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Afghanistan
This category contains the public monuments and memorials which have been erected to commemorate the conflict in Afghanistan since 2002.
From the early 1990s, the end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the former Soviet Union led to the emergence of new independent states and shifts in the international strategic balance. Fundamentalist religious dogma and the resort to mass terrorism replaced Cold War ideologies as a driving force of conflict in the 21st century.
Following the multiple terrorist attacks in New York and Washington DC on 11 September 2001, the President of the United States of America, George W. Bush declared a "war on terror". Australia invoked the ANZUS treaty to support the United States effort and Australian military personnel joined the forces of "the coalition of the willing".
In October 2001, coalition forces under American leadership invaded Afghanistan and ejected the ruling Taliban regime. From November to April 2002, Australian Special Air Service (SAS) squadrons participated in operations in the mountainous regions south of Kabul, conducting reconnaissance and surveillance, searching for Taliban and al Qaeda fighters and their bases.
The war ended inconclusively in mid-2002. However, approximately 500 Australian soldiers remained on deployment in Afghanistan, continuing operations with American and other coalition forces to hunt Taliban terrorist groups and carry out reconstruction and engineering projects.
The continuing deployment of Australian forces on operations in Oruzgan province has produced increasing numbers of Australian casualties: 11 Australians died on operations in Afghanistan from 2002 to the end of 2009, 10 died in 2010, and 11 in 2011. Successive Australian governments have renewed the commitment to the war in Afghanistan despite these mounting losses.
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