Timeline Afghanistan A thru 2004
Afghan A = thru 2004
Afghan B
= 2005-2007
Afghan C
= 2008-2010
Return to home
Afghan Online Press: http://www.afghan-web.com/aop/
Afghan-Web: http://www.afghan-web.com/history/achron.html
CIA Factbook: http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/af.html
Paksoy: http://www.ukans.edu/carrie/archives_main.html
Revol. Women's Assoc.: http://www.rawa.org/
Wikipedia: http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afghanistan_timeline
Afghanistan was also known as Ariana or Bactria
in ancient times and as Khorasan in the Middle Ages. Pathans, a
Pashto-speaking
people, make up half the population of the country and a large part of
Pakistan's population. Pashto is the native language.
(WSJ, 10/1/01, p.A1)
The Hazara people are centered in Bamiyan province, east of Kabul. They
are the remnants of a 13th century Mongol invasion and are at the
bottom of the social hierarchy. They are Shiite Muslims and opposed to
the Taliban.
(SFC, 3/18/98, p.A10)(WSJ, 10/1/01, p.A1)
Afghanistan has had three principal
names each of which has lasted for centuries. The three principal
names:
Aryana in antiquity, Khurasan in the medieval era, and Afghanistan in
modern
times, have distinguished this land throughout its history.
At times Herat, Bactria, and Kabul have had kingdoms of their own.
(www.afghan, 5/25/98)
The main languages are Dari and Pashtu. The population is
16,500,000.
Its area is 251,773 sq. mi.
(NG, V184, No. 4, Oct. 1993, p. 66)
Afghanistan’s Helmand province is about the size of West Virginia.
(Econ, 7/1/06, p.23)
40Mil BC The entire Tibetan Plateau
underwent major uplifting. Vast ranges rose from the Himalayas on the
east to Afghanistan’s Hindu Kush and Iran’s Elburz mountains on the
west.
(SFC, 5/19/06, p.B7)
50000BC-20000BC Archaeologists have identified
evidence of stone age technology in Aq Kupruk, and Hazar Sum. Plant
remains at the foothill of the Hindu Kush mountains indicate, that
North Afghanistan was one of the earliest places to domestic plants and
animals.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
3000BC-2000BC Bronze might have been invented in
ancient Afghanistan around this time. True urban centers rose in two
main sites in Afghanistan--Mundigak, and Deh Morasi Ghundai. Mundigak
(near modern day Kandahar) had an economic base of wheat, barley, sheep
and goats. Also, evidence indicates that Mudigak could have been a
provincial capital of the Indus valley civilization. Ancient
Afghanistan was a crossroads between Mesopotamia, and other
Civilizations.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
c2500BC Aryan followers of King Yama crossed the Oxus
River from Central Asia into Tajikistan and created a new calendar with
the new year (Now Roz, Now-Ruz) marked by spring.
(SSFC, 3/31/02, p.A22)
2000BC-500BC Aryan tribes lived in Aryana (Ancient
Afghanistan). The City of Kabul is thought to have been established
during this time. Rig Veda may have been created in Afghanistan around
this time. Evidence of early nomadic iron age in Aq Kapruk IV.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
c1500BC-1200BCE The Persian prophet Zoroaster
(Zarathustra) founded the religion known as Zoroastrianism. The
principal beliefs included the existence of a supreme deity called
Ahura Mazda and a cosmic struggle between the spirit of good, Spenta
Mainyu, and the spirit of evil, Angra Mainyu. Later adherents to
Zoroastrianism are represented by the Parsees of India and the Gabars
of Iran.
(Econ, 12/18/04,
p.35)(www.livius.org/za-zn/zarathustra/zarathustra.htm)
c1000BCE A Pashtun legend later held that about this
time King Saul’s son, Jeremiah, had a daughter named Afghana whose
descendants made their way to Central Asia.
(SFC, 10/20/01, p.A10)
c600BCE Zoroaster introduced a new religion in
Bactria (Balkh), also known as ancient Afghanistan. Zoroastrianism is a
Monotheistic religion. [see 1500-1200BCE]
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
c522BCE Zoroaster died during nomadic invasion near
Balkh.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
522-486 BC Darius the Great expanded the Achaemenid
(Persian) empire to its peak, when it took most of Afghanistan,
including Aria (Herat), Bactriana (Balk, and present-day
Mazar-i-Shariff), Margiana (Merv), Gandhara (Kabul, Jalalabad and
Peshawar), Sattagydia (Ghazni to the Indus river), Arachosia (Kandahar,
and Quetta), and Drangiana (Sistan). The Persian empire was plagued by
constant bitter and bloody tribal revolts from Afghans living in
Arachosia (Kandahar, and Quetta).
(www.afghan, 5/25/98)
329BC-326BCE After conquering Persia, Alexander the
Great invaded Afghanistan. He conquered Afghanistan, but failed to
really subdue its people. Constant revolts plagued Alexander.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
326BC-325BCE Revolts plagued Alexander and he left
little more behind than a city with his Afghan name, Kandahar.
(SSFC, 10/28/01, p.C8)
323BCE Greeks ruled Bactria (Northern Afghanistan)
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
170BC-160BCE The Bactrian-Parthian era of
Afghanistan.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
37 Some 20,000 pieces of jewelry
and other objects were buried about this time with a warrior-prince and
5 women in northern Afghanistan. In 1978-79 a team led by Russian
archeologist Viktor Sarianidi discovered their 6 sealed tombs at a site
called Tillya Tepe (hill of gold). The findings became known as the
“Golden Hoard of Bactria.”
(WSJ, 11/19/08, p.D7)
50 Kushan ruled over Afghanistan
under King Kanishka. Graeco-Buddhist Gandharan culture reach its height.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
200-400 A giant statue of Buddha was made at Bamiyan
(Bamian) some 100 miles west of Kabul. It was destroyed by the Taliban
in 2001.
(AM, Jul/Aug ‘97 p.19)(SFC, 2/12/02, p.A16)
220 Kushan empire fragmented into
petty dynasties.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
250-300 The smaller Buddha at Bamiyan (Bamian), 114
feet high, dated to about this time. It was a gigantic magnification of
a Gandhara image. It was destroyed by the Taliban in 2001.
(WSJ, 3/5/00, p.A22)(SFC, 2/12/02, p.A16)
400 Invasion of the White Huns.
They destroyed the Buddhist culture, and left most of the country in
ruins.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
c400-600 The large Buddha at Bamiyan, 170 feet tall,
was constructed. It was an enlargement of an Indian Buddha of the Gupta
period.
(WSJ, 3/5/00, p.A22)
425-550 Independent Yaftalee ruled in Afghanistan.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
550 Persians reasserted
control over all of what is now Afghanistan. Revolts by various Afghan
tribes followed.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
629 A Chinese pilgrim reported
seeing a 1000-foot reclining Buddha at Bamiyan, Afghanistan. By 2004
the sleeping Buddha had not been seen for several hundred years. [see
632]
(SFC, 8/31/04, p.A2)
632 Hiuan-tsang, an Chinese
pilgrim, visited the great Buddhas of Bamiyan.
(WSJ, 12/20/01, p.A13)
652 Arabs introduced Islam.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
727 Houei-tch’ao, a Korean
pilgrim, visited the great Buddhas of Bamiyan.
(WSJ, 12/20/01, p.A13)
781 Yakib ben Laith, a Saffarid
prince from an eastern Iranian dynasty, stripped the sanctuaries of
Bamiyan of their metal idols.
(WSJ, 12/20/01, p.A13)
962-1030 Islamic era was established with the
Ghaznavid Dynasty.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
962-1140 Under the Ghaznavid Dynasty Afghanistan
became the center of Islamic power and civilization.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
971-1030 Machmud of Ghazni, ruler of Afghanistan. He
made annual invasions to northern India where he pillaged temples,
captured slaves, and transported his goods back by elephant. His
library had a large collection of erotic manuscripts and he shared his
palace with 400 poets.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R6)
980 Ibn Sina (Afghan scientist)
was born in Balkh.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1019 Machmud of Ghazni, a kingdom
in central Asia, invaded India and took so many captives that the
prices of slaves plummeted for several years. He invade India annually
for 25 years.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R4)
1030 Mahmud Ghazni died. Conflicts
between various Ghaznavid rulers arose and as a result the empire
started to crumple.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1140 Ghorid leaders from central
Afghanistan captured and burned Ghazni, then moved on to conquer India.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1207 Sep 30, Jalal ud-din Rumi
(Jelaluddin Rumi, d.1273), Persian poet and mystic was born in the area
of Balkh, Afghanistan. He later fled the Mongol invasions with his
family to Konya (Iconium), Anatolia. His work “Mathwani” (Spiritual
Couplets) filled 6 volumes and had a great impact on Islamic
civilization. He founded the Mevlevi order of Sufis, later known as the
“whirling dervishes.” In 1998 a film was made about the Sufi poet’s
influence on the 20th century. In 1998 Kabir Helminski edited “The Rumi
Collection” with translation by Robert Bly and others. His work also
included the “Shams I-Tabriz” in which he dismissed the terminology of
Jew, Christian and Muslim as “false distinctions.” The poet Rumi was
also known as Mowlana.
(SFC, 7/9/96, p.B5)(SFEC, 9/20/98, DB p.50)(SFEC,
10/25/98, BR p.6)(WSJ, 9/7/01, p.A14)(SSFC, 10/28/01, p.B7)(SSFC,
4/1/07, p.E3)
1219-1221 Genghis Khan invaded Afghanistan.
Destruction of irrigation systems by Genghis Khan turned fertile soil
into permanent deserts.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1221 Genghis Khan razed the city
of Bamiyan and exterminated its inhabitants.
(WSJ, 11/16/01, p.W12)
1273 Marco Polo crossed Afghan
Turkistan.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1332-1370 Descendants of earlier Ghorid rulers
reasserted control over Afghanistan.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1369-1405 Timur (aka Timur Lang or Timur Lenk or
Tamerlane, so-named because of a lame leg) ruled from Samarkand.
(WUD, 1994, p.1451)
1370-1404 Timour-i-Lang (Tamerlane) ruled over
Afghanistan. Afghan resistance was active.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1394 Tamerlane conquered all of
Afghanistan.
(WSJ, 11/16/01, p.W12)
1451 An Afghan named Buhlul
invaded Delhi, and seized the throne. He founded the Lodi dynasty.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1504 Babur, founder of the Mughal
dynasty in India, captured Kabul in Afghanistan and maintained control
to 1519.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.8)(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1520-1579 Bayazid Roshan, an Afghan intellectual,
lived. He revolted against the power of the Moghul government.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1526 Apr 21, Mongol Emperor Babur
annihilated Indian Army of Ibrahim Lodi. Babar, King of Kabul,
established in this year the Mughal dynasty at Delhi.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.13)(HN, 4/21/98)(SFEC, 5/21/00, p.T8)
1540 May 17, Afghan chief Sher
Khan defeated Mongol Emperor Humayun at Kanauj.
(HN, 5/17/98)
1579 Roshan was killed in a battle
with the Moghuls, but his struggle for independence continued.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1581 Akbar, Mughal Emperor of
India, conquered Afghanistan.
(TL-MB, p.23)
1613 Khushhal Khan Khattak
(d.1690), Afghan warrior-poet, was born. He initiated a national
uprising against the foreign Moghul government.
(www.afghan-network.net/biographies/khattak.html)
1622 Safavid Persia ruled Kandahar.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1678-1707 Aurangzeb was the 1st Muslim ruler to fire
his cannon at the giant Buddhas at Bamiyan.
(WSJ, 11/16/01, p.W12)
1690 Khushal Khan Khattak
(b.1613), Pushtun poet, died. He wrote in Pashtu during the reign of
the Mongol emperors in the seventeenth century. He lived in the
foothills of the Hindu Kush mountains. He was a renowned fighter who
became known as the Afghan Warrior Poet.
(www.afghan-network.net/biographies/khattak.html)
1708 Mir Wais, a forerunner of
Afghan independence, made Kandahar independent of Safavid Persia that
had ruled it since 1622.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1715 Mir Wais died peacefully, and
lies in a mausoleum outside of Kandahar.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1721 Abdul Qadir Bedil (b.1644),
Afghanistan Sufi poet, died. In 2000 Afghan cab drivers in Washington
DC began meeting to discuss his work in a program called “An Evening of
Sufism.”
(WSJ, 7/10/06, p.A1)(http://devoted.to/bedil)
1722 Mar 8, Afghan monarch Mir
Mahmud occupied Persia.
(MC, 3/8/02)
1722 Oct 12, Shah Sultan Husayn
surrendered the Persian capital of Isfahan to Afghan rebels after a
seven month siege. Mir Wais' son, Mir Mahmud of Afghanistan, had
invaded Persia and occupied Isfahan. At the same time, the Durranis
revolted, and terminated the Persian occupation of Herat.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)(HN, 10/12/98)
1725 Apr 25, Mir Mahmud was
mysteriously killed after going mad. Afghans started to lose control
of Persia.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1736 Nadir Shah (head of Persia)
occupied southwest Afghanistan, and southeast Persia.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1738 Nadir Shah (head of
Persia) took Kandahar.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1747 Nadir Shah (head of Persia)
was assassinated, and the Afghans rose once again. Afghans, under the
leadership of Ahmad Shah Abdali (Durrani) retook Kandahar, and
established modern Afghanistan.
(NG, 10/1993, p. 66)(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1747 Ahmad Shah Abdali (d.1773)
consolidated and enlarged Afghanistan. He defeated the Moghuls in the
west of the Indus, and he took Herat away from the Persians. Ahmad Shah
Durrani's empire extended from Central Asia to Delhi, from Kashmir to
the Arabian sea. It became the greatest Muslim empire in the second
half of the 18th century.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1750 Khurasan [was renamed]
Afghanistan.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1757 Jan 28, Ahmed Shah, the first
King of Afghanistan, occupied Delhi and annexed the Punjab.
(HN, 1/28/99)
1773-1793 Rule of Timur Shah. The capital of
Afghanistan was transferred from Kandahar to Kabul because of tribal
opposition. Constant internal revolts occurred.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1793-1801 Rule of Zaman Shah. Constant
internal revolts continued.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1795 Persians invaded Khurasan
(province).
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)*
1801-1803 Rule of Mahmood. Constant internal
revolts continued.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1803-1809 Rule of Shah Shujah.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1805 Persian attack on Herat
failed. Internal fighting continued.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1809-1818 Mahmood returned to the throne. War with
Persia--indecisive victory. Internal fighting continued.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1819-1826 Sons of Timur Shah struggle for the
throne--Civil War--anarchy. Afghans lost Sind permanently.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1824 William Moorcroft, East India
Co. head of 5,000 acre horse farm at Pusa, India, arrived in Peshawar,
Afghanistan, while enroute to Bukhara, Uzbekistan, to trade for horses.
(ON, 1/02, p.5)
1825 Aug 27, William Moorcroft,
East India Co. head of 5,000 acre horse farm at Pusa, India, died near
Balkh, Afghanistan, while returning to India following his trip to
Bukhara, Uzbekistan, to trade for horses. In 1985 Garry Alder authored
“Beyond Bukhara: The Life of William Moorcroft, Asian Explorer and
Veterinary Surgeon.”
(ON, 1/02, p.6)
1826 Dost Mohammad Khan took
Kabul, and established control.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1832-1833 Persia moved into Khurasan (province), and
threatened Herat. Afghans defend Herat successfully.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1834 May, Afghans lost Peshawar to
the Sikhs; later they crushed the Sikhs under the leadership of
Akbar Khan, who defeated the Sikhs near Jamrud, and killed the great
Sikh general Hari Singh. However, they failed to retake Peshawar
due to disunity and bad judgment on the part of Dost Mohammad Khan.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1836 Dost Mohammad Khan was
proclaimed as Amir al-mu' Minin, commander of the faithful. He was well
on the road toward reunifying the whole of Afghanistan when the
British, in collaboration with an ex-king (Shah Shuja), invaded
Afghanistan.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1838 Oct 1, Lord Auckland, British
governor general in India, issued the Simla Manifesto, setting forth
the necessary reasons for British intervention in Afghanistan. This led
to the 1st Anglo-Afghan War.
(Econ, 10/7/06,
p.18)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Anglo-Afghan_War)
1838 Dec, India’s British governor
general dispatched to Kabul the Army of the Indus to protect British
interests from growing Russian influence.
(SSFC, 10/28/01,
p.C8)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Anglo-Afghan_War)
1839 A British army marched to
Kabul and replaced Dost Mohammad, the amir of Afghanistan, with a more
docile ruler. Britain had decided that Persian and Russian intrigues
posed a threat to their control of India.
(WSJ, 8/25/98, p.A14)
1839-1842 First Anglo-Afghan War. After some
resistance, Amir Dost Mohammad Khan surrendered to the British and was
deported to India. In 1990 John H. Waller (1923-2004) authored “Beyond
the Khyber Pass: The Road to British Disaster in the First Afghan War.”
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)(SSFC, 11/7/04, p.A23)
1839-1842 Shah Shuja was installed as Afghan "puppet
king" by the British.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1840 May 14, English Lt. Richmond
Shakespear left Herat on a mission to Khiva (later Uzbekistan) to
persuade the ruling Khan to free all his Russian slaves.
(ON, 4/00, p.7)
1840 Aug 15, English Lt. Richmond
Shakespear began a 500-mile trek with 416 freed Russian slaves from
Khiva to the Russian Fort Alexandrovsk on the Caspian Sea.
(ON, 4/00, p.8)
1840 Nov 5, Afghanistan
surrendered to the British.
(HN, 11/5/98)
1841 Nov 2, Following the
British occupation of Kabul during the 1st Afghan War (1839-1842),
Afghans revolted and murdered British envoy, Lt. Col. Sir Alexander
Burnes (1805-1841) and some 23 others. By Jan 1842 the British army
decided to withdraw with its 4,500 Anglo-Indian troops and 10,000 camp
followers. The column was wiped out by Ghilzai tribesmen with their
long-barreled rifles called jezails.
(WSJ, 8/25/98, p.A14)(HN,
11/2/98)(www.indhistory.com/afghan-war-1.html)
1842 Jan 1, Maj. Gen. William G.K.
Elphinstone ordered a 90-mile retreat from Kabul through the snowy
passes to Jalalabad.
(SSFC, 10/28/01, p.C8)
1842 Jan 2-1842 Jan12, Akbar Khan,
Afghan hero, was victorious against the British. Out of 4,500 (16,500)
soldiers and 12,000 dependents only one survivor, of a mixed
British-Indian garrison, reached the fort in Jalalabad, on a stumbling
pony. The British retreated from Kabul to Jalalabad. The incident is
the backdrop for George MacDonald Fraser’s novel “Flashman.” [see Jan
13]
(WSJ, 4/10/95,
A-16)(www.afghan-web.com/history/)(WSJ, 9/20/01, p.A12)
1842 Jan 13, Dr. William Brydon,
badly wounded, reached Jalalabad as the only survivor of a 16,000
person retreat from Kabul. In the 1st British-Afghan War British troops
retreating from Kabul were ambushed and nearly all slaughtered at the
Khyber Pass, even though the Afghans had promised them safe passage
during their withdrawal from the Afghan capital. [see Jan 2-12]
(SSFC, 10/28/01, p.C8)(MC, 1/13/02)
1842 Apr, Shah Shuja was killed by
Afghans. Afghans passionately continued their struggle against
the British.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1842 The British forced their way
through the Khyber Pass. They recaptured Kabul and burned down the
Great Bazaar in retribution before marching back to India.
(WSJ, 8/25/98, p.A14)
1843 After the annihilation of
British troops, Afghanistan once again became independent, and the
exiled Amir, Dost Mohammad Khan came back and occupied the royal throne.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1843-1863 Dost Mohammad Khan occupied the royal
throne.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1845 Afghan hero, Akbar Khan
died.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1849 Britain annexed the Punjab,
the vast territories of what later became known as eastern Pakistan and
northern western India. This put them on the edge of the tribal
territories, mostly claimed by Afghanistan, and forced them to launch
military campaigns almost every year for the next half century to keep
the tribes at bay.
(Econ, 1/2/10, p.18)
1855 Dost Mohammad Khan signed a
peace treaty with India.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1859 British took Baluchistan, and
Afghanistan became completely landlocked.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1863-1866 Sher Ali, Dost Mohammad Khan's son,
succeeded to the throne.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1865 Russia took
Bukhara, Tashkent, and Samerkand.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1866-1867 Mohammad Afzal occupied Kabul and
proclaimed himself Amir.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1867 Oct, Mohammad Afzal died.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1867-1868 Mohammad Azam succeeded to the throne.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1868 Mohammad Azam fled to Persia.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1868-1879 Sher Ali reasserted control.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1873 Russia established a fixed
boundary between Afghanistan and it's new territories. Russia promised
to respect Afghanistan's territorial integrity.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1878 The new amir, Dost Mohammad’s
son, signed a treaty of friendship with Russia. British Gen’l.
Frederick “Little Bobs” Roberts was sent with an army to force
Afghanistan into a treaty ceding foreign policy to the British. The
treaty was concluded but the British envoy was murdered.
(WSJ, 8/25/98, p.A14)
1878 Start of second Anglo-Afghan
War. The British invaded and the Afghans quickly put up a strong
resistance.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1879 Oct 12, British troops
occupied Kabul, Afghanistan.
(MC, 10/12/01)
1879 Sher Ali died in
Mazar-i-Shariff, and Amir Muhammad Yaqub Khan took over until October
1879. Amir Muhammad Yaqub Khan gave up the following Afghan territories
to the British: Kurram, Khyber, Michni, Pishin, and Sibi. Afghans lost
these territories permanently.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1879 Gen’l. Roberts returned to
Kabul to hang some Afghans in punishment for the murder of a British
envoy. Roberts was besieged and another British force in southern
Afghanistan was almost annihilated. Roberts retreated in a march from
Kabul to Kandahar.
(WSJ, 8/25/98, p.A14)
1880 Jul, In the Battle of
Maiwand an Afghan woman named Malalai carried the Afghan flag forward
after the soldiers carrying the flag were killed by the British. She
becomes a heroine for her show of courage and valor. The 1892 Kipling
poem “Barracks Room Ballads” recalled the Battle of Maiwand.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)(SSFC, 10/28/01, p.C8)
1880 Aug 1, Sir Frederick Roberts
freed the British Afghanistan garrison of Kandahar from Afghan rebels.
(HN, 8/1/98)
1880 Abdur Rahman, backed by the
British, took the throne of Afghanistan as Amir.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)(Econ, 11/7/09, p.12)
1880 In the 2nd Anglo-Afghan War
an Anglo-Indian force of 2,500 lost 1,000 dead and fled from a rebel
army of some 25,000.
(SSFC, 10/28/01, p.C8)
1880 The British, shortly after
the accession of the new Amir, withdrew from Afghanistan, although they
retained the right to handle Afghanistan's foreign relations.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1880 Abdur Rahman established
fixed borders and he lost a lot of Afghan land.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1880 Nuristan converted to Islam.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1885 Mar 30, Russian troops
inflicted a crushing defeat on Afghan forces Ak Teppe despite orders
not to fight.
(HN, 3/30/99)
1885 The Panjdeh Incident. Russian
forces seize the Panjdeh Oasis, a piece of Afghan territory north of
the Oxus River. Afghans tried to retake it, but were finally forced to
allow the Russians to keep Panjdeh, and the Russians promised to honor
Afghan territorial integrity in the future.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1888 In Afghanistan a royal decree
granted Pashtun Sunnis rights to graze their herds in the central
highlands, land occupied by the Hazara people.
(SFC, 10/21/08, p.A12)
1893 The Durand line, drawn by
British diplomat Sir Mortimer Durand, fixed the borders of Afghanistan
with British India, splitting Pushtun tribal areas, leaving half of
these Afghans in what is now Pakistan. By 2007 no Afghan government had
yet accepted the border.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)(Econ, 7/22/06,
p.44)(Econ, 8/18/07, p.34)
1894 Mullah Powindah, an
Afghan-backed Mehsud, led an attack on a British team demarcating the
frontier between India and Afghanistan. Powindah took the title
Badshah-Taliban (King of the Taliban) and became a 2-decade-long
headache for the British.
(Econ, 1/2/10, p.19)
1895 Afghanistan's northern
border was fixed and guaranteed by Russia.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1896 Emir Abdul Rachman converted
the eastern kafirs to Islam by force.
(WSJ, 11/16/01, p.W12)
1901 Abdur Rahman died and his son
Habibullah succeeded him.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1907 Russia and Great Britain
signed the convention of St. Petersburg, in which Afghanistan was
declared outside Russia's sphere of influence.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1914 Mohammad Zahir Shah, later
king, was born. He was crowned at age 19, ousted in 1963 and deposed in
1973.
