Timeline Afghanistan
2005-2007
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Afghan A
AfghanA = thru 2004
AfghanB = 2005-2008
AfghanC = 2008-2010
2005
Jan 2, In western Afghanistan a US soldier and a
former Afghan militia leader were killed when American troops clashed
with gunmen while searching the leader's compound.
(AP, 1/2/05)
2005 Jan 3, In eastern Afghanistan
a US was killed and three others wounded in a clash with militants.
(AP, 1/3/05)
2005 Jan 12, In southern
Afghanistan gunmen kidnapped six government soldiers in a former
Taliban stronghold and dumped their bullet-ridden bodies in a canal.
(AP, 1/13/05)
2005 Jan 16, The US military freed
81 Afghan prisoners, and the Afghan government was negotiating the
release of hundreds more from American custody.
(AP, 1/16/05)(WSJ, 1/17/05, p.A1)
2005 Jan 26, Afghan President
Hamid Karzai started a two-day visit to Iran mainly focused on boosting
economic relations and inaugurating a new cross-border highway.
(AFP, 1/26/05)
2005 Jan 27, An Afghan soldier
opened fire inside a US base and killed 5 of his comrades.
(SFC, 1/28/05, p.A3)
2005 Jan 29, Nine Afghan soldiers
died and another was seriously injured when a mine exploded near their
vehicle as they traveled close to the Pakistani border.
(AP, 1/29/05)
2005 Jan, A 220-page UN report on
atrocities in Afghanistan was scheduled for release but kept under
wraps for the next 18 months. Publication was expected in mid-2006.
(SFC, 6/17/06, p.A1)
2005 Feb 3, An Afghan passenger
jet carrying 104 people disappeared from radar screens during a
snowstorm near the mountain-ringed capital. NATO helicopters found the
wreckage of 2 days later. There were no survivors.
(AP, 2/4/05)(AP, 2/5/05)
2005 Feb 11, In Afghanistan US
troops killed two unarmed men after they entered an exclusion zone
around near Shindand Air Base in Herat province. An investigation
followed.
(AP, 2/19/05)
2005 Feb 17, In Afghanistan a cold
snap over the past month has claimed at least 267 lives and thousands
more people were thought to be stranded in remote areas. Winter
blizzards left over 1,000 children dead.
(AFP, 2/17/05)(SFC, 3/3/05, p.A1)
2005 Feb 24, In southeastern
Afghanistan Taliban insurgents launched 3 separate attacks, killing 9
Afghan troops and wounding an American soldier while sustaining heavy
casualties themselves.
(AP, 2/25/05)
2005 Mar 2, In Afghanistan Pres.
Karzai appointed Habiba Sarobi as governor of Bamiyan province, making
her Afghanistan’s 1st female governor.
(SFC, 3/3/05, p.A10)
2005 Mar 2, In eastern Afghanistan
a gunbattle between U.S.-led coalition forces and militants left three
militants and two civilians dead.
(AP, 3/5/05)
2005 Mar 8, Afghan gunmen killed a
British advisor in Kabul.
(WSJ, 3/9/05, p.A1)
2005 Mar 17, In Afghanistan a bomb
exploded near a taxi carrying women and children in the southern city
of Kandahar, killing at least five people and wounding.
(AP, 3/17/05)
2005 Mar 20, Severe flooding
caused by snowmelt and torrential rains across Afghanistan left nearly
20 dead and thousands homeless.
(AFP, 3/20/05)
2005 Mar 22, In Afghanistan US
warplanes killed five suspected Taliban or al-Qaida militants near the
Pakistani border after guerrillas launched an overnight rocket and gun
attack on American and Afghan military positions.
(AP, 3/23/05)
2005 Mar 22, In Afghanistan US-led
forces trying to capture a suspected Taliban militant got into a
firefight that left seven people dead, including two children and a
woman.
(AP, 3/24/05)
2005 Mar 26, In Afghanistan 4 US
soldiers died when their vehicle struck a land mine.
(AP, 3/26/05)
2005 Mar 30, Under heavy
protection, First Lady Laura Bush visited the capital of Afghanistan,
where she talked with Afghan women freed from Taliban repression and
urged greater rights.
(AP, 3/30/06)
2005 Mar 31, It was reported that
Shirin Gul (39), an Afghan housewife, stood accused with her lover and
son (18) of murdering 27 men over the last 4 years in order to sell
their cars across the border in Pakistan.
(SFC, 3/31/05, p.A3)
2005 Apr 1, Suspected Taliban
gunmen ambushed a convoy of civilian trucks carrying vehicles to the US
military in southern Afghanistan, killing three drivers. A bomb planted
on a tractor trolley killed two people and injured five in the northern
city of Mazar-i-Sharif while a roadside bomb blast in southern Kandahar
province killed two teenagers.
(AP, 4/2/05)
2005 Apr 2, In southern
Afghanistan Taliban militants stormed a government building in Deshu
district and killed 3 Afghan soldiers in a two-hour gunbattle before
fleeing. A Western security source in Kandahar linked the attack to an
ongoing counter-narcotics drive in Helmand province and said security
was deteriorating there.
(AFP, 4/3/05)(SSFC, 4/3/05, p.A9)
2005 Apr 5, Zalmay Khalilzad, a
former White House official who has served as US ambassador in his
native Afghanistan, was named to take over the post in Iraq.
(AP, 4/6/05)
2005 Apr 6, In southeast
Afghanistan a US military helicopter crashed in bad weather. 15 US
service members and 3 American civilians were killed when their Chinook
helicopter crashed.
(AP, 4/7/05)
2005 Apr 11, In Afghanistan at
least 12 suspected Taliban rebels were killed and two American soldiers
wounded in a battle that began with a botched rebel attack.
(AP, 4/12/05)
2005 Apr 19, US forces killed more
than 12 insurgents in a clash in southeastern Afghanistan.
(AP, 4/21/05)
2005 Apr 20, In Afghanistan 2
former Taliban leaders joined a reconciliation drive that American
commanders hope will undermine a three-year-old insurgency.
(AP, 4/21/05)
2005 Apr 21, US and Afghan
soldiers backed by warplanes and artillery battled suspected insurgents
in clashes near the border with Pakistan. 4 fighters and 1 Afghan
soldier were killed.
(AP, 4/24/05)
2005 Apr 25, Bashir Noorzai (44),
alleged Afghan heroin dealer, was arrested while traveling to NY.
(SFC, 4/26/05, p.A3)
2005 Apr 26, A US soldier and four
Afghan police officers were killed in separate rebel attacks, while at
least two Afghan civilians were injured by gunfire following the
bombing of an American patrol in the east of the country.
(AP, 4/27/05)
2005 Apr 29, Afghan security
forces opened fire during a celebration in a western city, killing a
mother and her daughter. In central Afghanistan an airstrike on a
suspected insurgent camp killed three civilians and four militants. A
bomb tore through a jeep carrying Afghan anti-drug police in eastern
Afghanistan, killing 3 officers and injuring two more, in the first
deadly attack on the country's new counter-narcotics forces.
(AP, 4/30/05)(AP, 5/1/05)
2005 May 1, The bodies of 3 Afghan
women were found raped, hanged and dumped on a roadside in Baglan
province with a warning not to work for foreign relief organizations.
(SFC, 5/6/05, p.A15)
2005 May 2, In Afghanistan an arms
cache, hidden under the house of a warlord and former government
militia commander named Jalal Bashgah, exploded in a bunker beneath his
home killing 34 people, injuring 16 and devastating surrounding
buildings.
(AP, 5/2/05)(SFC, 5/3/05, p.A5)
2005 May 3, From May 3 to 4
American troops and Afghan police killed 64 rebels and captured six
during a battle in the mountains of southern Afghanistan. 9 Afghan
troops and one policeman were also killed in the clashes in the
southern provinces of Zabul and Kandahar.
(AP, 5/5/05)
2005 May 7, In Afghanistan a UN
worker from Myanmar was among three people killed in a suicide attack
at an Internet cafe in Kabul.
(AP, 5/8/05)
2005 May 8, In eastern Afghanistan
insurgents trying to escape US Marines took refuge in a cave and killed
2 Americans during a 5-hour battle that left an estimated 23 rebels
dead.
(AP, 5/10/05)
2005 May 11, In Afghanistan
demonstrators angry over the alleged desecration of the Quran at
Guantanamo Bay smashed car and shop windows and stoned a passing convoy
of US soldiers. Police opened fire on the protesters, killing four and
injuring at least 71.
(AP, 5/11/05)
2005 May 12, Police clashed with
anti-U.S. demonstrators in two Afghan towns, killing at least three
people, and Afghan students burned an American flag in Kabul as
protests spread over reported abuse of Islam's holy book at the U.S.
jail in Guantanamo Bay.
(AP, 5/12/05)
2005 May 13, Afghan police and
demonstrators clashed, killing at least 4 people, as protests over
allegations that interrogators at the US prison in Guantanamo Bay
desecrated Islam's holy book spread to more cities.
(AP, 5/13/05)
2005 May 16, In Afghanistan 4
armed men kidnapped Clementina Cantoni (32), an Italian relief worker,
from her car in Kabul. Authorities described the group as thieves.
(AP, 5/17/05)
2005 May 18, In Afghanistan Shaima
Rezayee (24), a host on an MTV-style music show, was shot dead in the
head at her Kabul home.
(AP, 5/20/05)
2005 May 18-2005 May 19, Suspected
Taliban militants ambushed and killed 11 Afghans working on a US-funded
project to end opium farming in Helmand province. Chemonics, which
employed 14,000 people, suspended operations.
(AP, 5/18/05)(AP, 5/19/05)(Econ, 7/16/05, p.40)
2005 May 21, In eastern
Afghanistan fighting between insurgents and US-led coalition and Afghan
forces left 12 rebels dead and one U.S. soldier slightly wounded. In
southern Afghanistan a bomb exploded near a U.S. military patrol,
killing one American soldier and wounding two others.
(AP, 5/21/05)(AP, 5/22/05)
2005 May 22, The UN condemned as
"utterly unacceptable" the alleged abuse of detainees at the main US
base in Afghanistan and called on the American military to allow an
investigation by Afghan human rights officials.
(AP, 5/22/05)
2005 May 23, President Bush said
that US troops in Afghanistan will remain under US control despite
Afghan President Hamid Karzai's request for more authority over them.
(AP, 5/23/05)
2005 May 23, Afghan and coalition
forces killed two insurgents in a firefight in central Afghanistan,
while US aircraft bombed and destroyed a cave where about six other
rebels were believed hiding.
(AP, 5/24/05)
2005 May 29, In southern
Afghanistan's Kandahar province gunmen shot and killed Mullah Abdul
Fayaz, the top Muslim leader.
(AP, 5/29/05)
2005 May 30, In Afghanistan
Taliban militants claimed responsibility for a bicycle bomb aimed at a
NATO-led vehicle which wounded at least 7 Afghans and a rocket which
slammed into the peacekeeping force's base in Kabul.
(AFP, 5/30/05)
2005 May 30, US-led warplanes and
troops killed up to 9 suspected Taliban rebels after the militants
launched 3 attacks in quick succession on Afghan and US-led coalition
forces.
(AFP, 5/31/05)
2005 May 31, NATO troops took
command of security and reconstruction efforts in western Afghanistan
from US forces under a plan that will likely soon put NATO forces into
insurgent hot spots.
(AP, 5/31/05)
2005 Jun 1, In Afghanistan a bomb
from a suicide attacker tore through a mosque during a funeral in
Kandahar for a Muslim cleric opposed to the Taliban, killing at least
20 people. The local governor said an al-Qaida-linked militant was
responsible.
(AP, 6/1/05)
2005 Jun 3, In eastern Afghanistan
a bomb exploded next to a US military convoy, killing two American
soldiers and wounding a third.
(AP, 6/4/05)
2005 Jun 4, In Afghanistan Haji
Sultan, division commander for the Taliban, was arrested with Mullah
Mohammad Rahim, another senior Taliban official, in the western Farah
province.
(AP, 6/5/05)
2005 Jun 8, In eastern Afghanistan
rebel rockets struck US troops unloading supplies from a helicopter,
killing two and wounding 8.
(AP, 6/8/05)
2005 Jun 10, In eastern
Afghanistan an American soldier was killed and three US troops were
wounded when insurgents ambushed a patrol.
(AP, 6/11/05)
2005 Jun 11, In southern
Afghanistan an Afghan army truck collided with a bus, killing three
villagers and wounding seven. A US soldier was killed by small-arms
fire in Orgun-e.
(AP, 6/11/05)(SFC, 6/14/05, p.B3)
2005 Jun 14, A health expert
warned that Kabul is on the verge of a cholera epidemic, with more than
2,000 cases of the disease and at least eight deaths reported in recent
weeks.
(AP, 6/14/05)
2005 Jun 14, Fighting between
about 90 suspected Taliban rebels and hundreds of Afghan soldiers and
U.S.-led coalition troops left seven insurgents dead and 10 wounded,
while a rebel attack on a medical clinic killed a doctor and six others.
(AP, 6/15/05)
2005 Jun 15, In Afghanistan 4
people, including 2 boys, were killed by mines.
(AP, 6/16/05)
2005 Jun 16, Taliban rebels
ambushed a police convoy in southern Afghanistan, taking at least 10
officers and a district police chief captive.
(AP, 6/18/05)
2005 Jun 19, In southern
Afghanistan US warplanes and helicopters opened fire on a group of
suspected rebels after the ambush of a coalition convoy, killing as
many as 20 militants.
(AP, 6/19/05)
2005 Jun 20, Fierce fighting
between Taliban rebels and Afghan security forces left 18 insurgents
and three others dead.
(AP, 6/20/05)
2005 Jun 21, American warplanes
pounded a suspected Taliban safe haven in southern Afghanistan in an
assault that left up to 76 insurgents and five policeman dead and five
U.S. soldiers wounded.
(AP, 6/22/05)(SFC, 6/23/05, p.A10)
2005 Jun 22, US military said a US
Air Force U-2 spy plane involved in a mission in Afghanistan crashed
while returning to its base in the United Arab Emirates, killing the
pilot.
(AP, 6/22/05)
2005 Jun 23, Afghan and U.S.-led
coalition forces surrounded a rebel hide-out in southern Afghanistan,
and the number of insurgents killed from three days of fighting rose to
102.
(AP, 6/23/05)
2005 Jun 24, In Afghanistan 4 days
of fighting left 114 people dead, including 102 insurgents.
(AP, 6/24/05)
2005 Jun 24, Russia, whose last
border guard left the Tajik-Afghan border last week, said Afghanistan's
heroin output was growing at breakneck speed and presented a threat to
the world community.
(Reuters, 6/24/05)
2005 Jun 25, Afghan forces found
the bodies of 76 suspected militants killed during a barrage of their
camps by Afghan and US forces. In all, a total of 178 militants were
killed and 56 suspected insurgents have been captured since Jun 21.
(AP, 6/25/05)
2005 Jun 25, In northern
Afghanistan a massive explosion at a weapons dump near an airfield
killed five Afghans and two German soldiers.
(AP, 6/26/05)
2005 Jun 28, In Kunar province,
Afghanistan, 4 US Navy SEAL commandos radioed for help during a
reconnaissance mission for Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters, that was part
of Operation Red Wing. A US Chinook helicopter with 16 men responded to
the call and was shot down. Marcus Luttrell was rescued by US forces on
July 2. In 2007 Luttrell, the only survivor, authored “Lone Survivor:
The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL
Team 10.” Michael Murphy, a Navy Seal who gave his life to call for
help for his unit, was awarded the Medal of Honor in 2007.
