Afghanistan

"Afghanistan's the simplest place in the world, once you stop trying to change it."

- Billy Russo to Dinah Madani

Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country in Asia.

Kidnapping of Tony Stark
"You see, Eloise, two weeks from now, I'm scheduled to go to Afghanistan and test a weapon so secret that I can't even tell you its name."

- Tony Stark to Eloise

Tony Stark traveled to Afghanistan on a business trip in order to host a demonstration of the Jericho missile for the United States Armed Forces.

Stark arrived into Bagram Air Base, traveling in his own private jet with his friend James Rhodes, where he was greeted by General William Gabriel and prepare to leave for the site of the demonstration.

Giving a speech about the importance of weapons to maintain world peace, Stark unleashed a Jericho over a mountain range, impressing the officers and celebrating the success of the missile.

A Humvee convoy was deployed to escort Stark and the other attendees to the demonstration. Stark refused to travel in the same Humvee as Rhodes, and while chatting with the airmen assigned to escort him, the convoy was attacked by members of the Ten Rings terrorist group. The soldiers were killed and while trying to flee, Stark was affected by the explosion of one of his own weapons, causing a large amount of shrapnel to penetrate his Bulletproof Vest and injure him.

While unsconcious for the effect of the injuries, he was kidnapped by the Ten Rings and taken to one of the Ten Rings Bases in Afghanistan, in order to film a video to their then unrevealed employer.

James Rhodes's convoy arrived to Kunar five minutes after Stark's, but by that time, Stark was already gone.

Upon his arrival to the Ten Rings Base, Stark had to be operated by another prisoner, Ho Yinsen, who tried to remove the shrapnel that penetrated Stark's chest. Being unable to remove all the pieces, Yinsen had to insert an electromagnet powered by a car battery to keep the shrapnel from reaching Stark's heart and killing him.

When Stark recovered consciousness, Yinsen explained his current condition, and acted as his translator and for their mutual kidnappers. Abu Bakaar, one of the Ten Rings members in charge of the base, instructed him to make a Jericho missile for them, and after being tortured and shown a vast arsenal of weapons developed by Stark Industries, he seemingly accepted.

However, Yinsen convinced Stark to make a difference in what could possibly be the last days of his life, so instead of making a missile, Stark and Yinsen developed a miniature Arc Reactor so Stark to increase Stark's chances of surviving the shrapnel injury, and they secretly started working on an armor powered by the reactor that will help them escape.

After working on the armor for three months, Stark and Yinsen formed a strong bond between one another. Raza, one of the leaders of the Ten Rings, unhappy with Stark's progresses, threatened to kill Yinsen and gave them an ultimatum, one more day to assemble the missile.

Stark and Yinsen finished assembling the armor, and Yinsen tried to distract the terrorists so Stark could charge the suit. Stark made his way through the base using the armor and killing the terrorists, only to find Yinsen critically injured, imploring him not waste his life with his dying breath.

Stark destroyed all the stolen weapons in the base and flew out of the area briefly using the armor's flight capabilities. He crash landed in a deserted area, and wandered until one of the search and rescue units commanded by Rhodes found him and moved him back to the United States.

However, Raza, disfigured during Stark's escape, and other members of the Ten Rings combed the desert in order to find the pieces of Stark's armor in order to assemble it again in one of their camps.

During a party in Los Angeles, Christine Everhart showed Stark pictures of Stark Industries weapons in the hands of terrorist groups, including an arsenal of Jericho missiles in Gulmira. The discovery that Obadiah Stane had been supplying weapons to the terrorists, and a news report of the situation in Gulmira by journalist Amira Ahmed, inspired Stark to don his newest armor and travel to Afghanistan in order to defeat the terrorists.

Stark attacked the terrorists in Gulmira without harming the human shields and civilians that had been taken as hostages, leaving his former captor Abu Bakaar to the "mercies" of the residents of Gulmira. Stark located more arsenals containing fully-armed Jericho missiles and destroyed them.

Phil Coulson and Nick Fury, during their investigation surrounding the events of the Kidnapping of Tony Stark, immediately travelled to Gulmira to analyze Stark's role during his attack to the Ten Rings. They find footage recorded by the terrorist and intented to frighten civilians. The footage shows Stark in his armor defeating the terrorists.

The following day, James Rhodes denied the involvement of the U.S. government in what he called an "unexpected turn of events" in Gulmira.