(SFC, 4/19/02, p.A11)
1918 Mahmud Tarzi (Afghan
Intellectual) introduced modern Journalism into Afghanistan with the
creation of several newspapers.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1919 Aug 19, Afghanistan declared
independence from UK.
(MC, 8/19/02)
1919 The first museum in
Afghanistan was instituted at Baghe Bala.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1919 Afghanistan was recognized as
a sovereign nation.
(WSJ, 10/1/01, p.A1)
1919 The Emir of Afghanistan
declared jihad against Britain’s forces in the North-West Frontier
Province. In response Britain shipped a single Handley Page biplane
bomber to Karachi. It flew over Kabul and dropped four 20-pound bombs.
The emir sued for peace shortly thereafter.
(Econ, 8/26/06, p.20)
1919 In Afghanistan Habibullah was
assassinated, and succeeded by his son Amanullah (The reform King).
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1919-1921 The 3rd Anglo-Afghan war began. The British
were defeated, and Afghanistan gained full control of her foreign
affairs.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)(WSJ, 8/25/98, p.A14)
1921 May 27, Afghanistan achieved
sovereignty after 84 years of British control.
(MC, 5/27/02)
1921 Treaty of Ranalpindi.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1921 Afghanistan signed a Treaty
of Friendship with the Soviet Union.
(WSJ, 9/20/01, p.A12)
1921 Amanullah Khan initiates a
series of ambitious efforts at social and political modernization.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1923 Amanullah Khan changed his
title from Amir to Padshah (King).
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1926 Oct 16, Mohammed Nadir Khan
began a coup in Afghanistan and 1200 were killed.
(MC, 10/16/01)
1929 Oct 15, Nadir Khan
(1983-1933) took the throne of Afghanistan after a 3-way power
struggle. His tribal Wazir army looted government buildings and houses
of wealthy citizens because the treasury was empty. Habibullah
Kalakani, along with his supporters, and a few supporters of Amanullah
Khan were killed by Nadir Khan and Khan established full control.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammed_Nadir_Shah)(WSJ, 10/11/01, p.A6)
1929 Amanullah Khan was overthrown
by Habibullah Kalakani.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1929 After the fall of Amanullah
Khan, Mahmud Tarzi sought asylum in Turkey.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1929 The Rise and Fall of
Habibullah Kalakani, popularly known as "Bache Saqaw."
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1930 May, Pro-Amanullah Khan
uprising was put down by Nadir Khan. Nadir Khan abolished reforms set
forth by Amanullah Khan to modernize Afghanistan.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1931 Jun 24, The Soviet Union and
Afghanistan signed a treaty of neutrality.
(HN, 6/24/98)
1933 Nadir Khan was assassinated
by a college student, and his son, Zahir, inherited the throne.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1933 King Zahir Shah (1914-2007)
began his rule as king of Afghanistan. He kept the country in feudal
backwardness until he was overthrown in 1973. His uncles served as
prime ministers and advisors until 1953.
(SFC, 9/23/96, A9)(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1933 Mahmud Tarzi, Afghan
intellectual, died in Turkey at the age of 68. He is known as the
father of Afghan journalism.
(www.afghan-web.com/bios/yest/tarzi.html)
1934 The United States of
America formally recognized Afghanistan.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1938 Da Afghanistan Bank (State
Bank of Afghanistan) was incorporated.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1939 Jan15, Minor pro-Amanullah
Khan uprising.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1939 In Afghanistan the state-run
Karkar coal mine began production in Baghlan province.
(Econ, 11/25/06, p.64)
1940 Zahir Shah proclaimed
Afghanistan as neutral during WW2.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1947 Britain withdrew from India.
Pakistan was carved out of Indian and Afghan lands.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1947 A force of Wazirs and Mehsuds
was dispatched to seize Kashmir for the newly formed Islamic republic
of Pakistan, sparking the first Indo-Pakistan war.
(Econ, 1/2/10, p.17)
1949 Afghanistan's Parliament
denounced the Durand Treaty and refused to recognize the Durand line as
a legal boundary between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1949 Pashtuns in Pashtunistan
(Occupied Afghan Land) proclaim an independent Pashtunistan, but their
proclamation went unacknowledged by the world community.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1953 Prince Mohammad Daoud becomes
Prime Minister.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1954 The U.S. rejects
Afghanistan's request to buy military equipment to modernize the army.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1955 Daoud turned to the Soviet
Union (Russia) for military aid.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1955 The Pashtunistan (occupied
Afghan land) issue flared up.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1955 The Afghan Aryana Airline was
founded.
(SFC, 12/14/01, p.E6)
1956 Jun 9, Heavy earthquake
struck Afghanistan and 400 were killed.
(MC, 6/9/02)
1956 Khrushchev and Bulgaria agree
to help Afghanistan. Close ties between Afghanistan and USSR.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1959 May 10, Soviet forces arrived
in Afghanistan.
(MC, 5/10/02)
1959 In Afghanistan the Purdah was
made optional under King Zahir Shah. Women began to enroll in the
university, which had become co-educational, and they began to enter
the workforce, as well as the government.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)(Econ, 7/28/07, p.88)
1961 Pakistan and Afghanistan come
close to war over Pashtunistan.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1963 James Michener (d.1997 at 90)
wrote his novel "Caravans," the fruit of wide-ranging trips to
Afghanistan in the mid-1950s.
(SFC,10/17/97, p.A17)(WSJ, 7/5/08, p.W8)
1963-1964 Zahir Shah demanded Daoud's resignation.
Dr. Mohammad Yusof became Prime Minister.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1964 Afghanistan’s first
constitution banned all royals, except the king, from taking part in
politics. This was specifically aimed at King Zahir Shah’s cousin
Daoud, who staged a coup in 1973.
(Econ, 7/28/07, p.88)
1964 Soviet engineers dug through
the Hindu Kush to open trade routes and opened the Salang tunnel. At
11,034 feet it was the world’s highest tunnel.
(SFC, 12/13/01, p.A10)(SFC, 2/7/02, p.A20)
1965 Jan, The Afghan Communist
Party, the People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan, was secretly
formed. Babrak Karmal was one of the founders.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)(WSJ, 9/20/01, p.A12)
1965 Sep, The first nationwide
elections under the new constitution. Karmal was elected to the
Parliament, later instigates riots. Zahir and Yussof formed a
second government.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1965 Zahir Shah introduced
parliamentary democracy.
(WSJ, 9/28/01, p.A14)
1966-1973 Robert Neumann (d.1999 at 83), an Austrian
born scholar, served as the US ambassador to Afghanistan. He was then
assigned to Morocco.
(SFC, 6/24/99, p.A25)
1969 In Afghanistan’s second
nationwide elections Babrak and Hafizullah Amin were elected.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1972 Mohammad Moussa became Prime
Minister of Afghanistan.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1973 Jul 17, Zahir Shah
(1914-2007) was on vacation in Europe, when his government was
overthrown in a military coup headed by his relative Daoud Khan and
PDPA (Afghan Communist Party). Zahir Shah fled to Italy where he lived
until his return in 2002. Daoud Khan abolished the monarchy and
declared himself President of the Republic of Afghanistan.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)(SFC, 9/22/01,
p.A7)(AP, 7/23/07)
1973 Timothy Leary (d.1996) was
captured in Afghanistan and returned to jail in California. He was
pardoned by Gov. Brown in 1976.
(SFC, 2/9/02, p.A22)
1974 UNESCO named Herat as one of
the first cities to be designated as a part of the worlds cultural
heritage.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1975-1977 In Afghanistan Daoud Khan during this
period presented a new constitution. Women's rights were confirmed.
Daoud starts to oust suspected opponents from his government.
(www.languages.umd.edu/persian/afghanhistory.php)
1977 In Afghanistan a loya jirga
(grand assembly) convened to establish a democratic state.
(SSFC, 12/16/01, p.A3)
1978 Apr 27, The Afghanistan
revolution began. There was a leftist coup. Afghanistan armed forces
seized power. Pres. Mohammed Daud Khan was killed and Nur Mohammad
Tarakai was installed as president. Babrak Karmal became his deputy
Prime Minister. It was the first country in South Asia to fall while
under communist rule. Assadulah Sarawary became the secret police chief
under the Tarakai regime. In 2006 he faced war crime charges. In 2008
Afghan authorities announced they had found mass graves containing the
remains of ex-president Mohammad Daud Khan and 17 family members and
associates. In 2009 Daud Khan was reburied along with family members on
a hillside overlooking the mountains that surround Kabul.
(HN, 4/27/98)(WSJ, 9/20/01, p.A12)(Econ, 1/21/06,
p.42)(AP, 8/17/08)(AP, 12/4/08)(AP, 3/17/09)
1978 Jun, The Afghan guerrilla
(Mujahideen) movement was born.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/chron/index4.html)
1978 Aug 17, Afghanistan announced
that defense minister Gen. Abdul Qadir, one of the Apr 27 coup leaders,
has been arrested after the discovery of an alleged plot to overthrow
the government. Qadir also belonged to the Parcham faction.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1978_in_Afghanistan)
1978 Oct 19, The Afghan flag was
changed. The national flag, also used as state and war flag, was a 1:2
red flag with a yellow Soviet-like emblem in the canton. Red symbolized
the fight against imperialism, feudality and all other kinds of
oppression.
(www.crwflags.com/FOTW/flags/af1978o.html)
1978 Dec 5, Afghan Pres. Nur
Mohammad Tarakai, head of People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan
(PDPA), signed a treaty of friendship with the Soviet Union.
(WUD, 1994, p.1691)(www.eedi.org.ua/eem/7eng.html)
1978 Norman Hammond co-authored
“The Archeology of Afghanistan.”
(WSJ, 3/5/00, p.A22)
1978 In Afghanistan Kabul Mayor
Ghulam Sakhi Noorzad began enacting a master plan for the city
developed by top European engineers. He went into exile with the Soviet
invasion, returned in 2001 and resumed work on the master plan.
(WSJ, 3/3/05, p.A1)
1978 In Afghanistan fighting began
between the government and a shifting array of rebel groups. Hafizullah
Amin led socialist activists to overtake Kabul. They received aid from
Moscow but not total backing. Mass arrests, tortures, and arrests took
place.
(WSJ, 7/11/96, p.A10)(SFC, 9/28/96,
p.A8)(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1979 Feb 14, Adolph Dubs, the U.S.
ambassador to Afghanistan, was kidnapped in Kabul by Muslim extremists
and killed in a shootout between his abductors and police.
(SFC, 9/28/96, p.A8)(AP,
2/14/98)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolph_Dubs)
1979 Mar, Ismail Khan, a Persian
speaking Sunni Tajik and Major in Afghan army, led a
mutiny/insurrection against the Taraki regime's Sawr (or April)
Revolution (Taraki's inspired Afghan societal liberalization and land
reform). Khan's revolt resulted in the slaughter of Soviet Afghan
advisors and their families. This insurrection was met by a brutal
Afghan and Soviet response that killed an estimated 24,000 Heratis in a
single week and destroyed much of the famous Central Asian crossroad
city.
(www.ccc.nps.navy.mil/si/2004/jul/johnsonJul04.asp)
1979 Apr 1, Assadullah Sarwari
(b.1941), former air force commander under Pres. Khan, became head of
Afghan secret police (AGSA). He was later arrested for involvement in
the arbitrary arrest, torture and mass killing of hundreds of opponents
and spent 13 years in jail before his trial began on Dec 26, 2005.
(www.trial-ch.org/en/trial-watch/profile/db/facts/assadullah_sarwari_452.html)
1979 Jun 13, Ahmed Zahir (b.1946),
Afghanistan pop star, was killed in a car crash. His death is believed
to have been arranged by Hafizullah Amin.
(Econ, 12/6/03,
p.38)(www.ahmadzahir.com/biography.php)
1979 Sep 16, Hafizullah Amin took
the presidency of Afghanistan following the killing of Nur Muhammad
Taraki. Amin was later executed and replaced with Babrak Karmal.
(www.onwar.com/aced/nation/all/afghan/fafghan1979a.htm)
1979 Dec 25, Large numbers of
Soviet airborne forces joined stationed ground troops and began to land
in Kabul, Afghanistan.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_war_in_Afghanistan)
1979 Dec 27, Soviet forces seized
control of Afghanistan after a 2nd leftist coup. The Soviet backed coup
ousted leftists and put a more pro-Moscow regime in power in Kabul.
Babrak Karmal (1929-1996) became the new puppet leader and Soviet
troops bolstered his rule against Muslim resistance fighters.
Hafizullah Amin, who was overthrown, was executed and replaced by
Babrak Karmal. Some 15,000 Soviet soldiers reportedly died along with 1
million Afghans.
(SFC, 9/23/96, A9)(SFC, 9/28/96, p.A8)(WSJ, 12/6/96,
p.A1) (WA, 1997,p.737) (AP,
12/27/97)(http://web.mit.edu/cascon/cases/case_afg.html)
1979 Osama bin Laden left Saudi
Arabia to fight against the Soviets in Afghanistan, where he laid the
groundwork for his al Qaeda network.
(NW, 11/19/01, p.35)
1979-1989 The Afghan resistance fought off Soviet
troops. It was backed by intelligence services of the US and Saudi
Arabia and nearly $6 billion worth of weapons.
(SFC, 8/24/98, p.A8)
1979-1992 Habibullah Jalalzoy (b.1946) served as the
head of the interrogations unit within the Afghan military intelligence
under the communist regime. In 2005 Dutch prosecutors demanded a
sentence of 9 years in prison for war crimes and torture.
(AP,
9/26/05)(www.trial-ch.org/en/trial-watch/profile/db/facts/habibullah_jalalzoy_392.html)
1979-1992 This period in Afghanistan was later
covered in Nelofer Pazira’s 2005 memoir “A Bed of Red Flowers: In
Search of My Afghanistan.”
(SSFC, 9/11/05, p.F1)
1980 Jan 2, President Carter asked
the Senate to delay the arms treaty ratification in response to Soviet
action in Afghanistan.
(HN, 1/2/99)
1980 Jan 13, The United States
offered Pakistan a two-year aid plan to counter the Soviet threat in
Afghanistan.
(HN, 1/13/99)
1980 Jan 14, UN voted 104-18 to
deplore the Soviet Afghan acts.
(HN, 1/14/99)
1980 Jan 24, In an action
obviously designed as another in a series of very strong reactions to
the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, US officials announce that America
is ready to sell military equipment (excluding weapons) to communist
China. The surprise statement was part of the US effort to build a
closer relationship with the People's Republic of China for use as
leverage against possible Soviet aggression.
(http://tinyurl.com/8sx9u)
1980 Feb 22, Afghanistan declared
martial law following a major uprising in Kabul.
(http://tinyurl.com/34hky9)
1980 Jun 22, The Soviet Union
announced a partial withdrawal of its forces from Afghanistan.
(HN, 6/22/98)
1980 In Afghanistan Dr. Najibullah
(1947-1996) was brought back from USSR to run the secret police. He
later served as president (1986-1992).
(www.afghan,
5/25/98)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammad_Najibullah)
1980 The Nazoo Anna School was
founded in Peshawar, Pakistan, for girls from Afghan refugee camps by
Nazaneen Jabarkhel Majeed. It was named after a female Afghan freedom
fighter.
(SFC, 7/16/99, p.A10)
1980-1989 During the 1980s the US purchased millions
of Type 56 rifles from China to arm the Afghan Mujahedeen in their war
against the Soviet army. The rifles were copycats of the AK-47s used by
Russian soldiers. The US gave an average of $500 million in military
aid annually to the Mujahedeen. The US also purchased Chinese and
Polish AK-47s to supply the Contra guerillas in Nicaragua.
(SFC, 5/27/96, p.A9)(SFC, 9/23/96, A9)
1981-1988 Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence
(ISI) and the US CIA carried out massive covert operations against
Soviet forces in Afghanistan.
(WSJ, 12/31/08, p.A6)
1982 Mar 8, The U.S. accused the
Soviets of killing 3,000 Afghans with poison gas.
(HN, 3/8/98)
1982 Nov 3, In Afghanistan a
Soviet tank engine exploded in the Salang Tunnel and 178 Soviet
soldiers were killed along with as many as 800 Afghans.
(SFC, 12/13/01,
p.A10)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salang_tunnel_fire)
1982 The Friendship Bridge over
the Amu Darya River, connecting Afghanistan and Uzbekistan, was built
by the Soviets during the Soviet occupation of that country. The bridge
was closed in May 1997 when the Taliban forces took control of the city
of Mazari Sharif, forcing Uzbek rebels to retreat back to Uzbekistan.
It reopened on December 9, 2001.
(http://tinyurl.com/2qbrbd)(WSJ, 11/21/01, p.A11)
1982-1992 An estimated 35,000 Muslim fighters from 43
countries arrived to fight in the Afghan resistance and to train for
fighting in Kashmir.
(WSJ, 10/12/01, p.A6)
1983 May 23, Radio Moscow
announcer Vladimir Danchev praised Afghanistan Muslims standing up to
Russia. He was removed from the air.
(MC, 5/23/02)
1983 Dec 30, A 7.2 earthquake
killed 26 people in Afghanistan (14) and Pakistan (12).
(SFC, 3/5/02, p.A10)
1983-1991 Heshamuddin Hesam served as the head of
Afghan military intelligence. In 2005 Dutch prosecutors demanded a
sentence of 12 years in prison for war crimes and torture.
(AP, 9/26/05)
1984 UN sent investigators to
Afghanistan to examine reported human rights violations.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1985-1986 In Afghanistan Soviet soldiers
failed to subdue the rebels. An alliance of 7 factions received US
arms. Moscow installed a new leader, Dr. Najibullah.
(SFC, 9/28/96, p.A8)
1986 The Soviets built a half-mile
concrete span, the Friendship Bridge, connecting Afghanistan and
Uzbekistan.
(SFC, 12/10/01, p.A12)
1986 Osama bin Laden began
building a tunnel complex under mountains in Afghanistan near Pakistan
as part of a CIA-funded project.
(SSFC, 5/9/04, p.M6)
1986 Babrak Karmal was
replaced by Dr. Najibullah.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1987 Najibullah proposed a
cease-fire, but the Mujahideen refused to deal with a "puppet
government".
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1987 Mujahideen made great gains,
and the defeat of the Soviets was eminent.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1988 Jan 6, Soviet Foreign
Minister Eduard Shevardnadze was quoted by the Afghan news agency as
saying the Kremlin wanted to pull an estimated 115,000 soldiers from
Afghanistan in the coming year.
(AP, 1/6/98)
1988 Feb 15, The Soviet Union was
defeated by Afghanistan, and a total withdrawal by the Soviets
occurred. In 2003 George Crile authored "Charlie Wilson's War: The
Extraordinary Story of the largest Covert Operation in History."
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)(SSFC, 5/25/03, p.M1)
1988 Apr 14, Afghanistan,
Pakistan, the United States and the Soviet Union signed agreements
providing for the withdrawal of Soviet forces from Afghanistan and
creation of a nonaligned Afghan state. Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev
announced the withdrawal of Soviet troops. The Soviets pulled out of
Afghanistan after nine years of fighting. Afghan rebels rejected the
pact and continued fighting.
(SFC, 9/28/96, p.A8)(WA, 1997,p.737)(TMC, 1994,
p.1988)(AP, 4/14/98)
1988 May 15, The Soviet Union
began the process of withdrawing its 115,000 troops from Afghanistan,
more than eight years after Soviet forces had entered the country.
(AP, 5/15/98)(HN, 5/15/98)
1988 May 18, A cheering crowd in
the Soviet town of Termez greeted the first Soviet soldiers as they
withdrew from Afghanistan. Experts agree that at least 40,000-50,000
Soviets lost their lives in action, besides the wounded, suicides, and
murders. Mujahideen continued to fight against Najibullah's regime.
Some 130,000 Red Army troops fought in Afghanistan and 15,000 were lost.
(AP, 5/18/98)(www.afghan-web.com/history/)(SFC,
10/18/01, p.A3)
1988 Staff members of
Afghanistan’s National Museum moved most of its artifacts into storage
as the Soviet occupation ended. An inventory in 2004 showed that most
of the stored items survived the civil war and the Taliban years.
(SFC, 11/18/04, p.A16)
1989 Feb 5, The Soviet Union
announced that all but a small rear-guard contingent of its troops had
left Afghanistan.
(AP, 2/5/99)
1989 Feb 15, The Soviet Union
announced that the last of its troops had left Afghanistan, after more
than nine years of military intervention.
(SFC, 9/28/96, p.A8)(AP, 2/15/98)
1989 May, Afghan guerrillas elect
Sibhhatullah Mojadidi as head of their government-in-exile.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1989 In Afghanistan Osama bin
Laden formed al Qaeda.
(SSFC, 5/9/04, p.M6)
1989 Javed Hussain Shah completed
6 months of training in Afghanistan and led a Kashmiri insurgent group
later dubbed the Jihad Force. He fought along with al-Qaida members and
later became a Kashmiri legislator.
(SSFC, 6/23/02, p.A13)
1990 Artyom Borovik authored “The
Hidden War,” an account of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
(WSJ, 7/5/08, p.W8)
1990 Lashkar-e-Taiba (Army of the
Pure) was formed in Afghanistan by Hafiz Mohammed Saeed. It made its
name challenging India’s claims over Kashmir.
(WSJ, 12/8/08, p.A6)
1991 Feb 1, Afghanistan and
Pakistan were hit by an earthquake and 1,200 died.
(http://tinyurl.com/dsnjk)
1991 Sudanese intelligence
approached Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan and invited him to move to
Khartoum, which he did.
(WSJ, 9/13/01, p.A20)
1992 Apr 15, On April 15-16 the
Mujahedeen overthrew the Communist government led by Pres. Najibullah
in Kabul. The Mujahideen took Kabul and liberated Afghanistan,
Najibullah was protected by the UN. The Mujahideen formed an Islamic
State, Islamic Jihad Council, and scheduled elections.
(SFC, 9/23/96, A9)(SFC, 9/27/96,
p.A12)(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1992 Apr 25, Islamic forces in
Afghanistan took control of most of the capital of Kabul following the
collapse of the Communist government.
(AP, 4/25/97)
1992 Jun 28, Rebel leader
Burhanuddin Rabbani became president, but factional fighting continued.
Iranian and Pakistani interference increased, and more fighting
followed.
(WA, 1997,p.737)(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1993 Feb 11, In Afghanistan some
800 Hazzara civilians were massacred in the Afshar district of West
Kabul.
(Econ, 2/17/07, p.45)(http://tinyurl.com/34h7bu)
1993 Mar, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar was
the Prime Minister.
(SFC, 9/23/96, A12)
1993 May, The Kabul Museum was
partially destroyed by a shell and was left unprotected in the suburb
of Darulaman. It was looted for many months.
(WSJ, 12/20/01, p.A14)
1994 Jan, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar left
as PM of Afghanistan and led forces of the Islamic Party
(Hezb-i-Islami) against Pres. Burhanuddin Rabbani. Dostum and Hekmatyar
continued to clash against Rabbani's government, and as a result Kabul
was reduced to rubble.
(SFC, 9/23/96, A12)(www.afghan, 5/25/98)
1994 Feb 20, Three armed Afghans
seized a school bus in Islamabad with some 70 passengers including
Pakistani children.
(http://lists.asu.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind9402c&L=pakistan&T=0&F=&S=&P=452)
1994 Apr, In Afghanistan about
this time Mohammed Omar (b.1959), former guerrilla commander against
Soviet forces, gathered a group of former guerrillas in the village of
Singesar and hung the mujahedeen responsible for the rape of 2 local
girls. He soon led the Taliban (The Students) as Amir-ul-Momineen
(Commander of the Faithful). The Taliban militia advanced rapidly
against the Islamic government.
(SFC, 1/1/97,
p.C2)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taliban)
1994 Sep, The Taliban was formed
in southern Afghanistan. Its fighters were initially trained by the
Frontier Constabulary, a paramilitary force of Pakistan’s Interior
Ministry. Taliban forces captured the southern town of Kandahar. 800
truckloads of arms and ammunition were gained from a Soviet cache. They
continued to gain land over the next 2 years.
(SFC, 9/28/96, p.A8)(SFC, 1/1/97,p.C3)(SSFC,
7/30/06, p.A10)
1994 Sep, Naseerullah Baber,
Pakistan’s interior minister, arranged a peace convoy to run rice,
clothing and other gifts through Afghanistan to Turkmenistan.
(SFC, 1/1/97,p.C3)
1994 Nov 20, The most heavily
mined country in the world is Afghanistan, with between 10 and 15
million deadly mines.
