Since 1996, Afghanistan had been under the control of the Taliban-led Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, a largely unrecognized unitary Deobandi–Islamic theocratic emirate administered by "shura" councils. On October 7, 2001, four weeks after the &lt;a href="September%2011%20attacks"&gt;9/11 attacks&lt;/a&gt; by al-Qaeda, the United States invaded Afghanistan and began bombing the country. George W. Bush said that the goal was to capture al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and bring him to justice. Although none of the hijackers were of Afghan nationality, the attacks had been planned in Kandahar.