The Northern Alliance , aided by Joint Special Operations teams consisting of Green Berets from the 5th Special Forces Group , aircrew members from the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment ( SOAR ) , and Air Force Combat Controllers , fought against the Taliban . Aided by U.S. bombing and massive defections , they captured Mazar-i-Sharif on 9 November . They then rapidly gained control of most of northern Afghanistan , and took control of Kabul on 13 November after the Taliban unexpectedly fled the city . The Taliban were restricted to a smaller and smaller region , with Kunduz , the last Taliban-held city in the north , captured on 26 November . Most of the Taliban fled to Pakistan . After the September 11 attacks in the United States in 2001 , the United Front succeeded in retaking Kabul from the Taliban with air support from US-led forces during Operation Enduring Freedom . In 2019 , U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Michael Mulroy remarked that the U.S. partnership with the Northern Alliance was a very successful model that was later followed in northern Iraq and Syria
September 11 attacks
September 11 attacks
Operation Enduring Freedom