With British support, the United States launched “Operation Enduring Freedom,” a combat effort in Afghanistan. The Taliban refused to cooperate with efforts to root out al-Qaeda in that country. Early efforts to remove the Taliban from power were successful, though many of its operatives fled to Pakistan.
The United States joined the military and economic committees of the Baghdad Pact, a defense alliance that included Britain, Iran, Pakistan, Turkey, and Iraq.
Al-Qaeda is the militant Islamist organization founded by Osama bin Laden that was responsible for various acts of terrorism, including the attacks against the United States on September 11, 2001, as well as the attacks on US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998 and the suicide bombing of the USS Cole in 2000. Bin Laden organized al-Qaeda in opposition to the Soviet Union during the Afghan War of the 1980s. The group merged, moved, and established itself in various capacities and locations following the Soviet withdrawal...