(UNICEFF Mailer,11/94)
1994 King Shah suggested that a
traditional council of tribal leaders, “loya jirga,” be convened to
appoint a head of state and set up a transitional government. He was
unable to gain sufficient support for the idea.
(SFC, 9/22/01, p.A7)
1994 The Pakistani spy agency, the
Interservices Intelligence directorate (ISI), figured prominently in
the rise of the Taliban with arms, logistics and men.
(WSJ, 9/14/01, p.A6)
1995 Aug, The Afghan Taliban
militia forced down a Russian Ilyushin-76 cargo plane with 7 Russian
airmen at Kandahar.
(SFC, 8/15/96, p.C3)
1995 Nov 26, Rebel jets bombed
Kabul, the Afghan capital, killing 35 people and wounding 140 others.
(AP, 11/26/02)
1995 The Afghan national cricket
team was founded after the withdrawal of the Soviet army.
(Econ, 10/1/05, p.40)
1995 Massive gains were made by
the Taliban. Increased Pakistani and Iranian interference followed.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1995 The Taliban regained Herat
and Tajik commander Ismail Khan fled for exile in Iran. Khan returned
in 1997 and was captured by the Taliban and imprisoned for nearly 3
years.
(SFC, 11/13/01, p.A2)
1995 Rebel jets bombed Kabul.
Blame was placed on the Islamic Tailbone Militia, which was fighting to
oust President Rabbani.
(WSJ, 11/27/95, p.A-1)
1995 In Bamiyan 45 Tajik fighters
were tortured to death in an attempt to conquer the province.
(SFC, 2/12/02, p.A1)
1995 More than 1,000 people died
in fighting during this year.
(WSJ, 7/11/96, p.A10)
1996 Feb, Ammunition exploded at
the presidential palace in Kabul and killed as many as 60 people. The
blast was blamed on an accidental fire.
(WSJ, 2/16/96, p.A-1)
1996 Apr 4, Mohammed Omar unsealed
a shrine in Kandahar that held a cloak believed to have belonged to the
prophet Mohammed. He placed the cloak over his shoulders and declared
himself the commander of the faithful and leader of all Islam.
(SFC, 12/7/01, p.A16)
1996 May 24, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar,
the leader of the rebel faction that fought to topple the government,
signed an accord with Pres. Burhanuddin Rabbani and ended 4 years of
hostilities. The civil war may continue because the Taliban rebels, who
control more than half of the country, were not included in the
alliance.
(SFC, 5/30/96, p.A10)
1996 May 29, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar
became the new prime minister.
(SFC, 5/30/96, p.A10)
1996 May, Osama bin Laden was
driven out of Sudan under pressure from the Clinton administration. His
horse, “Swift Like the Wind,” was left behind. Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, a
Saudi Arabian-backed jihadist leader, invited bin Laden back to
Afghanistan and bin Laden returned.
(SFC, 8/21/98, p.A2)(SFC, 12/17/04, p.W4)(Econ,
9/17/05, p.40)
1996 Jun 16, A bomb exploded in a
Jalalabad market and killed 4 people and wounded more than 20.
(SFC, 6/15/96, p.A10)
1996 Jun 26, In Afghanistan
guerrilla leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, head of Hezbi-Islami, having been
eliminated as a military power, signed a peace pact with Rabbani, and
returned to Kabul to rule as prime minister. Hekmatyar was a member of
the dominant Pashtun group, unlike Rabanni and military commander Ahmad
Shah Massoud who belong to the Tajik ethnic group. The Taliban militia
launched an assault that killed 54 and wounded 118 people.
(WSJ, 6/27/96, p.A1)(SFC, 9/23/96,
A12)(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1996 Jul 14, Hekmatyar closed
movie theaters and banned music on tv and radio, claiming that they
were repugnant to Islam.
(SFC, 7/15/96, p.A11)
1996 Sep 22, The Taliban
guerrillas swept through 3 southeastern provinces over the last 2 weeks
and controlled about 2/3 of the country.
(SFC, 9/23/96, A9)
1996 Sep 26, Former Pres.
Najibullah (1986-1990) and his brother, former security chief Shahpur
Ahmedzi, were executed and hung when the Taliban fighters moved into
Kabul. They had been in hiding since being overthrown 4 years ago.
Officials hoped that the former king, Zahir Shah, would return to lead
the country.
(SFC, 9/27/96, p.A12)
1996 Sep 27, The Taliban militia,
a band of former seminary students, forced President Burhanuddin
Rabbani and his government out of Kabul.
(AP, 9/27/97)(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1996 Oct 2, Mullah Turabi headed
the supreme council of the Taliban which took over Kabul.
(SFC, 10/2/96, p.A7)
1996 Oct 10, Three military
commanders formed a pact against the Taliban. Gen’l. Rashid Dostum,
Ahmad Shah Massoud and Abdul Karim Khalily held 10 northern provinces
against 19 held by the Taliban.
(SFC, 10/11/96, p.A16)
1996 An alliance between
Government, Hezbi Wahdat, and Dostum was formed.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1996 Oppression of women by the
Taliban. Women must be fully veiled, no longer allowed to work, go out
alone or even wear white socks. Men were forced to grow beards.
Buzkashi, the Afghan national sport was outlawed.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1996 The Taliban closed public
bathhouses for women in Kabul.
(SFC, 8/14/00, p.A13)
1996 Tensions rose as Afghan
government accused Pakistan of aiding the Taliban.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1996 Osama bin Laden established
training camps for Kashmir fighters in Khost.
(WSJ, 10/12/01, p.A6)
1996 Massive human rights
violations by the Taliban.
(www.afghan-web.com/history/)
1996 The Northern Alliance blew up
the 2.5 mile Salang Tunnel entrances, which connected Kabul to the
Panjshir Valley.
(WSJ, 10/26/01, p.A12)
1996 The United Arab Emirates,
Saudi Arabia and Pakistan recognized the Taliban after they seized the
Afghan capital Kabul. All three countries cut ties with the Taliban
after it sheltered al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden following the Sept.
11, 2001, attacks on the US.
(AP, 2/24/06)
1997 Jan 5, An air raid killed 4
and wounded 32. A bomb in central Kabul killed 3 and wounded 37.
(WSJ, 1/6/97, p.A1)
1997 Mar 27, An avalanche buried
at least 100 people near the Salang tunnel north of Kabul.
(WSJ, 3/28/97, p.A1)
1997 Mar, Reports said that Osama
bin Laden, an exiled Saudi billionaire, bankrolled the Jun 25, 1996,
bombing of the US base in Saudi Arabia that killed 19 US servicemen. He
is an advocate of strict Islamic rule and has said that he would
campaign to overthrow the Saudi royal family. He lived in the Sudan for
2 years and recently moved to Afghanistan and was accepted by the
Taliban.
(SFC, 3/7/97, p.A17)(SFC, 4/27/98, p.A18)(SFEC,
8/23/98, p.A15)
1997 May 21, Faction leader Gen.
Abdurrashid Dostum, an ethnic-Uzbek, was up against mutineers in 6 of
his 8 northern provinces.
(SFC, 5/22/97, p.C2)(SFC, 10/10/01, p.A3)
1997 May 23, Warlord Rashid Dostum
fled to Tashkent in Uzbekistan.
(SFEC, 5/25/97, p.A10)
1997 May 24, Forces of the Taliban
swept into Mazar-E-Sharif, the last opposition stronghold. The Taliban
was invited in by Malik Pahlawan, an adversary of Rashid Dostum.
(SFEC, 5/25/97, p.A10)(SFC,11/18/97, p.B2)
1997 May 28, The Taliban was
forced out of Mazar-e-Sharif by Uzbek forces. Many Taliban fighters
were killed as they were forced out of Mazar-e-Sharif. Rashid Dostum
later was reported to have witnessed the graves of some 700 Taliban
fighters and another 1,300 dead at other sites. Later reports put the
Taliban dead at 2-3,000. Uzbek Gen. Malik Pahlawan killed some 1,250
Taliban by leaving them in closed container trucks in the desert sun.
(SFC, 5/29/97, p.A10)(SFC,11/18/97, p.B2)(SFC,
11/6/98, p.A16)(NW, 8/26/02, p.26)
1997 Jul 25, Police units of the
Pashtun ethnic group raided minority neighborhoods as opposition forces
gathered 12 miles outside Kabul.
(SFC, 7/26/97, p.A14)
1997 Jul 27, It was reported that
the Taliban had recently reopened the Pul-i-Charki fortress, a
notorious prison, just outside Kabul, and that several thousand men
were being held.
(SFEC, 7/27/97, p.D3)
1997 Aug 21, Leaders of the
alliance fighting the Taliban army were killed in an air crash aboard
an Antonov 32 about 90 miles NW of Kabul.
(SFC, 8/22/97, p.A15)
1997 Sep 15, It was reported that
the Taliban has prohibited the cultivation of opium poppies. Some
200,000 families produced a record 2,800 tons of opium in 1997, a 25%
increase over 1996.
(SFC, 9/15/97, p.A14)
1997 Oct 24, A UN director said
that the Taliban has agreed to enforce a ban on poppy production.
(SFC,10/24/97, p.A10)
1997 Nov 8, It was reported that
thieves had stolen over 2,250 tons of the World Food Program’s
emergency wheat supply in Hairatan since an alliance opposed to the
ruling Taliban gained control of the town.
(SFC,11/8/97, p.A12)
1997 Dec 24, The Taliban launched
an offensive at Kotel Toopkhana in Badakhshan province and by the next
day claimed to have driven out the soldiers of Ahmed Shah Massoud.
(SFC,12/26/97, p.B4)
1997 Ayman Al-Zawahiri, emir of
the Islamic Jihad, joined Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan.
(SFC, 2/22/00, p.A8)
1997 Uzbekistan closed the
Friendship Bridge and sealed its border with Afghanistan when Gen.
Abdul Rashid Dostum fled in as the Taliban swept into Mazar-e-Sharif.
(SFC, 11/15/01, p.A7)(SFC, 12/10/01, p.A12)
1997 The Central Asia Regional
Economic Cooperation (CAREC) Program was initiated. The 8-member group
included Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan,
Mongolia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
(www.adb.org/CAREC/default.asp)
1998 Jan 7, It was reported that
some 600 civilians were dragged from their homes and shot by the
Taliban army in the northwest, prompting thousands to flee the area.
Most of the victims were said to be Uzbeks.
(SFC, 1/8/98, p.B3)
1998 Jan 13, An Afghan
Russian-made cargo plane crashed in southwestern Pakistan with as many
as 90 Taliban militia and all were killed.
(SFC, 1/14/98, p.C2)
1998 Feb 4, A 5.9 earthquake hit
the province of Takhar in the northeast at the junction of the Hindu
Kush and Pamir mountain ranges where hills collapsed into each other
making a huge crater. The number dead was later reported to be 2,300
with 8,000 left homeless.
(SFC, 2/7/98, p.A10)(SFC, 6/1/98, p.A1)(AP,
2/4/99)(SFC, 3/27/02, p.A14)
1998 Feb 8, New tremors killed up
to 250 more people as relief workers struggled to reach the disaster
scene.
(SFC, 2/9/98, p.B2)
1998 Feb 16, Following the Feb 4
earthquake 27 people died of the cold. Some 30,000 earthquake survivors
were sent 24 truckloads of aid by the Taliban.
(WSJ, 2/18/98, p.A1)
1998 Feb 23, In Afghanistan Osama
bin Laden declared a holy war on the US. Bin Laden announced the
formation of the World Islamic Front for Jihad against Jews and
Crusaders. It called on Muslims worldwide to attack Americans. The Al
Quds Al-Arabi newspaper published a statement that announced an
alliance between Dr. Zawahri, head of the Egyptian Jihad, and Osama bin
Laden. "We—with God’s help—call on every Muslim…to comply with God’s
order to kill Americans."
(WSJ, 4/2/02, p.A18)(WSJ, 7/2/02, p.A8)(SFC,
2/22/00, p.A8)
1998 Mar 8, In northern
Afghanistan an avalanche crushed the village of Darbandi and killed 70
people.
(SFC, 3/7/98, p.A11)
1998 Mar 19, A Boeing 727 operated
by Ariana state airline crashed 12 miles south of Kabul and killed all
22 people on board.
(SFC, 3/20/98, p.A16)
1998 Mar 24, The UN announced a
pullout after the governor of Kandahar slapped the face of a UN
employee.
(SFC, 3/25/98, p.C14)
1998 Mar 27, Two Afghans convicted
of murder had their throats cut in front of 30,000 spectators in
Kabul’s sports stadium.
(SFC, 3/28/98, p.A9)
1998 Apr 27, Afghanistan peace
talks between the Taliban and its opponents were scheduled to begin in
Pakistan.
(SFC, 4/18/98, p.A10)
1998 May 10, Opposition forces
launched a counterattack against the Taliban at Ishkamish, 120 miles
north of Kabul.
(SFC, 5/11/98, p.A10)
1998 May 17, Taliban jet fighters
bombed a crowded market and killed at least 30 people and wounded 50 in
Taloqan, the capital of Takhar province.
(SFC, 5/18/98, p.A12)
1998 May 19, Taliban officials
withdrew from the peace plan citing the refusal of the opposition to
cooperate.
(SFC, 5/20/98, p.C2)
1998 May 30, An estimated 6.9
earthquake hit northern Afghanistan and Tajikistan. Shari Basurkh was
hit hardest and some estimates put the death toll up to 3,000. The
estimated deaths later reached 5,000.
(SFEC, 5/31/98, p.A2)(SFC, 6/1/98, p.A1)(AP, 6/22/02)
1998 May 30, Pakistan set off a
nuclear bomb, the 6th test in 3 days.
(SFEC, 5/31/98, p.A15)
1998 Jun 16, The Taliban ordered
the closing of over 100 private schools that had been educating girls.
Schools would not be allowed to teach girls older than 8 and lessons
were to be limited to the Koran.
(SFC, 6/17/98, p.C16)
1998 Jun, A US federal grand jury
indicted Osama bin Laden on terrorist conspiracy charges. Prince Turki
al Faisal of Saudi Arabia, chief of Saudi intelligence, negotiated with
the Taliban in Kandahar, Afghanistan, for the ouster or custody for
trial in Saudi Arabia of Osama bin Laden. Negotiations broke down after
the Aug 7 US embassy bombings in Africa.
(SFEC, 8/8/99, p.A15)(SSFC, 9/30/01, p.A14)
1998 Jul 8, The Taliban decreed
that television was corrupting Afghan society and issued an edict that
banned televisions, videocassette recorders, videos and satellite
dishes.
(SFC, 7/9/98, p.A11)
1998 Jul 12, Taliban forces
captured Maimana, the provincial capital of the Faryab province from
forces under Gen’l. Rashid Dostum.
(SFC, 7/13/98, p.A8)
1998 Jul 27, It was reported that
Russia and Iran were supporting The Northern Alliance of rebel groups
fighting against the Taliban.
(SFC, 7/27/98, p.A9)
1998 Aug 2, The Taliban captured
the base of Rashid Dostum.
(WSJ, 8/3/98, p.A1)
1998 Aug 7, In Pakistan Sadik
Howaida (34) was detained at the Karachi airport. He reportedly later
confessed to participating in the bombing in Nairobi. He said that he
and 2 co-conspirators had left Nairobi and planned to enter Afghanistan
a few days before the bombing. He later acknowledged that the team was
recruited and financed by Osama bin Laden who was ensconced in a
fortress-style hideout in Kandahar.
(SFEC, 8/16/98, p.A17)(SFC, 8/17/98, p.12,17)
1998 Aug 8, In Afghanistan the
Taliban overran Mazar-i-Sharif and killed 9 of 11 diplomats from Iran.
8 of the dead were diplomats, the 9th was a journalist. Later reports
indicated that the Taliban killed as many as 4,000 civilians, mostly
Hazaras, in a campaign partly designed to wipe out the Shiite Muslim
minority. Hazara residents were given 3 choices: convert to Sunni
Islam, leave for Shiite Iran, or die.
(SFC, 9/11/98, p.D4)(SFC, 9/18/98, p.D8)(SFC,
2/19/01, p.A9)(SFC, 2/12/02, p.A16)
1998 Aug 9, Victory in the battle
for Mazar-i-Sharif was claimed by both sides.
(WSJ, 8/10/98, p.A1)
1998 Aug 10, It appeared that the
Taliban were in control of Mazar-e-Sharif.
(WSJ, 8/11/98, p.A1)
1998 Aug 19, Mullah Mohamed Omar,
supreme Taliban ruler, said that: “Even if all the countries of the
world unite, we would defend Osama with our blood.”
(WSJ, 8/21/98, p.A4)
1998 Aug 20, Pres. Clinton ordered
cruise missile attacks on Sudan and Afghanistan. About 50 missiles were
fired at Zhawar Kili Al-Badr, the training camps of Osama Bin Laden and
some 25 missiles against a suspected chemical plant in Khartoum. The US
Operation Infinite Reach began in Afghanistan and Sudan and cost over
$50 million.
(WSJ, 8/21/98, p.A1)(SFC, 8/21/98, p.A1)(WSJ,
9/22/99, p.A8)
1998 Sep 2, A $415 million deal
was signed with the Taliban government for telecommunications by Gary
Breshinsky of Telephone Systems Int’l.
(SFC, 9/16/98, p.A10)
1998 Sep 13, Taliban forces
captured the last major opposition stronghold of Bamiyan.
(SFC, 9/14/98, p.A12)
1998 Sep 20, Russian-made
opposition missiles were shot into Kabul and 180 people were killed or
wounded.
(SFC, 9/21/98, p.A14)
1998 Sep 21, A 2nd day of rocket
barrages killed at least 10 people in Kabul.
(WSJ, 9/22/98, p.A1)
1998 Oct 8, Iran border troops
claimed a victory and said it inflicted heavy casualties over Taliban
militia. The Taliban denied any fighting.
(USAT, 10/9/98, p.14A)
1998 Oct 11, The Taliban battled
opposition forces for the 2nd day in the northeast Takhar province.
(SFC, 10/12/98, p.A12)
1998 Oct 26, The Taliban ordered
an investigation of Osama bin Laden.
(SFC, 10/27/98, p.B2)
1998 Nov 2, Mohammed Hashim
Bakhtiari, the brother-in-law of former slain president Najibullah, was
shot and killed in northwest Pakistan.
(SFC, 11/3/98, p.C12)
1998 Dec 12, A 5.4 earthquake hit
Kabul and killed at least 5 people.
(SFEC, 12/13/98, p.A36)
1998 Dec 13, Kabul, Afghanistan,
was hit by a barrage of rockets that killed 17 and wounded 80 people.
The launch site appeared to come from an area controlled by an ousted
defense chief.
(WSJ, 12/14/98, p.A1)
1998 The Northern Alliance and
Taliban agreed to set up an Afghanistan Museum in Switzerland to
protect articles of cultural heritage. In 2000 a property in Bubendorf
was renovated.
(AM, 5/01, p.18)
1998 The CIA began to send teams
of American officers to northern Afghanistan to convince Ahmed Shah
Masood to capture and perhaps kill Osama bin Laden.
(SSFC, 9/30/01, p.A14)
1999 Jan 18, The end of Ramadan
was marked by prisoner releases in Egypt, Palestine and Afghanistan.
(WSJ, 1/18/99, p.A1)
1999 Feb 10, Taliban officials
exchanged fire with bodyguards of Osama bin Laden in Kandahar.
(SFC, 3/4/99, p.A12)
1999 Feb 12, A 5.5 earthquake hit
Afghanistan and at least 60 people were killed.
(WSJ, 2/16/99, p.A1)
1999 Feb 13, The Taliban
leadership replaced Osama bin Laden's bodyguards with members of their
intelligence service and Foreign Ministry.
(SFC, 3/4/99, p.A12)
1999 Mar 14, In Turkmenistan the
warring factions of Afghanistan agreed in principle to a peace deal.
(SFC, 3/15/99, p.A8)
1999 Mar 18, Fighting continued
for a 2nd day and 12 people were reported killed by Taliban bombing in
Parwan province.
(SFC, 3/19/99, p.A14)
1999 May 28, A family of 12 was
killed by a Taliban air strike on Taloqan.
(SFC, 5/29/99, p.A15)
1999 Jul 6, Pres. Clinton signed
Executive Order 13129 to impose sanctions against the ruling Taliban
militia in Afghanistan.
(SFC, 7/7/99, p.A8)(SFC, 5/3/00, p.A12)
1999 Jul 28, Taliban fighters
launched an offensive to crush warlord Ahmed Shah Massood following
weeks of preparations.
(SFC, 7/29/99, p.A12)
1999 Aug 2, The Taliban captured
the capital of northern Parwan province, the last stronghold of Sheik
Massood. Thousands fled their homes.
(SFC, 8/3/99, p.A9)
(AP, 8/2/99)
1999 Aug 5, Rebel forces of Ahmad
Shah Massood counter-attacked the Taliban and recaptured key towns and
the Bagram air base.
(SFC, 8/6/99, p.A16)
1999 Aug 25, In Kabul a truck bomb
exploded near the residence of Mullah Mohammed Omar, leader of the
Taliban, and 7 people were killed.
(SFC, 8/26/99, p.A12)
1999 Aug, The US imposed sanctions
against flights by the Taliban-controlled Ariana Afghan airline.
(SFC, 10/7/99, p.A15)
1999 Sep 3, The Taliban dropped
cluster bombs on Taloqan and 9 people were reported killed.
(SFC, 9/4/99, p.A13)
1999 Sep 6, Opposition fighters
attacked the Taliban in Baghlan province and seized 7 military posts.
(SFC, 9/7/99, p.C1)
1999 Sep 10, The UN reported that
the production of opium doubled to 5,060 tons from 2,310 last year.
(SFC, 9/11/99, p.A9)
1999 Sep 25, The Taliban bombed
Taloqan and 16 people were killed. At least 40 Taliban soldiers and 8
opposition soldiers were killed in a battle for Dasht-e-Archi.
(SFC, 9/27/99, p.A18)
1999 Sep 26, The Taliban bombed
Taloqan for a 2nd day and 11 people, most of them children were killed.
(SFC, 9/27/99, p.A18)
1999 Sep 27, Afghanistan's rulers
protested a UN decision to reseat the former Rabbani government, which
was driven from Kabul in 1996.
(WSJ, 9/28/99, p.A1)
1999 Sep 28, 30 people were killed
a 35 others injured as a truck carrying refugees skidded off a road and
plunged into a river. The refugees were fleeing the Taliban bombing at
Taloqan.
(SFC, 9/29/99, p.C14)
1999 Oct 6, The US introduced a
resolution to the UN Security Council calling for the seizure of assets
of the Taliban militia and grounding all int'l. flights from
Afghanistan until Osama bin Laden is turned over.
(SFC, 10/7/99, p.A15)
1999 Oct 12, In Pakistan Gen'l.
Pervaiz Musharraf led a military coup after Prime Minister Shariff
tried to fire him and replace him with Gen'l. Zia Uddin. Musharraf
avoided martial law and left the parliament intact. Sharif refused to
let a passenger plane land in Karachi with 198 people aboard that
included Gen. Musharraf. The coup cut short a Pakistani commando
operation set up by the CIA to get Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan.
(SFC, 10/13/99, p.A1)(WSJ, 10/14/99, p.A21)(SFC,
4/6/00, p.A12)(SFC, 10/3/01, p.A10)
1999 Oct 16, The Taliban rejected
the UN ultimatum to surrender Osama bin Laden and castigated the UN for
threatening sanctions.
(SFEC, 10/17/99, p.A22)
1999 Oct 18, It was reported that
the Taliban summer offensive put an estimated 130,000 refugees
concentrated into the Panjshir Valley.
(SFC, 10/18/99, p.A11)
1999 Oct 27, Opposition soldiers
advanced on Mazar-e-Sharif following the desertion of a Taliban
commander and 500 men.
(SFC, 10/28/99, p.D14)
1999 Nov 14, UN sanctions against
Afghanistan went into effect following the Taliban refusal to turn over
Osama bin Laden. Int'l. flights were banned and overseas assets were
frozen.
(SFEC, 11/14/99, p.A14)
1999 Nov 15, Protestors burned a
UN office to the ground in anger over sanctions.
(SFC, 11/16/99, p.A12)
1999 Nov 18, Taliban fighter
planes bombed the opposition held Panjshir Valley and at least 13
people were killed and 64 wounded.
(SFC, 11/19/99, p.D2)
1999 Nov 21, Afghanistan and Iran
resumed trade following recently imposed UN restrictions on Afghanistan.