(AP, 6/29/05)(SFC, 7/7/05, p.A14)(WSJ, 10/23/07,
p.A1)(WSJ, 10/27/07, p.A9)
2005 Jun 29, In central
Afghanistan Taliban militants attacked police checkpoints and a
village, and the fighting left 25 people dead, including tribal elders
who were taken hostage.
(AP, 7/1/05)
2005 Jul 1, In eastern
Afghanistan a US airstrike in Kunar province resulted in casualties;
Afghan officials said 48 people were killed, including 25 members of an
extended family attending a wedding celebration; US officials later
confirmed 34 dead. Hundreds of Afghan troops raided a Taliban hide-out
in the mountains of central Afghanistan and 18 rebels and two soldiers
were killed in fierce fighting.
(SFC, 7/7/05, p.A14)(AP, 7/2/05)(AP, 7/1/06)
2005 Jul 4, A senior US defense
official confirmed the deaths of two Navy SEALS that were missing in
action in Afghanistan's northeast.
(AP, 7/4/05)
2005 Jul 4, In Afghanistan a
provincial governor said a 2nd member of a missing elite US military
team has been located in the rugged mountains near the Pakistan border.
(AP, 7/4/05)
2005 Jul 5, An alliance of Russia,
China and central Asian nations called for the US and coalition members
in Afghanistan to set a date for withdrawing from member states,
reflecting growing unease over America's regional military presence.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization includes China, Russia,
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
(AP, 7/5/05)
2005 Jul 7, A Human Rights Watch
report said numerous officials in Afghan President Hamid Karzai's
government are implicated in war crimes that took place at the start of
the country's bloody civil war in the early 1990s.
(AP, 7/7/05)
2005 Jul 9, The US military
released another batch of 76 Afghan prisoners as part of ongoing
efforts to promote national reconciliation. A purported Taliban
spokesman said that the group has beheaded a missing American commando,
but he offered no proof.
(AP, 7/9/05)
2005 Jul 9, Suspected Taliban
gunmen ambushed an Afghani government border patrol in the desert near
the frontier with Pakistan, killing 10 soldiers and beheading their
bodies.
(AP, 7/10/05)
2005 Jul 10, In eastern
Afghanistan the body of a missing US commando was located in Kunar
province. The location and disposition of the service member's remains
indicate he died while fighting off enemy terrorists on or about June
28.
(AP, 7/11/05)
2005 Jul 11, In Afghanistan 4
suspected terrorists escaped from the main US base, the first time
anyone has broken out of the heavily guarded detention facility. Omar
al-Farouq was one of the four suspected Arab terrorists to escape from
the detention facility at Bagram. Born in Kuwait to Iraqi parents, he
was considered one of Osama bin Laden's top lieutenants in Southeast
Asia until Indonesian authorities captured him in 2002 and turned him
over to the US. On Nov 2 Indonesian anti-terrorism official, Maj. Gen.
Ansyaad Mbai, sharply criticized the US government for failing to
inform him that al-Farouq was no longer behind bars.
(AP, 7/11/05)(AP, 11/2/05)
2005 Jul 11-2005 Jul 12, Fighting
between rebels and Afghan and American forces in Zabul province left 17
insurgents dead.
(AP, 7/13/05)
2005 Jul 14, US and Afghan
soldiers fought Taliban insurgent near the Pakistan border inside
Afghanistan. Maj. Gen. Rehmatullah Raufi, the top army commander in
Paktia, said the Afghan base was attacked in the Lwara area. The next
day Pakistani troops found the bodies of 24 suspected Taliban
militants. Pakistan protested the US cross-border raid.
(AP, 7/15/05)(WSJ, 7/18/05, p.A1)
2005 Jul 15, Suspected Taliban
gunmen kidnapped and hanged a pro-government tribal leader in southern
Afghanistan. Agha Jan was kidnapped the previous day with his two sons,
brother and two nephews from his home in southern Zabul province. The
relatives were released unharmed. Suspected Taliban fighters raided a
police post in southern Afghanistan, killing 7 policemen and losing 5
of their own men.
(AP, 7/15/05)(AP, 7/16/05)
2005 Jul 17, The 168-page
Afghanistan Justice Project report was issued and covered human rights
abuses since the late 1970s. It holds several top officials and
candidates in national elections, scheduled for September, among those
responsible for mass arrests, tortures and executions.
(AP, 7/18/05)
2005 Jul 18, A British jury
convicted Faryadi Sarwar Zardad, a former Afghan warlord, of torture
and hostage-taking (1991-1996). It was the first trial in Britain of a
foreigner for crimes committed in his homeland. The next day Zardad was
sentenced to 20 years in prison.
(AP, 7/19/05)(AP, 7/20/05)
2005 Jul 20, Two Afghans released
from Guantanamo Bay claimed about 180 Afghans at the U.S. detention
facility were on a hunger strike to protest alleged mistreatment and to
push for freedom.
(AP, 7/21/05)
2005 Jul 21, Suspected Taliban
rebels ambushed a car carrying a local administrator in southern
Afghanistan. Gul Mohammed, an acting deputy district chief, and his
unidentified driver were killed when militants opened fire on their car
in Helmand province.
(AP, 7/22/05)
2005 Jul 23, In southern
Afghanistan suspected Taliban militants fatally shot a district judge.
(AP, 7/23/05)
2005 Jul 24, In southern
Afghanistan more than a dozen suspected militants attacked a US patrol,
and the resulting firefight left one American soldier dead and another
wounded. A roadside bomb exploded in eastern Afghanistan, striking a US
military convoy and wounding six American troops.
(AP, 7/24/05)(AP, 7/25/05)
2005 Jul 25, Fighting between
Taliban rebels and U.S. and Afghan forces in Uruzgan province killed
about 50 suspected militants, in the deadliest clashes in weeks ahead
of crucial legislative elections. The fighting killed one US and one
Afghan soldier.
(AP, 7/26/05)(SFC, 7/26/05, p.A3)
2005 Jul 26, In Afghanistan more
than 1,000 stone-throwing protesters tried to break into Bagram, the
main U.S. base to free eight detained villagers, and Afghan troops
fired warning shots and used clubs to beat the mob back. U.S. troops
also fired into the air.
(AP, 7/26/05)
2005 Jul 26, In Afghanistan US
military officials moved to defuse tension after a riot outside their
main base by handing 6 villagers, accused of being bomb makers, over to
local authorities.
(AP, 7/27/05)
2005 Jul 28, The main body of
Canadian soldiers being deployed to Afghanistan has begun arriving in
the treacherous Kandahar region. They're part of what will be a
250-strong provincial reconstruction team, the first such team Canada
has sent to Afghanistan.
(CP, 7/28/05)
2005 Jul 28, A team of anti-drug
investigators, lawyers and judges will start prosecuting major
narcotics cases in Afghanistan, the world's largest opium and heroin
producer, as part of a new UN program.
(AP, 7/28/05)
2005 Jul 30, In central
Afghanistan thousands of rockets, mortars and anti-aircraft ammunition
have been seized in the largest cache of militant weapons discovered in
months.
(AP, 7/31/05)
2005 Jul, In Afghanistan 2 US
soldiers punched detainees at a forward operating base in Uruzgan
province. In 2006 Army Spc. James Hayes was reduced to private and
forfeited all pay and allowances for 4 months. Army Sgt. Kevin Myricks
received a reduction in rank and was sentenced to 6 months confinement.
(SSFC, 1/29/06, p.A3)(AP, 1/30/06)
2005 Aug 3, Some 2,000 Afghan
security forces rushed to an eastern province after dozens of suspected
Taliban rebels wearing army uniforms killed 8 police and soldiers in an
attack on a region that has been largely peaceful in recent months.
(AP, 8/3/05)
2005 Aug 4, A roadside bomb
exploded near a US military vehicle near the Afghan border with
Pakistan, killing an American service member and wounding another. 2 US
service members drowned after their Humvee slid into a river during an
operation targeting insurgents in eastern Afghanistan.
(AP, 8/5/05)
2005 Aug 8, In southern
Afghanistan one US service member and at least 16 suspected Taliban
rebels were killed in fighting.
(AP, 8/9/05)
2005 Aug 8-2005 Aug 9, In
Afghanistan US airstrikes during operations against militants killed
civilians and wounded others, including an infant according to local
villagers.
(AP, 8/11/05)
2005 Aug 9, A roadside bomb attack
in eastern Afghanistan killed a US service member, the fifth American
casualty in a week. Suspected Taliban rebels gunned down an Afghan
woman accused of spying for the coalition.
(AP, 8/10/05)
2005 Aug 9, Qari Amadullah, a
suspected Taliban rebel leader, died in heavy fighting in eastern
Afghanistan. 5 other militants were killed and 3 US soldiers were
wounded during the clash.
(AP, 8/12/05)
2005 Aug 11, In Afghanistan a US
service member was killed in Paktika province, the sixth American
fatality in a week. An American soldier was killed and two others were
wounded in an explosives training accident in central Uruzgan province.
(AP, 8/11/05)(AP, 8/12/05)
2005 Aug 12, In Afghanistan
suspected Taliban guerrillas ambushed a vehicle carrying police in
southern Zabul province's Arghandab district, sparking a gunbattle that
killed 3 militants.
(AP, 8/12/05)
2005 Aug 13, Khosraw Basheri (23)
claimed a historic title of Mr. Afghanistan in the country’s first-ever
national competition to select a top bodybuilder.
(AP, 8/14/05)
2005 Aug 13, US Marines and Afghan
troops launched an offensive to take a remote mountain valley from
insurgents tied to the deadliest blow on American forces since the
Taliban regime was ousted nearly four years ago.
(AP, 8/14/05)
2005 Aug 14, Fighting across
southern Afghanistan left 28 suspected Taliban rebels dead. In Zabul
province Afghan forces attacked a group of suspected militants, killing
16 of them and arresting one. In neighboring Uruzgan province's
Dehrawud district, a gunbattle between Afghan soldiers and insurgents
left five militants dead.
(AP, 8/15/05)
2005 Aug 16, Two helicopters
carrying NATO-led forces to prepare for next month's elections crashed
in the desert in western Afghanistan, killing at least 17 Spanish
troops.
(AP, 8/16/05)
2005 Aug 18, In Afghanistan a US
Marine and an Afghan soldier were killed during battles with militants
in eastern Kunar province ahead of next month's landmark elections. 2
American soldiers were killed in the south.
(AP, 8/19/05)
2005 Aug 20, In southern
Afghanistan at least 20 people were killed and 28 others injured when
two buses collided on a highway.
(AFP, 8/20/05)
2005 Aug 21, Afghan forces and US
Marines killed more than 40 suspected militants in an operation against
insurgents in the Koregnal Valley, believed responsible for twin
attacks that killed 19 troops in June.
(AP, 8/22/05)
2005 Aug 21, A roadside bomb
killed four US soldiers and wounded three others as they patrolled
southern Afghanistan.
(AP, 8/21/05)
2005 Aug 24, In Afghanistan’s
Uruzgan province coalition aircraft killed 5 alleged insurgents after a
firefight with troops on the ground.
(AP, 8/25/05)
2005 Aug 24, The US-led coalition
and Afghan forces killed Payenda Mohammed, a suspected Taliban
commander and three of his fighters in the country's south.
(AP, 8/29/05)
2005 Aug 25, A joint U.S.-Afghan
patrol spotted a rebel observation post and A-10 warplanes and attack
helicopters were called in, killing five suspected militants.
(AP, 8/25/05)
2005 Aug 26, In eastern
Afghanistan a bomb killed a US service member and wounded four when it
exploded near their armored vehicle in Paktika province.
(AP, 8/27/05)
2005 Aug 28, India’s PM Manmohan
Singh, the first Indian premier to visit Afghanistan in nearly 3
decades, pledged with Afghan President Hamid Karzai to battle terrorism
amid rising violence in the war-battered country.
(AFP, 8/28/05)
2005 Aug 28, In Afghanistan
suspected Taliban rebels killed a candidate running in next month's
legislative elections.
(AP, 8/28/05)
2005 Aug 28, In Afghanistan 6
rebels died in a clash with Afghan police.
(AP, 8/29/05)
2005 Aug 28, Militants attacked a
joint patrol by Afghan and U.S.-led coalition forces near Kabul, and an
ensuing firefight left one suspected rebel dead and two others wounded.
(AP, 8/30/05)
2005 Aug 30, Afghan and U.S.
ground troops, backed by attack helicopters, raided a Taliban camp in
the mountains of southern Afghanistan, killing nine suspected militants.
(AP, 8/31/05)
2005 Aug 31, Militants kidnapped
David Addison, a British engineer, and his interpreter after an attack
in western Afghanistan that left at least three policemen dead.
Addison’s body was found Sep 3.
(AP, 9/1/05)(Reuters, 9/3/05)
2005 Aug, A report, only made
public in 2008, marked confidential and bearing the official seal of
Spain's Defense Ministry charged that Pakistan's spy service was
helping arm Taliban insurgents for assassination plots against the
Afghan government.
(AP, 10/1/08)
2005 Sep 1, In Afghanistan the
bodies of 2 Japanese tourists were found. The two Japanese teachers,
technical arts teacher Jun Fukusho (44), and female English teacher
Shinobu Hasegawa (30), had been missing for 3 weeks.
(AFP, 9/3/05)
2005 Sep 1, in Afghanistan Taliban
insurgents stabbed to death Mullah Amir Akhund, a pro-government
Islamic cleric, in Helmand province.
(AP, 9/3/05)
2005 Sep 2, Suspected Taliban
gunmen kidnapped a district government chief, a candidate for
legislature and three other people after ambushing their vehicle in
southern Afghanistan.
(AP, 9/3/05)
2005 Sep 4, In southern
Afghanistan 13 suspected Taliban fighters were killed in fighting with
US and Afghan forces in Kandahar province. More than 40 suspected
militants were arrested.
(AP, 9/5/05)
2005 Sep 6, Pakistan said it has
sent 9,500 more troops to the border with Afghanistan to prevent
infiltration by militants intent on disrupting Afghan elections later
this month.
(AP, 9/6/05)
2005 Sep 7, Hundreds of Afghan
refugees attacked a UN refugee agency office in northwest Pakistan in
protest at delays in repatriating them. Pakistan has ordered the
closure of all refugee camps in its semi-autonomous tribal regions
because of security concerns. It originally gave an August 31 deadline
but it has since given them until September 15.
(AP, 9/8/05)
2005 Sep 9, Afghan and coalition
forces killed 30 enemies and captured 60 others during an operation in
Grishk district of Helmand.
(AFP, 9/10/05)
2005 Sep 10, Afghan soldiers
reportedly tried to assassinate Rahim Wardak, the country's defense
minister, by shooting at his convoy at Kabul's main airport. Wardak had
already left his vehicle and was unhurt. Nine suspects, all soldiers,
were arrested in the attack. The next day Afghanistan said the shootout
was not an assassination attempt, but an internecine battle between
groups of soldiers.
(AP, 9/10/05)(WSJ, 9/12/05, p.A1)
2005 Sep 13, In Afghanistan the
bodies of 7 men, killed by suspected Taliban rebels, were found in the
central Afghan province of Uruzgan, along with the cards that entitled
them to vote in upcoming parliamentary and provincial elections.
