2001
A soldier prays near a tank on Dec. 10, 2001, on the hills overlooking Tora Bora, Afghanistan. Anti-Taliban soldiers, including U.S. forces, bombed and fought hand to hand against al Qaeda fighters to oust the estimated 2,000 soldiers loyal to Osama bin Laden who were holed up in caves in the rugged countryside. Bin Laden famously escaped from Tora Bora, fleeing to Pakistan.

Chris Hondros/Getty Images

2002
U.S. President George W. Bush and then-interim Afghan President Hamid Karzai walk together after speaking during a joint news conference in the East Room of the White House on May 23, 2005. They spoke about the war on terror, Iraq, and the growing poppy production in Afghanistan. After the invasion, Karzai organized resistance to the Taliban from inside Afghanistan and was named interim president in June 2002.

Mark Wilson/Getty Images

2003
Keith Kluwe lies prone after exiting a Chinook 47 during "Operation Viper" on Feb. 19, 2003, in the Baghran Valley. "Operation Viper" was designed as a village-to-village search for weapons and signs of Taliban and al Qaeda sympathizers.

David Swanson-Pool/Getty Images

2004
Afghan women, lined up to cast their votes at a polling center, are passed by a soldier of the Afghan National Army in Herat on Oct. 9, 2004, before polls opened for the first direct presidential election in the country's history. Some 100,000 armed security personnel, including 27,000 foreign troops from the U.S.-led international coalition, were deployed to protect more than 10 million registered voters. Karzai emerged victorious with 55.4 percent of the vote.

BEHROUZ MEHRI/AFP/Getty Images

2005
Afghan protesters are watched over by armed policemen during a demonstration outside Bagram Air Base,  north of Kabul, on July 26, 2005. The New York Times had obtained a U.S. Army report detailing abuse of prisoners at Bagram that led to the deaths of two Afghans. Anger at the treatment of Afghan civilians by U.S. troops led to large protests outside Bagram, with mobs chanting "Die America!"

SHAH MARAI/AFP/Getty Images

2006
Afghan demonstrators chant "Death to America, Death to Karzai" during a demonstration in Kabul on May 26, 2006. U.S. troops shot dead at least four people when they opened fired on a crowd of Afghans who were demonstrating against the United States after an accident involving a coalition military vehicle.

SHAH MARAI/AFP/Getty Images

2007
Opium production in Afghanistan hits a record high. Above, an Afghan man and boy cultivate a poppy field in the Panjwayi district of Kandahar on April 28, 2006. Afghanistan is one of the world's largest drug producers. The United Nations and the Afghan government have estimated the total export value of Afghanistan's opium in 2005 at $2.7 billion, equivalent to 52 percent of the country's official gross domestic product.

JOHN D MCHUGH/AFP/Getty Images

2008
The bloody feet of a dead Afghan suicide attack victim protrude from under a shroud on a hospital bed after an attack in front of the Indian Embassy in Kabul on July 7, 2008. The blast in the heart of Kabul scattered human flesh and severed limbs outside the embassy.

MASSOUD HOSSAINI/AFP/Getty Images

2009
French soldiers walk on a hilltop near the Tora French Military Camp in Surobi district in Kabul province on Dec. 15, 2009.

MASSOUD HOSSAINI/AFP/Getty Images

2010
French soldiers from 68 Regiment Africa Artillery fire a mortar from a combat outpost in Surobi District on Sept. 21, 2010.

JOEL SAGET/AFP/Getty Images

2011
Afghan customers watch a television featuring news of bin Laden's death at a tea house in Kabul on May 2. The United States killed the al Qaeda leader nearly 10 years after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, which prompted the initial invasion of Afghanistan.

MASSOUD HOSSAINI/AFP/Getty Images