Afghanistan celebrated the first anniversary of the independence and the end of the US invasion in some parts of the country.

The US and British military ran at least two secret prisons in Iraq during the months following the 2003 invasion, concealing prisoners from Red Cross inspectors, Middle East Eye has learned.

US President Donald Trump says the United States’ military engagement in the Middle East is the "worst decision ever made” in US history.

Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani lashed out at the US destructive role in the region, adding that opium production in Afghanistan has sharply increased in the last 18 years since the US attack in 2001.

Iranian Police Chief Brigadier General Hossein Ashtari warned that production of different types of narcotics has sorely grown in Afghanistan since the US started war against the country in 2001.

The 2001 invasion of Afghanistan and following occupation by the United States was largely to protect the country’s opium cultivation and exploit its vast mineral resources, particularly the deposits of lithium, according to James Henry Fetzer, an American academic who has been studying the events of 9/11 since late 2001.