(AP, 9/14/05)
2005 Sep 14, In Afghanistan about
40 gunmen attacked a police post in the mountainous Char-Chilo district
of Uruzgan province. Police killed three of the attackers and arrested
one after a two-hour gunbattle. A bomb exploded along a road frequently
traveled by U.S.-led and Afghan army forces near Tirin Kot, the
provincial capital, blowing up a civilian vehicle and killing three
passengers.
(AP, 9/15/05)
2005 Sep 15, Suspected Taliban
gunmen in Helmand province shot and killed Abdul Hadi, a candidate in
Afghanistan's legislative elections after dragging him from his house.
(AP, 9/16/05)
2005 Sep 17, The UN urged Afghans
to defy rebel violence and turn out in large numbers to vote in
landmark legislative elections. Fierce battles near the capital and
elsewhere killed nine militants and three policemen.
(AP, 9/17/05)
2005 Sep 17, A French special
forces soldier was killed and one was seriously wounded when their
vehicle struck a mine while patrolling in southern Afghanistan.
(AP, 9/18/05)
2005 Sep 18, Afghans chose a
legislature for the first time in decades, embracing their newly
recovered democratic rights and braving threats of Taliban attacks to
cast votes in schools, tents and mosques. The turnout was reported to
be a disappointing 50%. 19 polling stations were attacked by Taliban
insurgents and a dozen people were killed. Women won seats in 13 of the
34 provinces. The Hazara underclass claimed 43 seats out of 249,
despite being 9-13% of the population.
(WSJ, 9/23/05, p.A1)(Econ, 9/24/05, p.17)(Econ,
10/22/05, p.46)(Econ, 2/17/07, p.45)
2005 Sep 18, In Afghanistan Abdul
Rasul Sayyaf, former Saudi Arabian-backed jihadist leader and
presidential advisor to Hamid Karzai, stood as a parliamentary
candidate.
(Econ, 9/17/05, p.40)
2005 Sep 20, President Hamid
Karzai challenged the need for major foreign military operations in
Afghanistan, saying air strikes are no longer effective and that
U.S.-led coalition forces should focus on rooting out terror bases and
support networks.
(AP, 9/20/05)
2005 Sep 22, In southern
Afghanistan 10 insurgents and an Afghan soldier were killed in an
operation to arrest a top Taliban commander.
(AFP, 9/23/05)
2005 Sep 25, A US Chinook
helicopter crashed in remote mountains of southern Afghanistan, killing
all five crew members on board.
(AP, 9/25/05)
2005 Sep 26, A drug policy group
said Afghanistan could reduce its destabilizing heroin trade by
licensing an opium crop to produce medical morphine for export, but the
UN dismissed the idea as unlikely to work and the government called it
premature.
(AP, 9/26/05)
2005 Sep 26, In Afghanistan 2 US
troops were killed in separate militant attacks.
(AP, 9/27/05)
2005 Sep 27, In Afghanistan Ali
Ahmad Jalali, the Interior Minister, resigned and said some senior
officials were involved in drugs and corruption.
(SFC, 9/28/05, p.A14)
2005 Sep 27, An American
supervisor for USPI, a Houston-based security firm, allegedly shot to
death his Afghan interpreter after a quarrel. Officials said Noor Ahmad
(37) was shot in the head at a compound of his employer, U.S.
Protection and Investigations, at Tut village in Farah province's
Gulistan district in western Afghanistan.
(AP, 9/30/05)
2005 Sep 28, Afghan and US forces
arrested Gafar, a Taliban commander suspected in bomb attacks against
coalition forces, during a raid in the Andar district of Ghazni
province, where he tried to conceal his identity by dressing as a woman.
(AP, 10/1/05)
2005 Sep 28, A suspected suicide
attacker detonated a bomb outside an Afghan military training center in
Kabul, killing nine people and wounding 28.
(AP, 9/28/05)
2005 Sep 28, Germany's outgoing
parliament voted overwhelmingly to keep its troops in Afghanistan for
another year.
(AP, 9/28/05)
2005 Sep 29, In southern
Afghanistan an attack killed one US and one Afghan soldier.
(SSFC, 10/2/05, p.A3)
2005 Oct 1, A freelance journalist
shot video of US soldiers burning the bodies of the suspected Taliban
fighters in the hills outside the southern village of Gonbaz, near the
former Taliban stronghold of Kandahar and taunted other Islamic
militants. On Oct 20 the US military and the Afghan government
said they will investigate the TV report. The US military said such
abuse would be "repugnant."
(AP, 10/20/05)
2005 Oct 2, Afghan government
forces killed 31 suspected Taliban militants near the eastern border
with Pakistan. In a separate clash militants attacked a truck carrying
supplies for U.S.-led coalition forces in Surobi district of eastern
Paktia province, killing the truck driver. In fighting that followed,
three more militants were killed and two arrested. Two Afghan army
officers were wounded.
(AP, 10/3/05)
2005 Oct 2, Afghan election
officials said ballot boxes from about 4% of the country’s 26,000
polling stations were set aside for investigation on suspicion of fraud.
(SFC, 10/3/05, p.A8)
2005 Oct 4, In Afghanistan a bomb
exploded near a key crossing point on the Afghan-Pakistan border,
killing three people and wounding 20. Authorities blamed Taliban
insurgents.
(AP, 10/5/05)
2005 Oct 4, Japan's Cabinet
endorsed a one-year extension of the country's naval mission to support
U.S.-led troops in Afghanistan, citing renewed concerns about terrorism
after the recent bombings in Indonesia.
(AP, 10/4/05)
2005 Oct 4, Pakistani security
forces arrested Abdul Latif Hakimi, the chief spokesman of
Afghanistan's ousted Taliban regime, describing his capture as a major
blow to the Islamic militia.
(AFP, 10/4/05)
2005 Oct 6, Coalition forces who
were engaged in combat with militants opened fire on a vehicle carrying
Afghan police, killing four and wounding one.
(AP, 10/7/05)
2005 Oct 8, A 7.6-magnitude
earthquake hit Kashmir near the Pakistan-India border reaching to
Afghanistan. It reduced villages to rubble, triggered landslides and
flattened an apartment building, killing thousands of people in India
and Pakistan. Pakistani officials said the death toll ranged between
nearly 20,000 and 30,000. The newly reopened "Peace Bridge" linking the
Indian and Pakistani portions of disputed Kashmir nearly collapsed
during the earthquake. The death toll from the quake reached 87,350.
The UN estimated that 3 million people were left homeless by the
earthquake.
(AP, 10/9/05)(SSFC, 10/9/05, p.A1)(AP,
11/8/05)(Econ, 5/6/06, p.44)
2005 Oct 9, In southern
Afghanistan a suicide attacker rammed a car laden with explosives into
an armored vehicle carrying British government officials, wounding four
of them.
(AP, 10/9/05)
2005 Oct 9, Interfax news reported
that Russia will supply Afghanistan's fledgling army with helicopters
and equipment worth $30 million, more than 15 years after Moscow
withdrew after a nearly decade-long war.
(AP, 10/9/05)
2005 Oct 10, In Afghanistan a
suicide bomber killed a former militia commander and two others in
Kandahar. Police later thwarted a second such attack in the same city
when a man blew himself up as he fled the officers.
(AP, 10/10/05)
2005 Oct 10, In southern
Afghanistan suspected Taliban rebels ambushed a police convoy traveling
on a mountain road in Helmand province, killing 19 officers in the
deadliest attack ever on the fledgling police force. 2 suicide bombers,
one of whom was identified as an Arab, killed three people and wounded
eight in Kandahar.
(AP, 10/11/05)
2005 Oct 10, In Afghanistan US
warplanes killed 10 suspected rebels in Uruzgan province.
(AP, 10/12/05)
2005 Oct 11, In Zabul province
US-led coalition and Afghan forces killed two Chechens and a Pakistani
who were fighting alongside Taliban rebels.
(AP, 10/11/05)
2005 Oct 11,
In Afghanistan suspected Taliban ambushed a convoy and killed six
police.
(AP, 10/12/05)
2005 Oct 12, In Afghanistan 5
medical workers were killed by gunmen near Kandahar. Pres. Karzai said
he believes insurgents are receiving support from the nation's booming
drug trade.
(AP, 10/12/05)
2005 Oct 13, In Afghanistan Sargon
Heinrich (40) of Rio Vista, Ca., head of a building company, was hauled
from his boardinghouse in Kabul as Afghan agents arrested patrons
there. He refused to pay a bribe for release and was charged on Nov 23
for gun-running, forged ID and refusal to cooperate with authorities. 2
Britons and an Indian faced the same plight. All 4 were released Dec 8.
(SFC, 12/6/05, p.A8)(SFC, 12/10/05, p.A3)
2005 Oct 16, Afghanistan's
election authority announced final results for two of the country's 34
provinces as hundreds of protestors blocked roads in two key cities
alleging fraud in the count. Officials said election authorities have
fired about 50 employees for suspected fraud in last month's
legislative polls. About 3% of votes, have been taken out of the
counting process because of suspicions that they were stuffed.
(AP, 10/16/05)(AFP, 10/16/05)
2005 Oct 17, In southern
Afghanistan US-led coalition forces killed four police officers after
mistaking them for militants during an operation in the Maywand
district of Kandahar province. Elsewhere militants shot dead a police
intelligence officer as he was walking in Zabul province.
(AP, 10/18/05)
2005 Oct 18, A former regional
governor who oversaw the destruction of two massive 1,500-year-old
Buddha statues during the Taliban's reign was elected to the Afghan
parliament last month, officials said as results from two provinces
were finalized.
(AP, 10/18/05)
2005 Oct 20, In southern
Afghanistan a car bomb exploded near a mosque killing Nafus Khan, the
deputy police chief of Nimroz province, and one of his bodyguards.
(AP, 10/21/05)
2005 Oct 21, A Taliban ambush
touched off fierce fighting in southern Afghan mountains that left
eight police and four rebels dead. A cultural reporter 922) with a
local radio station, was killed in a bomb blast in the eastern province
of Khost.
(AP, 10/22/05)(AFP, 10/22/05)
2005 Oct 22, In Afghanistan Ali
Mohaqiq Nasab was convicted after his magazine Haqooq-i-Zan, or Women's
Rights, published a series of articles about Islam. One challenged a
belief that Muslims who convert to other religions should be stoned to
death, as sanctioned by some interpretations of Islamic Shariah law,
while another criticized the practice of punishing adultery with 100
lashes. On Oct 24 the UN criticized his two-year jail sentence.
(AP, 10/24/05)
2005 Oct 23, An earthquake
destroyed homes and killed five people near Afghanistan's eastern
border with Pakistan.
(AP, 10/23/05)
2005 Oct 24, In Afghanistan rebels
fired rockets at a US-led coalition convoy 10 miles south of Kabul. The
rockets missed their target and instead hit 3 civilian cars, killing
six Afghans.
(AP, 10/25/05)
2005 Oct 25, In Afghanistan
militants opened fire on a police vehicle near Kabul, killing two
senior police officers who were teachers at a police academy.
(AP, 10/25/05)
2005 Oct 25, American and British
warplanes pounded a southern Afghan mountain, killing suspected Taliban
rebels. A provincial governor said at least 6 rebels were killed and 4
wounded.
(AP, 10/26/05)
2005 Oct 27, Afghan officials
welcomed the extradition of 14 suspected Taliban members from
neighboring Pakistan, saying they hoped the move would mark a new era
of cooperation.
(AP, 10/27/05)
2005 Oct 29, In Afghanistan a US
paratrooper was killed after his patrol came under fire in a volatile
province near the eastern border with Pakistan and a British soldier
was shot to death in northern Afghanistan. Officials said at least 21
other people were killed in fighting last week.
(AP, 10/29/05)
2005 Oct 30, The US military said
2 American soldiers have been charged with allegedly assaulting two
detainees at a US-led coalition base in southern Afghanistan.
(AP, 10/30/05)
2005 Nov 1, Japanese artist Hiro
Yamagata announced plans to recreate Afghanistan's destroyed Bamiyan
Buddhas using as many as 240 laser beam images, a giant project that
could also bring electricity to local people.
(AFP, 11/1/05)
2005 Nov 1, Militants ambushed
police on a southern Afghan mountain and killed five officers.
(AP, 11/2/05)
2005 Nov 2, An e-mail statement
purportedly by Taliban commander Mullah Omar, urged the insurgents in
Afghanistan not to end their armed struggle.
(AP, 11/2/05)
2005 Nov 4, Mullah Omar, the
fugitive leader of Afghanistan's Taliban insurgents, called on people
to unite and join his ousted guerrillas in a "jihad" or holy war
against US forces in the country.
(AP, 11/6/05)
2005 Nov 4, In Afghanistan poet
Nadia Anjuman (25) died in Herat. She was beaten to death, and her
husband and mother were arrested. On Nov 8 the UN condemned the killing
as symptom of continuing violence against Afghan women four years after
the fall of the Taliban.
(AP, 11/8/05)
2005 Nov 8, The first five-star
hotel opened in Kabul, Afghanistan, part of a construction boom that is
changing the face of the capital nearly 4 years after the ouster of the
Taliban.
(AP, 11/8/05)
2005 Nov 9, Rebels killed seven
police officers and abducted two after ambushing them on a road in
southern Afghanistan. The bodies of two villagers, abducted 2 days
earlier, were found beheaded.
(AP, 11/10/05)
2005 Nov 11, In Afghanistan
a Pakistani-owned plane carrying cargo for the US-led coalition crashed
into mountains near Kabul, killing at least eight people.
(AP, 11/11/05)
2005 Nov 11, In Afghanistan
militants pulled Namatullah Yusuf Zai, a deputy provincial governor,
from his car and shot him dead. Militants also killed a former district
chief while he prayed in a mosque in Helmand province.
(AP, 11/12/05)
2005 Nov 12, The results of
Afghanistan's landmark legislative elections in September were
finalized after eight weeks of counting slowed by allegations of fraud,
and observers said supporters of President Hamid Karzai appeared to be
in the majority.
(AP, 11/12/05)
2005 Nov 12, In Dhaka, Bangladesh,
a 2-day summit aimed to alleviate poverty and boost trade and
cooperation among Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal,
Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The South Asian Association for Regional
Cooperation (SAARC) leaders called for greater cooperation within the
region to deal with the aftermath of disasters like the Kashmir
earthquake and last year's devastating tsunami. SAARC agreed to accept
Afghanistan as its 8th member.
(AFP, 11/12/05)(Econ, 11/19/05, p.44)
2005 Nov 13, In Bangladesh Indian
PM Manmohan Singh told the closing session of the 13th South Asian
Association for Regional Cooperation summit that Afghanistan is to join
SAARC.
(AFP, 11/13/05)
2005 Nov 14, In Afghanistan 2
separate suicide attackers rammed cars laden with explosives into
vehicles belonging to NATO-led peacekeepers in Kabul, killing at least
one German soldier, 7 Afghans and wounding 11 other people.
(AP, 11/14/05)(WSJ, 11/16/05, p.A1)
2005 Nov 15, A bomb exploded near
US and Afghan troops as they patrolled in volatile eastern Afghanistan,
killing a U.S. soldier and wounding another.
(AP, 11/15/05)
2005 Nov 15, In Afghanistan air
strikes killed three al-Qaida suspects in Kunar province.
(AP, 11/17/05)
2005 Nov 16, Afghan Defense
Minister Rahim Wardak said Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network has
increased its activities in Afghanistan, smuggling in explosives,
high-tech weapons and millions of dollars in cash for a resurgent
terror campaign.
