ANKARA
As the US prepares to withdraw the last of its troops in Afghanistan by Monday, the war it launched after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and led to severe displacement along with a heavy financial burden over two decades.
According to a project by Brown University in the US titled Costs of War, many Afghan civilians lost their lives due to bombings, improvised explosive devices (IEDs), crossfire, and assassinations during the conflict.
About 241,000 people, including over 71,000 civilians, became direct casualties of the war in Afghanistan and cross-border operations in Pakistan since 2001.
On Oct. 7, 2001, the US intervention in Afghanistan commenced as part of then-president George W. Bush's counter-terrorism operations in response to the Sept. 11 attacks.
The tally of civilian casualties rose drastically when in 2017, the US military loosened its rules of engagement for airstrikes. During the former Donald Trump administration, civilian deaths in Afghanistan caused by US-led airstrikes rose by 330%.
Tens of thousands of terror suspects have been detained throughout the war, including 50,000 in the first three years.
US spends $2 trillion for military operations
The US has spent an estimated amount of over $2 trillion dollars for its military operations in Afghanistan in the past 20 years. It incurred debt to finance the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, with total interest on these loans expected to reach $6.5 trillion by 2050.
The US has provided more than $145 billion for Afghanistan's reconstruction since 2002, along with an additional $83 billion for Afghan security forces' training and equipment.
From 2003 to 2016, Afghan forces were provided with about 76,000 vehicles, 600,000 weapons, 163,000 pieces of telecommunication equipment, and 208 aircraft, according to the US Government Accountability Office.
The UK and Germany, for their part, spent an estimated $30 billion and $19 billion respectively in Afghanistan. The two had the greatest number of troops on the ground after the US.
The US and NATO, despite withdrawing most of their forces, have pledged a total of $4 billion to help finance Afghan forces until 2024.
So far in 2021, the alliance has dispatched equipment and supplies worth $72 million to Afghanistan. The US has trained 300,000 Afghan personnel to date.
800,000 US soldiers operated in Afghanistan since 2001
While President Joe Biden maintaining his position that US troops will end all their activities in Afghanistan by Aug. 31, there were still 5,200 US soldiers in the capital Kabul, according to a statement by Pentagon on Aug. 19.
A total of 800,000 US soldiers have been deployed in Afghanistan since October 2001. This figure topped 50,000 in 2009 and reached 100,000 for the first time in 2010.
Former US President Barack Obama announced the withdrawal plan in 2011 and said 10,000 soldiers would be pulled out of Afghanistan by the end of that year and that the withdrawal would continue at a steady pace until 2014 when the security responsibilities were to be handed over to Afghans.
The number of US boots on the ground began to decline since then, falling below 50,000 in 2013.
In 2014, Obama announced a withdrawal plan of almost all US soldiers, slated for the end of 2016, the end of his second term in office. However, he later said in 2015 that conditions in Afghanistan were too vulnerable for a US withdrawal.
The former Trump administration negotiated an agreement with the Taliban in February 2020, setting May 1, 2021, as the definitive date for the final withdrawal.
Assuming the presidency in January 2021, Biden postponed this until Aug. 31.
Afghans second-largest refugee population
Since Aug. 14 when the US administration began evacuations out of Afghanistan, a total of 82,300 people have been flown out of the country.
A total of 2,352 US soldiers died during the 20 years of war and more than 20,000 others have been wounded.
According to the Washington Post, the developments in the region have claimed the lives of 66,000 Afghan police and army members since 2001, whereas casualties of NATO and other countries have reached 1,114. Among other groups, especially the Taliban, 51,191 people died, along with 444 aid workers and over 70 journalists.
Including NATO and partner states, 51 countries participated in the war in Afghanistan.
According to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), the count of registered Afghan refugees who fled the country tops 2.5 million. While noting that the actual figure could be much higher, the UNHCR says Afghans are the second-largest refugee population across the world as of July 2021, with about 90% taking refuge in Iran and Pakistan.
Additionally, an estimated 270,000 Afghans are estimated to be internally displaced since the beginning of 2021. The UNHCR says more than 3.5 million Afghans were internally displaced since the start of the conflict.
On the other hand, UNICEF notes that 60% of children deprived of education opportunities in Afghanistan were girls and that the total count stands at 3.7 million.
Taliban gaining upper hand
In line with the peace agreement that the Taliban and US reached in February 2020, international forces began withdrawing from Afghanistan in 2021.
While the Taliban did not target foreign forces under the deal, there were no limitations on its actions against the Afghan forces.
As the negotiations were going on in Doha, the Qatari capital, with the Afghan government, the Taliban simultaneously intensified attacks starting in June and gained control in many districts and provinces over the past month.
Having besieged Kabul, the Taliban gained control of the capital without clashes after President Ashraf Ghani fled the country.
*Writing by Ali Murat Alhas