(SFC, 11/22/99, p.A14)
1999 Dec 24, In Nepal 5 Sikh men,
members of the Kashmir Harakut ul-Mujahedin, hijacked an Indian
Airlines A-300 Airbus with 189 people onboard. After 3 stops for
refueling it landed in Kandahar, Afghanistan, where it was surrounded
by Taliban militia. 26 passengers were released in Dubai. They called
for the release of Maulana Massood Azhar, a Pakistani religious leader
and other Kashmiri militants. They later raised their demands to $200
million, the release of 35 jailed guerrillas and the exhumation of a
dead comrade buried in India. [see Dec 29]
(SFC, 12/25/99, p.A1)(WSJ, 12/27/99, p.A1)(SFC,
12/28/99, p.A9)(SFC, 12/29/99, p.A1)(WSJ, 9/14/01, p.A5)
1999 Dec 25, Erik de Mul, the UN
Afghan coordinator reached Kandahar and began negotiations with Sikh
hijackers.
(SFEC, 12/26/99, p.A1)
1999 Dec 29, The Indian Airlines
hijackers dropped their demands for a $200 million ransom and the body
of a Kashmiri militant but haggled over the number of militants to be
released.
(SFC, 12/30/99, p.A1)
1999 Dec 31, The hijackers of an
Indian airline Flight 814 (see Dec 24) released all 150 hostages after
India released 3 jailed militants: Maulana Masood Azhar, leader of the
Harkat-ul-Ansar rebel group, Omar Sheikh and Mushtaq Zargat, an Indian
Kashmiri. 4 hijackers came off the plane and left one dead hijacker
behind. The Taliban gave them 10 hours to leave the country.
(SFC, 1/1/00, p.A19)(SFEC, 1/2/00, p.A25)
1999 Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Iranian
director, shot his film “Kandahar” inside Afghanistan despite death
threats. The film premiered in 2001.
(NW, 12/10/01, p.10)
1999 Afghanistan under the Taliban
produced a record 4,600 tons of opium.
(Econ, 11/20/04, p.46)
1999 A Taliban massacre took place
near Adreskan south of Herat following a short-lived revolt. In 2002 a
mass grave was found with 72 bodies.
(SFC, 1/11/02, p.A13)
2000 Feb 6, In Afghanistan an
Ariana Airlines Boeing 727 was hijacked with 186 people. It flew from
Kabul to Uzbekistan, Kazakstan and Russia before landing in Stansted
near London the next day with 179 hostages.
(SFC, 2/7/00, p.A12)(AP, 2/6/01)
2000 Feb 10, At Stansted, England,
9 hijackers surrendered and released all hostages of the Afghan
jetliner.
(SFC, 2/10/00, p.A1)
2000 Feb 13, In Kandahar,
Afghanistan, a 10-year-old boy executed a man convicted of murdering
his father. A man convicted of highway robbery was also ordered to have
his right hand and left foot amputated according to Islamic law.
(SFC, 2/14/00, p.A12)
2000 Feb 14, Seventy three
passengers from the hijacked jet returned to Afghanistan, while 74
remained in Britain seeking asylum. The passengers reported that 9 men
had taken over their flight and appeared to be relatives of many
passengers.
(SFC, 2/15/00, p.A12)(WSJ, 2/16/00, p.A1)
2000 Apr 4, In Pakistan Arif Khan
(45), the governor of Kunduz province in Afghanistan, was shot and
killed along with his bodyguard by 2 gunmen in Peshawar.
(SFC, 4/5/00, p.A11)
2000 Apr, The Taliban arrested 3
men that they claimed were spying for America and Israel. Abdul Rahim
Janko (22) of Syria gave information that led to the arrest of an
American and an Iraqi named Arkan (24). Janko was later interviewed and
a video was made available.
(SFC, 5/5/00, p.A15)
2000 May 1, In Afghanistan
fighting was halted from May 1 to 5 to allow UN workers to
immunize some 4.5 million children under age 5 against polio.
(SFC, 5/6/00, p.C1)
2000 May, Kochis nomads of the
Rigestan desert faced famine as a yearlong drought worsened.
(SFC, 5/9/00, p.A11)
2000 May 22, Russia asserted that
Afghanistan’s Taliban had signed an agreement with Chechen rebels and
that it might launch air strikes against Afghanistan.
(SFC, 5/23/00, p.A10)
2000 Jul 9, Mary MacMakin was
arrested for violating the Taliban ban on employing women. She led the
NGO: “Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation Support for Afghanistan,”
(PARSA). MacMakin was released 3 days later ordered to leave the
country with accusations of spying and trying to convert Muslims to
Christianity.
(SFC, 7/10/00, p.A8)(SFC, 7/13/00, p.A13)
2000 Jul 12, The Taliban rescinded
a new edict barring women from working for int’l. relief agencies.
(SFC, 7/13/00, p.A13)
2000 Jul 28, Rulers ordered a
complete ban on growing poppies. Defiers of the ban were threatened
with jail.
(SFC, 7/29/00, p.A11)(SFC, 11/18/00, p.A13)
2000 Aug 5, In Afghanistan gunmen
killed 12 people including 7 Afghans working for the United Nations’
mine clearing agency in western Herat.
(SFC, 8/7/00, p.A12)
2000 Aug 12, The Taliban closed
public bathhouses in Kabul, saying that Islam forbids men to display
their bodies publicly.
(SFC, 8/14/00, p.A13)
2000 Aug 16, The Taliban shut down
25 bakeries run by widows saying that Islam forbids women to work.
(SFC, 8/17/00, p.A16)
2000 Aug 17, The Taliban reversed
its decision against women working in bakeries.
(SFC, 8/18/00, p.D6)
2000 Sep 1, The mine-clearing
operations were scheduled to be cut by 50% after the UN reported lack
of funds. 300 people were reported injured by mines every month.
Estimates of mines varied from 5-10 million.
(SFC, 9/2/00, p.C16)
2000 Sep 6, The Taliban captured
Taloqan, 160 miles north of Kabul. The Taliban lost about 500 soldiers,
while the opposition lost about 300.
(SFC, 9/7/00, p.A12)(SFC, 9/8/00, p.D2)
2000 Oct 22, Opposition forces
captured a mountain pass near Taloqan and killed at least 42 Taliban
soldiers.
(SFC, 10/23/00, p.A11)
2000 Nov 3, UN officials brokered
a deal between the rebels and the Taliban to begin talks to end the
civil war.
(SFC, 11/4/00, p.A14)
2000 Dec 20, The Taliban ordered
UN offices closed and pledged to boycott peace talks. New sanctions
were imposed in response to the Taliban’s refusal to surrender Osama
bin Laden.
(SFC, 12/21/00, p.A20)
2000 Ahmed Rashid authored
“Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil, and Fundamentalism in Central Asia.”
(SFEC, 4/30/00, BR p.4)
2000 Russian border guards
reported that the Northern Alliance used precious stone, opium and
heroin to pay for arms.
(SFC, 9/27/01, p.A1)
2000 Taliban planes bombed
Dasht-e-Qaleh, a city of some 50,000, and some 400 residents were
killed.
(SFC, 10/31/01, p.A1)
2000 Mullah Qudratullah Jamal, the
Taliban minister of information and culture and Aqajan Motaseb,
minister of finance, lead a wrecking crew through the National Museum.
They destroyed a significant portion of the country’s cultural heritage.
(SFC, 11/22/01, p.A11)
2001 Jan 2, Opposition troops
captured Ghalmin in central Ghor province.
(SFC, 1/3/01, p.A12)
2001 Jan 8, In Afghanistan the
Taliban ordered the death penalty for anyone who converts from Islam to
a different religion.
(WSJ, 1/09/01, p.A1)
2001 Jan 8, The Taliban massacred
some 150-300 unarmed Hazaras, a Shiite Muslim minority group, in
Yakalang. The Taliban spent 3 days rounding up and killing Shiites of
the central Hazarajat region.
(SFC, 2/19/01, p.A9)(SFC, 11/10/01, p.A4)(WSJ,
12/3/01, p.A16)
2001 Jan 10, It was reported that
some 18,000 Afghan refugees had crossed the border into Pakistan in
recent weeks.
(SFC, 1/10/01, p.A8)
2001 Jan 19, In Afghanistan UN
sanctions began following a 30-day deadline for the handover of Osama
bin Laden. The sanctions coincided with the worst drought in 30 years.
(SFC, 1/20/01, p.A13)
2001 Jan 29, At least 110 Afghan
refugees froze to death in camps near Herat.
(WSJ, 2/1/01, p.A1)(SFC, 2/2/01, p.D4)
2001 Feb 14, The Taliban confirmed
that opposition troops had captured Bamiyan.
(SFC, 2/15/01, p.A16)
2001 Feb 15, A UN team confirmed
that the Taliban had nearly wiped out opium production in Afghanistan.
(SFC, 2/16/01, p.A17)
2001 Feb 26, Taliban leader Mullah
Mohammed Omar ordered the destruction of all statues including the
Buddha statues carved into the stone cliffs of Bamiyan. He called on
the Ministry for the promotion of Virtue and the Repression of Vice as
well as the Ministry of Culture to destroy all pre-Islamic statues and
sanctuaries.
(SFC, 2/27/01, p.A10)(WSJ, 12/20/01, p.A14)
2001 Mar 2, In Afghanistan the
Taliban began the destruction of the giant Buddha of Bamiyan despite
int’l. protests.
(SSFC, 3/4/01, p.A1)(SFC, 12/30/01, p.D3)
2001 Mar 8, The giant Buddha at
Bamiyan was destroyed.
(SFC, 3/12/01, p.A12)
2001 Mar 9, The smaller giant
Buddha at Bamiyan was destroyed.
(SFC, 3/12/01, p.A12)
2001 Apr 16, Mullah Mohammed
Rabbani, the 2nd most powerful man of the Taliban militia, died of
cancer.
(SFC, 4/17/01, p.A8)
2001 May 4, A bomb killed at least
8 people at a Sunni Muslim mosque in Herat. Hundreds of people soon set
fire to Shiite mosques and marched on the Iranian Consulate.
(SFC, 5/5/01, p.D1)
2001 May 13, Pakistan refused to
give refugee status to tens of thousands of Afghans living in the
northwest part of the country. An estimated 50,000 Afghans were on the
move inside Afghanistan.
(SFC, 5/14/01, p.A12)
2001 May 17, The US pledged $43
million in aid to Afghanistan.
(SFC, 5/18/01, p.A14)
2001 May 22, The Taliban decreed
an edict that would require non-Muslims to wear distinguishing clothing.
(WSJ, 5/22/01, p.A1)(SFC, 5/23/01, p.A1)
2001 May 31, The Taliban barred
female foreign-aid workers from driving. The virtue ministry said the
activity is harmful for society.
(WSJ, 6/1/01, p.A1)
2001 May, Canadian journalist
Kathy Gannon came across a book in Afghanistan titled “Encyclopedia of
Jihad” and passed it on to the CIA.
(SSFC, 9/11/05, p.F4)
2001 Jun 5, The Taliban ordered
foreigners to obey strict Muslim laws or face expulsion.
(SFC, 6/6/01, p.C2)
2001 Jun 16, Most UN bread
production for some 282,000 poor in Kabul ceased due to disagreements
on who should compile the list of people eligible for the bread.
(SFC, 6/15/01, p.D6)(SSFC, 6/17/01, p.A20)
2001 Jun 17, The Taliban agreed to
let the World Food Program select, hire and train local women to survey
the food needs of vulnerable households.
(SFC, 6/19/01, p.A9)
2001 Jul 1, US air strikes at
Kakrak, Afghanistan, killed 54 civilians.
(SSFC, 7/21/02, p.A14)
2001 Jul 13, It was reported that
record droughts persisted in Afghanistan northern China, North Korea,
Mongolia and Tajikistan.
(SFC, 7/13/01, p.D4)
2001 Aug 5, The Taliban closed a
US relief organization office and arrested 24 of its workers for
propagating Christianity.
(SFC, 8/6/01, p.A1)
2001 Aug, Pakistani nuclear
scientists, Sultan Bashiruddin Mahmood and Abdul Majid, talked with
Osama bin Laden in Kabul about nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.
(SFC, 12/12/01, p.A19)
2001 Sep 6, The Taliban jailed 35
more people working for a Christian aid organization.
(SFC, 9/10/01, p.B2)
2001 Sep 8, In Afghanistan 8
foreigners, arrested for preaching Christianity, appeared in an Islamic
court for the 1st time.
(SSFC, 9/9/01, p.A14)
2001 Sep 9, In Afghanistan Ahmed
Shah Masood (48), the opposition leader (Lion of Panjshir), was injured
and a close aide killed from an explosion triggered by agents posing as
journalists. Massood died shortly after the explosion.
(SFC, 9/10/01, p.B2)(SFC, 9/11/01, p.B1)
2001 Sep 9, Najwa bin laden left
her husband, Osama bin Laden, in Afghanistan and returned to her native
Syria, taking with her a son and her two youngest daughters. Eman,
Omar's sister, was left behind with her father and siblings. Omar bin
Laden (20) had left the family and Afghanistan earlier in the year.
(AP, 1/6/10)
2001 Sep 11, Explosions resounded
north of Kabul near the airport just hours following terrorist attacks
in the US.
(SFC, 9/12/01, p.A15)
2001 Sep 12, Mohammad Omar, the
Taliban leader, went into hiding. The Taliban military repositioned
weaponry in anticipation of a US strike.
(SFC, 9/13/01, p.A12)
2001 Sep 13, The US requested that
Pakistan grant air and land space for military actions in Afghanistan.
US Special Forces arrived in Afghanistan.
(WSJ, 9/14/01, p.A1)(NW, 8/26/02, p.38)
2001 Sep 15, As many as 300,000
Afghans reportedly had fled Kandahar in fear of US air strikes.
(SFC, 9/17/01, p.A8)
2001 Sep 15, Iran ordered its
security forces to seal off its 560-mile border with Afghanistan.
(SSFC, 9/16/01, p.A7)
2001 Sep 15, Pakistan agreed to
close its border with Afghanistan and pledged full support to combat
int’l. terrorism.
(SSFC, 9/16/01, p.A7)
2001 Sep 16, Pakistan told
Afghanistan to surrender Osama bin Laden within 3 days or face almost
certain military action.
(SFC, 9/17/01, p.A8)
2001 Sep 17, In Afghanistan
Islamic clerics demanded proof from the US that Osama bin Laden was
responsible for the Sep 11 terrorist attacks. They also requested that
the Organization of Islamic Conference, a group of over 50 Muslim
countries, make a formal demand for bin Laden’s handover.
(SFC, 9/18/01, p.A1)
2001 Sep 17, Pakistan virtually
shut down its 1,560-mile border with Afghanistan. Some 1.2 million
Afghan refugees in the North-West Frontier Province were confined to
dozens of camps in the region.
(SFC, 9/18/01, p.A8)
2001 Sep 19, Pres. Bush warned
Afghanistan that he would not negotiate to take custody of Osama bin
Laden. The Pentagon began deploying troops, ships and planes to the
Persian Gulf under code name “Operation Infinite Justice.”
(SFC, 9/20/01, p.A1)(WSJ, 9/20/01, p.A1)
2001 Sep 20, Muslim clerics issued
an edict that suggested Osama bin Laden be persuaded to leave the
country.
(SFC, 9/21/01, p.A5)
2001 Sep 21, The ruling Taliban
rejected Pres. Bush’s ultimatum and to give up Osama bin Laden. The
Taliban also threatened to hang Afghan aid workers if they communicate
with their int’l. counterparts.
(SFC, 9/22/01, p.A7)(SFC, 9/25/01, p.A1)
2001 Sep 21, A US unmanned
reconnaissance plane was downed in Afghanistan.
(SSFC, 9/23/01, p.A14)(WSJ, 9/24/01, p.A1)
2001 Sep 22, There was heavy
fighting in the northern provinces of Balkh and Samangan. 39 Taliban
were reported killed along with 2 opposition fighters.
(SSFC, 9/23/01, p.A14)
2001 Sep 22, Pakistan confirmed
that it had pulled its senior diplomats out of Afghanistan.
(SSFC, 9/23/01, p.A14)
2001 Sep 22, The United Arab
Emirates (UAR) cut relations with Afghanistan’s Taliban government.
(SSFC, 9/23/01, p.A14)
2001 Sep 23, Osama bin Laden
issued a statement that called for Muslim brothers to resist the
“Christian-Jewish crusade led by the big crusader Bush under the flag
of the Cross…”
(SFC, 9/25/01, p.A6)
2001 Sep 24, Taliban officials
said they were dispatching 300,000 fighters to defend their borders.
Analysts estimated Taliban strength at 45,000 fighters with 20,000 in
action against the Northern Alliance.
(SFC, 9/25/01, p.A5)
2001 Sep 24, The Taliban occupied
the offices of the UN World food Program and seized 1,400 metric tons
of food.
(SFC, 9/25/01, p.A1)
2001 Sep 24, The US received from
Russia an essential go-ahead to use 3 former republics as bases for
attacks on Afghanistan.
(SFC, 9/25/01, p.A1,6)
2001 Sep 24, Kazakstan offered air
and military bases to the US for attacks on Afghanistan. Tajikistan and
Uzbekistan were said to be negotiating use of their territory by the US.
(SFC, 9/25/01, p.A6)
2001 Sep 25, Naseer Ahmed Mujahed,
Osama bin Laden’s military chief, faxed a statement to news agencies
that said: “Wherever there are Americans and Jews, they will be
targeted.”
(SFC, 9/26/01, p.A7)
2001 Sep 25, Saudi Arabia withdrew
diplomatic recognition of the Afghan Taliban government.
(SFC, 9/26/01, p.A1)
2001 Sep 25, Interpol issued a
bulletin for the arrest of Ayman al-Zawahiri (50), an Egyptian surgeon
believed to be Osama bin Laden’s closest al Qaeda associate in
Afghanistan.
(SFC, 9/27/01, p.A8)
2001 Sep 26, Protesters turned a
Taliban march into an attack on the mothballed US Embassy in Kabul.
(SFC, 9/27/01, p.A8)
2001 Sep 27, The Taliban said it
had delivered an official request for Osama bin Laden to leave the
country.
(WSJ, 9/28/01, p.A1)
2001 Sep 28, Mohammed Omar told a
9-member Pakistani delegation that the Taliban would be willing to
fight to the death to protect Osama bin Laden from US military forces.
(SFC, 9/29/01, p.A1)
2001 Sep 28, A Bush administration
official said that small groups of US and British special forces had
entered Afghanistan.
(SFC, 9/29/01, p.A1)
2001 Sep 29, Pres. Bush in his
weekly radio address condemned the Taliban for sheltering terrorists
and said: “We did not seek this conflict, but we will win it.”
(SSFC, 9/30/01, p.A4)
2001 Sep 30, Pres. Bush authorized
$100 million in new relief aid to Afghan refugees.
(SFC, 10/1/01, p.A1)
2001 Sep 30, Leaders of the
Taliban said they had Osama bin Laden “under our control,” but would
release him to the US only if shown proof that he plotted the Sep 11
attacks. Pres. Bush said he would not negotiate.
(SFC, 10/1/01, p.A1)
2001 Sep 30, Northern Alliance
leader Younis Qanooni said he was optimistic about meeting with King
Zahir Shah (86).
(SFC, 10/1/01, p.A3)
2001 Sep 30, Pashtun chiefs from
both sides of the Afghan-Pakistan border met in Quetta to discuss the
crisis brought on by the Sep 11 attacks on the US. The groups included
the Kuchi, Zadran, Ghilzai and Buzdar and were crucial in the Taliban’s
rise to power.
(SFC, 10/2/01, p.A6)
2001 Oct 1, The opposition
Northern Alliance of Afghanistan met in Rome with ex-king Zahir Shah
and agreed to form a broad-based government open to cooperation with
the West
(SFC, 10/2/01, p.A1)
2001 Oct 4, The US pledged $320
million in aid to Afghanistan refugees.
(SFC, 10/5/01, p.A1)
2001 Oct 4, The British government
released a 16-page document over the Internet that presented details on
Osama bin Laden’s responsibility for the Sep 11 terrorist attacks.
(SFC, 10/5/01, p.A16)
2001 Oct 4, Pakistan announced
that it sees sufficient grounds for an indictment against Osama bin
Laden.
(WSJ, 10/5/01, p.A1)
2001 Oct 6, Pres. Bush warned
Afghanistan’s rulers that time is running out. The Taliban said it
would release 8 aid workers if the US “stops issuing threats” of
military action.
(SSFC, 10/7/01, p.A1)
2001 Oct 6, The Northern Alliance
was building an airport outside Golbahar to allow a US-led coalition to
funnel in military supplies.
(SSFC, 10/7/01, p.A5)
2001 Oct 7, US and British forces
struck 31 targets in Afghanistan. 40 warplanes, 50 Tomahawk cruise
missiles, B-2 Stealth bombers, B-1 lancers, B-52s, F-14 Tomcats and
F/A-18 Hornet fighter jets were used against air defenses,
communication nodes and other large fixed target sites. Airdrops of
food were also made. The Taliban later claimed that 8-20 civilians were
killed in the attacks.
(SFC, 10/8/01, p.A1)(SFC, 10/8/01, p.A1)(WSJ,
10/9/01, p.A1)
2001 Oct 7, In Afghanistan the
Northern Alliance moved its front line artillery and infantry units
against the Taliban.
(SFC, 10/8/01, p.A5)
2001 Oct 7, The Al-Jazeera TV
network from Qatar showed video footage of Osama bin Laden praising
Allah for the Sep 11 terrorist attacks.
(SFC, 10/8/01, p.G1)
2001 Oct 7, Sulaiman Bhughaith, a
Kuwaiti Islamist, emerged in Afghanistan as a spokesman for Osama bin
Laden.
(WSJ, 10/24/01, p.A16)
2001 Oct 8, US forces hit
Afghanistan with a 2nd wave of attacks. 40 Taliban commanders along
with 1,200 men switched sides and handed over control of a provincial
road north of Kabul. 4 UN civilian workers were later confirmed as
casualties of the bombing; Abdul Saboor, Safiullah, Najibullah and
Nasir Ahmad worked for a mine clearing agency. The Taliban ambassador
to Pakistan reported 200 civilian casualties.
(SFC, 10/9/01, p.A1)(SFC, 10/10/01, p.A3)(WSJ,
10/10/01, p.A1)(SFC, 10/10/01, p.A12)(WSJ, 12/4/01, p.A20)
2001 Oct 9, The US declared air
supremacy over Afghanistan.
(SFC, 10/10/01, p.A1)
2001 Oct 9, Qatar’s Al-Jazeera
broadcast a taped video of Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, an al Qaeda spokesman,
who called on Muslims to attack US interests worldwide.
(SFC, 10/10/01, p.A10)
2001 Oct 10, US warplanes struck
an ammunition dump at the edge of Kandahar and secondary explosions
left some civilian casualties.
(SFC, 10/15/01, p.A3)
2001 Oct 11, Abdul Salam Zaeem,
Afghan ambassador to Pakistan, said US bombing in Afghanistan killed
some 100 non-combatants in the Torghar region near Jalalabad. The total
civilian casualties since Oct 7 was estimated at 170.
(SFC, 10/12/01, p.A13)
2001 Oct 11, In Afghanistan that
Northern Alliance claimed to have taken the central province of Gur and
the provincial capital Chaghcharan. American bombing reportedly killed
as many as 200 civilians in Karam and Jalalabad.
(SFC, 10/12/01, p.A13)(SFC, 10/13/01, p.A1,9)
2001 Oct 12, Taliban leaders
withdrew over $6 million from the Kabul Da Afghanistan Bank.
(SFC, 1/8/02, p.A11)
2001 Oct 13, The US confirmed that
an errant 2,000-pound bomb hit residential buildings in Kabul and that
4 people were killed.
(SSFC, 10/14/01, p.A1)(WSJ, 12/4/01, p.A20)
2001 Oct 14, Pres. Bush rejected a
Taliban offer to release Osama bin Laden to an unnamed 3rd country if
the air strikes are halted.
(SFC, 10/15/01, p.A1)
2001 Oct 14, US warplanes hit
Afghanistan targets around Kabul and knocked out the overseas telephone
exchange. Bombs also hit the cities of Mazar-e-Sharif, Kandahar,
Jalalabad and Herat. Abu Baseer al-Masri, al Qaeda fighter and Egyptian
militant, was killed near Jalalabad.
(SFC, 10/15/01, p.A8)(SFC, 10/19/01, p.A3)
2001 Oct 15, US warplanes carried
out their heaviest bombings in 9 days over Afghanistan. The Pentagon
called in the slow moving AC-130 Spectre gunships to targets around
Kandahar.
(SFC, 10/16/01, p.A1)
2001 Oct 16, Over 100 aircraft
struck targets in Afghanistan and 2 gunships fired on Taliban and al
Qaeda troops. U.S. bombs struck the Red Cross compound in Afghanistan,
injuring a guard.