(AP, 11/16/05)
2005 Nov 16, A suicide bomber
rammed a car laden with explosives into a convoy carrying Westerners in
the main southern city of Kandahar, killing three Afghan civilians and
wounding four others.
(AP, 11/16/05)
2005 Nov 18, In Afghanistan a
Portuguese soldier was killed and three others were wounded when an
explosion struck their vehicles outside Kabul.
(AP, 11/18/05)
2005 Nov 22, In southern
Afghanistan a roadside bomb tore through an American armored vehicle,
killing a U.S. soldier and an Afghan interpreter. Militants near Kabul
shot and killed an Afghan working as the head of security for a Turkish
construction company. Villagers found the body of Maniappan Raman
Kutty, a kidnapped Indian, who had almost been decapitated, in Nimroz
province's Dilaram district.
(AP, 11/23/05)
2005 Nov 23, Suspected Taliban
militants shot to death three Afghan police, a day after a roadside
bombing killed a US service member in the same Uruzgan province.
(AP, 11/24/05)
2005 Nov 23, A UN report said
cultivation of opium poppies decreased in Afghanistan this year for the
first time since 2001, a success that saw one in every five farmers
abandon the drug-producing plant for legal crops.
(AP, 11/24/05)
2005 Nov 23, A NATO official said
Uzbekistan has told NATO allies they can no longer use its territory or
airspace to support peacekeeping missions in neighboring Afghanistan.
(AP, 11/23/05)
2005 Nov 25, In Afghanistan a
Swedish soldier died from wounds suffered in a roadside bomb blast. He
was one of 4 wounded by the blast in Mazar-e-Sharif.
(AP, 11/26/05)
2005 Nov 26, The US military said
4 US soldiers face disciplinary action for burning the bodies of two
Taliban rebels, but they will not be charged with crimes because their
actions were motivated by hygienic concerns.
(AP, 11/26/05)
2005 Nov 26, Afghanistan’s defense
ministry said troops foiled a bomb attack in Kabul with the arrest of
six suspected militants and their explosives-packed vehicle.
(AFP, 11/26/05)
2005 Nov 26, Suspected Taliban
militants burned down a district police headquarters and abducted four
officers.
(AP, 11/26/05)
2005 Dec 1, The US government
signed an agreement in Kabul committing itself to grants over five
years for development in war-ravaged Afghanistan that could amount to
about five billion dollars.
(AFP, 12/01/05)
2005 Dec 1, Hamza Rabia, one of
al-Qaida's top five leaders, a key associate of Ayman al-Zawahri, was
tracked down with U.S. help and killed by Pakistani security forces in
a rocket attack near the Afghan border.
(AP, 12/03/05)
2005 Dec 2, In southern
Afghanistan a remote-controlled bomb ripped through a vehicle killing a
district government chief and two police officers and wounding three
others.
(AP, 12/03/05)
2005 Dec 4, In Afghanistan a
suicide bomber detonated explosives on a street in the southern city of
Kandahar, killing himself and a civilian and wounding two passers-by.
(AP, 12/04/05)
2005 Dec 6, Afghan government
forces killed nine Taliban insurgents and arrested six others in a raid
on a rebel camp in a volatile southern province.
(AP, 12/06/05)
2005 Dec 7, An Afghan court
cleared an American, but convicted two Britons and an Indian of
gun-smuggling charges and gave them two-year suspended sentences,
following a one-day trial that one of them called a "circus." Sargon
Heinrich of Rio Vista, Cal., Naveen Joshi of India and Peter Eaton and
Mike Shaw, both of Britain, had been jailed since their Oct. 13 arrests.
(AP, 12/07/05)
2005 Dec 8, In Afghanistan the
election board certified Pres. Karzai’s 34 appointees for the upper
house of parliament. The 1st meeting of parliament was scheduled for
Dec. 19.
(SFC, 12/9/05, p.A17)
2005 Dec 8, NATO foreign ministers
approved plans to send up to 6,000 troops into southern Afghanistan, a
major expansion of the alliance's peacekeeping mission into some of the
most dangerous parts of the country.
(AP, 12/08/05)
2005 Dec 9, Afghanistan welcomed
NATO's decision to expand its peacekeeping mission, saying it would
boost security, while the Taliban said more alliance troops would only
increase opportunities for guerrillas to attack them.
(AP, 12/09/05)
2005 Dec 9-2005 Dec 10, In
southern Afghanistan Taliban fighters attacked two police posts, with
eight policemen and six attackers killed in the ensuing battles.
(AFP, 12/10/05)
2005 Dec 11, In Afghanistan a
suicide bomber set off explosives near a US and Afghan military convoy
in the southern city of Kandahar, killing himself and wounding three
civilians.
(AP, 12/11/05)
2005 Dec 14, In northern
Afghanistan a suicide bomber blew himself up near Mazar-e-Sharif, the
capital of Balkh province. In Faizabad a donkey carrying a land mine
exploded near a foreign aid agency's car.
(AP, 12/14/05)
2005 Dec 15, In southern
Afghanistan a US soldier was killed and another wounded in a firefight
with insurgents.
(AP, 12/15/05)
2005 Dec 15, NATO's top
operational commander said drugs are a greater security threat in
Afghanistan than a Taliban resurgence, despite a rise in attacks blamed
on remnants of the hard-line Islamic regime and their al-Qaida allies.
(AP, 12/15/05)
2005 Dec 17, In southern
Afghanistan men on a motorcycle opened fire on students leaving school
in Lashkargah, killing a pupil and a janitor.
(AP, 12/17/05)
2005 Dec 17, In southern
Afghanistan 4 policemen and 3 suspected Taliban fighters were killed
and an Afghan interpreter were wounded in attacks.
(AFP, 12/18/05)
2005 Dec 19, Afghanistan
inaugurated its first popularly elected parliament in more than three
decades, a major step toward democracy following the ouster of the
hardline Taliban.
(AP, 12/19/05)
2005 Dec 20, The Pentagon said US
troop levels in Afghanistan will be reduced by about 3,500 next spring,
thanks to increased NATO forces and a growing Afghan army.
(AP, 12/20/05)
2005 Dec 21, Afghan President
Hamid Karzai said the coming reduction in US troop levels should have
no harmful effect on Afghanistan's security.
(AP, 12/21/05)
2005 Dec 22, The Dutch government
said it planned to send up to 1,400 additional troops to Afghanistan
for expanded NATO peacekeeping.
(AP, 12/22/05)
2005 Dec 24, A land mine exploded
on a highway in southern Afghanistan, killing four suspected Taliban
insurgents as they tried to plant the explosive on the road.
(AP, 12/25/05)
2005 Dec 26, The US military gave
details of its planned troop reduction in Afghanistan, saying the total
number would shrink by some 2,500 from the current 19,000 under a
routine troop rotation due very soon.
(AFP, 12/26/05)
2005 Dec 28, A remote-control bomb
exploded on a mountainous road in eastern Afghanistan, killing one US
service member and wounding two.
(AP, 12/28/05)
2005 Dec 29, Two suspected Taliban
suicide bombers died when explosives they were strapping to their
bodies exploded prematurely in southern Afghanistan.
(AP, 12/29/05)
2005 Dec 29, Suspected Taliban
rebels detonated a mine near a police checkpoint in southern
Afghanistan, killing four Afghan police officers and wounding seven.
(AP, 12/30/05)
2005 Dec, The government of
Afghanistan suspended the so-called “assassination clause,” a decree
that said MPs who die in office should be replaced by the candidate who
came in 2nd on the original ballot.
(Econ, 1/7/06, p.39)
2005 Said Hyder Akbar and Susan
Burton authored “Come Back to Afghanistan: A California Teenager’s
Story.”
(SSFC, 11/13/05, p.M1)
2005 Kathy Gannon, Canadian
journalist, authored “I Is for Infidel: From Holy War to Holy Terror:
18 Years Inside Afghanistan.”
(SSFC, 9/11/05, p.F1)
2005 Nelofer Pazira authored “A
Bed of Red Flowers: In Search of My Afghanistan.” Her memoir covered
the Afghan resistance from 1979 to 1992.
(SSFC, 9/11/05, p.F1)
2005 Afghanistan earned $2.7
billion from opium exports, 52% of its GDP of $5.2 billion. Government
revenues stood at $260 million.
(WSJ, 1/18/06, p.A1)(Econ, 2/4/06, p.38)
2006 Jan 2, The Afghan government
said it has ordered the US Embassy, the UN and other organizations to
remove security barriers that are blocking streets in Afghanistan's
capital and causing traffic jams.
(AP, 1/2/06)
2006 Jan 2, In Afghanistan a
suspected suicide bomber detonated explosives in a car near a US
military convoy in the southern city of Kandahar, killing himself and
wounding an American soldier and two passers-by. Suspected Taliban
gunmen killed an Afghan aid worker who was praying in a mosque in
southern Afghanistan. A policeman was killed in a separate firefight
with militants.
(AP, 1/2/06)(AFP, 1/3/06)
2006 Jan 3, Armed men beheaded a
teacher in the central Afghan town of Qalat, the latest in a string of
attacks against educators at schools where girls study. Officials
blamed Taliban militants.
(AP, 1/4/06)
2006 Jan 5, In Afghanistan a
suicide attacker in Kandahar detonated explosives strapped to his body
during a visit by the US ambassador, killing 10 Afghans and wounding 50.
(AP, 1/5/06)
2006 Jan 7, In Afghanistan a
roadside bomb blew up as a van packed with police cadets and trainers
was driving through the eastern city of Jalalabad, killing a passer-by
and wounding a police colonel and driver.
(AP, 1/7/06)
2006 Jan 7, Cross border firing at
a Pakistani village near the Afghan border killed eight people in
Saidgi village. Pakistan protested the incident to the US military.
(AP, 1/9/06)
2006 Jan 8, In Afghanistan
suspected Taliban gunmen burned down a primary school in the southern
city of Kandahar, the latest in a spate of attacks against teachers and
institutions that educate girls.
(AP, 1/8/06)
2006 Jan 9, Taliban leader Mullah
Omar purportedly warned of a coming surge in violence, clearly
rejecting the Afghan president's proposal a day earlier to "get in
touch" if he wants to talk peace.
(AP, 1/9/06)
2006 Jan 10, Australia said it
will send an extra 110 troops to Afghanistan to bolster the fight
against Islamist militants, increasing its presence in the country to
about 300.
(AP, 1/10/06)
2006 Jan 14, In Afghanistan gunmen
killed Mohammed Khaksar, a former Taliban leader. He had renounced the
hard-line Islamic regime after it was ousted in late 2001 and had since
supported Afghanistan's U.S.-backed government.
(AP, 1/14/06)
2006 Jan 15, In southern
Afghanistan a suicide car bomb hit a Canadian military convoy, killing
three civilians, including a Canadian diplomat.
(AP, 1/15/06)
2006 Jan 16, A suicide bomber on a
motorbike drove up to a crowd watching a wrestling match in Spin
Boldak, an Afghan border town, killing 23 people and wounding at least
30 others. A bomb hit a convoy of Afghan army trucks loaded with troops
as they were driving through Kandahar, killing four people and wounding
16.
(AP, 1/16/06)(SSFC, 7/30/06, p.A18)
2006 Jan 21, Afghanistan formally
approved a five-year development plan, the Afghanistan Compact, to be
presented to its international supporters at a key conference in London
at the end of this month.
(AP, 1/21/06)
2006 Jan 21, In Afghanistan a
local police chief was killed in a suspected Taliban ambush in Ghazni
province.
(AP, 1/22/06)
2006 Jan 22, An Afghan boy and
four men, including staff of a US security firm, were freed after being
briefly kidnapped by Taliban rebels.
(AP, 1/22/06)
2006 Jan 22, In Afghanistan 7
Taliban rebels escaped from Policharki Prison, the main high-security
prison outside Kabul. 10 prison guards suspected of aiding the escape
were arrested.
(AP, 1/24/06)
2006 Jan 26, In eastern
Afghanistan a rocket killed two police officers during a battle with
Taliban rebels in Paktika province.
(AP, 1/26/06)
2006 Jan 26, Britain said it will
send at least another 4,000 troops, four times its current deployment,
to Afghanistan in coming months as a NATO mission expands into a
dangerous region rife with Taliban and al-Qaida insurgents.
(AP, 1/26/06)
2006 Jan 31, Envoys from nearly 70
nations and international bodies vowed to maintain their financial
support for Afghanistan, which is still plagued by violence and poverty
more than four years after the fall of the Taliban.
(AP, 1/31/06)
2006 Feb 1, A provincial governor
said avalanches in northeast Afghanistan have killed at least 18 people
and destroyed dozens of homes in the past week.
(AP, 2/1/06)
2006 Feb 1, In eastern Afghanistan
a suicide bomber disguised as a woman blew himself up at an army
checkpoint, killing five Afghans and wounding four.
(AP, 2/2/06)
2006 Feb 3, In southern
Afghanistan fierce fighting involving US warplanes and Afghan troops
left at least 16 Taliban rebels and three police dead.
(AP, 2/3/06)
2006 Feb 4, About 250 Afghan
forces fought more than 200 rebels in the area's fiercest fighting in
months. At least 19 people were killed in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
(AP, 2/4/06)
2006 Feb 4, In Afghanistan a land
mine ripped through a police vehicle, killing six officers and wounding
four in Kandahar.
(AP, 2/5/06)
2006 Feb 5, In Afghanistan 172
Taliban and other Islamist fighters surrendered as part of a government
amnesty scheme, vowing to lay down arms and work to rebuild the country.
(AFP, 2/5/06)
2006 Feb 6, Afghan security forces
opened fire on demonstrators, leaving at least four dead, as
increasingly violent protests erupted around the world over published
caricatures of Islam's Prophet Muhammad. European and Muslim
politicians pleaded for calm.
(AP, 2/6/06)
2006 Feb 6, A US soldier was
killed when his patrol came under attack in central Afghanistan while a
militant was killed in a separate incident in the east.
(AP, 2/6/06)
2006 Feb 7, In southern
Afghanistan a suspected suicide bomber blew up a guard post outside
police headquarters in Kandahar, killing 13 people and wounded 11.
(AP, 2/7/06)
2006 Feb 7, In western Afghanistan
a Turkish engineer, an Indian national and their driver were killed
when a bomb struck their vehicle.
(AFP, 2/7/06)
2006 Feb 7, NATO peacekeepers
exchanged fire with protesters who attacked their base in the second
straight day of violent demonstrations in Afghanistan over the
publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad. One demonstrator
was killed and dozens wounded.
(AP, 2/7/06)
2006 Feb 8, Afghanistan lauded a
decision by the United States, Russia and Germany to cancel its debts
to the three countries, totaling more than $10 billion.
(AP, 2/8/06)
2006 Feb 8, In Afghan police shot
four protesters to death to stop hundreds from marching on a southern
US military base, as Islamic organizations called for an end to deadly
rioting across the Muslim world over drawings of the Prophet Muhammad.
(AP, 2/8/06)
2006 Feb 9, In Afghanistan
hundreds of Shiite Muslims and Sunnis clashed in Herat during an
important Shiite festival, exchanging fire, hurling grenades and
burning mosques. At least five people were killed and 51 injured.
(AP, 2/9/06)
2006 Feb 10, In Afghanistan 8
soldiers were killed in an area NATO peacekeepers were set to enter.
