners. ^[104]

  The target U.S. withdrawal date was altered by president Joe Biden until a final date of 31 August was set. ^[105] The Taliban, after the original deadline had expired, and coinciding with the troop withdrawal, launched a broad offensive throughout the summer in which they captured most of Afghanistan, finally taking Kabul on 15 August 2021. The same day, the president of Afghanistan Ashraf Ghani fled the country and the Taliban declared victory and the war over. ^[106] The Taliban takeover was confirmed by the United States and on 30 August the last American military plane departed Afghanistan, ending almost 20 years of western military presence in the country. ^[107][108]

  According to the Costs of War Project at Brown University, the war killed 176,000 people in Afghanistan; 46,319 civilians, 69,095 military and police and at least 52,893 opposition fighters. ^[109] According to the UN, after the 2001 invasion, more than 5.7 million former refugees returned to Afghanistan. ^[110] However, since the renewed Taliban offensive of 2021, 2.6 million Afghans remain refugees or have fled,^[111] mostly to Pakistan and Iran, and another 4 million Afghans remain internally displaced persons within the country. ^[112][113]

  War in Afghanistan (2001–2021)
  Part of the Global War on Terrorism and the continuous Afghanistan conflict
  Clockwise from top-left: A US Air Force fighter aircraft dropping JDAMs on a cave in eastern Afghanistan; US soldiers in a firefight with Taliban forces in Kunar Province; An Afghan National Army soldier surveying atop a Humvee; Afghan and US soldiers move through snow in Logar Province; victorious Taliban forces secure Kabul; An Afghan soldier surveying a valley in Parwan Province; British troops preparing to board a Chinook during Operation Tor Shezada. (For a map of the current military situation in Afghanistan, see here.)
  Date 7 October 2001 – 30 August 2021 (19 years, 10 months, 3 weeks and 2 days) First phase: 7 October 2001 – 28 December 2014 Second phase: 1 January 2015 – 30 August 2021[34][35] Location Afghanistan Result Taliban victory[36] show First phase show Second phase Territorial changes Taliban capture all Northern Alliance territory except some areas of Panjshir Province
  Belligerents
  Invasion (2001):  Northern Alliance  United States  United Kingdom  Canada  Australia  Italy  New Zealand[2]  Germany[3]	Invasion (2001):  Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan[4]  al-Qaeda  055 Brigade[5][6]  Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan[7]  Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi[8]  East Turkestan Islamic Party[9]
  ISAF/RS phase (2001–2021):  Transitional Islamic State of Afghanistan (2002–2004)  Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (2004–2021)  United States show  ISAF (2001–2015)  Resolute Support (2015–2021) (36 countries)[10]  High Council of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (allegedly since 2015)[11][12][13][14][15][16]	ISAF/RS phase (2001–2021):  Taliban Haqqani network[17] (from 2002)  al-Qaeda (al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS)[18] show Supported by:  Taliban splinter groups  Fidai Mahaz (from 2013)  Mullah Dadullah Front (from 2012)[31] RS phase (2015–2021):  ISIL–KP (from 2015)[32] Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan[33]
  Commanders and leaders
  Hamid Karzai  Ashraf Ghani  Amrullah Saleh  George W. Bush  Barack Obama  Donald Trump  Joe Biden  Tony Blair  Gordon Brown  David Cameron  Theresa May  Boris Johnson  Jean Chrétien  Paul Martin  Stephen Harper  Justin Trudeau  John Howard  Kevin Rudd  Julia Gillard  Tony Abbott  Malcolm Turnbull  Scott Morrison  Silvio Berlusconi  Romano Prodi  Mario Monti  Enrico Letta  Matteo Renzi  Paolo Gentiloni  Giuseppe Conte  Mario Draghi  Gerhard Schröder  Angela Merkel  Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr.  John F. Campbell  List of former ISAF Commanders  List of former RS Commanders  Nangialai †[16]  Abdul Manan Niazi †[37]	Mohammed Omar #  Akhtar Mansoor †  Hibatullah Akhundzada  Abdul Ghani Baradar  Jalaluddin Haqqani #[38]  Obaidullah Akhund †[39]  Dadullah Akhund †[39]  Gulbuddin Hekmatyar  Osama bin Laden †  Ayman al-Zawahiri  Asim Umar †  Muhammad Rasul  Haji Najibullah[40]  Shahab al-Muhajir[41]  Hafiz Saeed Khan †  Mawlavi Habib Ur Rahman[42]  Abdul Haseeb Logari †  Abdul Rahman Ghaleb †  Abu Saad Erhabi †  Abdullah Orokzai (POW)  Qari Hekmat †  Mufti Nemat   Dawood Ahmad Sofi †  Mohamed Zahran †  Ishfaq Ahmed Sofi †
  Strength
  ISAF (2001-2014): 87,207 (2012)[43]  Afghan National Security Forces: 352,000 (2014)[44]  Resolute Support Mission (2015-2021): ~17,000 (2021)[45] Military contractors: 20,000+[46]  High Council of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan: 3,000–3,500[13]	Taliban: 60,000 (tentative estimate, 2014)[47] Haqqani network: 4,000–15,000 (2009)[48][49][50]  HIG: 1,500–2,000+ (2014)[51]  al-Qaeda: ~300 in 2016[52][53][54] (~ 3,000 in 2001)[52]  Fidai Mahaz: 8,000 (2013)[40]  ISIL–KP: 3,500–4,000 (2018, in Afghanistan)[55]
  Casualties and losses
  Afghan security forces: 67,558–70,558+ killed[56][57] Northern Alliance: 200 killed[58][59][60][61][62] Coalition: Dead: 3,576 United States: 2,420 United Kingdom: 456[63] Canada: 159 France: 89 Germany: 62 Italy: 53 Others: 337 Wounded: 22,773 United States: 19,950[64] United Kingdom: 2,188[65] Canada: 635[66] Contractors Dead: 3,937[67][68] Wounded: 15,000+[67][68] Total killed: 73,295+	Taliban insurgents: 52,893+ killed[69][56] (2,000+ al-Qaeda fighters)[52] ISIL–KP: 2,400+ killed[32]
  Civilians killed: 46,319[69] Total killed: 212,191+ (per UCDP)[70]
  a The continued list includes nations who have contributed fewer than 200 troops as of November 2014.[71] b The continued list includes nations who have contributed fewer than 200 troops as of May 2017.[72]

  moral--Foreign Powers never able to rule Afghanistan may be due to its geographic advantages and strong morals of people and love for their own homeland.
• Data Source-wikipedia