October 7, 2001 – U.S. President George W. Bush orders start of airstrikes on Taliban-ruled Afghanistan in response to its sheltering of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, mastermind of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.
November 13, 2001 – Afghanistan's anti-Taliban Northern Alliance seizes the capital, Kabul, from Taliban forces.
December 5, 2001 – Afghan factions sign a deal in Bonn to form an interim government chaired by Pashtun tribal leader Hamid Karzai.
June 2002 – Afghanistan convenes a loya jirga, or grand assembly, of tribal leaders, who select Karzai as president of an interim government.
October 9, 2004 – Afghanistan holds a presidential election, chooses Karzai as its first democratically-elected leader.
October 5, 2006 – NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) assumes responsibility for security across all of Afghanistan.
June 12, 2008 – International donors at a Paris conference pledge $20 billion in aid for Afghanistan but says Kabul must do more to fight corruption.
February 17, 2009 – U.S. President Barack Obama orders 17,000 more American troops to Afghanistan to fight an intensifying Taliban insurgency.
March 27, 2009 – Obama announces plan to deploy another 4,000 troops to train Afghan security forces.
August 20, 2009 – Afghanistan holds a presidential election, officials say Karzai wins more than 50 percent of the vote.
October 2009 – A U.N.-led probe of alleged voter fraud concludes Karzai won less than 50 percent, meaning he must face Abdullah Abdullah in a run-off election.
November 2009 – Abdullah quits the run-off contest, saying the government has not met his demands. Karzai is declared re-elected.
December 1, 2009 – Obama orders another 30,000 troops to Afghanistan to fight the Taliban, increasing the U.S. military presence to almost 100,000 troops.
November 20, 2010 – Obama sets the goal of ending U.S. combat operations in Afghanistan by the end of 2014 and sharply reducing the U.S. troop presence before then.
May 2, 2011 – U.S. special forces kill bin Laden in a covert raid on a house in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
