C. The United States sent in troops after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks which it blamed on al-Qaeda leaders operating in Afghanistan. The troops helped oust the Taliban Islamic fundamentalists who had seized power in 1996. The Taliban returned in force in 2006 to mount a guerrilla war against U.S. troops and the U.S.-backed Afghan government.

Q: What neighboring nation invaded Afghanistan in 1979 and fought a 10-year war against insurgents?

A. China

B. Iran

C. Pakistan

D. Soviet Union

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D. When Soviet troops left Afghanistan in 1989, it triggered a long civil war that brought the Taliban to power in 1996. The United States had backed the insurgents fighting the now defunct Soviet Union. Some of those fighters later became members of al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

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Q: U.S. forces finally tracked down al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in what nation on Afghanistan’s southern border?

A. India

B. Pakistan

C. Russia

D. Uzbekistan

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B. In 2011, U.S. special forces killed bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan, where he was living less than a mile from the nation’s military academy. Afghanistan is bordered by Pakistan on the south and southeast; China on the east; the former Soviet republics of Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan on the north; and Iran on the west.

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Q: War-ravaged Afghanistan is one of the poorest nations in the world, and more than half its people live in poverty. Other than foreign aid, what brings the most money into Afghanistan?

A. Opium

B. Religious donations

C. Slave trade

D. Warlords

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A. Afghanistan has been the world’s largest illicit opium producer since 2001. The opium produces more than 90 percent of all illegal heroin, and the exports are worth about $4 billion a year. Much of that money is used to fund the Taliban, while government officials also collect millions in bribes from drug traffickers.

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