A Look At Afghanistan’s 40 Years Of Crisis — From The Soviet War To Taliban Recapture

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The Soviet army in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Dec. 31, 1979.

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Afghan refugees are shown in a camp on Kohat Road outside of Peshawar, Pakistan, in 1980.

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Former President Ronald Reagan meets in the Oval Office in 1983 with Afghan fighters opposing the Soviet Union.

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An Afghan guerrilla handles a U.S.-made Stinger anti-aircraft missile.

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The last Soviet to leave Afghanistan, Lt. Gen. Boris Gromov, walks with his son Maxin on the bridge linking Afghanistan to Uzbekistan over the Amu Darya River. The Soviet commander crossed from the Afghan town of Khairaton.

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The presidential palace in Kabul is severely damaged after being hit by tank shells and rockets fired by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar’s Hezb-e-Islami fighters.

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Udo Weitz/AP

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A Taliban fighter guards a road southeast of Kabul in 1995.

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Saeed Khan/AFP/Getty Images

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Osama bin Laden speaks at a press conference in Khost, Afghanistan, in 1998.

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Taliban rally in Kabul, October 1996.

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Afghan women wear Taliban-imposed burqas in Kabul.

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Afghan Taliban in front of the empty niche that held one of the two giant Buddha statues the Taliban blew up in Bamiyan in March 2001.

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An undated file photo shows a U.S. Air Force B-52 Stratofortress heavy bomber. The U.S.-led coalition launched air and missile strikes in Afghanistan on Oct. 7, 2001.

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A U.S. soldier walks past burning trucks at the scene of a suicide attack in Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province in 2014.

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U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad and Taliban co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar shake hands after signing the U.S.-Taliban peace agreement in Doha, Qatar, on Feb. 29, 2020.

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President Joe Biden walks through Arlington National Cemetery in April to honor fallen veterans of the Afghan conflict.

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An Afghan National Army soldier stands on a Humvee at Bagram Air Base after all U.S. and NATO troops left, in July.

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Taliban fighters take control of Afghanistan’s presidential palace after President Ashraf Ghani fled the country on Sunday.

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Taliban fighters take control of Afghanistan’s presidential palace after President Ashraf Ghani fled the country on Sunday.

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