(WSJ, 2/11/06, p.A1)
2006 Feb 13, A bomb hit a US
military vehicle in central Afghanistan, killing four American troops.
(AP, 2/13/06)
2006 Feb 15, Afghan President
Hamid Karzai pressed his Pakistani counterpart on to root out militants
Afghanistan claims have launched a spate of recent cross-border suicide
bombings.
(AP, 2/15/06)
2006 Feb 15, The beheaded bodies
of two Afghan intelligence agents were found dumped in western
Afghanistan as the first of thousands of British troop reinforcements
arrived in the south. The intelligence agents had been captured in
Farah province two days ago by suspected remnants of the Taliban.
(AFP, 2/15/06)
2006 Feb 15, Pakistan deported
nearly 600 Afghans who had been jailed in the southern city of Karachi
for up to six months on charges of illegal immigration.
(AP, 2/15/06)
2006 Feb 16, In Afghanistan the
bodies of two Italian aid workers were found in a guarded compound in
Kabul. The Italian news agency ANSA said the two could have died from
carbon monoxide poisoning from a defective stove in the compound.
(AP, 2/16/06)
2006 Feb 19, In southern
Afghanistan Taliban rebels attacked a police checkpost in
insurgency-hit, killing three policemen.
(AFP, 2/19/06)
2006 Feb 22, In northern
Afghanistan a bomb exploded near a NATO peacekeeping convoy, killing
one Afghan civilian and wounding 12 people.
(AP, 2/22/06)
2006 Feb 24, In Afghanistan
Canadian troops officially took over the fight on the front lines of
Kandahar province from their American allies.
(CP, 2/24/06)
2006 Feb 25, An Afghan court found
Asadullah Sarwari (64), a communist-era intelligence chief, guilty of
ordering hundreds of killings and sentenced him to death.
(AP, 2/25/06)
2006 Feb 25, In Afghanistan
hundreds of inmates, including convicted al-Qaida and Taliban
militants, waving knives and wielding clubs made from furniture
overpowered guards and took control of parts of Policharki Prison, a
high-security prison in Kabul.
(AP, 2/26/06)
2006 Feb 26, Sixty former Taliban,
including 5 high-ranking figures, surrendered as part of a government
amnesty scheme and vowed to lay down arms and work to rebuild
Afghanistan.
(AFP, 2/26/06)
2006 Feb 27, In Afghanistan
security forces backed by tanks and heavy guns surrounded Kabul's
notorious Policharki Prison as authorities negotiated with rioting
prisoners controlling most of the facility. A government negotiator
said four inmates were killed during the rebellion blamed on al-Qaida
and Taliban militants. Officials had forced prisoners to wear uniforms
following the escape of 7 Taliban inmates. This sparked a four-day riot
that left six inmates dead and 40 injured. In April 2 of the escapees
were captured in Bulgaria and 2 in Uzbekistan.
(AP, 2/27/06)(AP, 5/15/06)
2006 Feb 27, In Afghanistan
kidnappers freed one of two Nepalese abducted earlier this month
outside Kabul. The second died of an illness in captivity, and his body
was released.
(AP, 2/28/06)
2006 Feb 28, In Afghan police
fired at inmates trying to push down a gate at Kabul's main jail as
about 2,000 prisoners resumed rioting after a 24-hour pause in
violence. One inmate died and three were wounded in the renewed
fighting. A US soldier was killed by an IED.
(AP, 2/28/06)(WSJ, 3/1/06, p.A1)
2006 Mar 1, President Bush, on an
unannounced visit to Afghanistan, vowed to stand by this emerging
democracy and "not cut and run" in the face of rising violence. He also
predicted Osama bin Laden would be captured despite a futile five-year
hunt.
(AP, 3/1/06)
2006 Mar 1, A senior official said
authorities have regained control of Afghanistan's Policharki prison
after four days of rioting allegedly sparked by al-Qaida and Taliban
convicts. 6 inmates were killed in the revolt.
(AP, 3/1/06)
2006 Mar 4, A bomb killed four
Afghan intelligence agents when it blew up under their vehicle as they
were driving near the southern provincial capital of Lashkargah in
Helmand province.
(AP, 3/4/06)
2006 Mar 4, In Afghanistan Taliban
militia fatally shot Mohammad Hashim, a UN engineer, in the Bala Buluk
district of Farah province, where he was doing rural rehabilitation
work.
(AP, 3/6/06)
2006 Mar 4, The French the defense
ministry said a French special forces officer was killed in clashes
with Taliban forces in southern Afghanistan. This was the second French
soldier to be killed in action in Afghanistan.
(AFP, 3/4/06)
2006 Mar 6, In comments aimed at
Afghanistan's leader, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf said that the
"bad-mouthing" of his country must stop and that Pakistani officials
have caught terrorists "and will continue to do so."
(AP, 3/6/06)
2006 Mar 8, In eastern Afghanistan
suspected Taliban rebels hiding in a walled compound battled with
security forces, and a militant and a woman were killed.
(AP, 3/9/06)
2006 Mar 9, In Afghanistan’s
Helmand province a roadside bomb killed two Afghan soldiers when it hit
their convoy.
(AP, 3/11/06)
2006 Mar 11, In Afghanistan’s
Helmand province the bodies of 2 policemen, kidnapped from their homes
a day earlier, were found beheaded and dumped in the desert. A roadside
bomb hit a police patrol in Helmand's Nad Ali district, killing a
policeman and wounding five others.
(AP, 3/11/06)
2006 Mar 12, In eastern
Afghanistan a roadside bomb exploded as a US armored vehicle drove by,
killing four American service members. In Kabul a suicide car bomb
exploded into the convoy of an Afghan politician leading reconciliation
efforts with the Taliban militia, injuring him and killing four other
people.
(AP, 3/12/06)
2006 Mar 13, Abdul Rahim Wardak,
Afghanistan's defense minister, said the national army will be fully
operational within four to five years and ready to take over more
responsibility for security from international troops.
(Reuters, 3/13/06)
2006 Mar 13, A UN agency said bird
flu has been found at two sites in Afghanistan and there's a high risk
that tests could prove it to be the deadly H5N1 strain.
(AP, 3/13/06)
2006 Mar 14, Afghanistan's
president demanded greater cooperation from Pakistan in the fight
against terrorism following claims the neighboring country has been
supporting militant attacks here. Islamabad criticized the remarks and
said Afghanistan must do more to battle terrorism.
(AP, 3/14/06)
2006 Mar 14, A spokesman said NATO
peacekeepers in northern Afghanistan had found the biggest weapons
cache in recent years including 80 tons of TNT and 25,000 landmines.
The weapons were stored underground in old Soviet bunkers.
(Reuters, 3/14/06)
2006 Mar 15, Afghan authorities
said preliminary test results from a U.N. lab left them "99 percent
certain" that the country's first bird flu outbreak was the deadly H5N1
strain.
(AP, 3/15/06)
2006 Mar 16, The Afghanistan
government said lab tests have confirmed the first outbreak of the
deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu.
(AP, 3/16/06)
2006 Mar 16, In Afghanistan the
trial of Abdul Rahman (41) began. He was arrested last month after his
family accused him of becoming a Christian. Judge Ansarullah
Mawlavezada said Rahman was charged with rejecting Islam and could be
sentenced to death for converting from Islam to Christianity, a crime
under the country's Islamic laws.
(AP, 3/19/06)
2006 Mar 17, In southern
Afghanistan a roadside bomb hit a convoy carrying the bodies of four
men believed to be kidnapped Macedonians, a day after the remains were
recovered. Five police were killed and three wounded.
(AP, 3/17/06)
2006 Mar 18, In Afghanistan at
least nine policemen, a former governor, his four companions and a
security guard were killed in separate attacks in Afghanistan blamed on
the Taliban.
(AFP, 3/18/06)
2006 Mar 19, In southern
Afghanistan a suicide car bomber was killed when he rammed his vehicle
into a coalition convoy.
(AP, 3/19/06)
2006 Mar 21, Afghan security
forces attacked a group of suspected Taliban rebels after they crossed
the border into Kandahar from neighboring Pakistan, killing at least 17
of them. 4 suspected Taliban rebels were killed by Afghan military
forces in neighboring Uruzgan province.
(AFP, 3/22/06)(SSFC, 7/30/06, p.A18)
2006 Mar 23, In southern
Afghanistan a police chief was killed by his own guard. Coalition
forces announced the killing of six Taliban members in Oruzgan province.
(AP, 3/23/06)
2006 Mar 23, In central
Afghanistan a huge explosion ripped through a depot of confiscated
munitions in a depot in the Jabalussaraj district of Parwan province,
killing two people and injuring 45, and damaging scores of houses.
Initial investigations indicated the blast was caused by a spark from
an electric cable.
(AP, 3/24/06)
2006 Mar 25, Afghan and US troops
backed by American aircraft fought suspected Taliban in southern
Afghanistan, leaving one US service member and seven militants dead.
(AP, 3/25/06)
2006 Mar 26, An Afghan court
dismissed a case against Abdul Rahman, who converted from Islam to
Christianity because of a lack of evidence. Officials said he will be
released soon.
(AP, 3/26/06)
2006 Mar 27, Abdul Rahman, an
Afghan man who had faced the death penalty for converting from Islam to
Christianity, quickly vanished after he was released from prison,
apparently out of fear for his life with Muslim clerics still demanding
his death.
(AP, 3/28/06)
2006 Mar 27, Officials said a
roadside bombing killed three villagers and wounded two when it blew up
their car in southern Afghanistan.
(AP, 3/27/06)
2006 Mar 28, In southern
Afghanistan a roadside bomb blew up a vehicle carrying Afghan army
soldiers, killing six of them.
(AP, 3/28/06)
2006 Mar 29, Afghanistan's
parliament demanded that the government prevent a man who faced the
death penalty for abandoning Islam for Christianity from being able to
flee the country. Italy granted asylum to Abdul Rahman (41) and the
Foreign Ministry said he would arrive there "soon," maybe within the
day.
(AP, 3/29/06)
2006 Mar 29, In southern
Afghanistan militants attacked a coalition forces base, sparking a
battle that killed 32 suspected Taliban militants. Friendly fire was
later suspected in the deaths of one American and one Canadian soldier.
(AP, 3/29/06)(WSJ, 4/5/06, p.A1)
2006 Mar 30, In eastern
Afghanistan suspected Taliban militants killed a district chief and
three of his staff in an ambush. In the south rebels killed a police
commander and his brother.
(AP, 3/30/06)
2006 Mar 31, A provincial governor
said Afghan authorities have detained a border police commander from
the Achakzai tribe accused in the killings of 17 Pakistanis on March
21. Taliban insurgents raided several police posts in Helmand province
and six of the attackers were killed. A suicide car-bomber was killed
when he blew himself up as he tried to ram his vehicle into an Afghan
army convoy in Kandahar province.
(AP, 3/31/06)(Reuters, 3/31/06)(SSFC, 7/30/06, p.A18)
2006 Apr 1, In eastern Afghanistan
a roadside bomb wounded five US troops when it hit their vehicle. A
suicide attack on a US-led coalition convoy in the country's south
killed the bomber but hurt no one else. In southern Afghanistan a
Taliban rebel posing as a traveler shot dead four policemen at a remote
checkpoint after eating dinner with them and sleeping in their
quarters. A fifth officer shot the rebel dead.
(AP, 4/1/06)(AP, 4/2/06)
2006 Apr 2, In Afghanistan
suspected Taliban militants shot dead 9 policemen and wounded three
others. Insurgents fatally shot a Turkish road engineer and burned his
body in Nimroz province.
(AP, 4/2/06)(WSJ, 4/3/06, p.A1)
2006 Apr 5, In Afghanistan
coalition forces killed an insurgent and dropped 2,000-pound bombs on a
band of Taliban.
(AP, 4/6/06)
2006 Apr 6, A mortar blast near
the main US military base in Afghanistan left a civilian dead.
(AP, 4/6/06)
2006 Apr 8, In western Afghanistan
a suicide car bomb outside a NATO military base in Herat city killed
two Afghans and wounded seven others.
(AP, 4/8/06)
2006 Apr 9, In Afghan 2 bombs
exploded within minutes of each other in Kandahar, wounding 11 people.
(AP, 4/9/06)
2006 Apr 10, In northwestern
Afghanistan gunmen killed five medical workers, while two policemen and
a truck driver transporting food for US-led coalition troops were slain
in bombings and shootings in a southern Taliban stronghold.
(AP, 4/10/06)
2006 Apr 11, In eastern
Afghanistan a rocket slammed into a packed school yard near a US-led
coalition base, killing seven children and wounding 34 other people.
Police blamed Taliban militants for the explosion at the Salabagh
School in Asadabad, Kunar province.
(AP, 4/11/06)
2006 Apr 14, In southern
Afghanistan a suicide car bomber rammed a British military convoy and 3
soldiers were wounded. More than 3,000 British troops had moved into
Helmand province as part of a NATO mission to expand its presence
there. They planned to train Afghan forces, operating from a new $80
million army barracks, to hunt druglords and destroy opium stockpiles.
A bomb planted by Taliban militants hit a government convoy in the east
of the country near the town of Khost, killing three policemen and
injuring two others.
(AFP, 4/14/06)(Econ, 2/4/06, p.38)
2006 Apr 14, Afghan security
forces backed by coalition helicopters attacked a suspected Taliban
hideout in southern Afghanistan, setting off an intense gunbattle that
killed 41 rebels. It was later reported that Afghan police may have
been killed by the US-led coalition forces.
(AP, 4/15/06)(AP, 4/17/06)
2006 Apr 15, Taliban fighters
simultaneously attacked two police checkpoints on a southern Afghan
highway, and up to 14 militants were killed or wounded in the ensuing
gunbattle. Suspected Taliban attacked coalition and Afghan army troops
with small arms and rocket-propelled grenades in central Uruzgan
province, sparking a gunbattle that killed three attackers. Suspected
Taliban shot and killed a district administrator in Helmand province.
US-led coalition forces using warplanes and artillery clashed with a
small band of militants holed up in a house and a cave complex in Kunar
province in fighting that killed seven Afghan civilians and wounded
three. The US airstrike aimed at militants in eastern Kunar province
mistakenly killed seven civilians.
(AP, 4/16/06)(AP, 4/15/07)
2006 Apr 17, Afghan and US
soldiers killed five militants during a Operation Mountain Lion
targeting Taliban and al-Qaida fighters in a volatile eastern region
near Pakistan. Some 6,000 mainly British, Canadian and Dutch troops
have started moving into the rebellious southern provinces.
(AP, 4/18/06)
2006 Apr 20, Suspected Taliban
militants killed six Afghan policemen in Afghanistan's volatile south
and burned four of their bodies. US military said a soldier was killed
in a clash while inspecting a weapons cache in the central Uruzgan
province's district of Dihrawud.
(AP, 4/21/06)
2006 Apr 22, In Afghanistan a
roadside bomb exploded as a Canadian armored vehicle drove by, killing
four soldiers.
(AP, 4/22/06)
2006 Apr 23, Afghan security
forces surrounded Taliban fighters hiding in a village in southern
Ghazni province, launching a gunbattle that killed at least three
militants and a police officer. Another policeman was killed and two
others were wounded in the Shah Wali Kot district of Kandahar province
when suspected Taliban militants attacked a road construction company.
