The aftermath of September 11, 2001
President George W. Bush launched a "war on terror" after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.
It included a manhunt for the suspected mastermind, Osama bin Laden, and two "preventive wars", in Afghanistan (launched in 2001) and Iraq (launched in 2003).
While the military intervention in Afghanistan was endorsed by the United Nations, the invasion of Iraq did not have an international mandate and was strongly opposed by Russia and France.
Bush also bolstered the powers of the US security services, at the cost of human rights and civil liberties.
Here is a timeline of major events in the wake of 9/11:
- Afghanistan pounded -
- September 17, 2001: Bush calls for Al-Qaeda leader bin Laden to be taken "dead or alive".
- September 18, 2001: The US Congress authorises Bush to use force against countries, organisations and individuals with some alleged involvement in the attacks.
- October 7, 2001: US and British forces launch strikes in Afghanistan against the Taliban regime, accused of sheltering Al-Qaeda. It opens a military front in their "war on terrorism", backed by more than 40 countries. The Taliban are quickly overthrown.
- October 26, 2001: Bush signs into law a sweeping anti-terrorism bill, dubbed the "Patriot Act", that dramatically expands police and surveillance powers, including on cutting off terrorist finances, tapping telephones and detaining non-US citizens. It is renewed in May 2011 by Bush's successor, Barack Obama.
- Guantanamo Bay opens -
- November 13, 2001: Bush signs an order that would allow for non-US suspected terrorists to be tried before a special military panel instead of in civilian courts.
- January 11, 2002: A US military prison for "enemy combattants" opens at a high-security naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. About 760 prisoners will eventually pass through the jail, including Al-Qaeda number three and suspected 9/11 mastermind, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, jailed there in 2003.
- Invasion of Iraq -
- January 29, 2002: In his State of the Union speech to the US Congress, Bush accuses Iran, Iraq and North Korea of forming an "axis of evil".
- March 20, 2003: US-led forces bomb and then invade Iraq, alleging that president Saddam Hussein is harbouring weapons of mass destruction. Washington acts without an international mandate.
- December 13, 2003: Saddam is captured by US troops at Tikrit to the north of Baghdad after nine months on the run. He is hanged three years later.
- April 28, 2004: The broadcast of images of torture and humiliation of Iraqi prisoners at the US military prison at Abu Ghraib shocks the world.
- January 12, 2005: The United States stops searching for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, having found none.
- June 4, 2009: Newly elected president Barack Obama vows to forge a "new beginning" for Islam and America in a Cairo speech to the world's Muslims.
- Bin Laden killed -
- May 2, 2011: Obama announces that US forces had killed bin Laden and recovered his body during a commando operation at Abbottabad, a city just north of the Pakistan capital, Islamabad.
- December 18, 2011: The last US troops depart Iraq, ending a nine-year occupation.
- November 3, 2014: One World Trade Center (One WTC) opens on the site of the Twin Towers destroyed in the 9/11 attacks.
- December 31, 2014: NATO ends its combat mission in Afghanistan. Some 9,800 American soldiers however remain in the country to train Afghan troops.
- Memorial -
- May 15, 2014: Official inauguration of the September 11 museum on the World Trade Center site.
- October 15, 2015: With a Taliban insurgency still raging in Afghanistan, Obama abandons his pledge to pull all troops from the country, saying the Afghan forces are not ready to stand alone.