Drugs, war and terrorism were the unholy trinity that brought the US-led air campaign crashing down on the Taliban regime in Afghanistan in October 2001 in Operation Enduring Freedom, and this photographic history is a graphic introduction to it. The immediate aim was to eject the Taliban from power, and to capture or kill the al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and his supporters whom the Taliban were sheltering. The decade-long war that followed, first against the Taliban regime, then against Taliban insurgents, is one of the most controversial conflicts of recent times. It has also seen the deployment of thousands of coalition troops and a huge range of modern military equipment, and these are the main focus of Anthony Tucker-Jones’s account. He covers the entire course of the conflict, from the initial air war, the battle for the White Mountains and Tora Bora, the defeat of the Taliban, the escape of bin Laden and the grim protracted security campaign that followed - an asymmetrical war of guerrilla tactics and improvised explosive devices that is going on today. AUTHOR: Anthony Tucker-Jones is a former defence intelligence officer and a widely published expert on regional conflicts, counter-terrorism and armoured warfare. He is author of over a dozen books including the ‘Rise of Militant Islam, Falaise: The Flawed Victory’, ‘Operation Dragoon: The Liberation of Southern France 1944’, ‘Armoured Warfare on the Eastern Front’, ‘The Kalashnikov in Combat’ and ‘The Soviet-Afghan War’. He is security and terrorism correspondent for intersec - The Journal of International Security and has freelanced for Channel 4 News. For further information his website can be found at www.atuckerjones.com.
200 colour illustrations