On October 7, 2001, President Bush announced the first official U.S. and allied airstrikes on targets inside Afghanistan since the September 11 terrorist attacks. Local forces worked with the U.S.-led coalition in the air and on the ground in the subsequent weeks to unseat the ruling Taliban and smoke out al Qaeda. One year later, the central Asian nation has been transformed, as it tries to keep the peace and dig out from decades of war.