(WSJ, 10/17/01, p.A1)(AP, 10/16/02)
2001 Oct 16, It was reported that
the US strategy in the bombing of Afghanistan was failing because it
contradicted a Pashtun code of honor known as Pashtunwali. Central to
the code is nang, where death is taught to be preferable to a life
without honor. A 2nd tenet called badal, revenge, taught that only way
to redeem honor is to avenge it. A 3rd tenet called melmastiya,
hospitality, was exploited by Osama bin Laden as a guest in the country.
(SFC, 10/16/01, p.A17)
2001 Oct 17, Some 100 US land and
sea-base planes hit targets that included Kandahar and Mazar-e-Sharif.
(SFC, 10/18/01, p.A3)
2001 Oct 17, Taliban forces seized
UN food warehouses in Kabul and Kandahar.
(SFC, 10/18/01, p.A3)
2001 Oct 18, The city of Kandahar
was reported to have collapsed to “pre-Taliban lawlessness.”
(SFC, 10/19/01, p.A5)
2001 Oct 18, In Afghanistan the
city of Kandahar was reported to have collapsed to “pre-Taliban
lawlessness.” The first US Special Forces were reported to have begun
operating on the ground in southern Afghanistan.
(SFC, 10/19/01, p.A5)
2001 Oct 19, US commandoes
attacked a Taliban stronghold in Kandahar in the 1st known ground
action involving US troops.
(SFC, 10/20/01, p.A1)
2001 Oct 19, Some 3,500 refugees
arrived near the Pakistani border town of Chaman, the largest number to
date. The number had averaged about 2,000.
(SFC, 10/20/01, p.A6)
2001 Oct 20, US commandos struck 2
targets in Afghanistan that included an airfield and a command complex
near Kandahar. Two 500-pound bombs hit a residential center area
northwest of Kabul.
(SSFC, 10/21/01, p.A1)(SFC, 10/24/01, p.A12)
2001 Oct 20, It was reported that
the US was using a 40-year-old EC C-130 plane called “Commando Solo” to
broadcast messages and music over Afghanistan.
(SFC, 10/20/01, p.A10
2001 Oct 20, Pakistan confirmed
that it was holding talks with a senior Taliban commander, Mullah
Jalaluddin Haqqani, on the makeup of a future Afghan government.
(SSFC, 10/21/01, p.A18)
2001 Oct 21, US warplanes hit
Taliban frontline troops north of Kabul in the fiercest hits to date. A
1000-pound bomb hit near a senior citizens home in Herat. US air
strikes at Thorai killed 21 civilians.
(SFC, 10/22/01, p.A1)(SFC, 10/24/01, p.A12)(SSFC,
7/21/02, p.A14)
2001 Oct 21, A Taliban official
reported that 5 of their men had been executed as spies.
(SFC, 10/22/01, p.A5)
2001 Oct 22, The Pentagon flew
restricted attacks over Afghanistan using mostly carrier-based
aircraft. Def. Sec. Donald Rumsfeld denied that US and British planes
bombed a hospital in Herat where the Taliban claimed 100 people were
killed. One Pentagon official did say that a US missile had gone astray
near Herat and might have struck a non-military target.
(SFC, 10/23/01, p.A1,4)
2001 Oct 22, US AC-130 gunships
descended on a farm at Chowkar-Karez outside Kandahar and killed 19
civilians.
(SFC, 2/9/02, p.A12)
2001 Oct 22, Pakistan reached a
agreement with the Taliban to accept the return of thousands of
refugees. The Taliban agreed to set up 2 refugee camps inside
Afghanistan.
(SFC, 10/24/01, p.A12)
2001 Oct 23, US bombs in Kabul,
Afghanistan, reportedly killed 22 Harkat ul-Mujahedin fighters from
Pakistan.
(SFC, 10/25/01, p.A3)
2001 Oct 24, In Afghanistan US
jets attacked frontline Taliban positions for a 4th day. The Pentagon
accused the Taliban regime of planning to poison relief food supplies
and to blame the US for resulting deaths.
(SFC, 10/25/01, p.A3, A4)
2001 Oct 24, Some 1500 Afghanistan
leaders met in Pakistan for a 2-day Assembly for Peace and National
Unity in Afghanistan. Pir Sayed Ahmed Gailani, a religious leader,
presided.
(SFC, 10/24/01, p.A12)(SFC, 10/25/01, p.A5)
2001 Oct 24, It was reported that
Abdul Haq, a Pashtun opposition leader, had entered southern
Afghanistan with some 100 men to open an ethnic-Pashtun front against
the Taliban.
(WSJ, 10/24/01, p.A16)
2001 Oct 25, American warplanes
dropped cluster bombs for the 1st time on Taliban front lines.
(SFC, 10/26/01, p.A18)
2001 Oct 26, US warplanes hit Red
Cross warehouses in Kabul a 2nd time by accident. Afghan officials said
3 children were killed in overnight raids. A human rights group said
that as many as 35 civilians were killed in Chowkar-Karez, near
Kandahar from US air strikes. The Taliban captured and executed Abdul
Haq, a prominent opposition leader, who was attempting to arrange
defections.
(SFC, 10/27/01, p.A1)(WSJ, 12/4/01, p.A20)
2001 Oct 27, US warplanes hit
frontline Taliban positions in the heaviest attacks to date. 10 people
were reported killed from an errant bomb in the village of Ghanikhel in
Kapisa province.
(SSFC, 10/28/01, p.A3)
2001 Oct 27, Over 5000 volunteers
headed into Afghanistan from Temergarah, Pakistan, to help fight a holy
war against the US.
(SSFC, 10/28/01, p.A14)
2001 Oct 27, Ruue Lubbers, the UN
refugee chief, said some 150,000 Afghans had crossed into Pakistan in
recent weeks.
(SSFC, 10/28/01, p.A8)
2001 Oct 28, The US expanded air
strikes over Afghanistan and hit targets in Kabul, Mazar-e-Sharif,
Herat, Jalalabad, Kandahar and near the Tajik border. 13 civilians,
including 4 children, were reported killed in Kabul.
(SFC, 10/29/01, p.A1)
2001 Oct 30, The Pentagon reported
that a small number of US ground forces were operating in northern
Afghanistan.
(SFC, 10/31/01, p.A3)
2001 Oct 31, US bombing in
Afghanistan was reported to be the heaviest in the 4-week campaign.
(SFC, 11/1/01, p.A1)
2001 Oct, Oybek Jabbarov, his
pregnant wife and infant son were living as refugees near the
Afghan-Uzbek border when he accepted a lift in a car with soldiers of
the National Alliance, an Afghan military faction long at war with the
Taliban. He says the soldiers kidnapped him, falsely branded him a
Taliban fighter, and delivered him to US troops to collect an easy
bounty. He was transferred to Guantanamo in 2002 and cleared for
release in February 2007, but kept in custody until 2009, when he was
transferred to Ireland.
(AP, 9/27/09)
2001 Nov 1, US planes made their
heaviest assaults to date in northern Afghanistan.
(SFC, 11/2/01, p.A3)
2001 Nov 1, In Pakistan a
statement attributed to bin Laden accused the government of supporting
a Christian crusade and urged people to defend their faith.
(SFC, 11/2/01, p.A3)
2001 Nov 2, A US helicopter
crashed due to weather in northern Afghanistan. 4 crew members were
injured and retrieved by another helicopter.
(SFC, 11/3/01, p.A6)
2001 Nov 3, US planes staged
continuous bombing against Taliban positions in Samangan province and
the Northern Alliance pressed toward Mazar-e-Sharif.
(SSFC, 11/4/01, p.A1)
2001 Nov 4, The US moved more
special operations forces into Afghanistan and continued air strikes on
the Taliban front lines. The Air Force dropped a 15,000 pound fuel-air
explosion bomb called a Daisy Cutter that was last used in the Vietnam
War. Thousands of foreign volunteers were reported moving to the
Taliban front lines.
(SFC, 11/5/01, p.A1,3)(SFC, 11/6/01, p.A3)
2001 Nov 5, US bombing continued
to hit Taliban front lines and attacks concentrated on caves and
tunnels. About 2 dozen US commandos were reported to be in Afghanistan.
(SFC, 11/6/01, p.A3)(WSJ, 11/6/01, p.A1)
2001 Nov 6, US bombs killed a
number of civilians in Kabul. The UN later reported that erroneous
bombing killed 30 civilians in Kabul over the 1st 37 days of bombing.
(SFC, 11/24/01, p.A5)
2001 Nov 6, The Northern Alliance
took Aq Kupak and Keshendeh.
(SFC, 11/14/01, p.A3)
2001 Nov 6, German Chancellor
Gerhard Schroeder said he would activate 3,900 troops for action in
Afghanistan.
(SFC, 11/7/01, p.A5)
2001 Nov 7, The Northern Alliance
advanced into Shulgareh.
(SFC, 11/14/01, p.A3)
2001 Nov 7, Small numbers of US
forces prepared to enter southern Afghanistan for special missions.
(SFC, 11/8/01, p.A3)
2001 Nov 7, A special unit of
Afghan and Arab “fidaiyan” fighters, was reported to be ready for
suicide attacks.
(SFC, 11/8/01, p.A3)
2001 Nov 7, Italy pledged an
aircraft carrier and 2,700 troops to help the American campaign in
Afghanistan.
(SFC, 11/8/01, p.A6)
2001 Nov 7, Pakistan halted the
news conferences of Afghan ambassador Abdul Salam Zaeef, who used the
event to announce civilian casualties caused by US bombings.
(SFC, 11/8/01, p.A4)
2001 Nov 8, The Northern Alliance
approached Mazar-e-Sharif and Chushma-i-Shaf.
(SFC, 11/8/01, p.A3)(SFC, 11/14/01, p.A3)
2001 Nov 9, Northern Alliance
forces under Gen. Rashid Dostum claimed the capture of Mazar-e-Sharif.
Looting and killings were reported.
(SFC, 11/10/01, p.A1)(SFC, 11/12/01, p.A3)(SFC,
11/14/01, p.A7)
2001 Nov 9, Jordan’s King Abdullah
II said his country would consider sending troops to Afghanistan to
help the anti-terrorism coalition.
(SFC, 11/10/01, p.A3)
2001 Nov 10, In day 35 of US
attacks in Afghanistan the Northern alliance claimed the capture of the
provincial capitals of Shibarghan, Meimanah, and Aybal. Taliban forces
were surrounded near Taloqan and Kunduz.
(SSFC, 11/11/01, p.A3)
2001 Nov 11, In Afghanistan
Northern Alliance forces with help from US warplanes and advisers
captured Taloqan and some 200 Taliban were reported killed. Local
warlords accepted a payment to change allegiance.
(SFC, 11/10/01, p.A1)(SFC, 11/12/01, p.A3)(SFC,
11/14/01, p.A3)
2001 Nov 11, Two French radio
reporters and a German magazine journalist were killed when they came
under Taliban fire in Afghanistan.
(AP, 11/11/02)
2001 Nov 12, In Afghanistan
Taliban forces abandoned Kabul and Northern Alliance forces moved in to
the capital. The Taliban took with them 8 foreign aid workers. There
were reports of looting and summary executions. 3 European journalists
died in the fighting.
(SFC, 11/13/01, p.A1,2,15)(WSJ, 11/13/01, p.A1)
2001 Nov 13, US warplanes hit
Taliban convoys leaving Kabul. The Al Jazeera office in Kabul was
bombed. Kabul residents rejoiced at the departure of the Taliban. The
Northern Alliance retreated at Kunduz when a suspected surrender turned
into an attack. Some $5.3 million vanished from the Central Bank Mille
in Kabul.
(SFC, 11/14/01, p.A1,2,3)(WSJ, 12/4/01, p.A15)
2001 Nov 14, In Afghanistan the
Northern Alliance pushed toward Kunduz and Kandahar. 8 Western relief
workers were rescued including 2 Americans. Mohammed Atef, a top al
Qaeda military strategist, was believed killed by a bomb near Kabul. US
air strikes at Gardez killed 23 civilians.
(SFC, 11/15/01, p.A1)(SFC, 11/17/01, p.A3)(SSFC,
7/21/02, p.A14)
2001 Nov 14, The UN Security
Council approved a resolution to fill the political vacuum in
Afghanistan and to provide security in areas freed by anti-Taliban
forces.
(SFC, 11/15/01, p.A5)
2001 Nov 14, Britain pledged 5,000
more troops to Afghanistan in addition to 4,500 already in the war zone.
(SFC, 11/15/01, p.A9)
2001 Nov 15, Day 40 of the attack
on Afghanistan: Osama bin Laden’s Brigade 055 dispersed into the
mountains of Afghanistan. US planes struck Taliban positions outside
Kunduz, where as many as 20,000 Taliban fighters gathered. Kandahar
went under siege by opposition forces. Jalalabad was reported to be
under Yunis Khalis of the Northern Alliance. Mullah Omar in a BBC radio
interview warned of a larger strategy: the “destruction of America.”
(SFC, 11/16/01, p.A1,9)(SFC, 11/17/01, p.A4)
2001 Nov 15, On about this day 2
al-Qaeda computers were acquired by a Wall Street journalist in Kabul
for $1,100 following US bombing. They were found to contain over 1,750
text and video files of al Qaeda activities including weapons programs.
One file contained the names of 170 al Qaeda members.
(SFC, 1/1/02, p.A10)(WSJ, 1/16/02, p.A1)
2001 Nov 16, In Afghanistan US air
strikes killed 20 civilians at Zani Khel and at least 65 at Khost. US
bombing began at Tora Bora.
(SSFC, 7/21/02, p.A14)(NW, 8/26/02, p.38)
2001 Nov 16, The Taliban was
reported ready to abandon Kandahar. The Northern Alliance took over
Radio Kabul and other key city offices.
(SFC, 11/17/01, p.A1,3)
2001 Nov 18, Northern Alliance
leaders agreed to join UN sponsored talks to form a new government.
Haji Qadir formed a new alliance to govern Jalalabad. US planes
continued strikes around Kunduz and Kandahar. US strikes on a Taliban
convoy were later considered as a marking point for the downfall of the
Taliban.
(SFC, 11/19/01, p.A1,3)(SFC, 1/2/02, p.A6)
2001 Nov 19, Some Taliban began
secret negotiations for the surrender of Kandahar. They said outside
forces had taken over their movement and named: the int’l. drug mafia,
int’l. terrorists, the puritanical Wahabi school of Sunni Islam, and
Pakistan intelligence.
(SSFC, 11/25/01, p.A3)
2001 Nov 19, It was reported that
400 Afghan Taliban soldiers were killed while trying to defect last
week. Gen. Dostum led Northern Alliance troops in the area. Defectors
continued to stream out of Kunduz as US war planes continued to bomb
Taliban positions.
(SFC, 11/19/01, p.A1)(SFC, 5/1/02, p.A12)
2001 Nov 19, Four foreign
journalists and their Afghan guide were killed in an ambush between
Jalalabad and Kabul: Harry Burton of Australia (Reuters), Azizullah
Haidari, Afghan photographer (Reuters), Julio Fuentes of Spain (El
Mundo, Madrid), and Maria Grazia Cutuli of Italy (Corriere della Sera,
Milan). In 2004 Afghan judges sentenced Reza Khan to death for his role
in the ambush. Khan said he was under orders from militia commander
Mohammed Agha.
(SFC, 11/20/01, p.A3)(SSFC, 11/21/04, p.A10)
2001 Nov 20, In Afghanistan the
Northern Alliance gave the Taliban in Kunduz 3 days to give up. The
alliance controlling Afghanistan's capital and much of its countryside
agreed to attend power-sharing talks in Germany the following week.
(WSJ, 11/21/01, p.A1)(AP, 11/20/02)
2001 Nov 22, The Northern Alliance
engaged the Taliban in heavy fighting outside Kunduz. A Kunduz
surrender deal was in jeopardy.
(SFC, 11/23/01, p.A1)(WSJ, 11/23/01, p.A1)
2001 Nov 22, Pakistan ordered the
Taliban to close its embassy in Islamabad.
(SFC, 11/23/01, p.A16)
2001 Nov 23, Taliban troop
contingents were reported to have dug in at 2 bases near Jalalabad
including an estimated 1,200 at Tora Bora. It was also reported that
Pakistani airplanes were being used to evacuate pro-Taliban Pakistani
fighters in Kunduz.
(SFC, 11/24/01, p.A1)
2001 Nov 24, Thousands of Taliban
fighters surrendered at Kunduz. A few turned out to be suicide bombers,
who killed 5-6 Northern Alliance commanders. Afghan troops captured
Salim Ahmen Hamdan in southern Afghanistan in a car with four other
alleged al-Qaida associates who exchanged fire with the Afghan troops.
Three of the other men in the car, including a son-in-law of Osama bin
Laden, were killed. Hamdan, who was sent to Guantanamo, admitted
working as bin Laden's driver in Afghanistan.
(SSFC, 11/25/01, p.A1)(NW, 8/26/02, p.22)(AP,
12/5/07)
2001 Nov 25, Taliban troops near
Mazar-e-Sharif staged a prison revolt and hundreds were reported
killed. US marines landed near Kandahar marking the 1st major use of US
ground troops in Afghanistan. 5 Americans were injured by an American
bomb and 1 CIA agent, Johnny Michael Spann (32), was reportedly killed.
(SFC, 11/26/01, p.A1)(SFC, 11/27/01, p.A8)(SFC,
11/29/01, p.A1)(NW, 12/10/01, p.31)
2001 Nov 26, The Taliban
surrendered the border town of Spinbaldak as US Marines directed air
attacks on a column of enemy vehicles. Fighting continued with
prisoners at Qala Jangi and most were reported killed along with 40-50
Northern Alliance soldiers.
(SFC, 11/27/01, p.A1,10)
2001 Nov 27, Afghan factions met
in Bonn, Germany, and agreed to give former King Mohammad Zahir Shah a
role in a new Afghan government. 4 factions included 11 delegates from
the Northern Alliance, 11 from the Rome Group, 3 from exiles in Cyprus,
and 3 from exiles in Pakistan.
(SFC, 11/28/01, p.A1)
2001 Nov 27, Olaf Stromberg, a
Swedish TV journalist, was killed while sleeping in northern
Afghanistan during a suspected robbery attempt. He was the 8th
journalist slain in the conflict.
(SFC, 11/27/01, p.A10)(SFC, 11/28/01, p.A1)
2001 Nov 28, Ahmed Abdel-Rahman
(35), a top al Qaeda operative and son of the blind sheik linked to the
1993 WTC bombing, was captured by anti-Taliban forces. The Taliban said
some 600 people including 450 prisoners were killed in the uprising at
Qala Jangi. US bombing continued with intermittent strikes.
(SFC, 11/29/01, p.A1)(WSJ, 11/29/01, p.A1)(WSJ,
11/30/01, p.A1)
2001 Nov 28, From Nov 28-30
thousands of Taliban fighters, who had surrendered at Kunduz were
shipped by container truck to prison camps at Sheberghan. Up to 960
died enroute, mostly from asphyxiation.
(SSFC, 11/25/01, p.A1)(NW, 8/26/02, p.22)
2001 Nov, Burhanuddin Rabbani,
political leader of the Northern Alliance, issued an amnesty to all
Taliban except for non-Afghans.
(SFC, 12/4/01, p.A11)
2001 Nov, A treatise by Ayman al
Zawahiri was smuggled out of Afghanistan. It was published in Dec by an
Arabic language newspaper in London.
(SFC, 1/1/02, p.A10)
2001 Nov, Juma Namangani, al-Qaeda
member and co-founder of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), died
following critical injuries from US bombing in Kunduz, Afghanistan.
(SFC, 12/7/01, p.F1)
2001 Dec 1, In Afghanistan Farida
Afzali (21) became the 1st woman in 5 years to enroll at Kabul Univ.
Day 56: US bombing continued around Kandahar and over Tora Bora near
Kabul, where 3 villages were hit and a number of civilians killed and
injured. Air strikes at Khan-I-Merjahuddin killed 48 civilians. Air
strikes at Madoo killed 48 civilians.
(SSFC, 12/2/01, p.A2)(SSFC, 7/21/02, p.A14)
2001 Dec 1, In Germany 4 Afghan
factions continued to work on a 20-member “interim authority.”
(SSFC, 12/2/01, p.A3)
2001 Dec 2, US bombers hit Taliban
defenses around Kandahar. US strikes at Tora Bora reportedly killed at
least 8 civilians.
(SFC, 12/3/01, p.A9)
2001 Dec 3, Some 3,000 Taliban
surrendered at Char Dara, 6 miles west of Kunduz. Pashtuns battled
Taliban forces at Kandahar’s airport. The UN evacuated staff at
Mazar-e-Sharif due to Northern Alliance infighting.
(SFC, 12/4/01, p.A11)(WSJ, 12/4/01, p.A1,15)
2001 Dec 4, US bombing continued
at Kandahar and Tora Bora. Baglan and Balkh were noted as a pockets of
resistance with up to 3,500 Taliban militiamen. An interim government
was scheduled to take power Dec 22.
(SFC, 12/5/01, p.A14)
2001 Dec 5, A 2000-pound US bomb
killed 3 American Green Berets near Kandahar along with 18 Afghan
fighters. 20 Americans were injured along with 18 Afghan fighters
including newly appointed Afghan leader Hamid Karzai.
(SFC, 12/6/01, p.A1,15)(WSJ, 12/6/01, p.A1)
2001 Dec 5, Afghan delegates in
Koenigswinter, Germany, signed an agreement for an interim post-Taliban
government to begin Dec 22.
(SFC, 12/6/01, p.A1)(AP, 12/5/02)
2001 Dec 6, Mullah Mohammed Omar,
the Taliban leader, vowed to surrender Kandahar.
(SFC, 12/7/01, p.A1)
2001 Dec 7, In Afghanistan Taliban
soldiers fled Kandahar and left the city in chaos. Day 62: Assaults
continued around Tora Bora where up to 2,000 bin Laden loyalists were
positioned at a mountain redoubt. Aryana Airline made its 1st domestic
flight since Oct 7 with a flight from Herat to Kabul.
(SFC, 12/8/01, p.A1,14)(SFC, 12/14/01, p.E6)
2001 Dec 8, John Walker Lindh, a
Taliban soldier from Marin County, Ca., was held at Camp Rhino near
Kandahar as a battlefield detainee. He was captured a week earlier
following the prison revolt at Mazar-e-Sharif.
(SSFC, 12/9/01, p.A1)
2001 Dec 9, US B-52s continued
strikes over Tora Bora. A Northern Alliance helicopter crashed and 18
people were killed including 2 Pashtun commanders. The last province
under Taliban control, Zabul, was handed over to tribal leaders.
(SFC, 12/10/01, p.A12)
2001 Dec 9, The Friendship Bridge
linking Afghanistan and Uzbekistan was opened for aid transport.
(SFC, 12/10/01, p.A12)
2001 Dec 10, US air strikes
continued at Bora Bora and Afghan fighters moved in on al Qaeda
defenders in fortified caves.
(SFC, 12/11/01, p.A1)
2001 Dec 10, It was reported that
at least 43 Taliban prisoners had died in shipping containers during a
2-3 day transit from Kunduz to Shibirghan.
(SFC, 12/11/01, p.A17)
2001 Dec 11, US bombers continued
to hit sites at Tora Bora, Afghanistan, as a deadline for al Qaeda
surrender passed.
(SFC, 12/12/01, p.A1)
2001 Dec 11, Australia reported
that an Australian citizen, David Hicks (26), who had trained with the
al Qaeda, had been captured in Afghanistan.
(SFC, 12/12/01, p.A19)(SFC, 12/15/01, p.A16)
2001 Dec 13, The US Defense Dept.
released a videotape of Osama bin Laden talking about the Sep 11
attacks. The tape clearly indicated his advance knowledge of the
suicide attacks. The tape was found weeks ago in Jalalabad.
(SFC, 12/13/01, p.A7)(SFC, 12/14/01, p.A1)(WSJ,
12/14/01, p.A1)
2001 Dec 13, The US military sent
in special operations forces into the Tora Bora area to look for al
Qaeda leaders.
(SFC, 12/14/01, p.A1)
2001 Dec 14, American and British
commandos behind a screen of local Afghan fighters contained the last
remnants of al Qaeda forces in the White Mountains of Tora Bora.
American Marines occupied Kandahar airport.
(SFC, 12/15/01, p.A1,16)
2001 Dec 14, European leaders
agreed to send 4,000 troops to Afghanistan.
