US Army
Within weeks of the September 11 attacks, US forces were in Afghanistan fighting Al Qaeda and its Taliban hosts.
By March 2002, US special-operations forces, their international partners, and local allies set out on the first major battle of the war.
Nineteen years ago, a team of Canadian snipers set back-to-back world records for the longest sniper kill during one of the largest battles of the war in Afghanistan.
The US response to the September 11 terrorist attacks caught Al Qaeda and its Taliban hosts by surprise. Instead pouring tens of thousands of troops into Afghanistan's harsh terrain, as the Soviets had done, the US military took the unconventional route.