On Sunday, Sept. 19 at 10 p.m. ET, award-winning NBC News Chief Foreign Correspondent Richard Engel hosts “On Assignment – Afghanistan: Graveyard of Empires” on MSNBC.
The new episode from the special ongoing series dedicates a full hour to America’s longest war and draws on Engel’s decade of experience in the battlefields of Afghanistan.
In the episode, Engel follows the journey of Sergeant Louis Loftus, a soldier from the 82nd Airborne, and offers a haunting image of the toll of war. While on patrol outside Kandahar in 2010, Sgt. Loftus and his unit are attacked by the Taliban and Richard is caught up in the firefight that ensues. Engel visits Loftus after his return to his hometown in Akron, Ohio, where Loftus deals with the aftermath of the war and suffers from PTSD and drug abuse.
Engel also sits-down with the former CIA station chief, Gary Schroen, who ran the operation to hunt down Osama Bin Laden, and speaks with Inspector General John Sopko who is auditing the trillions of dollars spent on reconstructing Afghanistan.
The episode also features a sit-down with former Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai and interviews with Afghan people Richard met on his multiple visits to the region over the years.
Following the withdrawal of U.S. troops, Richard is back inside Afghanistan and examines how Taliban rule has rapidly changed the country in just weeks.
Watch a preview here.
MSNBC’s “On Assignment” draws on Engel’s more than twenty years of award-winning original field reporting to present a special ongoing series that combines in-depth reporting with interviews from across the world.
“On Assignment with Richard Engel – Afghanistan: Graveyard of Empires” airs this Sunday, Sept. 19 at 10 p.m. ET on MSNBC.
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