(AP, 4/23/06)
2006 Apr 24, In Afghanistan a
US-leased Antonov-32 plane carrying counternarcotics officials crashed
into a nomad settlement while trying to avoid a truck on a runway
during landing. 2 Ukrainian crewmen were killed along with 3 people on
the ground, including 2 girls sleeping in their homes. In southern
Afghanistan US-led coalition warplanes bombed a suspected Taliban camp
in Helmand province, killing 3 insurgents. 5 more militants and one
policeman died in a gunbattle in the Miana Shien district.
(AFP, 4/24/06)(AP, 4/25/06)(WSJ, 4/25/06, p.A1)
2006 Apr 28, Afghan President
Hamid Karzai urged Taliban militants to end the violence raging across
the country and join forces with the new government to help
Afghanistan's reconstruction. NATO foreign ministers reaffirmed the
alliance's readiness to nearly double its peacekeeping operations in
Afghanistan, where violence is increasing.
(AP, 4/28/06)
2006 Apr 29, Afghan security
forces clashed with Taliban militants hiding in a cave complex in the
southern Helmand province, killing 11 insurgents after militants killed
three policemen and wounded another in an ambush. An Afghan cell phone
company confirmed that an Indian contractor was being held hostage by
the Taliban. Afghan soldiers and police attacked a Taliban camp co
miles north of Lashkar Gah and killed at least 2 militants.
(AP, 4/30/06)(SSFC, 4/30/06, p.A3)
2006 Apr 30, In Afghanistan Edward
Caraballo (44), an American jailed for two years in Kabul on charges of
torturing alleged terrorists in a makeshift jail, was freed two months
early after a government decree. Police found an Indian hostage's
beheaded body in southern Afghanistan. Taliban militants said they shot
the hostage dead as he tried to escape.
(AP, 4/30/06)
2006 Apr, In Afghanistan delegates
gathered in Kabul for a discussion on new information and
communications technology. Invitations to the conference were sent on a
Morse telegraph system.
(Econ, 5/20/06, p.45)
2006 May 2, A suspected suicide
attacker set off a car bomb on a road between the Afghan capital Kabul
and a main US military base, killing himself and a civilian.
(AFP, 5/2/06)
2006 May 3, In western Afghanistan
suspected Taliban gunmen killed a judge.
(AP, 5/3/06)
2006 May 4, Britain took command
of NATO's Afghan peacekeeping force as a tide of violence raised
apprehension about the alliance's planned takeover of security duties
across the country from US forces.
(AP, 5/4/06)
2006 May 4, Afghan warlord
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar pledged fealty to al Qaeda. He controlled a large
network in eastern Afghanistan.
(WSJ, 5/5/06, p.A1)
2006 May 5, In eastern Afghanistan
a US-led coalition military transport helicopter crashed while
conducting combat operations, killing all 10 American soldiers on
board. The CH-47 Chinook crashed while on a mission in support of
Operation Mountain Lion, an offensive to root out Taliban and al-Qaida
militants near the border with Pakistan.
(AP, 5/6/06)
2006 May 5, In Afghanistan a
roadside bomb killed two Italian soldiers and wounded four as they were
traveling to help Afghan police hurt in an attack near Kabul.
(AP, 5/5/06)
2006 May 7, Taliban militia
fighters ambushed a police patrol in southern Afghanistan, sparking an
hour-long gunbattle that killed two policemen and one attacker.
(AP, 5/8/06)
2006 May 8, In Afghanistan US
airstrikes on a cave complex near Afghanistan's border with Pakistan
killed four Taliban militants and destroyed a truck loaded with rockets.
(AP, 5/8/06)
2006 May 12, In western
Afghanistan militants fired a rocket at a car carrying Unicef workers
killing 2 Afghans and wounding a third.
(WSJ, 5/13/06, p.A1)
2006 May 16, Militants attacked a
police post and a government office near Afghanistan's rugged eastern
border with Pakistan and a gunbattle killed four people and wounded
seven.
(AP, 5/16/06)
2006 May 17-2006 May 18, Some of
the fiercest violence since the Taliban's 2001 ouster erupted across
Afghanistan, with coalition forces engaging in multiple firefights, two
suicide car bombs and a massive rebel assault on a small village. Up to
105 people were killed. An attack on a police and government
headquarters in the town of Musa Qala in Helmand province sparked eight
hours of clashes with security forces. Mullah Dadullah, the Taliban’s
operational commander, claimed control of 20 districts in southern
Afghanistan with 12,000 fighters.
(AP, 5/18/06)(Econ, 7/8/06, p.22)
2006 May 18, In western
Afghanistan a suicide car bomber rammed into two vehicles carrying
foreigners, killing an American working on a counter-narcotics project
and wounding two other people. A female Canadian soldier, army Captain
Nichola Goddard, was killed in Kandahar.
(AP, 5/18/06)(AFP, 5/19/06)(WSJ, 5/19/06, p.A1)
2006 May 19, Gunbattles in Helmand
province killed at least 6 militants and one Afghan soldier. A US
soldier was killed in Uruzgan province.
(AP, 5/20/06)
2006 May 19, In southern Turkey a
truck carrying illegal immigrants from Afghanistan and Bangladesh
crashed into a parked transport truck, killing at least 40 people.
(AP, 5/19/06)
2006 May 20, In southern
Afghanistan one French and 16 Afghan soldiers were killed and about 40
other troops were wounded in two firefights as rebels ambushed two
Afghan army convoys and US forces. At least 9 Taliban militants were
killed in the battle in Sangin district. 2 French special forces troops
were killed in neighboring Kandahar province.
(AP, 5/21/06)
2006 May 20, Irish police removed
Afghan hunger-strikers from a Dublin cathedral, where some 40
protesters gathered on May 15 demanding asylum and warning they would
kill themselves if officers came near.
(AP, 5/21/06)
2006 May 21, In Afghanistan a car
bomb exploded on a busy road in Kabul, killing the driver of the car
and two civilians.
(AP, 5/21/06)
2006 May 22, A US-led coalition
said nighttime airstrike against Taliban rebels in a southern Afghan
village killed up to 80 suspected militants. The local governor said 16
civilians were killed and 16 wounded in Azizi in Kandahar province.
(AP, 5/22/06)
2006 May 23, In Afghanistan Pres.
Hamid Karzai ordered an investigation into US airstrikes on a village
that killed at least 16 civilians and asked to meet with the US
commander of forces. A land mine blew up under a vehicle carrying a
team of Afghan health workers, killing a doctor, two nurses and their
driver.
(AP, 5/23/06)
2006 May 24, In Afghanistan
clashes left at least 24 militants and 5 Afghan soldiers dead. 13
insurgents and two police died in a battle in southern Helmand
province's Sangin district.
(WSJ, 5/25/06, p.A1)(AP, 5/27/06)
2006 May 26, A US-led coalition
strike on a militant training facility in Afghanistan's borderlands
with Pakistan killed five suspected extremists. Nearly a dozen people
were killed in fresh clashes between police and Taliban militants.
(AP, 5/27/06)
2006 May 28, Afghanistan and Iran
pledged to crack down on drugs passing over their shared border as
Afghan President Hamid Karzai visited Tehran. Officials also signed
seven agreements dealing with the reconstruction of Afghanistan.
(AP, 5/29/06)
2006 May 29, In Afghanistan 5
Canadian soldiers were hurt and up to six militants killed in a
gunbattle west of Kandahar, while US-led coalition aircraft bombed
Taliban militants meeting in remote Helmand province, reportedly
killing dozens.
(AP, 5/29/06)
2006 May 29, A deadly traffic
accident involving US troops left 5 people dead and sparked the worst
rioting in the Afghan capital since the fall of the Taliban regime,
with hundreds of protesters looting shops and shouting "Death to
America!" Some 25 people were killed and 107 injured in the riots. The
unrest started after three US Humvee vehicles coming into the city from
the outskirts rammed into a rush-hour traffic jam, hitting several
civilian cars. On July 20 the US military said it was paying $112,000
in compensation to victims of the traffic accident involving an
American cargo truck.
(AP, 5/29/06)(Econ, 7/8/06, p.23)(AP, 7/21/06)
2006 May 30, Afghanistan's
parliament approved a nonbinding motion calling on the government to
prosecute the US soldiers responsible for a deadly road crash that
sparked the worst riots in Kabul in years.
(AP, 5/31/06)
2006 May 31, In Afghanistan
suspected Taliban fighters fired a grenade at a police vehicle in
southeastern Zabul province, killing the provincial deputy police chief
and wounding three officers. In Uruzgan province hundreds of suspected
Taliban fighters attacked the town of Chora and briefly occupied its
police headquarters after driving out security forces.
(AP, 5/31/06)
2006 Jun 1, In western Afghanistan
a suicide car bomb blew up near a convoy of Afghan and US-led coalition
troops, killing the attacker but hurting no one else.
(AP, 6/1/06)
2006 Jun 2, In Afghanistan dozens
of troops were dropped from coalition aircraft into a remote,
mountainous district of Uruzgan province and recaptured the area which
had been overrun by Taliban nearly three days earlier. Nearly 35
Taliban rebels were killed in the latest strikes as Afghan and
coalition troops took back a district that had been in rebel hands for
days.
(AFP, 6/3/06)
2006 Jun 3, Afghanistan's
government announced plans to replace dozens of police commanders,
including the police chief in Kabul. In southern Afghanistan suspected
Taliban rebels attacked a police station in Miana Shien, but police
repulsed them after a bloody battle that lasted several hours.
Witnesses said 12 rebels were killed and at least as many wounded. 4
policemen and 18 Taliban were killed in a battle that erupted after
rebels attacked a police post in Kandahar province.
(AP, 6/3-4/06)
2006 Jun 4, A suicide car bomb
exploded in Kandahar city near a convoy carrying the governor of
Afghanistan's Kandahar province, missing the apparent target but
killing 3 civilians and injuring a dozen. In Farah province 4 policemen
were killed. In Zabul province Afghan troops on a joint mission with
soldiers from the US-led coalition killed around five Taliban fighters
and arrested three more. In Helmand province troops with the US-led
coalition and Afghan army clashed with a group of rebel fighters, five
of whom were killed.
(AP, 6/4/06)(AFP, 6/5/06)
2006 Jun 4-2006 Jun 5, In
Afghanistan 17 suspected militants were killed in three operations. Two
coalition soldiers were wounded in one of those battles.
(AP, 6/7/06)
2006 Jun 5, In southern
Afghanistan suspected Taliban rebels stormed a highway police checkpost
and killed five policemen, abducted four others and stole weapons.
(AFP, 6/5/06)
2006 Jun 6, In eastern Afghanistan
3 people were killed when a motorbike being rigged up as a bomb
exploded. A suspected suicide car bomb hit a US-led coalition convoy,
injuring 3 American soldiers. A roadside bomb killed three Afghan
soldiers in Kunar province. 2 American soldiers were killed by a
roadside bomb in eastern Nangarhar province. 5 suspected militants were
killed as Afghan and allied troops raided an area near the southern
town of Tirin Kot.
(AFP, 6/6/06)(AP, 6/7/06)
2006 Jun 7, In Afghanistan a
suspected suicide bomber also was killed when explosives he was
carrying into the offices of a Turkish construction company exploded
prematurely.
(AP, 6/7/06)
2006 Jun 8, Afghan troops killed
13 suspected Taliban rebels including two Pakistani nationals in an
operation in southern Afghanistan. The US military released 33 Afghans
from a prison at Bagram Air Base. Violence killed nine people around
Afghanistan, including a regional security director and two Afghan aid
workers.
(AFP, 6/9/06)(AP, 6/9/06)
2006 Jun 10, In Afghanistan a
roadside bomb hit a convoy carrying the intelligence chief of Kabul,
missing him but killing three others. 2 suspected Taliban rebels were
killed in fighting with Afghan soldiers in Zabul province. In Kandahar
province a roadside bomb hit a convoy carrying a district police chief
and government head, missing them but killing two of their police
guards. Gunmen killed four Afghan laborers working for an Indian road
construction company as they were driving in Kandahar province. They
stole $8,000 before killing them. The US-led coalition said the worst
three weeks of violence since the fall of the Taliban have left more
than 500 people dead.
(AP, 6/10/06)(AP, 6/11/06)
2006 Jun 11, Afghan Pres. Hamid
Karzai said his government will give weapons to local tribesmen to help
fight the surge in Taliban violence. Afghan and US-led coalition forces
killed 15 suspected militants, including Mullah Amanullah, a relative
of Taliban leader Mullah Omar, in Uruzgan province. Ten militants were
killed in Helmand province's Sangin district in a battle involving
Afghan and British forces.
(AP, 6/12/06)(SFC, 6/12/06, p.A3)
2006 Jun 12, Afghan and US-led
coalition forces killed 12 suspected militants in Kandahar province.
Taliban militants killed Zulmai Khan, a district intelligence chief, in
a drive-by shooting in the Ghazni provincial district of Waghuz.
(AP, 6/12/06)(AP, 6/13/06)
2006 Jun 13, Suspected Taliban
militants killed one US soldier and wounded two in an attack in
southern Helmand province, sparking a coalition retaliation that left
12 militants dead or wounded. A second coalition soldier was killed
while fighting enemy forces in eastern Kunar province.
(AP, 6/14/06)
2006 Jun 14, A delegation from
Kabul found prison conditions at Guantanamo humane and said the US will
send home for trial all 96 Afghans held there.
(WSJ, 6/15/06, p.A1)
2006 Jun 14, Coalition and Afghan
forces killed 26 suspected militants in fighting in eastern mountains,
while in southern Afghanistan, more than 11,000 troops prepared for
their biggest offensive since the fall of the Taliban five years ago.
(AP, 6/14/06)
2006 Jun 15, More than 10,000
Afghan and US-led coalition forces began a massive anti-Taliban
operation across southern Afghanistan, while a bomb killed seven people
riding a bus to a coalition base for work. Coalition forces killed 14
militants during combat operations linked to a large-scale anti-Taliban
blitz. The offensive was launched in support of Operation Mountain
Thrust, the largest anti-Taliban military campaign undertaken since the
former regime's 2001 ouster in an American-led invasion. Operation
Mountain Thrust began in mid-May with limited attacks and raids
launched by coalition forces.
(AP, 6/15/06)(AP, 6/16/06)
2006 Jun 16, Coalition forces
pressed forward with a major offensive in southern Afghanistan, killing
an estimated 45 insurgents in attacks on two Taliban militant camps. 2
coalition soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb in Asadabad district
in eastern Kunar province. 4 highway policemen were killed in southern
Kandahar province when a roadside bomb exploded near their vehicle.
Three insurgents were killed in southern Helmand province when a bomb
they were trying to plant near the road exploded.
(AP, 6/17/06)(AP, 6/18/06)
2006 Jun 17, British troops
battled Taliban fighters near Kajaki dam in southern Helmand province
killing six insurgents. One suicide attacker on a motorcycle detonated
his explosives near a group of Afghan soldiers in southwestern Nimroz
province, killing himself and wounding two soldiers and three
bystanders. Seven militants and one police officer also were killed
during a gunbattle that lasted until dawn in southern Kandahar.
(AP, 6/18/06)
2006 Jun 18, In southern
Afghanistan Taliban fighters ambushed two convoys carrying members of
the same family, killing 32 people. US-led troops, backed by Afghan
forces, raided a mountain Taliban stronghold near Tirin Kot, Uruzgan's
provincial capital, and killed 7 militants.
