Index at bottom of the page.

1. How many U.S. troops have
been killed in Afghanistan
since 2001?

2. True or False - It took
2,520 days for the war to
take 500 American lives;
it took just 627 days for
it to take the next 500.


3. How much has The United
States spent on the war in
Afghanistan?

4. Which war is the longest
war in U.S. history?

5. True or False - Last
October the President's National
Security Advisor, Gen.
Jim Jones, estimated there were
100 al Qaeda in Afghanistan.
This June, CIA Director Leon
Panetta estimated there could
be as few as 50 al Qaeda left
in Afghanistan.

6. When did the war in
Afghanistan begin?

7. What was the reason for the
war in Afghanistan?

8. True or False - The United
States, with support from the
United Kingdom and the
Northern Alliance invaded
Afghanistan in October, 2001 as
part of its "War on Terrorism".
The military campaign, led by
U.S. general Tommy Franks, was
initially dubbed Operation
Infinite Justice but quickly
renamed Operation Enduring
Freedom, due to the perceived
religious connotations of the
former. British military
operations against Afghanistan
were codenamed Operation
Veritas.

9. What was the purpose of
Operation Enduring Freedom?


10. What were the demands by US
President George W. Bush in the
weeks prior to the military
action in Afghanistan?

11. What military operations
took place on October 7 in
Afghanistan?

12. What military assets were
used in the attack on
Afghanistan?

13. What occurred with respect
to air operations on November
1 in Afghanistan?

14. When did the battle for
Mazar-I-Sharif begin?

15. True or False - The same
day the massacres of former
Taliban supporters was taking
place in Mazar-I-Sharif,
November 10, Northern Alliance
forces swept through five
northern provinces in a rapid
advance. The fall of
Mazar-I-Sharif had triggered a
complete collapse of Taliban
positions. Many local commanders
switched sides rather than
fight. The regime was beginning
to unravel at the seams
throughout the north. Even in
the south, their hold on power
seemed tenuous at best. The
religious police stopped their
regular patrols. A complete
implosion of the Taliban regime
seemed imminent.

16. When was Kabul liberated?


17. True or False - Kabul
marked the beginning of a
collapse of Taliban positions
across the map. Within 24 hours,
all of the Afghan provinces
along the Iranian border,
including the key city of Herat,
had fallen. Local Pashtun
commanders had taken over
throughout northeastern
Afghanistan, including the key
city of Jalalabad. Taliban
holdouts in the north, mainly
Pakistani volunteers, fled to
the northern city of Konduz to
make a desperate stand. By
November 16, the Talibans last
stronghold in northern
Afghanistan was completely
besieged by the Northern
Alliance. Nearly 10,000 Taliban
fighters, led by foreign
elements, refused to surrender
and continued to put up
stubborn resistance. By then,
the Taliban had retreated all
the way back to their heartland
in southeastern Afghanistan
around Kandahar, and even their
hold there was tenuous at best.
The regime seemed to be
teetering on the brink of
annihilation.

18. When did the seige of
Konduz begin?"

19. True or false - On November
25, the day that Taliban
fighters holding out in Konduz
finally surrendered and were
being herded into the
Qala-e-Jangi prison complex
near Mazar-I-Sharif, a few
foreign Taliban attacked some
Northern Alliance guards, taking
their weapons and opening fire.
This incident soon triggered a
widespread revolt by 600
detained fighters at the prison,
who began grabbing AK-47s,
machine guns, and grenades and
attacking Northern Alliance
troops. One American CIA
operative who had been
interviewing prisoners, Mike
Spann, was killed, marking
the first American combat
death in the war. The fighters
soon seized the southern half
of the complex, once a medieval
fortress. The revolt was
finally put down after three
days by heavy strafing fire by
AC-130 gunships and Black Hawk
helicopters. Less than one
hundred of the several hundred
Taliban prisoners survived,
and around fifty Northern
Alliance soldiers were killed.
The putting down of the revolt
marked the end of the combat
in northern Afghanistan, where
local Northern Alliance
warlords were firmly in control.


20. True or False - On March 4,
2002, Seven American Special
Forces soldiers were killed as
they attempted to infiltrate
the Shahi Kot Valley on a low-
flying helicopter reconnaissance
mission. Around 3 a.m. local
time a MH-47 Chinook helicopter
was hit by a rocket-propelled
grenade, causing a soldier to
fall out and damaging a
hydraulic line. The helicopter
made an emergency landing a
half-mile away. A second
helicopter on the mission picked
up the first helicopter's crew
and flew to where the crew
member had fallen. The soldiers
soon came under heavy fire, and
six were killed. The remaining
soldiers returned fire and
retrieved the bodies before
returning to base.