Following the September 11 attacks in 2001 on the U.S. , which President George W. Bush blamed on Osama bin Laden who was living or hiding in Afghanistan and had already been wanted since 1998 , President Bush demanded that the Taliban , who were '' de facto '' ruling the country , hand over bin Laden . The Taliban declined to extradite him unless they were provided clear evidence of his involvement in the attacks , which the U.S. refused to provide and dismissed as a delaying tactic and then on 7 October 2001 launched Operation Enduring Freedom with the United Kingdom . The two were later joined by other forces , including the Northern Alliance – the Afghan opposition which had been fighting the Taliban in the ongoing civil war since 1996 . By December 2001 , the Taliban and their al-Qaeda allies were mostly defeated in the country , and at the Bonn Conference new Afghan interim authorities ( mostly from the Northern Alliance ) elected Hamid Karzai to head the Afghan Interim Administration . The United Nations Security Council established the International Security Assistance Force ( ISAF ) to assist the new authority with securing Kabul , which after a 2002 loya jirga ( grand assembly ) became the Afghan Transitional Administration . A nationwide rebuilding effort was also made following the end of the totalitarian Taliban regime . In the popular elections of 2004 , Karzai was elected president of the country , now named the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan . NATO became involved in ISAF in August 2003 , and later that year assumed leadership of it . At this stage , ISAF included troops from 43 countries with NATO members providing the majority of the force . One portion of U.S. forces in Afghanistan operated under NATO command ; the rest remained under direct U.S. command
September 11 attacks
September 11 attacks
War in Afghanistan (2001–present)