(AP, 6/19/06)
2006 Jun 20, In southern
Afghanistan an explosion tore apart a coalition tank, killing one
Romanian soldier and wounding four others. Afghan and coalition forces
clashed with Taliban fighters in southern Helmand province, leaving 20
militants dead. Coalition soldiers accidentally fired on an unmarked
police car in eastern Kunar province, killing 3 Afghan policemen and
wounding 3.
(AP, 6/20/06)(AP, 6/21/06)
2006 Jun 21, In Afghanistan 4 US
soldiers were killed in a battle with Taliban insurgents in
northeastern Nuristan province. 17 insurgents were killed after
coalition forces surprised them setting up an ambush site near Tirin
Kot, the capital of Uruzgan province.
(SFC, 6/23/06, p.A13)(AP, 6/24/06)
2006 Jun 22, Afghan Pres. Hamid
Karzai urged the international community to reassess its approach to
the war on terror, saying the deaths of hundreds of Afghans in fighting
with US-led forces was "not acceptable." In eastern Afghanistan 5
Afghan aid workers were abducted, including 3 employed by a Swedish aid
agency. The aid workers were released on June 25.
(AP, 6/22/06)(AP, 6/25/06)(AP, 6/26/06)
2006 Jun 23, In Afghanistan
coalition troops fought more than 40 extremists during a five-hour
gunbattle near the village of Mirabad, in southern Uruzgan province.
Most of the militants were believed killed. Afghan and coalition forces
battled a large group of militants in the Zharie district of Kandahar
province, killing about 25 during the three hours of fighting.
Provincial officials in Zabul said the decapitated bodies of four men,
who were abducted at gunpoint earlier in the week, were discovered in
Shahjoy district near the village of Chinoh.
(AP, 6/24/06)
2006 Jun 24, Coalition and Afghan
forces killed about 45 Taliban militants during the fighting in the
Panjwayi district of southern Kandahar province. 2 coalition soldiers
died from wounds.
(AP, 6/25/06)
2006 Jun 25, In Afghanistan a
coalition soldier was fatally wounded during combat operations in the
Pech district of Kunar province. Pfc. Justin R. Davis (19) of
Gaithersburg, Md., died in eastern Kunar province when he came in
contact with indirect fire while on patrol during combat operations.
(AP, 6/26/06)(AP, 7/1/06)
2006 Jun 26, In southern
Afghanistan 30 rebels and four Afghan soldiers died in a series of
clashes. Coalition and Afghan forces killed 10 militants during a raid
on a compound belonging to a weapons producer in the Shahidi Hassas
district of Uruzgan province.
(AFP, 6/27/06)(SFC, 6/28/06, p.A13)
2006 Jun 27, In Afghanistan 2
members of the UK armed forces were killed in action in Helmand
province. 2 Afghan soldiers and 11 insurgents were killed in the
fighting. 2 civilians died in a suicide blast aimed at a German patrol
in the north.
(AP, 6/27/06)(SFC, 6/28/06, p.A13)
2006 Jun 29, In southern
Afghanistan British troops killed 12 suspected Taliban militants when
their convoy was ambushed. Taliban militants ambushed a US convoy in
eastern Kunar province, sparking a firefight that killed one civilian
and wounded two. In southern Zabul province, Taliban fighters attacked
a local district chief's office. Police killed two Taliban fighters and
wounded four in the hour-long gunbattle.
(AP, 6/29/06)(AP, 6/30/06)(SFC, 6/30/06, p.A3)
2006 Jun 30, In eastern
Afghanistan Coalition soldiers tracked a group of militants to a safe
house and killed 14 in an attack on the compound. Afghan and coalition
forces also raided a village in the southern Afghan province of
Kandahar, killing one suspected militant and detaining eight others.
(AP, 6/30/06)
2006 Jul 1, In southern
Afghanistan 2 rockets fired by insurgents slammed into the main
coalition military base. The wounded included five American and two
Canadian soldiers, as well as three foreign contract workers. 2 British
soldiers and an Afghan interpreter were killed when their base in
Sangin district in Helmand province came under attack. Afghan forces
killed 11 militants in a separate attack in the same area. A total of
five British troops have been killed since the start of Operation
Mountain Thrust.
(AP, 7/1/06)(AP, 7/2/06)
2006 Jul 2, In Afghanistan up to
30 extremists, firing guns and mortars, attacked a coalition patrol
that had just found a weapons cache in Sangin. About 20 militants were
killed. Afghan police killed seven insurgents that attacked a police
checkpoint in Nawzad district in southern Helmand province.
(AP, 7/3/06)
2006 Jul 3, A US general said the
United States is giving $2 billion worth of military weapons and
vehicles to modernize Afghanistan's national army.
(AP, 7/3/06)
2006 Jul 4, A bomb exploded in
downtown Kabul, wounding at least 10 people. In eastern Afghanistan 5
laborers were ambushed and fatally shot on their way to a US military
base. US-led coalition forces killed 35 suspected militants during a
raid late in the village of Gujdar in Helmand province.
(AP, 7/4/06)(AP, 7/5/06)
2006 Jul 5, In Afghanistan 3 bombs
targeting government workers and security forces exploded in Kabul,
killing one bystander and wounding at least 47 other people. A
coalition soldier and eight rebels were killed in new clashes in
Paktika province. A British soldier and six more militants were killed
and six captured in two separate incidents southern Zabul province. The
family of Abdul Khaliq, a legislator from Uruzgan province, was fired
upon killing Khaliq’s brother-in-law. Khaliq put the blame on American
and Australian troops.
(AP, 7/5/06)(AFP, 7/6/06)(SFC, 7/8/06, p.A3)
2006 Jul 5, Afghan President Hamid
Karzai met Japanese Emperor Akihito in Tokyo and said he wanted to
build peace in the war-torn nation so he could some day invite the
emperor and empress. Tokyo has provided about $1 billion in assistance
for security and development, and in January pledged another $450
million.
(AP, 7/6/06)
2006 Jul 6, In southern
Afghanistan a US-led coalition soldier and five militants were killed
in a clash in the Baghran Valley in Helmand province.
(AP, 7/7/06)
2006 Jul 7, Fighting in southern
Afghanistan killed a US-led coalition soldier and at least eight
suspected Taliban militants.
(AP, 7/8/06)
2006 Jul 8, Afghan and coalition
forces pounded a Taliban stronghold in southern Afghanistan, killing
five rebels and leaving an Afghan and three foreign soldiers wounded.
An explosion attributed to a land mine in western Afghanistan killed a
Peruvian solder and slightly wounded four Spanish troops.
(AFP, 7/8/06)(AP, 7/9/06)
2006 Jul 9, In southern
Afghanistan a Canadian coalition officer died of wounds suffered in
fighting near an opium-rich insurgent stronghold. At least 15 militants
were killed. A coalition patrol found the bodies of 10 militants killed
in an airstrike in Panjwayi.
(AP, 7/9/06)(SFC, 7/10/06, p.A4)
2006 Jul 10, Afghan and US-led
coalition forces killed more than 40 suspected Taliban militants as a
warplane dropped 500-pound bombs on a militant compound in Uruzgan
province. Britain announced it would send 900 more soldiers to southern
Helmand province.
(AP, 7/10/06)(SFC, 7/11/06, p.A6)
2006 Jul 11, Coalition and Afghan
forces hunting a Taliban commander killed an estimated 30 extremists in
a raid on a hide-out in southern Afghanistan.
(AP, 7/11/06)
2006 Jul 12, The Afghan defense
minister said it would take at least 150,000 troops to secure his
country, more than 5 times what he commanded. In eastern Afghanistan a
suicide attack on a US military convoy killed a boy playing nearby,
while a market bombing in a southern border town left two people dead.
British and Afghan forces repelled a brazen insurgent attack on a
police headquarters in the southern town of Nawzad, killing at least 19
militants. In Musa Qala district insurgents fired rocket-propelled
grenades and machine guns at coalition troops, who returned fire and
killed local Taliban commander Mullah Saeef. In southern Zabul
province, three Afghan border guards were killed in a clash with armed
tribesmen crossing from Pakistan.
(AP, 7/12/06)(AP, 7/13/06)(WSJ, 7/13/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 13, British and Afghan
forces battled Taliban holdouts after repelling a brazen insurgent
attack on a police headquarters a day earlier. Afghan and US-led
coalition forces killed nine militants after suspected Taliban fighters
attacked two army checkpoints in the latest fighting to rock southern
Afghanistan. More than 30 enemy extremists were killed in an operation
in Uruzgan province.
(AP, 7/13/06)(AP, 7/14/06)(AFP, 7/15/06)
2006 Jul 14, A suicide bomber was
the sole victim in a failed attack on an Afghan police convoy in the
Gurbuz district of southeastern Khost province, bordering Pakistan.
Skirmishes between coalition and Taliban militants raged throughout the
southern Uruzgan province. An estimated 31 enemy extremists were killed
during engagements in Chora, Kala Kala, and Khorma villages. Afghan and
coalition soldiers also killed two male "foreigners" wearing burkas,
the body-shrouding veil worn by women, and detained five Taliban in
Uruzgan's Dihrawud district. The Afghan army killed eight rebels in
Sangin.
(AP, 7/14/06)(AFP, 7/15/06)
2006 Jul 15, More than 40
insurgents were killed as hundreds of coalition troops, many dropped by
helicopter, wrested a desert town from the Taliban and U.S. forces
battled militants across southern Afghanistan.
(AP, 7/16/06)
2006 Jul 16, In Afghanistan Amir
Gul Hassanyar was arrested in northern Kunduz province. He allegedly
carried out numerous roadside bombings and trafficked in weapons and
drugs.
(AP, 7/22/06)
2006 Jul 17, In southeastern
Afghanistan coalition forces killed four al-Qaida suspects and captured
three others. Separate attacks killed three Afghan soldiers and three
government employees in the south.
(AP, 7/17/06)
2006 Jul 18, The Afghan government
announced plans to re-establish a Vice and Virtues Ministry, but it
assured the public the office would not resemble the Taliban version
that became a symbol of the brutal regime toppled by US forces in 2001.
One coalition soldier was killed in fighting in Uruzgan province.
(AP, 7/18/06)(SFC, 7/20/06, p.A13)
2006 Jul 19, In southern
Afghanistan coalition forces retook Garmser and killed 2 Taliban.
(SFC, 7/20/06, p.A13)
2006 Jul 20, In Afghanistan
coalition forces killed 6 Taliban in the district of Garmser in Helmand
province.
(AP, 7/22/06)
2006 Jul 21, The Netherlands’
military chief said Dutch commandos had killed 18 enemy fighters who
set up positions in rugged hills overlooking a Dutch camp in southern
Afghanistan.
(AP, 7/21/06)
2006 Jul 22, In Afghanistan
coalition forces killed 13 Taliban over the last 48 hours in the
district of Garmser in Helmand province. 2 suicide blasts struck in
Kandahar. A suicide car bomb ripped into a Canadian patrol and killed
two soldiers and wounded eight others. Ten Afghans were wounded. About
an hour later an attacker blew himself up among a crowd of people who
had assembled about 100 meters (yards) from the site of the first
explosion. Four Afghan passers-by were killed.
(AP, 7/22/06)(AFP, 7/23/06)
2006 Jul 23, In Afghanistan 19
Taliban were killed and 17 fighters, including two Pakistani nationals,
arrested in a raid by Afghan forces in southern Helmand province.
Police said three policemen were killed and three others kidnapped in a
Taliban attack on a police checkpoint in southeastern Ghazni province.
(AFP, 7/23/06)
2006 Jul 24, In southwestern
Afghanistan hundreds of Taliban fighters firing rocket-propelled
grenades attacked a district headquarters overnight in Farah, killing 3
police and wounding 7. Four suspected suicide attackers riding two
motorcycles died in a confrontation with Afghan police. In the west,
gunmen killed two Afghans working for international aid agency World
Vision who had been delivering medicine. Fighting in Kunar province
left a US soldier dead. 7 suspected Taliban were killed in Paktika
province.
(AP, 7/25/06)(WSJ, 7/25/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 25, The Afghan
government, together with the UN, appealed for $76 million to head off
an "imminent food crisis" due to drought. A roadside bomb exploded in
Kabul, killing two Afghans riding in a taxi. US-led coalition troops
killed seven suspected Taliban militants in southern Afghanistan. In
Musa Qala district 10 militants were killed and 15 wounded by coalition
and Afghan forces backed by airstrikes.
(AP, 7/25/06)(AP, 7/26/06)
2006 Jul 26, In southern Zabul
province, gunmen ambushed and killed one Afghan worker and wounded
three others as they drove to work on a road being built between the
town of Qalat to a new US air base just outside town. 5 militants were
killed and 11 were wounded when they battled 200 Afghan police in
Garmser. All 16 people including two Dutch soldiers and at least 2
American civilians were killed when their helicopter crashed in
southeast Afghanistan. The Russian-made helicopter was operated by a
logistics company ferrying supplies and fuel from Kabul to the Khost
airport.
(AP, 7/26/06)(AFP, 7/27/06)
2006 Jul 28, Fourteen Taliban
fighters were killed in a "clearance operation" in southern Helmand
province's Garmser district. In the northeastern province of Kapisa,
police killed four Taliban militants including a "famous commander"
while also losing one of their own men. 2 policemen guarding an
archaeological site in northern Balkh province were killed and another
was wounded when unknown assailants attacked them overnight.
(AFP, 7/29/06)
2006 Jul 29, US-led coalition
forces detained 4 suspected al-Qaida operatives in eastern Afghanistan,
while a major operation to crush Taliban fighters in the south moved to
a close.
(AP, 7/29/06)
2006 Jul 29, US-led coalition
forces detained 4 suspected al-Qaida operatives in eastern Afghanistan.
In southern Afghanistan US-led coalition forces and Afghan police
killed 20 suspected Taliban who had attempted an ambush in Uruzgan
province. In Kandahar province 3 militants blew themselves up as they
laid an explosive on a road.
(AP, 7/29/06)(AP, 7/30/06)
2006 Jul 30, Afghan soldiers and
police killed six Taliban fighters and captured eight during a clash in
southeastern Paktika province's Waza Khwa district. A suspected Taliban
died when a land mine he was planting north of Kandahar city exploded.
(AP, 7/30/06)
2006 Jul 30, Afghan and coalition
forces killed 23 Taliban militants in clashes in Helmand province's
Garmser district.
(AFP, 7/31/06)
2006 Jul 31, NATO took command of
southern Afghanistan from the United States, and the new commander of
the push to pacify the insurgency-wracked region vowed that he would
not fail millions of Afghans seeking peace and stability. Some 8,000
coalition forces in Afghanistan came under NATO command. The southern
deployment included troops from Britain, Canada, Netherlands and
Romania. A bomb exploded outside a mosque in eastern Afghanistan during
a memorial service for a mujahedeen commander, killing at least eight
people and wounding 16.
(Econ, 7/8/06, p.23)(Econ, 7/8/06, p.50)(AP, 7/31/06)
2006 Aug 1, In southern
Afghanistan Taliban militants killed three British soldiers. 18 Taliban
militants and one policeman were killed as Afghan forces and coalition
aircraft raided an insurgent hide-out near Garmser.
(AP, 8/1/06)(AP, 8/2/06)
2006 Aug 3, Afghanistan's
government ordered around 1,500 South Korean Christians who came to the
Islamic republic for a "peace festival" to leave the country. The
US-led coalition killed 25 Taliban fighters in a joint operation with
Afghan forces in the country's south. A gunbattle near the capital
killed one militant. A suspected Taliban suicide car bomber killed 21
civilians and wounded 13 at a bazaar in Panjwayi. On the outskirts of
Kandahar city militant attacks killed 4 Canadian soldiers and wounded
another 10.