(SFC, 12/15/01, p.A16)
2001 Dec 16, In Afghanistan 25 bin
Laden soldiers were captured and 200 were killed in the Tora Bora
region. After 9 weeks of fighting, Afghan militia leaders claimed
control of the last mountain bastion of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida
fighters. There was no sign of bin Laden.
(SFC, 12/17/01, p.A1)(AP, 12/16/02)
2001 Dec 17, US Marines raised the
Stars and Stripes over the long-abandoned American Embassy in Kabul,
inaugurating what U.S. envoy James F. Dobbins promised would be a long
commitment to the rebuilding.
(AP, 12/17/02)
2001 Dec 17, In Afghanistan US
Delta forces pursued some 300 al Qaeda fighters in the White Mountains.
Mullah Omar was reported to have retreated to the mountains near
Baghran.
(SFC, 12/18/01, p.A1,14)
2001 Dec 18, Hundreds of al Qaeda
and Taliban fighters were reported to have slipped into Pakistan from
Afghanistan.
(SFC, 12/19/01, p.A1)
2001 Dec 19, Britain advised the
UN that it would lead a security force in Afghanistan and contribute
1,500 soldiers to a force of 5,000.
(SFC, 12/19/01, p.A14)
2001 Dec 20, In Afghanistan the
1st int’l. peacekeeping forces arrived from Britain as the U.N.
Security Council authorized a multinational force for Afghanistan. A
grenade attack in Mazar-e-Sharif market wounded some 35-100 people. US
air strikes at Asmani and Pokharai killed about 50 civilians.
(SFC, 12/21/01, p.A24)(WSJ, 12/21/01, p.A1)(AP,
12/20/02)
2001 Dec 21, US warplanes attacked
a convoy of trucks heading for the Pakistan border and 65 people were
reported killed. 12 were killed in the convoy and 15 in nearby
villages. The convoy was said to be heading for Kabul.
(SFC, 12/22/01, p.A19)(SFC, 12/29/01, p.A16)
2001 Dec 21, In Kabul,
Afghanistan, power was officially transferred from Pres. Rabbani to
Hamid Karzai.
(SFC, 12/22/01, p.A1)
2001 Dec 22, Hamid Karzai was
sworn in as prime minister of Afghanistan.
(AP, 12/22/02)
2001 Dec 23, It was reported that
Hazrat Ali, an Afghanistan eastern alliance commander, had negotiated a
deal to release al Qaeda troops in the Tora Bora region. The new
cabinet met in Kabul for the 1st time.
(SSFC, 12/23/01, p.A20)(SFC, 12/24/01, p.A10)
2001 Dec 24, In Afghanistan Hamid
Karzai and Defense Minister Mohammed Fahim named Gen. Rashid Dostum as
deputy defense minister.
(SFC, 12/25/01, p.A1)
2001 Dec 27, The US announced
plans to hold Taliban and al Qaeda prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay
naval base in Cuba.
(SFC, 12/28/01, p.A1)
2001 Dec 27, US warplanes
destroyed a compound in eastern Afghanistan believed to used by a
Taliban intelligence chief. Local villagers said as many as 40
civilians were killed. Qari Ahmadullah (40), former Taliban chief of
intelligence, was killed while fleeing US bombardment near Naka village
in Paktia province.
(SFC, 12/28/01, p.A22)(SFC, 1/3/02, p.A1)
2001 Dec 28, Gen. Mohammad Fahim,
Afghanistan’s new defense minister, called for an end to US bombing.
Meanwhile al Qaeda remnants in the Tora Bora region fired missiles at a
joint Afghan-American command base.
(SFC, 12/29/01, p.A16)
2001 Dec 29, US airstrikes in
Paktia province were later reported to have killed up to 100 villagers.
(SFC, 1/2/02, p.A6)
2001 Dec 30, Four Afghan soldiers
were killed near Herat as they stacked boxes of ammunition.
(SFC, 12/31/01, p.A6)
2001 Dec 31, The US planned to
deploy elements of the 101st Airborne Division to replace Marines near
Kandahar. US troops moved by helicopter to Helmand province, the region
where Mohammed Omar was suspected to be.
(WSJ, 12/31/01, p.A1)
2001 Dec, In Afghanistan US air
strikes in late Dec. at Niazi Qala killed 52 civilians.
(SSFC, 7/21/02, p.A14)
2001 Jason Elliot authored “An
Unexpected Light: Travels in Afghanistan.”
(SSFC, 4/1/01, BR p.10)
2001 Larry Goodson authored
“Afghanistan’s Endless War: State Failure, Regional Politics and the
Rise of the Taliban.”
(WSJ, 10/15/01, p.A22)
2002 Jan 2, The new Afghan
government confirmed that American bombs had killed the Taliban's
intelligence chief, Qari Ahmadullah.
(AP, 1/2/03)
2002 Jan 3, US warplanes hit an al
Qaeda compound in the Khost region south of Tora Bora and Islamic
fighters near Baghran were reported to be in negotiations.
(SFC, 1/4/02, p.A19)(WSJ, 1/4/02, p.A1)
2002 Jan 3, Afghan troops beat
back refugees seeking food at a Red Crescent compound in
Jalalabad. There were numerous reports of stolen wheat and relief
supplies attributed to members of the Eastern Shura.
(SFC, 1/4/02, p.A1)
2002 Jan 4, US Army Special Forces
Sgt. Ross Chapman (31) was killed by enemy fire near Khost,
Afghanistan. He became the 1st US soldier to die their by enemy fire.
(SFC, 1/5/02, p.A1)
2002 Jan 5, Canada reported plans
to send 900 troops to assist with peacekeeping in Afghanistan.
(SSFC, 1/6/02, p.A9)
2002 Jan 6, Anti-Taliban troops in
Afghanistan planned to starve out 7 al Qaeda members holed up in a
Kandahar hospital.
(SFC, 1/7/02, p.A8)
2002 Jan 7, US planes bombed cave
complexes in Afghanistan as Tony Blair arrived in Kabul. He said the
West would not abandon Afghanistan. 9 US senators also visited the area.
(SFC, 1/8/02, p.A11)(WSJ, 1/8/02, p.A1)
2002 Jan 7, In Kandahar 7 Taliban
officials surrendered and were released by the governor. None of the
released were on US wanted lists.
(SFC, 1/10/02, p.A1)(SFC, 1/11/02, p.A13)
2002 Jan 7, Canada announced plans
to send 750 soldiers to join US combat operations in Afghanistan.
(SFC, 1/8/02, p.A11)
2002 Jan 8, US soldiers captured
14 suspected fighters at the Zhawar Kili cave and bunker complex near
Khost. An al Qaeda fighter blew himself up with a grenade during an
escape attempt at a Kandahar hospital. 2 senior al Qaeda leaders were
reported caught with documents and laptops, while fleeing bombing in
eastern Afghanistan. An intensified search was reported to be in
progress for Abu Zubeida (Zain al-Abidin Muhammad Husain), the director
of external affairs for al Qaeda.
(SFC, 1/9/02, p.A8)
2002 Jan 10, In Afghanistan gunmen
attacked the Kandahar airport as a US military transport took off
carrying al Qaeda and Taliban prisoners to the US Guantanamo Bay naval
base in Cuba.
(SFC, 1/11/02, p.A5)
2002 Jan 12, The United States
intensified its anti-terror campaign in eastern Afghanistan, dropping
bombs on suspected al-Qaida and Taliban hideouts.
(SSFC, 1/13/02, p.A8)(AP, 1/12/03)
2002 Jan 12, The World Food
Program halted aid shipments in Afghanistan about this time due to
theft and looting by bandits and warlords.
(SSFC, 1/13/02, p.A10)
2002 Jan 14, US warplanes began to
seal caves near Khost, Afghanistan.
(WSJ, 1/15/02, p.A1)
2002 Jan 15, It was reported that
an American, Clark Russell Bowers (37), had been taken hostage in
Afghanistan with ransom at $25k.
(SFC, 1/15/02, p.A10)
2002 Jan 16, Hamid Karzai issued a
decree that banned the cultivation of opium poppies.
(SFC, 1/17/02, p.A12)
2002 Jan 17, US Sec. of State
Powell visited Afghanistan and pledged that the US would not abandon
the country.
(SFC, 1/18/02, p.A20)
2002 Jan 18, Estimates of civilian
deaths from US bombing were set at 1,000 to 1,300 by the Mass. think
tank, Project on Defense Alternatives.
(SFC, 1/19/02, p.A6)
2002 Jan 20, A US CH-53E Super
Stallion helicopter crashed in Afghanistan after take off from Bagram
air base. Marines Dwight Morgan and Walter Cohee III were killed.
(AP, 1/20/03)(SSFC, 1/20/02, p.A14)(SFC, 1/21/02,
p.A1)
2002 Jan 21, Sec. of State Colin
Powell said the US would contribute $297 million for Afghan
reconstruction over the coming year during a conference on Afghan
reconstruction in Tokyo. Int’l. donors pledged over $4.5 billion over 5
years.
(SFC, 1/21/02, p.A1)(SFC, 1/22/02, p.A12)
2002 Jan 22, US officials reported
that Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, a former head of al Qaeda training in
Afghanistan, had provided information on an alleged plot to blow up the
US Embassy in Yemen a week earlier.
(SFC, 1/23/02, p.A9)
2002 Jan 23-2002 Jan24, US
soldiers captured 27 Taliban fighters in Hazar Qadam, north of
Kandahar. Gov. Jan Muhammad Khan later said that 60 people were killed
and denied that any were Taliban or al Qaeda fighters. US military
later acknowledged that some of the dead may have been allies. The
captives were released Feb 6 and reported that they had been beaten and
abused. The Pentagon acknowledged Feb 21 that 16 villagers were
mistakenly killed.
(SFC, 1/25/02, p.A18)(SSFC, 1/27/02, p.A8)(SFC,
2/2/02, p.A10)(SFC, 2/7/02, p.A19)(SSFC, 2/10/02, p.A18)(SFC, 2/11/02,
p.A1)(SFC, 2/22/02, p.A16)
2002 Jan 25, Afghan leaders called
for an increase in peacekeeping troops as warlords competed for power
outside of Kabul.
(SFC, 1/26/02, p.A14)
2002 Jan 27, Hamid Karzai, interim
Afghan leader, began a visit to the US and asked Afghan Americans to
return and help with reconstruction.
(SFC, 1/28/02, p.A1)
2002 Jan 28, US forces and Afghan
militiamen attacked and killed 6 al Qaeda gunmen, who had been holed up
at the Mir Wais Hospital in Kandahar.
(SFC, 1/28/02, p.A9)(SFC, 1/29/02, p.A10)(NW,
8/26/02, p.39)
2002 Jan 31, Warlord Saifullah
defeated troops under Padsha Khan Zadran in Gardez and some 50 people
were killed.
(SFC, 2/1/02, p.A24)
2002 Feb 4, The CIA believed that
it killed a top al Qaeda official with a Hellfire missile, Predator
aerial drone, near Zawar Kili, Afghanistan. 7 al Qaeda members were
killed. At least some of those killed were innocent villagers. At
Zhawara 3 local villagers were killed while looking for scrap metal.
(WSJ, 2/7/02, p.A1)(SFC, 2/8/02, p.A18)(SFC,
2/11/02, p.A10)(SFC, 2/12/02, p.A16)(SSFC, 2/17/02, p.A18)(SSFC,
7/21/02, p.A14)
2002 Feb 4, In Afghanistan
northern militia factions agreed to withdraw from Mazar-e-Sharif and
create a new joint security force.
(SFC, 2/5/02, p.A8)
2002 Feb 8, In Afghanistan Mullah
Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil, Taliban foreign minister, surrendered in
Kandahar and was turned over to US military.
(SFC, 2/9/02, p.A14)
2002 Feb 8, Interim leader Hamid
Karzai met with Pakistan Pres. Musharraf in Islamabad and they agreed
to bury past misunderstandings.
(SFC, 2/9/02, p.A14)
2002 Feb 9, The government
released 320 captured Taliban fighters and gave each soldier the
equivalent of $15 as a gesture of reconciliation.
(SSFC, 2/10/02, p.A18)
2002 Feb 11, In Kandahar opium
vendors shut down under US military orders.
(SFC, 2/12/02, p.A14)
2002 Feb 12, It was reported that
AP estimated 600 civilians killed in the Afghan campaign.
(WSJ, 2/12/02, p.A1)
2002 Feb 14, Abdul Rahman, the Air
Transportation Minister, was reported killed by a mob of Muslim
pilgrims at Kabul Airport seeking transport to Mecca. Hamid Karzai
later said senior officials were responsible and blamed the killing on
a personal vendetta. Gen. Tawhidi and Gen. Beg were among the accused.
Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah later said the attack was not
premeditated.
(SFC, 2/15/02, p.A20)(SFC, 2/16/02, p.A3)(SFC,
2/21/02, p.A16)
2002 Feb 15, It was reported that
thousands of civilians in Balkh province had been terrorized by
soldiers of Gen. Dostum since the fall of the Taliban.
(SFC, 2/15/02, p.A1)
2002 Feb 16, Afghanistan British
peacekeepers came under fire at an observation post in Kabul.
(SSFC, 2/17/02, p.A18)
2002 Feb 16-17, In Afghanistan US
forces made bombing raids aimed at controlling clashes among militia
forces. Pentagon officials later said the attacks were against
suspected al Qaeda fighters.
(SFC, 2/19/02, p.A9)(SFC, 2/20/02, p.A14)
2002 Feb 23, The US government
said it had clues that Osama bin Laden was still alive in Afghanistan.
(SSFC, 2/24/02, p.A16)
2002 Mar 2, US and Afghan forces
attacked hundreds of suspected al Qaeda and Taliban fighters in eastern
Afghanistan in Operation Anaconda. US soldier Stanley Harriman (34) was
killed and friendly fire was later suspected.
(SSFC, 3/3/02, p.A1)(SFC, 3/13/02, p.A12)(SFC,
3/30/02, p.A10)
2002 Mar 3, A 7.2 earthquake was
centered in northeast Afghanistan and at least 100 people were killed.
(SFC, 3/5/02, p.A10)
2002 Mar 3, US military forces and
6 allied nations made air and ground assaults against al Qaeda and
Taliban fighters in the Afghan Shah-e-Kot mountains of eastern Paktia
province.
(SFC, 3/4/02, p.A1)
2002 Mar 4, At least 7 US soldiers
were killed while trying to drop off reconnaissance teams in fighting
in Paktia province. 6 of the soldiers were killed in an effort to try
to rescue a 7th during Operation Anaconda.
(SFC, 3/5/02, p.A1)(SFC, 3/6/02, p.A1,12)
2002 Mar 6, US commanders in
Afghanistan committed an additional 300 troops to the battle zone in
the Shah-I-Kot mountains. Taliban and al-Qaeda forces were reported to
have swollen by as many as 500 fighters. US jets killed 14 people in
the area including women and children.
(SFC, 3/7/02, p.A1)(WSJ, 3/13/02, p.A1)
2002 Mar 6, In Kabul 3 Danish and
2 German peacekeeping soldiers were killed while defusing a soviet era
missile.
(WSJ, 3/7/02, p.A1)
2002 Mar 14, In Pakistan Pres.
Musharraf said the war in Afghanistan is over. The 12 day Operation
Anaconda left as many as 800 enemy fighters dead.
(SFC, 3/15/02, p.A14)
2002 Mar 17, US troops killed 16
al Qaeda fighters in the Gardez region.
(WSJ, 3/19/02, p.A1)
2002 Mar 18, Britain planned to
send 1,700 troops to Afghanistan to join the 6,300 US forces.
(WSJ, 3/19/02, p.A1)
2002 Mar 20, Militants attacked
the Khost airport and another base north of the city and killed 3
Afghans. Coalition troops called in air strikes.
(SFC, 3/21/02, p.A13)
2002 Mar 23, The return of King
Zahir Shah was postponed for a few weeks by the Italian government due
to security reasons.
(SSFC, 3/24/02, p.A18)
2002 Mar 25, In Afghanistan a
5.8-6.1 earthquake was centered 105 miles north of Kabul and early
reports of deaths reached to 1,800. The city of Nahrin was reported
destroyed. Deaths in Baghlan province were reduced to 600-800 with
100,000 left homeless.
(SFC, 3/26/02, p.A6)(SFC, 3/27/02, p.A1)(SFC,
3/29/02, p.A9)(SFC, 3/30/02, p.A10)(AP, 6/22/02)
2002 Mar 28, Matthew J. Bourgeois
(35), a Navy Seal from Tallahassee, was killed by a land mine in
Kandahar.
(SFC, 3/29/02, p.A9)
2002 Apr 3, Pakistan’s Gen.
Musharraf visited Afghanistan and presented Hamid Karzai with a $10
million donation.
(SFC, 4/3/02, p.A8)
2002 Apr 3, Afghan security
officials reported the arrests of hundreds of political opponents who
planned a conspiracy and bombing campaign that was linked to Gulbuddin
Hekmatyar. 140 men were released the next day, while 160 remained under
detention.
(SFC, 4/4/02, p.A8)(SFC, 4/5/02, p.A9)
2002 Apr 4, Afghan officials
reported that poppy farmers would be offered $500 per acre to destroy
their crops. Refusal would still result in crop destruction.
(SFC, 4/5/02, p.A8)
2002 Apr 8, In Kabul a bomb
exploded near the convoy of Defense Minister Mohammed Fahim and at
least 5 people were killed including 2 children.
(SFC, 4/9/02, p.A7)
2002 Apr 9, Some 20 thousand
refugees, attempting to return from Pakistan refugee camps, were
blocked by poppy growers. Rival warlords hindered the return of another
2 million.
(SFC, 4/10/02, p.A9)
2002 Apr 12, An earthquake hit
northern Afghanistan and at least 59 people were killed, mostly in
Doabi.
(SFC, 4/13/02, p.A10)(SFC, 4/20/02, p.A24)
2002 Apr 15, In Afghanistan 4
American soldiers were killed near Kandahar while disarming a rocket.
(SFC, 4/16/02, p.A8)
2002 Apr 18, Afghanistan's former
king, Mohammad Zaher Shah (87), returned to his country after 29 years
in exile.
(SFC, 4/19/02, p.A11)(AP, 4/18/03)
2002 Apr 18, A US fighter jet
accidentally dropped a laser-guided bomb on Canadian forces near
Kandahar, Afghanistan, and 4 soldiers were killed. On Sep 12 two U.S.
F-16 fighter pilots were charged with manslaughter and assault in the
"friendly fire" bombing of Canadian troops that killed four soldiers
and injured eight. In 2004 USAF pilot Maj. Harry Schmidt was found
guilty of dereliction of duty. He received a reprimand and was docked a
month’s pay.
(SFC, 4/18/02, p.A10)(SFC, 6/19/02, p.A8)(Reuters,
9/13/02)(SFC, 7/7/04, p.A6)
2002 Apr 27, In Afghanistan 25
people were killed in Gardez from rockets fired by Padsha Khan Zadran
in a bid to take the provincial capital. The attack came just before
Sec. of Defense Rumsfeld landed at Bagram Air Base.
(SSFC, 4/28/02, p.A17)(WSJ, 4/29/02, p.A1)
2002 Apr 29, US forces in
Afghanistan engaged al Qaeda fighters near the Pakistan border and
killed 4.
(SFC, 4/30/02, p.A14)
2002 Apr 29, Britain decided to
treat al Qaeda and Taliban fighters as prisoners of war and turn them
over to the interim Afghan government.
(SFC, 4/30/02, p.A15)
2002 Apr 29, Turkey officially
agreed to take command of the peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan.
(SFC, 4/30/02, p.A15)
2002 May 1, Some 560-614 prisoners
were released from the northern Shibirghan prison controlled by Gen.
Dostum. Some 2,300 prisoners remained.
(SFC, 5/3/02, p.A12)
2002 May 6, The CIA fired a
missile from a Predator in an attempt to kill Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, head
of Hezb-e-Islami, and his top aides outside Kabul.
(SFC, 5/10/02, p.A22)
2002 May 12, US forces in
Afghanistan killed 5 enemy fighters and captured 32 during a raid at
Deh Rawod, north of Kandahar. US air strikes at Char Chine, killed 5
civilians.
(SFC, 5/14/02, p.A8)(SSFC, 7/21/02, p.A14)
2002 May 16, In Afghanistan
coalition forces came under fire in eastern Paktia province. Some enemy
fighters were reported killed. Fire from an AC-130 gunship killed about
10 people, possibly local tribe members.
(SFC, 5/17/02, p.A11)(SSFC, 5/19/02, p.A4)
2002 May 17, Coalition forces
battled enemy forces in Operation Condor in the Khost region. A
pan-Arab newspaper quoted Mullah Mohammed Omar as saying Osama bin
Laden is alive and that the future of the US in Afghanistan is “fire,
hell and total defeat.”
(SFC, 5/18/02, p.A10)
2002 May 19, Sgt. Gene Arden Vance
(38), an American special forces soldier, was killed in Afghanistan,
when his unit came into contact with enemy forces. Operation Mountain
Lion began in an attempt to seal off the border.
(SFC, 5/20/02, p.A14)(NW, 8/26/02, p.39)
2002 May 23, The UN voted to
extend the mandate for an int’l. force in Afghanistan for 6 months but
with no expansion of troops or presence beyond Kabul.
(SFC, 5/24/02, p.A13)
2002 May 24, Coalition forces near
Kandahar captured 50 people from a compound that was said to be a
refuge for senior Taliban and al Qaeda leaders.
(SFC, 5/25/02, p.A12)
2002 May 31, US troops mistakenly
killed 3 Afghans in a raid near Gardez.
(WSJ, 6/3/02, p.A1)
2002 Jun 4, Turkish peacekeepers
arrived in Afghanistan.
(WSJ, 6/5/02, p.A1)
2002 Jun 8, A bus filled with
Afghan families returning from Pakistan plunged into the Kabul River
near Sarobi and 67 people were killed.
(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.A18)
2002 Jun 11, Afghanistan's former
king attended a long-awaited Loya Jirga, accompanied by leaders of
Hamid Karzai's interim government in a show of unity for a tribal
assembly. The assembly was delayed by 1 day as Zahir Shah renounced any
potential post.
(Reuters, 6/11/02)(SFC, 6/11/02, p.A1)(SFC, 6/12/02,
p.A10)
2002 Jun 12, A U.S. military
transport plane, Air Force MC-130, carrying 10 people crashed on
takeoff in Afghanistan, killing three Americans, military officials
said. Seven escaped with minor injuries.
(AP, 6/12/02)(SFC, 6/13/02, p.A24)
2002 Jun 13, Afghanistan's interim
leader Hamid Karzai won endorsement from about two-thirds of delegates
at the Loya Jirga grand assembly, making him the most likely candidate
to win the presidency.
(Reuters, 6/13/02)(SFC, 6/14/02, p.A10)
2002 Jun 14, Pres. Hamid Karzai
outlined a list of national priorities that included building a
national army and police force, improving schools and health care and
creating jobs.
(SFC, 6/15/02, p.A3)
2002 Jun 19, In Afghanistan the
9-day grand council ended with the inauguration of Hamid Karzai as
president and the approval of his new Cabinet.
(SFC, 6/20/02, p.A6)
2002 Jun 20, Turkey took over
control of the 19-member peacekeeping force in Afghanistan.
(SFC, 6/21/02, p.A10)
2002 Jun 27-2002 Jun 28, In
Afghanistan an arsenal exploded at Spinbaldak and 19 people were
killed. A 1st blast was called both a controlled explosion and the
result of a rocket attack.
(SFC, 6/29/02, p.A12)(SSFC, 6/30/02, p.A15)
2002 Jul 1, In Afghanistan US Air
Force gunship killed 44-48 members of a wedding party in Kakarak,
Uruzgan province, during a major operation to track down Taliban leader
Mullah Mohammad Omar.
(Reuters, 7/2/02)(SFC, 7/2/02, p.A1)(SFC, 7/4/02,
p.A9)(AP, 7/1/03)
2002 Jul 6, Gunmen assassinated
Afghan Vice President Haji Abdul Qadir (48) and his driver in broad
daylight in the capital Kabul. Qadir was a prominent Pashtun
businessman and was suspected of being involved in the opium trade.
(Reuters, 7/6/02)(SSFC, 7/7/02, p.A1)(SFC, 7/8/02,
p.A3)
2002 Jul 7, Afghanistan's vice
president, Abdul Qadir, was buried with full military honors one day
after being assassinated.
(AP, 7/7/07)
2002 Jul 22, At least 12 people
have been killed in clashes between rival Afghan factions fighting for
control of the Sheen Dend district in the western province of Herat.