Obadiah Stane then travelled to Afghanistan in order to recover Stark's armor prototype accompanied by a group of mercenaries. Stane reunite with Raza, who offered the armor in exchange of an army of "iron soldiers". However, Stane paralyzed him using a Sonic Taser while his mercenaries disarmed the terrorists. After exiting the area, Stane ordered the mercenaries to kill the terrorist to avoid having any witnesses of his actions.

Landmine Deserts
Tony Stark returned to Afghanistan during his early quest of establishing world peace, using his newly created identity as Iron Man. Stark sent a Magna-Drone, one of his patent pending designs, in order to clean several square miles of a -infested desert outside of Kabul.

The desert had not only Soviet landmines, but also the explosives placed by the Ten Rings in order to kill the canine brigades tasked by the afghani armed forces to detect the explosives.

Stark launched the Magna-Drone to follow him as he flew in his Iron Man Armor, activating it once it reached a safe altitude. The Magna-Drone was able to attract the landmines with a 100% retrieval and non-detonation rate, making Stark wanting to travel to Tokyo to celebrate the success.

Unbeknownst to Stark, the whole operation was monitored by S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Nick Fury.

Thor's Skills
Afghanistan has a reputation amongst the international community of being one of the best places in the world to train a mercenary. As such, Phil Coulson named Afghanistan as one of the possible places where Thor received the training needed to subdue the multiple S.H.I.E.L.D. agents he defeated while trying to gain access to the heavily custodied Mjølnir in New Mexico.

Crossing Asia
Bruce Banner went to hide in Asia after leaving his cabin in Bella Coola, Canada. S.H.I.E.L.D. tracked Banner as he crossed Afghanistan and Pakistan heading to India. He managed to keep his transformations under control while crossing the country, only triggered when under attack in Indian territory.

Ten Rings
Lieutenant Colonel James Rhodes was assigned on several missions to battle different cells from the Ten Rings terrorist group.

As War Machine, Rhodes traveled to the Ghazni province in Afghanistan, where he had to battle a group of heavily armed terrorists, which attacked him with s, making Rhodes wonder where would they be able to obtain such firepower.

Rhodes battled more groups in India and Sudan, with virtually identical weaponry despite having no common location or ideology, and he deduced that a common benefactor was supplying terrorists under the flag of the Ten Rings to fulfill his own agenda.

Rhodes returned to the Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan where he contacted Tony Stark, busy at the moment with the construction of Stark Tower in New York City. Stark told Rhodes how he tried to track them for being responsibles of his kidnapping, but his investigations after confronting them at Gulmira led to nowhere, as the Ten Rings operated in autonomous cells, and the highest-ranking operative in each cell had one contact in another cell, but not with the overall leader.

Rhodes informed about a lead he obtained, a plan about a bioterror attack in Asia, and Rhodes intended to capture the responsibles of such an important operation, as they would probably have more knowledge about the organization than the rest of the operatives.

United States Armed Forces
Brian Hayward was stationed in Afghanistan as a member of the United States Armed Forces for three years, before returning to the United States and being recruited as an operative for the Centipede Project.

Arrest of Khalid Khandil
"Is this Bakhmala? The Khalid Khandil mission, that was you?"

- Natasha Romanoff

Sam Wilson and his para-rescue unit were tasked with apprehending Khalid Khandil, a notable target in Bakhmala. Khandil hid himself in an area protected by soldiers using RPGs, preventing the United States Armed Forces from sending helicopters to the area.

Wilson and his wingman, Riley, infiltrated the area using two sets of EXO-7 Falcon mechanical wing harnesses, allowing them highly-maneuvered flight. Wilson and Riley performed the mission in a way they performed similar operations, but Riley got hit by one of the RPGs, and Wilson could do nothing to help him.

Wilson continued his mission and apprehended Khandil; he returned to the United States and started working for the Department of Veterans feeling guilty for Riley's death.

Operation Cerberus
"Afghanistan was different, you know?" "Different how?" "Just different. Things we did, they kinda got blurred."

- Frank Castle and Curtis Hoyle

In the province of Kandahar, a CIA task force composed of Force Recon Marines is deployed on an unsanctioned black operation. The operation, call-signed Cerberus, is spearheaded and supervised by by William Rawlins and Major Ray Schoonover with the sole purpose of conducting nightly raids on local civilians and allied personnel who have witnessed American troops participating in the local drug trade.