Air Force Senior Airman Drew Nicholson inspects an M240 machine gun mounted to a common remote operating weapons station on his mine resistant ambush protected vehicle as the sun rises on Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan

2015 began with a new offensive by the Taliban. They were encouraged by the pull out of US and NATO combat troops and received reinforcement from Pakistan where the government had begun a crackdown on militants. The Russians closed the main supply routes through Russia to Afghanistan at the beginning of the year. The Taliban attempted an unsuccessful raid against the Pakistani parliament. The Taliban launched a major offensive on Kunduz which they managed to capture. They were not able to hold it and the city was retaken by Afghani and American forces on October 14, 2015. In the latter part of 2015, the Taliban took controls of parts of the Helmand Province.