(Reuters, 7/23/02)
2002 Jul 27, Five US soldiers were
wounded during a joint recon patrol east of Khost. 2 allied Afghan
militiamen were killed. On Aug 7 Sgt. Christopher James Speer (28) of
Albuquerque died from his wounds. Omar Khadr (15) was arrested for
throwing the grenade that mortally wounded Speer and sent to
Guantanamo. Khadr was born in Canada to a family with deep ties to
al-Qaida. In 2007 a military judge dismissed charges against Khadr.
(SFC, 8/13/02, p.A6)(SSFC, 6/3/07, p.A4)(AP, 6/4/07)
2002 Jul 29, In Afghanistan, a man
identified by authorities as a would-be suicide bomber with more than a
half-ton of explosives in his car was stopped by a chance traffic
accident just 300 yards from the U.S. Embassy.
(AP, 7/29/03)
2002 Aug 7, In Afghanistan at
least 15 people were killed south of Kabul in a shootout between police
and recently escaped Pakistani members of al Qaeda.
(Reuters, 8/7/02)(SFC, 8/9/02, p.A14)
2002 Aug 9, In eastern Afghanistan
a powerful explosion ripped through an Afghan construction firm's
building in the city of Jalalabad, killing 21 people and injuring 85
others.
(AP, 8/9/02)(SFC, 8/10/02, p.A8)
2002 Aug 15, In Afghanistan Ghulam
Sakhi Bashi, deputy head of Gen. Dostum's 70th division, was shot and
killed during his son’s wedding ceremony in Charbolak, about 30
kilometers to the west of Mazar-I-Sharif.
(Reuters, 8/18/02)
2002 Sep 4, In Afghanistan Pres.
Karzai announced a new currency to replace the array of inflated
banknotes issued by the Taliban and regional warlords. Warlord
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a former US ally, called for a jihad against US
forces.
(SFC, 9/5/02, p.A11)(WSJ, 9/5/02, p.A1)
2002 Sep 5, Afghan President Hamid
Karzai survived an assassination attempt in the southern city of
Kandahar. The attack, by a man dressed in military uniform, occurred
shortly after a powerful car bomb in the capital killed at least 26
people and wounded 150.
(Reuters, 9/6/02)(SFC, 9/6/02, p.A1)
2002 Sep 10, It was reported that
US forces in Afghanistan had launched Operation Champion Strike in the
Bermel Valley aimed at re-entering al Qaeda.
(SFC, 9/10/02, p.A5)
2002 Oct 7, In Afghanistan new
notes replaced the old multiple currencies.
(ADN, 10/8/02, p.A4)
2002 Nov 3, In Afghanistan Pres.
Karzai fired over 15 provincial officials for abuse of authority,
corruption and narcotics trafficking.
(SFC, 11/4/02, p.A10)
2002 Nov 11, In Afghanistan police
shot and killed at least 2 students during protests over poor housing
conditions at a dormitory in Kabul.
(SFC, 11/12/02, p.A11)(SFC, 11/12/02, p.A16)
2002 Dec 19, In Afghanistan a
grenade attack in Kabul injured 4 people including 2 French citizens. 2
Afghan interpreters died from their wounds the next day.
(SFC, 12/21/02, p.A9)
2002 Dec 21, In Afghanistan 6
people in a German military helicopter and up to eight on the ground
were killed when the aircraft crashed before landing at an airport near
the capital Kabul.
(Reuters, 12/21/02)
2002 Dec 22, Afghanistan’s 6
neighbors (Iran, Pakistan, China, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and
Uzbekistan) agreed to halt meddling and signed a non-intervention
agreement in Kabul.
(SFC, 12/23/02, p.A3)
2002 Dec, In Afghanistan two
inmates died one week apart at the Bagram prison near Kabul. They were
officially said to have died of natural causes but an enquiry later
revealed that they had been beaten, deprived of sleep and kept
constantly chained.
(AFP, 1/9/10)
2002 US soldiers at Bagram air
base roughed up an Afghan prisoner named Dilawar, who died shortly
after a 5-day beating. In 2005 an Army interrogator pleaded guilty to
assault and was demoted. Several other soldiers faced charges. In 2005
an Ohio-based Army reservist was reduced to private for the beating.
(SFC, 8/4/05, p.A5)(SFC, 8/19/05, p.A3)
2003 Jan 11, Afghan warlord Abdul
Rashid Dostum released 50 members of the Taliban militia captured
during fighting more than a year ago.
(AP, 1/12/03)
2003 Jan 28, US and Afghan forces
battled rebels aligned with renegade leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar in the
largest-scale fighting in 10 months. 18 enemy fighters were killed in 2
days of fighting. Norwegian F-16s participated in bombing enemy targets.
(AP, 1/28/03)(WSJ, 1/29/03, p.A1)(SFC, 1/29/03, p.A8)
2003 Jan 29, Russia's Border Guard
Service said the US led anti-terror operation in Afghanistan has done
nothing to reduce the flow of illegal drugs from that country.
(AP, 1/29/03)
2003 Jan 30, In Afghanistan 4
American soldiers were killed when special operations UH-60 Black Hawk
helicopter went down seven miles east of the Bagram Air Base while on a
training mission.
(AP, 1/31/03)(SFC, 1/31/03, p.A11)
2003 Jan 30, Sweden said it will
contribute $5.9 million to help Afghanistan repay debts to the
International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
(AP, 1/30/03)
2003 Jan 31, In Afghanistan, a
bomb destroyed the Rambasi Bridge near Kandahar, and killed at least 15
people traveling by bus. Police blamed Taliban and al-Qaida fugitives.
(AP, 1/31/03)(SFC, 1/31/03, p.A11)
2003 Feb 10, Afghanistan became
the 89th nation to join the International Criminal Court.
(AP, 2/11/03)
2003 Feb 10, In Kabul,
Afghanistan, Germany and the Netherlands took control of the 22-nation
peacekeeping force charged with keeping order, replacing Turkey.
(AP, 2/10/03)
2003 Feb 11, Afghan officials said
17 civilians were killed in American-led bombing over the last 2 days.
(SFC, 2/12/03, p.A8)
2003 Feb 22, In northern
Afghanistan at least six civilians were killed when factional fighting
broke out between 2 rival warlords in Faryab province.
(AP, 2/23/03)
2003 Feb 22, Afghanistan,
Pakistan and Turkmenistan invited India to join their $3.2-billion
natural gas pipeline project, indicating the plan would not be
economically viable without New Delhi’s participation.
(AP, 2/22/03)
2003 Feb 24, Afghanistan’s
minister of mines and industry died along with seven other people when
their plane crashed in the Arabian Sea shortly after takeoff from the
southern Pakistan port city of Karachi.
(AP, 2/24/03)
2003 Feb 25, In
southwestern Afghanistan assailants gunned down Habibullah Jan, a
district administrator in Nimroz province, as he left a mosque in
Dilaram.
(AP, 2/26/03)
2003 Mar 12, In Afghanistan an
ambush on a US convoy prompted aircraft fire that killed 5 enemy
fighters.
(SFC, 3/14/03, p.A9)
2003 Mar 20, Some 600 US and
Romanian ground troops in Afghanistan began Operation Valiant Strike,
an intensified search for Taliban, al Qaeda and loyalists to Gulbuddin
Hekmatyar.
(SSFC, 3/23/03, p.A1)
2003 Mar 22, U.S. forces reported
seizing a large weapons cache in Afghanistan.
(AP, 3/22/04)
2003 Mar 23, US and allied Afghan
forces clashed with militiamen loyal to a renegade warlord in a battle
that left up to 10 rebels dead. A US Air Force helicopter on a mercy
mission to help 2 injured Afghan children crashed in southeastern
Afghanistan, killing all 6 people on board.
(AP, 3/24/03)
2003 Mar 23, In northern
Afghanistan flooding and heavy rains killed at least 11 people and
damaged hundreds of houses.
(AP, 3/27/03)
2003 Mar 26, In Afghanistan
suspected Taliban rebels attacked a government checkpoint and 13 people
were killed.
(WSJ, 3/27/03, p.A1)
2003 Mar 27, In Afghanistan
Ricardo Munguia (39), a Red Cross water engineer from El Salvador, was
killed by Taliban gunmen.
(SFC, 4/8/03, p.A5)(Reuters 3/28/03)
2003 Mar 28, The UN Security
Council voted unanimously to extend the UN assistance mission in
Afghanistan for a year.
(AP, 3/28/03)
2003 Mar 29, Two US special forces
soldiers were killed and another wounded in an ambush in southern
Afghanistan. Fighting there killed four Taliban with 6 captured.
(AP, 3/29/03)
2003 Apr 3, Afghan militia
soldiers and 2-day blistering airstrikes by US-led coalition planes
killed eight suspected Taliban fighters in the southern mountains.
(AP, 4/4/03)
2003 Apr 6, Afghan officials
announced a plan to disarm, demobilize and reintegrate an estimated
100,000 fighters over the next 3 years.
(SFC, 4/7/03, p.A3)
2003 Apr 8, An American warplane
mistakenly bombed a house, killing 11 civilians near Afghanistan's
eastern border with Pakistan.
(AP, 4/9/03)(SFC, 4/9/03, p.A1)(SFC, 4/9/03, p.A1)
2003 Apr 10, Aid workers fled a
north Afghan town after factional fighting killed at least 13 people.
(WSJ, 4/11/03, p.A1)
2003 Apr 12, In eastern
Afghanistan a car packed with explosives exploded, killing four people
who apparently were planning a terrorist attack.
(AP, 4/13/03)
2003 Apr 16, NATO agreed to take
command of the UN peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan. The NATO
stabilization force soon started in Kabul and then spread across the
country.
(AP, 4/16/03)(Econ, 3/28/09, p.69)
2003 Apr 16, In Afghanistan
Romanian troops found a large stash of weapons. Two caves there were
stuffed with thousands of rockets and more than 1.25 million rounds of
ammunition.
(AP, 4/18/03)
2003 Apr 23, In southern
Afghanistan Taliban fighters attacked a government office with rockets
and automatic weapons, setting off a four-hour shootout that left two
Afghan soldiers and three assailants dead.
(AP, 4/24/03)
2003 May 1, Sec. of Defense
Rumsfeld visited Afghanistan and declared most of the nation secure. He
said the 9,000 US soldiers there were engaged mainly in reconstruction.
(WSJ, 5/2/03, p.A1)
2003 May 7, In Afghanistan
Habibullah, a Muslim cleric close to U.S.-backed President Hamid
Karzai, was killed outside a mosque in the village of Kalacha.
(AP, 5/11/03)
2003 May 20, Afghan governors
signed an agreement with President Hamid Karzai to pay vital customs
revenues to the central government. Karzai had threatened to resign due
to lack of revenue payments.
(AP, 5/20/03)(WSJ, 5/20/03, p.A1)
2003 May 21, American troops
guarding the US Embassy in Kabul shot and killed four Afghan soldiers,
apparently mistaking them for assailants.
(AP, 5/21/03)
2003 Jun 4, In Afghanistan 40
Taliban suspects were killed in one of the deadliest exchanges between
Taliban and government troops since the hardline religious regime was
overthrown in late 2001. 7 government soldiers also died in the nine
hours of fighting in three villages north of Spinboldak, near the
border with Pakistan.
(AP, 6/5/03)
2003 Jun 7, In Afghanistan a car
packed with explosives pulled up to a bus carrying German peacekeepers
in Kabul and detonated, killing four and a teenage Afghan bystander.
More than two dozen were wounded in the first fatal attack on the
international force.
(AP, 6/7/04)
2003 Jun 21, In Afghanistan Abdul
Wali (28), a detainee held at a US base, died following 2 days of
interrogation. In 2004 David A. Passaro, former Army Ranger, was
charged with assault in connection to Wali’s death. In 2006 Passaro, a
former CIA contractor, was convicted in North Carolina of assaulting
Abdul Wali with a metal flashlight. In 2007 Passaro was sentenced to 8
½ years in prison.
(SFC, 6/18/04, p.A1)(SFC, 8/18/06, p.A5)(SFC,
2/14/07, p.A3)
2003 Jul 17, Afghan President
Hamid Karzai announced the creation of a 500-member grand council, or
loya jirga, to approve a new constitution for the country this year.
(AP, 7/17/03)
2003 Jul 18, Eight Afghan soldiers
were killed when their vehicle was blown apart by a remote controlled
mine.
(AP, 7/18/03)
2003 Jul 19, In Spinboldak,
Afghanistan, US forces, backed by helicopter gunships, killed up to 24
suspected Taliban insurgents after their convoy came under attack.
(AP, 7/21/03)
2003 Jul 21, About 1,000 soldiers
of Afghanistan's new national army launched their first major
operation, sweeping for insurgents in the east of the country.
(AP, 7/24/03)
2003 Aug 2, Afghan troops
backed by U.S. warplanes killed as many as 70 militants in a daylong
battle near the Pakistani border.
(AP, 8/3/03)
2003 Aug 4, In northern
Afghanistan a soldier of warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum mishandled a
mortar and the shell exploded, killing 13 troops and injuring nine
others.
(AP, 8/5/03)
2003 Aug 7, In Afghanistan some 40
suspected Taliban fighters killed 6 Afghan soldiers and a driver for a
US aid organization.
(SFC, 8/8/03, p.A7)
2003 Aug 11, In Afghanistan NATO
took command of the 5,000-strong international peacekeeping force in
Kabul, its 1st deployment outside Europe.
(AP, 8/11/03)
2003 Aug 12, At least 20
combatants died in a gunbattle between suspected Taliban fighters and
Afghan government soldiers.
(AP, 8/13/03)
2003 Aug 13, In southern
Afghanistan a bomb ripped through a bus in Lashkargah, killing 15
people, including six children. Officials blamed al-Qaida and remnants
of the Taliban militia for the bombing, the deadliest in nearly a year.
Heavy fighting erupted between government soldiers and Taliban
remnants. 43 deaths were reported in the fighting.
(AP, 8/13/03)(AP, 8/14/03)
2003 Aug 17, In southeastern
Afghanistan insurgents attacked a police headquarters sparking a battle
that killed at least 15 fighters and seven Afghan police.
(AP, 8/17/03)
2003 Aug 18, Suspected Taliban
insurgents killed at least nine policemen in an ambush in Logar
province's Kharwar village, about 55 miles south of Kabul.
(AP, 8/19/03)
2003 Aug 19, Afghanistan
celebrated its Independence Day. An explosion ripped through the home
of the brother of President Hamid Karzai.
(AP, 8/19/03)
2003 Aug 22, In central
Afghanistan government forces fought hundreds of suspected Taliban
insurgents, killing four guerrillas and arresting 13. At least four
government soldiers died.
(AP, 8/23/03)
2003 Aug 23, Taliban fighters
ambushed a truck full of government soldiers in the southern province
of Zabul. Gov. Hafizullah Khan said five soldiers and three Taliban
were killed.
(AP, 8/24/03)
2003 Aug 24, Public power went out
in Kabul, Afghanistan, due to lack of water in the local reservoirs.
Return of power was not expected until Dec.
(Econ, 8/30/03, p.30)
2003 Aug 25, In southeastern
Afghanistan US jets hit a Taliban hideout and at least 14 insurgents
were killed.
(SFC, 8/26/03, p.A7)
2003 Aug 27, American and Afghan
forces killed about a dozen insurgents and recaptured a mountain pass
in southeastern Afghanistan.
(AP, 8/27/03)
2003 Aug 27, Chancellor Gerhard
Schroeder said that Germany was committed to deploying troops to
northern Afghanistan to support reconstruction efforts.
(AP, 8/28/03)
2003 Aug 31, In Afghanistan 2 US
soldiers were killed in Paktika province.
(SFC, 9/1/03, p.A3)
2003 Sep 1, Suspected Taliban
fighters attacked a government checkpoint and ambushed another group of
Afghan soldiers along the main road linking the south with the capital,
killing at least eight soldiers over the last 2 days.
(AP, 9/1/03)
2003 Sep 5, Afghan forces in the
southern province of Zabul captured five fugitive Taliban militants,
including an insurgent leader, after a battle that killed scores of
rebels. Coalition forces killed Mullah Abdul Razzaq Hafees, a Taliban
commander, and 19 other militants in fighting in southern Afghanistan.
(AP, 9/6/03)(AP, 10/6/03)
2003 Sep 7, The top American
commander in Afghanistan said Taliban fighters, paid and trained by
al-Qaida, were pouring into Afghanistan from Pakistan.
(AP, 9/8/03)
2003 Sep 8, In Afghanistan
suspected Taliban rebels stopped a car carrying Afghans working for a
Danish aid organization, tied them up, then shot four of them to death.
(AP, 9/10/03)
2003 Sep 14, Hafiz Abdul Rahim, a
top commander of the former Taliban regime who allegedly led rebel
fighters in southern Afghanistan, was killed along with 14 other
fighters in a shootout with Afghan forces.
(AP, 9/16/03)
2003 Sep 18, In Afghanistan US
forces killed at least 11 Taliban in fighting over the last 3 days as
part of operation "Mountain Viper," which has been going on for more
than two weeks. US helicopters attacked a tent in southern Afghanistan,
killing two Taliban militants and 10 nomadic tribesmen after the
Taliban sought shelter there. Local Taliban commander, Mullah Mohammed
Gul Niazi, was among the dead.
(AP, 9/18/03)(AP, 9/20/03)
2003 Sep 18, In Afghanistan US
helicopter fire left 5 women and four children dead and six people
wounded in the Nuabahar district.
(AP, 9/25/03)
2003 Oct 2, Two Canadian
peacekeepers were killed and three were injured in a land-mine blast in
the Afghan capital Kabul.
(Reuters, 10/2/03)
2003 Oct 2, Pakistan's army
launched its largest offensive against al-Qaida and other militants in
a rugged tribal region bordering Afghanistan, killing at least 12
suspects.
(AP, 10/2/03)
2003 Oct 3, Afghan civilians
accidentally set off an explosive inside a home near Bagram Air Base
American military headquarters, killing seven people and wounding six
others.
(AP, 10/3/03)
2003 Oct 9, Rival warlords in
northern Afghanistan said that they had reached a truce after fighting
killed dozens of people.
(AP, 10/9/03)
2003 Oct 10, In southern
Afghanistan 41 Taliban militants escaped from prison by digging a
30-foot-long tunnel with apparent help from officials.
(AP, 10/11/03)
2003 Oct 13, Hundreds of Afghan
troops backed by U.S. soldiers and helicopters attacked a suspected
Taliban hide-out, killing at least 4 rebels and capturing 8 others.
(AP, 10/14/03)
2003 Oct 14, Afghan soldiers
backed by U.S. troops and helicopters killed 7 Taliban and captured 12
others during a 2-day raid in southern Afghanistan.
(AP, 10/15/03)
2003 Oct 17, In eastern
Afghanistan a bomb blew up a pickup truck on a dirt road, killing four
people, and two Afghan soldiers were killed in a land mine explosion in
the country's south.
(AP, 10/19/03)
2003 Oct 19, Afghan movie "Osama"
by director Siddiq Barmak won the top prize at Montreal's New Movie and
New Media Festival, one of the first features produced in Afghanistan
and nominated since the fall of the Taliban.
(Reuters, 10/19/03)
2003 Oct 23, In northern Afghan
attackers fired rockets at a pickup truck ferrying passengers, killing
10 people, including two children.
(AP, 10/24/03)
2003 Oct 25, A US-led coalition
troops and Afghan militia killed 18 rebel fighters in a six-hour
firefight in eastern Afghanistan.
(AP, 10/28/03)
2003 Oct 25, In Afghanistan CIA
operatives William Carlson, 43, of Southern Pines, N.C., and
Christopher Glenn Mueller, 32, of San Diego were ambushed and killed
near the village in Shkin in Paktika province while "tracking
terrorists."
(AP, 10/29/03)
2003 Oct 29, The Afghan Supreme
Court issued a condemnation against Vida Samadzai (33) for competing as
Miss Afghanistan in the Miss Earth competition in Manila.
(USAT, 10/30/03, p.13A)
2003 Oct 31, Fighting between
Afghan soldiers and police in a tense province in southern Afghanistan
killed two military commanders and up to eight policemen.
(AP, 11/1/03)
2003 Nov 3, Afghanistan unveiled a
post-Taliban draft constitution.
(AP, 11/3/03)
2003 Nov 11, An Afghan soldier
fired on a coalition convoy at a checkpoint in southern Afghanistan,
killing 1 Romanian soldier and wounding a convoy member before escaping.
(AP, 11/12/03)
2003 Nov 16, In Afghanistan
Bettina Goislard, a French UN worker, was shot and killed by a man on a
motorcycle who opened fire on her car. In 2004 Zia Ahmad and Abdul Nabi
were sentenced to death for the murder.
(AP, 11/16/03)(SFC, 2/11/04, p.A3)
2003 Nov 18, Some 30 Taliban
guerrillas attacked a road checkpoint in southern Afghanistan, killing
three militiamen and wounding two others. The UN refugee agency began
pulling foreign staff out of Afghanistan after the killing of French
worker.
(AP, 11/19/03)(AP, 11/18/04)
2003 Nov 21, In northern
Afghanistan at least 60 suspected Taliban and Taliban sympathizers were
released from Shibergan jail in Jawzjan province.
(AP, 11/22/03)
2003 Nov 23, In Afghanistan a
transport helicopter carrying US troops that crashed just north of
Kabul, killing five Americans and injuring seven.
(AP, 11/24/03)
2003 Dec 2, In northern
Afghanistan, Abdul Rashid Dostum and Atta Mohammed, 2 main feuding
warlords, handed over tanks and cannons to the fledgling national army.
(AP, 12/2/03)(SFC, 12/3/03, p.A3)
2003 Dec 5, In eastern Afghanistan
6 children were crushed to death by a collapsing wall during an assault
by U.S. forces on a weapons compound.
(AP, 12/10/03)
2003 Dec 6, In Kandahar,
Afghanistan, a bomb exploded in a bazaar, wounding about 20 people, at
least three seriously, in an attack that a Taliban spokesman said
targeted, but missed, American soldiers who shop there.
(AP, 12/6/03)
2003 Dec 6, In eastern Afghanistan
a US air strike apparently killed 9 children and a suspected militant
near the village of Hutala.
(AP, 12/7/03)(SFC, 12/8/03, p.A12)
2003 Dec 14, In Afghanistan a
landmark constitutional convention began with solemn prayers.
(AP, 12/14/03)
2003 Dec 16, In Afghanistan
several dozen delegates broke away from a crucial constitutional
assembly to celebrate the inauguration of the Kabul-Kandahar highway, a
vital artery linking the capital with the lawless and poverty-stricken
south.
(AP, 12/16/03)
2003 Dec 17, In Afghanistan
Malalai Joya (25) created an uproar at the constitutional assembly when
she questioned why her peers tolerated the presence of criminals, a
reference to the sacrosanct mujahedeen who fought the Soviet Union and
became warlords.
(SFC, 12/18/03, p.A3)
2003 Dec 20, Lt. Gen. David
W. Barno, the new U.S. commander in Afghanistan said he will use his
forces to open up the lawless south and east to development aid, in a
tactical switch to beat a stubborn insurgency threatening next year's
elections.
(AP, 12/20/03)
2003 Dec 27, In Afghanistan
suspected al Qaeda fighters ambushed Afghan security forces near the
Pakistani border. A senior Afghan intelligence official was killed
along with 6 attackers.
(SSFC, 12/28/03, p.A14)
2003 Dec 28, Five Afghan security
officials were killed in Kabul when a suicide bomber they had detained
blew himself up.
(Reuters, 12/28/03)
2003 Norman Friedman authored
"Terrorism, Afghanistan and America's New Way of War."
(WSJ, 8/12/03, p.D8)
2003 Afghanistan's opium farmers
and traffickers earned $2.3 billion, 50% of the GDP. Habitual drug
users reached about 4% of the population.
(Econ, 1/17/04, p.35)
2003 Afghanistan 1st private
airline, Kam Air, was launched.
(Econ, 8/21/04, p.35)
2004 Jan 1, Afghanistan's
constitutional convention came off the rails, as panicked officials
adjourned the gathering in the face of a boycott by opponents of
President Hamid Karzai. Tajik and Uzbek delegates mounted a boycott
demanding that minority rights be guarded.
(AP, 1/1/04)(WSJ, 1/2/04, p.A1)
2004 Jan 4, Rival Afghan
factions agreed to a new national constitution. 502 delegates accepted
a system with a strong president and a weaker parliament.
(AP, 1/4/04)(SFC, 1/5/04, p.A1)
2004 Jan 6, In Afghanistan a time
bomb in an apple cart blast killed at least 17 people, including 8
children, in the southern city of Kandahar. 12 civilians were executed
in Helmand Province.
