Introduction: Ahmad Shah DURRANI unified the Pashtun tribes and founded Afghanistan in 1747. The country served as a buffer between the British and Russian Empires until it won independence from notional British control in 1919. A brief experiment in democracy ended in a 1973 coup and a 1978 Communist counter-coup. The Soviet Union invaded in 1979 to support the tottering Afghan Communist regime, touching off a long and destructive war. The USSR withdrew in 1989 under relentless pressure by internationally supported anti-Communist mujahedin rebels. A series of subsequent civil wars saw Kabul finally fall in 1996 to the Taliban, a hardline...

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Current Situation: Today Afghanistan is a country in transition. After years of conflict, the country is rebuilding, although security and development remains fragile. While the capability of the insurgency was degraded during 2010, it continues to hamper efforts by the Afghan Government and the international community to restore peace, and sizeable territory is still under Taliban control. Military counter-insurgency operations are ongoing in many parts of Afghanistan.

The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan, which was created in December 2001 under UN Security Council Resolution 1386, is tasked to assist the ...

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