(SFC, 1/7/04, p.A10)(SFC, 1/9/04, p.A12)(AP, 1/6/05)
2004 Jan 12, In Afghanistan dozens
of suspected Taliban fighters armed with assault rifles attacked a
police checkpoint and killed four policemen.
(AP, 1/12/04)
2004 Jan 17, A Taliban ambush near
Kandahar left 5 Afghans dead.
(WSJ, 1/19/04, p.A1)
2004 Jan 17, A U.S. helicopter
attacked a house in Saghatho village in southern Afghanistan, killing
11 people, four of them children. The US military said that only 5
militants were killed. President Hamid Karzai later said 10 Afghan
civilians were killed in the US strike.
(AP, 1/19/04)(SFC, 1/20/04, p.A3)(AP, 1/31/04)
2004 Jan 26, President Hamid
Karzai signed Afghanistan's new constitution into law, putting into
force a charter meant to reunite his war-shattered nation and help
defeat a virulent Taliban insurgency.
(AP, 1/26/04)
2004 Jan 27, In Afghanistan a
Taliban suicide bomber struck a convoy of the NATO-led security force
in the capital, killing a Canadian soldier and an Afghan civilian.
(AP, 1/27/04)
2004 Jan 28, In Afghanistan a
suicide car bomber blew himself up in a taxi next to British
peacekeepers patrolling the Kabul, killing one soldier and wounding
four.
(AP, 1/28/04)
2004 Jan 29, The US freed 3
juvenile Afghan detainees (13-15) from Guantanamo, Cuba.
(WSJ, 1/30/04, p.A1)
2004 Jan 29, In Afghanistan
an arms dump blast killed 8 American soldiers in a what was likely an
accident.
(SFC, 1/30/04, p.A3)(AP, 1/31/04)
2004 Jan 31, In Deh Rawood,
Afghanistan, a remote-controlled bomb, thought to have been planted by
Taliban or al-Qaida fighters, exploded as a southern Afghan mayor and
his family drove by, killing him and seven relatives.
(AP, 2/1/04)
2004 Feb 5, In northeastern
Afghanistan rival armed factions clashed and a state television report
said 20 people were killed.
(AP, 2/7/04)
2004 Feb 8, In northeastern
Afghanistan 4 days of fighting between rival warlords over control of
the drug trade left 7 dead and 8 wounded.
(SFC, 2/9/04, p.A3)
2004 Feb 11, In eastern
Afghanistan a suicide attacker fatally shot a senior intelligence
official in Khost, then blew himself up as guards tried to arrest him.
(AP, 2/11/04)(WSJ, 2/12/04, p.A1)
2004 Feb 25, In Afghanistan gunmen
opened fire on a vehicle carrying Afghan aid workers east of the
capital, killing five and wounding two others.
(AP, 2/26/04)
2004 Mar 5, U.S. special
operations forces killed nine suspected Taliban rebels in a firefight
in eastern Afghanistan after the militants tried to sneak by their
position.
(AP, 3/6/04)
2004 Mar 5, Suspected Taliban
gunmen killed a Turkish engineer and an Afghan soldier after stopping
their car along a main road linking the capital with the turbulent
south.
(AP, 3/5/04)
2004 Mar 13, In Afghanistan
Taliban armed with rockets and heavy machine guns attacked a government
office near the Afghan-Pakistan border, sparking a firefight that
killed one Afghan soldier and three Taliban.
(AP, 3/14/04)
2004 Mar 14, In southeastern
Afghanistan U.S.-led troops surprised eight enemy fighters in a cave
complex, prompting a gunbattle, which left 3 militiamen killed and 5
others wounded.
(AP, 3/15/04)
2004 Mar 19, In central
Afghanistan U.S. warplanes and ground forces killed five suspected
Taliban fighters at a compound in Uruzgan province.
(AP, 3/21/04)
2004 Mar 20, It was reported that
at least 56 people, virtually all young married or soon-to-be married
women, had set themselves ablaze in Herat, Afghanistan, over the past
year.
(Econ, 3/20/04, p.44)
2004 Mar 21, Afghan aviation
minister Mirwais Sadiq was assassinated in the western city of Herat.
(AP, 3/21/04)
2004 Mar 22, Afghan soldiers
deployed to the western city of Herat after some of the fiercest
factional fighting since the 2001 fall of the Taliban killed a Cabinet
minister and as many as 100 others.
(AP, 3/22/04)
2004 Apr 1, Afghanistan and its
neighbors agreed to cooperate in stemming the country's drug exports
after donors pledged $8.2 billion in new reconstruction aid.
(AP, 4/1/04)
2004 Apr 8, In Afghanistan troops
loyal to ethnic Uzbek warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum overran Maymana, the
center of Faryab province. In the south, clashes left at least 7 people
dead, including two Afghan soldiers, and two police officers killed in
an attack by suspected Taliban
(AP, 4/8/04)(SFC, 4/9/04, p.A3)
2004 Apr 14, In Afghanistan killed
a district police chief and eight Afghan soldiers in an ambush in
southern Zabul province.
(AP, 4/15/04)
2004 Apr 16, In Afghanistan
suspected Taliban rebels fired rockets and machine-guns at a checkpoint
in a remote southwestern region, killing 8 Afghan soldiers in a night
time attack.
(AP, 4/18/04)
2004 Apr 20, Afghanistan carried
out its first execution since the fall of the hardline Taliban, putting
a bullet to the head of a former military commander convicted of more
than 20 murders. "During his detention, Abdullah Shah reportedly
revealed first hand evidence against several regional commanders
currently in positions of power against whom no charges have been
brought."
(AP, 4/27/04)
2004 Apr 21, U.S. forces battled
Taliban holdouts in a forbidding mountain range in southern
Afghanistan, killing two fighters and arresting two others.
(AP, 4/22/04)
2004 Apr 22, Pat Tillman, former
safety for the Arizona Cardinals, was killed in an ambush in
Afghanistan. He had walked away from millions of dollars to join the
Army Rangers and serve his country. In late May the Army said that
Tillman was likely killed by friendly fire. In 2005 a new Army report
said top officials held back information that Tillman was killed by
“friendly fire.” In 2007 a Pentagon report found no plot to conceal
evidence, but recommended that officers be held accountable for making
misleading statements about Tillman’s death. A general was censured on
July 31, 2007. In 2009 Jon Krakauer authored “Where Men Win Glory: The
Odyssey of Pat Tillman.”
(AP, 4/24/04)(AP, 5/29/04)(SFC, 5/4/05, p.A9)(SFC,
3/27/07, p.A1)(WSJ, 8/1/07, p.A1)(SSFC, 9/20/09, p.B1)
2004 May 2, In Afghanistan a
fuel-truck explosion killed at least 50 people in western Herat.
(WSJ, 5/3/04, p.A1)(AP, 5/3/04)
2004 May 4, In Afghanistan 2
foreign contractors helping the UN prepare for landmark elections and
their Afghan driver were killed in an attack in a remote eastern
province. The bullet-ridden bodies of 10 government soldiers were found
in southern Afghanistan, hours after the men were abducted in two raids
by suspected Taliban militants.
(AP, 5/5/04)
2004 May 11, Taliban guerrillas
killed two Afghan soldiers on a U.S.-funded highway in a troubled
southeastern province where American troops continue to arrest
suspected militants.
(AP, 5/12/04)
2004 May 15, Suspected insurgents
attacked a coalition combat patrol in southern Afghanistan, killing one
American soldier and wounding two others. At least 122 U.S. troops have
died, 53 killed in action, since the start of Operation Enduring
Freedom in 2001 to topple the Taliban regime for harboring al-Qaida.
(AP, 5/16/04)
2004 May 18, In Afghanistan U.S.
forces killed 3 Taliban commanders and arrested five more members of
the hardline militia.
(AP, 5/21/04)
2004 May 19, In Afghanistan
clashes left at least 4 Taliban dead.
(WSJ, 5/20/04, p.A1)
2004 May 20, In Afghanistan 3
suspected militants were killed and 23 people detained after 4 U.S.
soldiers were shot and wounded during raids against militia forces in
Tani district. Residents claimed a case of mistaken identities.
(AP, 5/21/04)
2004 May 25, U.S. warplanes helped
Afghan forces pound Taliban militants in the mountains of southern
Afghanistan, killing some 20 suspected insurgents at a recently
discovered camp.
(AP, 5/26/04)
2004 May 29, In southern
Afghanistan 4 members of the American special forces were killed in
action in Zabul province, a stronghold of Taliban militants.
(AP, 5/29/04)
2004 May 29, Taliban guerrillas
riding in a fleet of vehicles shot up a government office in southern
Afghanistan, killing four Afghan soldiers.
(AP, 5/30/04)
2004 Jun 1, In eastern Afghanistan
a bomb planted under the chair of a city police chief exploded, killing
him and wounding two government officials.
(AP, 6/1/04)
2004 Jun 2, U.S. and Afghan troops
backed by American warplanes fought Taliban militants in the mountains
of southern Afghanistan, killing 17 insurgents and arresting eight. In
northwestern Afghanistan 3 foreign medical workers associated with
Doctors Without Borders and 2 Afghans were killed when their car was
ambushed.
(AP, 6/3/04)(SFC, 6/3/04, A10)(SFC, 6/5/04, A8)
2004 Jun 4, In southern
Afghanistan U.S. troops and warplanes attacked Taliban rebels besieging
a remote checkpoint. Eight militants were killed.
(AP, 6/5/04)
2004 Jun 8, U.S.-led troops backed
by jet fighters and helicopters killed 21 Taliban militants, after
rebels attacked a convoy in the mountains of southern Afghanistan.
(AP, 6/9/04)
2004 Jun 9, An Afghan commander
said that Afghan and U.S. forces killed more than 70 Taliban rebels in
a seven-day operation in a mountainous southern district, including at
least 20 militants who died in a single clash.
(AP, 6/9/04)
2004 Jun 10, In northern
Afghanistan gunmen stormed a camp of sleeping Chinese road workers in
Kunduz province, killing at least 11.
(AP, 6/10/04)(WSJ, 6/10/04, p.A1)
2004 Jun 15, Afghanistan’s Pres.
Karzai met with Pres. Bush and spoke before the US Congress thanking
Americans for removing the Taliban. He also noted that opium production
now made up over 40% of the country’s gross domestic product.
(SFC, 6/16/04, p.A3)
2004 Jun 16, In northern
Afghanistan a remote-controlled bomb hit a convoy of German
peacekeepers, killing an Afghan driver and three civilians.
(AP, 6/16/04)
2004 Jun 17, In Afghanistan
fighters loyal to several regional warlords stormed Chagcharan, a
provincial capital of western Ghor province, and forced the governor to
flee.
(AP, 6/18/04)
2004 Jun 18, In southern
Afghanistan Taliban insurgents attacked a government office in Mizan,
sparking a gunfight with Afghan troops that killed seven people.
(AP, 6/19/04)
2004 Jun 24, In eastern
Afghanistan 2 U.S. Marines were killed and another was wounded in an
attack at Kunar province.
(AP, 6/25/04)
2004 Jun 25, In southern
Afghanistan suspected Taliban gunmen sprayed a van with bullets after
finding that occupants had registered to vote. some 10-16 people were
killed.
(SFC, 6/28/04, p.A6)(AP, 6/25/05)
2004 Jun 26, Taliban remnants
claimed responsibility for the bomb attack that killed two Afghani
United Nations election workers in eastern Afghanistan.
(AP, 6/26/04)
2004 Jun 28, Seven Afghan
policemen were killed as NATO agreed to boost its troop contingent
there to 10,000 ahead of September elections.
(WSJ, 6/29/04, p.A1)
2004 Jun, Haji Bashir Noorzai was
named as the top heroin dealer in Afghanistan.
(SFC, 11/19/04, p.A1)
2004 Jul 1, Historic Afghan
elections scheduled for September were delayed because of wrangling
among officials and political parties.
(AP, 7/1/04)
2004 Jul 4, Afghan President Hamid
Karzai issued a decree ordering death penalty for criminals who remove
body parts from kidnapped children.
(Reuters, 7/4/04)
2004 Jul 11, It was reported that
Jonathan Keith Idema, former US special operations soldier, was
recently arrested along with Brent Bennet and Edward Caraballo for
running a vigilante anti-terrorism campaign in Kabul. They had posed as
government officials and imprisoned innocent Afghan men. Caraballo was
released April 30, 2006, after serving 21 months of a 2-year sentence.
Idema and Bennet continued to serve their 5 and 3 year sentences.
(SSFC, 7/11/04, p.A10)(SFC, 5/1/06, p.A8)
2004 Jul 11, A bomb exploded on a
bustling street of Herat, Afghanistan, killing five people, and
injuring 29.
(AP, 7/11/04)
2004 Jul 13, American troops in
Afghanistan numbered about 17,000 with some 140,000 serving in Iraq.
(WSJ, 7/13/04, p.A1)
2004 Jul 20, In Afghanistan US
forces killed one militant and captured 5 others including a brother of
Taliban leader Mullah Omar.
(SFC, 7/21/04, p.A9)
2004 Jul 20, Pakistani officials
acknowledged the closing and bulldozing of 2 refugee camps Zarinoor 1
& 2 in South Waziristan. The government had decided to dismantle
all camps within 3 miles of the Afghan border.
(SFC, 7/21/04, p.A9)
2004 Jul 21, In Afghanistan 10
militant fighters were killed and 5 wounded and captured when they
attacked a US-led force near Kandahar.
(SFC, 7/22/04, p.A3)
2004 Jul 26, Afghan President
Hamid Karzai formally filed his candidacy for October presidential
elections and chose a brother of late resistance hero Ahmad Shah Masoud
as his running mate for vice president.
(AP, 7/26/04)
2004 Jul 28, A bomb exploded in a
mosque where Afghans were registering for upcoming elections, killing
six people including two U.N. staffers.
(AP, 7/28/04)
2004 Jul 31, In southern
Afghanistan gunmen killed a local government leader and four of his
bodyguards in an ambush.
(AP, 7/31/04)
2004 Aug 4, It was reported that
LeapFrog Enterprises would donate 20,000 interactive women’s health
books to Afghan women under a $1.25 million development and
distribution grant from the US Dept. of health and Human Services.
(SFC, 8/4/04, p.C1)
2004 Aug 6, In Afghanistan gunmen
ambushed a convoy carrying election workers into a remote Taliban
stronghold, killing two of them.
(AP, 8/7/04)
2004 Aug 8, The US military said 2
American soldiers and their Afghan interpreter died when a bomb hit
their Humvee.
(AP, 8/8/04)
2004 Aug 14, In western
Afghanistan rival militias clashed, reportedly killing 21 people. Eight
militiamen, including two commanders, were killed when fighting erupted
between two rival warlords over control of a western district.
(AP, 8/14/04)
2004 Aug 18, Afghan President
Hamid Karzai's 17 rivals in the presidential race threatened to boycott
landmark October 9 elections unless he stepped down before the vote.
(AP, 8/18/04)
2004 Aug 21, In Afghanistan US
soldiers opened fire on a pickup truck that failed to stop at a
checkpoint in central Ghazni province, killing a man and two women.
(AP, 8/22/04)
2004 Aug 23, Afghan Pres. Hamid
Karzai arrived in Pakistan for talks with his Pres. Pervez Musharraf on
eradicating Al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters from their common border.
(AP, 8/23/04)
2004 Aug 28, An explosion ripped
through a school in southeastern Afghanistan, killing nine youngsters
and one adult.
(AP, 8/29/04)
2004 Aug 29, In Afghanistan an
explosion tore through the office of DynCorp., an American defense
contractor, in the heart of Kabul, killing 12 people, including 3
Americans.
(AP, 8/29/04)(SFC, 8/31/04, p.A8)(WSJ, 8/31/04,
p.A1)(WSJ, 8/31/04, p.A1)
2004 Aug 30, US warplanes bombed
Weradesh village in eastern Afghanistan, killing 8 people and
destroying the camp of a Danish relief group after assailants rocketed
a nearby government office.
(AP, 8/31/04)
2004 Sep 11, In Afghanistan Pres.
Karzai appointed Sayeed Mohammed Khairkhwa as governor of Herat and
offered Gov. Ismail Khan a post as minister of mines and industry.
Khan, the “Lion of Heart,” accepted the cabinet job in Kabul.
(SFC, 9/13/04, p.A3)(WSJ, 3/14/05, p.A1)
2004 Sep 12, In Herat,
Afghanistan, mobs loyal to Gov. Khan burned a half dozen int’l. aid
compounds and as many as 7 people were killed.
(SFC, 9/13/04, p.A3)(WSJ, 9/13/04, p.A1)
2004 Sep 12, In southern
Afghanistan US forces backed by helicopter gunships killed 22
insurgents, including 3 Arab fighters.
(AP, 9/13/04)(SFC, 9/14/04, p.A7)
2004 Sep 15, Three Americans
accused of torturing Afghans in a private jail were found guilty in a
Kabul court after a trial denounced by the defense as failing to meet
basic international standards of fairness.
(AP, 9/15/04)
2004 Sep 17, In Afghanistan
suspected Taliban rebels killed two tribal elders who were encouraging
participation in elections.
(AP, 9/18/04)
2004 Sep 18, In Afghanistan 4
gunmen riding two motorcycles ambushed the car of a militia commander
in Helmand province, killing him and wounding two of his guards.
(AP, 9/18/04)
2004 Sep 20, In southeastern
Afghan province 2 US soldiers were killed in a firefight with
insurgents.
(AP, 9/20/04)
2004 Sep 21, US forces killed 6
Afghan guerrillas following a rocket attack on a helicopter.
(WSJ, 9/22/04, p.A1)
2004 Sep 25, Afghan security
forces killed a senior Taliban commander and two of his comrades in
southern Afghanistan. Maulvi Abdul Ghaffar, a former inmate at the US
prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, died in the gunbattle.
(AP, 9/26/04)
2004 Sep 28, The Pentagon notified
Congress of plans to build five bases in Afghanistan for the Afghan
National Army at a cost of up to one billion dollars.
(AP, 9/28/04)
2004 Sep 30, Taliban guerrillas
killed at least 12 Afghan soldiers in the southern province of Zabul.
(WSJ, 10/1/04, p.A1)
2004 Oct 2, Afghan intelligence
agents backed by international peacekeepers arrested 25 people
allegedly linked to the Taliban and al-Qaida in an early morning raid
in eastern Kabul.
(AP, 10/2/04)
2004 Oct 9, Afghanistan's first
direct presidential election was thrust into turmoil hours after it
started when all 15 candidates challenging interim leader Hamid Karzai
alleged fraud over the ink meant to ensure people voted only once and
vowed to boycott the results.
(AP, 10/9/04)(SSFC, 10/10/04, p.A1)
2004 Oct 9, An exit poll conducted
by an American non-profit group found that interim Afghan president
Hamid Karzai won the first-ever presidential election with the outright
majority needed to avoid a second round.
(AP, 10/11/04)
2004 Oct 9, US forces in
Afghanistan fought militants on the ground and aircraft bombed them in
a clash that left 25 rebels dead before the nation's landmark elections.
(AP, 10/9/04)
2004 Oct 11, The main opposition
candidate in Afghanistan's first-ever presidential election backed off
a boycott of the vote, saying he would accept the formation of an
independent commission to look into alleged cheating.
(AP, 10/11/04)
2004 Oct 14, The US Army announced
that up to 28 U.S. soldiers face possible criminal charges in
connection with the deaths of two prisoners at an American-run prison
in Afghanistan two years ago.
(AP, 10/14/04)
2004 Oct 14, In southern
Afghanistan a homemade bomb killed 2 American soldiers and wounded 3
others.
(AP, 10/16/04)
2004 Oct 15, In an eastern Afghan
province killed at least three children and a policeman on the first
day of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
(AP, 10/16/04)
2004 Oct 18, In southeastern
Afghanistan 5 people were killed when an explosive device hit a vehicle
being used by election staff. Hamid Karzai’s chief rival Yunus Qanooni
accused organizers of "robbing the people's vote."
(AP, 10/18/04)
2004 Oct 23, A purported Taliban
militant set off grenades strapped to his body on a bustling Kabul
street, killing Jamie Michalsky (23), an American woman, and an Afghan
girl.
(AP, 10/24/04)(SSFC, 10/24/04, p.A3)
2004 Oct 25, Hamid Karzai was
assured of a majority in Afghanistan's election to become its first
democratically chosen president. A close to final tally soon gave
Karzai 55.4% of the vote.
(AP, 10/25/04)(SFC, 10/28/04, p.A12)
2004 Oct 26, The final vote count
in the Afghan presidential election gave a sounding victory to interim
leader Hamid Karzai.
(AP, 10/26/05)
2004 Oct 28, A breakaway Taliban
group abducted three foreign UN workers from Kabul because they
assisted Afghanistan's "fake election" and threatened to kill them if a
rescue mission was launched.
(AP, 10/29/04)
2004 Nov 2, Afghan fighting killed
at least 11 as troops tried to disarm southern militias.
(WSJ, 11/3/04, p.A1)
2004 Nov 3, Hamid Karzai was
officially declared the winner of Afghanistan's first-ever presidential
election after a 3-week probe into vote fraud found no grounds to
invalidate his triumph.
(AP, 11/3/05)
2004 Nov 5, In Afghanistan Islamic
militants holding 3 UN workers hostage set a new, fifth deadline for
their execution.
(AFP, 11/5/04)
2004 Nov 18, A UN report said
opium and heroin production in Afghanistan had rocketed to near record
levels. It accounted for over 60% of Afghan GDP and 87% of world supply.
(SFC, 11/19/04, p.A1)(WSJ, 11/19/04, p.A1)
2004 Nov 21, US led troops mounted
overnight raids on suspected al-Qaida compounds in eastern Afghanistan,
killing four people and detaining several others.
(AP, 11/21/04)
2004 Nov 23, In Afghanistan 3 UN
workers kidnapped 4 weeks ago were released unharmed.
(AP, 11/23/04)
2004 Nov 24, In southern
Afghanistan a bomb exploded near a US patrol, killing two American
soldiers and wounding another.
(AP, 11/24/04)
2004 Nov 27, In Afghanistan 6
Americans died when a private plane used by the US Air Force crashed in
snow-covered mountains. Search teams later recovered the bodies.
(AP, 12/1/04)(WSJ, 12/1/04, p.A1)
2004 Nov, The US announced an
additional $780m for drug control efforts in Afghanistan.
(Econ, 11/20/04, p.46)
2004 Dec 7, Hamid Karzai was sworn
in as Afghanistan's first popularly elected president.
(AP, 12/7/04)
2004 Dec 8, Some 18,000 US troops
in Afghanistan began Operation Lightning Freedom, a new offensive to
hunt Taliban and al-Qaida militants through the country's harsh winter.
(AP, 12/11/04)
2004 Dec 13, Afghan intelligence
agents arrested two senior Taliban military commanders, including a
former security chief of the hardline regime's leader Mullah Omar.
(AP, 12/14/04)
2004 Dec 15, In eastern
Afghanistan the body of a kidnapped Turkish engineer was found, a day
after he was snatched with his driver and interpreter by a band of
armed men.
(AP, 12/15/04)
2004 Dec 17, Afghan forces retook
control of Pul-e-Charkhi, the country's largest jail, following a
day-long standoff. 4 inmates and 4 guards were killed in the violence.
(AP, 12/17/04)(SFC, 12/18/04, p.A8)
2004 Dec 19, A vehicle carrying a
group of suspected Taliban fighters attacked a military checkpoint in
southern Afghanistan, sparking a firefight that left six dead.
(AP, 12/20/04)
2004 Dec 23, Afghan Pres. Hamid
Karzai chose a new Cabinet, heeding calls to sideline warlords from top
positions, including the defense minister, and creating a new post to
oversee the fight against opium production.
(AP, 12/23/04)
2004 Dec 29, In Afghanistan masked
gunmen killed Pashtun politician Shah Alam Khan, a close ally of Pres.
Karzai.
(WSJ, 12/30/04, p.A1)
2004 In Afghanistan Nizar Habibi
served as Kabul’s chief price controller. Prices were limited by 5%
profits in order to ensure that the poor could afford to eat.
(WSJ, 10/8/04, p.A15)
2004 In Afghanistan Ahmed Wali
Karzai, the brother of Pres. Karzai, was implicated in an enormous
cache of heroin found hidden beneath concrete blocks in a
tractor-trailer outside Kandahar. Security forces released the vehicle
and the drugs following a call from Ahmed Wali Karzai, later chief of
the Kandahar Provincial Council.
(SSFC, 10/5/08, p.A23)
2004 In Afghanistan Radio Watanda
began broadcasting from a basement in a suburb of Kabul. Listeners soon
discovered that they could use it as a platform to harangue the
authorities.
(Econ, 6/16/07, p.50)
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2005
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Subject = Afghan