(AFP, 8/3/06)(AP, 8/4/06)
2006 Aug 4, In southern
Afghanistan 2 police officers were killed and eight others wounded in a
roadside bomb aimed at a district governor. UNICEF said schools are
increasingly being attacked across Afghanistan and an estimated 100,000
children in the south are shut out of the classroom due to closures.
(AFP, 8/5/06)(Reuters, 8/4/06)
2006 Aug 5, Afghan and NATO forces
aided by air strikes killed 17 Taliban in southern Afghanistan. A NATO
soldier was killed and three were injured when their armored jeep
crashed in Kandahar province. Taliban attacked a police patrol in
southern Ghazni province overnight which left an intelligence official
and a rebel killed and two police wounded.
(AP, 8/5/06)(AFP, 8/5/06)(AP, 8/6/06)
2006 Aug 6, In Afghanistan 4
suspected Taliban killed two police using rocket-propelled grenades and
heavy machine guns at a checkpoint in Murghab district in western
Badghis province. A suspected suicide bomber in a small truck hit a
military convoy outside Kandahar, wounding at least one foreign
soldier. A British soldier was killed in Helmand province.
(AP, 8/6/06)(SFC, 8/7/06, p.A8)
2006 Aug 7, Suspected Taliban
militants hanged a woman (70) and her son (30) from a tree in Helmand
province after accusing them of spying for the government.
(AP, 8/9/06)
2006 Aug 8, In eastern Afghanistan
US military killed 15 insurgents who attacked a US base in Nuristan
province. 12 militants and 8 policemen were killed in fighting in
Kandahar.
(AP, 8/9/06)(AP, 8/10/06)
2006 Aug 9, Hamid Karzai,
Afghanistan's first democratically elected president, strongly hinted
in an interview that he will not run for another term in office. A
roadside bomb killed 2 Afghan soldiers and wounded 3 as they returned
after a mission to help police surrounded by insurgents in Paktika
province. In the eastern province of Nuristan US soldiers and warplanes
drove off an insurgent attack on a new American base, killing 19
militants. Local authorities pleaded for emergency relief for thousands
of villagers made homeless by heavy rain and flooding that has ravaged
provinces in eastern Afghanistan and left at least 35 people dead.
(AP, 8/9/06)(AP, 8/10/06)
2006 Aug 10, In Afghanistan a
roadside bomb killed two Afghan civilians in Jalalabad.
(AP, 8/10/06)
2006 Aug 11, A suicide car bomber
struck a NATO-led convoy in southern Afghanistan, killing one soldier.
In northeastern Afghanistan 3 US soldiers were killed and 3 wounded
after militants attacked an American patrol with rocket-propelled
grenades and small arms fire.
(AP, 8/11/06)(AP, 8/12/06)
2006 Aug 12, Afghanistan's Health
Ministry said the worsening security situation contributed to a
fourfold rise in polio cases this year, almost entirely in the
insurgency-wracked south. A highway police commander was killed by a
blast on his way to work in eastern Lagman province.
(AP, 8/12/06)
2006 Aug 13, In Afghanistan at
least 5 Afghan troops and 25 militants were killed.
(WSJ, 8/14/06, p.A1)
2006 Aug 14, In southern
Afghanistan clashes between police and militants killed 11 suspected
Taliban and six policemen. 4 NATO troops were wounded in one of two
bombings in Kabul.
(AP, 8/14/06)
2006 Aug 15, Afghan and US troops
killed an al-Qaida suspect and detained 13 others in southeastern
Afghanistan.
(AP, 8/15/06)
2006 Aug 15, Pakistani forces
arrested 29 suspected Taliban militants in a raid on a private hospital
after they came from neighboring Afghanistan.
(AP, 8/15/06)
2006 Aug 16, In southeastern
Afghanistan US and Afghan forces raided compounds suspected of being
al-Qaida sanctuaries, seizing weapons and explosives and arresting 8
people. US-led forces killed eight suspected militants after coming
under attack in Kunar province. A US soldier was killed when his
vehicle struck a Soviet-era mine in Paktika province. Western officials
said opium cultivation in Afghanistan has hit record levels, up by more
than 40% from 2005, despite hundreds of millions in counternarcotics
money.
(AP, 8/16/06)(AP, 8/17/06)
2006 Aug 17, In eastern
Afghanistan a bomb mistakenly dropped by a US-led coalition aircraft
killed 10 Afghan police officers in Paktika province. In the south 2
suicide bombers targeted US, Afghan and NATO troops, killing one
civilian and wounding at least seven, including a US soldier. In
Uruzgan province a suicide bomber targeting a NATO patrol killed one
civilian and wounded six.
(AP, 8/17/06)
2006 Aug 18, Afghanistan Education
Minister Mohammed Hanif Atmar said attacks have closed more than 208
schools, including 144 burned down, in the past year as militants
changed tactics to hit soft targets. At least 41 teachers and students
have been killed over the past 12 months in a wave of attacks on the
country's schools.
(Reuters, 8/18/06)
2006 Aug 19, Afghan police backed
by NATO aircraft and artillery killed 71 suspected Taliban militant in
fierce clashes that also left five Afghan forces dead in southern
Kandahar province. 3 US soldiers were killed and 3 others wounded
during a clash against Taliban militants in eastern Kunar province. In
southern Uruzgan province, an American and an Afghan soldier were
killed and 3 other Americans wounded in a four-hour clash with more
than 100 insurgents. The latest violence came as the country celebrated
the 87th anniversary of its independence from Britain.
(AP, 8/19/06)(AP, 8/20/06)
2006 Aug 20, In Afghanistan
militants ambushed a police patrol in western Farah province, sparking
a gunbattle that left one officer and 2 attackers dead. In Helmand
province a clash with insurgents left one British soldier dead and
three others wounded. A NATO airstrike killed nine militants including
a local insurgent leader in Helmand province. A roadside bomb killed
three Afghan policemen traveling on the main highway linking Murja and
Lashkar Gah districts. Two roadside bombs targeting border police in
southeastern Khost province killed two officers and wounded five
others. Tens of thousands of health workers fanned out across
Afghanistan in a polio vaccination campaign to immunize more than 7
million children under age 5.
(AP, 8/20/06)(AP, 8/21/06)(AP, 8/22/06)
2006 Aug 21, NATO and Afghan
forces used aircraft in clashes that left 14 militants dead, capping
several days of intense fighting that killed more than 100 people and
threatened efforts to stabilize southern Afghanistan.
(AP, 8/21/06)
2006 Aug 22, In southern
Afghanistan a suicide bomber drove his explosives-laden car into a
Canadian military patrol, wounding four soldiers. Insurgents ambushed a
police vehicle near the Pakistan border, killing five officers. In
Helmand province British troops using "high-explosive ammunition"
killed nine insurgents. In Kandahar province NATO warplanes killed at
least 11 Taliban fighters just hours after militant attacks left one
NATO soldier dead and five others wounded. NATO troops killed one
Afghan youth and wounded another after a suicide bombing in Kandahar
city that targeted a Canadian convoy, killing one soldier and wounding
three. 2 roadside bombs struck a truck and a motorbike in the Kandahar
district of Daman, killing three civilians and wounding one.
(AP, 8/22/06)(AP, 8/23/06)
2006 Aug 23, The Afghan and
Pakistani armies agreed to conduct coordinated and simultaneous patrols
with the US alongside their volatile border. The accord was reached
during the 17th meeting of Tripartite Commission. In southern
Afghanistan 18 Taliban rebels and an Afghan soldier were killed in a
clash that erupted after the militants attacked an army post in Zabul
province.
(AP, 8/23/06)(AFP, 8/23/06)
2006 Aug 24, American and Afghan
forces killed seven suspected al-Qaida operatives after coming under
fire during a raid in eastern Afghanistan. Police, however, claimed
those killed were members of two families trying to resolve a dispute.
(AP, 8/24/06)
2006 Aug 25, President Hamid
Karzai ordered an investigation into the killings of eight people in
eastern Afghanistan during a raid that US forces claimed targeted
al-Qaida members. Afghan police clashed with suspected Taliban
militants in southern Zabul province, killing six insurgents and
wounding 12. Two French soldiers were killed in an ambush in eastern
Laghman province. Separate airstrikes in southern Uruzgan province
killed 23 militants, including a known Taliban commander. British
troops with a NATO-led force used artillery fire against a convoy of
insurgents that was moving into position for attack in Helmand
province. About seven insurgents were killed and seven vehicles
destroyed.
(AP, 8/25/06)(AP, 8/26/06)(AFP, 8/26/06)
2006 Aug 26, In Afghanistan a
large number of militants attacked the Musa Qala district government
compound in Helmand, provoking a clash with police that left 10
insurgents dead.
(AP, 8/27/06)
2006 Aug 27, In Afghanistan
insurgent attacks in Helmand province killed a British soldier, while
10 suspected Taliban militants died when police repelled an attack on a
government compound in the same province. Insurgent attacks left seven
wounded in Kandahar province.
(AP, 8/27/06)(AP, 8/28/06)
2006 Aug 28, In Afghanistan a
suicide bomber blew himself up in a crowded market in Lashkar Gah,
Helmand province, killing 21 people and wounding 43. US-led coalition
troops killed 18 suspected insurgents when about 60 militants attacked
with heavy machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades in Cahar Cineh
district of the southern Uruzgan province.
(AP, 8/28/06)(AP, 8/29/06)
2006 Aug 29, A suicide car bomber
struck a NATO-Afghan military convoy, killing two civilians and
wounding one in the violence-wracked south. A remote-controlled bomb
killed two police officers on patrol.
(AP, 8/29/06)
2006 Aug 31, In Afghanistan
Taliban militants attacked Naw Zad in Helmand province, sparking
intense fighting with government troops that left two insurgents dead.
In Zabul province a suicide attacker plowed his explosives-filled car
into a police convoy traveling on the main road, wounding three
officers. A Dutch F-16 fighter jet crashed in the Ghazni province in
central Afghanistan, killing the pilot.
(AP, 8/31/06)
2006 Sep 1, In Afghanistan
fighting across the volatile south killed nine Afghan policemen, at
least 13 suspected Taliban and a British soldier.
(AP, 9/2/06)
2006 Sep 2, A NATO Nimrod
reconnaissance aircraft crashed in southern Afghanistan, killing 14
British servicemen. The alliance said there was no indication hostile
fire was involved. The Nimrod MR2 exploded after an air-to-air
refueling operation. A later investigation said that leaking fuel
ignited by a hot pipe was the most likely cause of a fire that
destroyed the plane. British patrol NATO and Afghan forces began
Operation Medusa in southern Afghanistan. Dozens of insurgents were
killed during the fighting.
(AP, 9/2/06)(AP, 9/3/06)(AP, 12/4/07)
2006 Sep 2, The UN said opium
cultivation in Afghanistan is spiraling out of control, rising 59% this
year to produce a record 6,100 tons, nearly a third more than the
world's drug users consume.
(AP, 9/2/06)
2006 Sep 3, NATO and Afghan forces
hit the Taliban with air strikes and artillery in Operation Medusa in
southern Afghanistan. Four NATO soldiers, including 3 Canadians, and
more than 200 insurgents were killed in the first two days of a major
anti-Taliban operation under way in the Panjwayi district, about 10
miles from the city of Kandahar.
(AFP, 9/3/06)
2006 Sep 4, In southern
Afghanistan 2 US warplanes accidentally strafed their own forces,
killing one Canadian soldier and seriously wounding five others. A
British soldier attached to NATO was also killed in a Kabul suicide
bombing, which left another four Afghans dead. 16 suspected Taliban
militants and five Afghan police died in separate Afghan violence.
(AP, 9/4/06)
2006 Sep 5, In southern
Afghanistan US artillery and airstrikes killed between 50 and 60
suspected Taliban militants, the fourth day of a NATO-led offensive.
NATO said 700 Taliban were trapped by the offensive.
(AP, 9/5/06)(WSJ, 9/6/06, p.A1)
2006 Sep 6, Afghan President Hamid
Karzai and Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf held talks on
counterterrorism in Kabul. NATO forces killed 21 militants in air and
ground attacks in southern Kandahar province. Afghan police killed four
Taliban fighters in southeastern Paktiya province. 3 British soldiers
were killed.
(AP, 9/6/06)(AP, 9/7/06)(WSJ, 9/7/06, p.A1)
2006 Sep 8, A suicide car bomber
struck a convoy of US military vehicles in downtown Kabul, killing at
least 16 people, including two American soldiers, and wounding 29
others. It was the Afghan capital's deadliest suicide attack since the
Taliban's 2001 ouster.
(AP, 9/8/06)
2006 Sep 9, Afghan and NATO
soldiers killed at least 40 suspected Taliban militants in fierce raids
that destroyed insurgent hideouts and a weapons-making factory in
Kandahar province. One NATO soldier died. 2 coalition soldiers training
Afghan troops were killed in combat. 2 policemen were killed when
dozens of Taliban rebels attacked their post in western Farah province
with machine guns and rockets. Gen. Ray Henault, chief of NATO’s
military committee, said he would ask the 26 alliance members for up to
2,500 more soldiers.
(AP, 9/9/06)(AP, 9/10/06)(SSFC, 9/10/06, p.A19)
2006 Sep 10, Afghan President
Hamid Karzai formally opened a 25-million-dollar Coca-Cola bottling
plant, one of the most significant investments in Afghanistan since the
ousting of the Taliban five years ago. In eastern Afghanistan Gov.
Abdul Hakim Taniwal (63) was killed with his nephew and bodyguard in a
suicide attack outside his office in the Paktia capital of Gardez. The
US military warned that a suicide bombing cell is targeting foreign
troops in Kabul. In the Panjwayi district of Kandahar 94 Taliban were
killed and one was wounded in four different engagements overnight. The
alliance offensive near the main southern city of Kandahar killed
another 92 suspected Taliban fighters, pushing its 10-day toll of
militant dead past 510. Gunmen kidnapped a Colombian aid worker and two
Afghan employees of a French-funded nongovernment organization west of
Kabul.
(AP, 9/10/06)(AFP, 9/10/06)(AP, 9/11/06)(SFC,
9/11/06, p.A3)(AP, 9/12/06)
2006 Sep 11, In eastern
Afghanistan a suicide bomber struck in the Tani district of Khost
province at a funeral for Gov. Abdul Hakim Taniwal, a provincial
governor assassinated by the Taliban a day earlier. Five people were
killed and 30 wounded, but four Cabinet ministers at the service were
unhurt.
(AP, 9/11/06)(www.wcbs880.com/pages/81058.php?)
2006 Sep 12, Afghan forces killed
12 suspected Taliban militants in a shootout south of Kabul. More than
30 suspected insurgents were detained as security forces fought back
against a deadly spike in violence. The UN urged NATO forces to take
military action to destroy the opium industry in southern Afghanistan,
saying cultivation of the crop is out of control.
(AP, 9/12/06)
2006 Sep 13, Afghan President
Hamid Karzai, while opening a road linking to Pakistan, said Pakistan
and Afghanistan must unite to save their people from the menace of
terrorism. Afghan and US-led coalition forces killed as many as
30 Taliban in raids on three villages in Ghazni province. In southern
Helmand province police killed 16 Taliban in a mountainous area outside
the town of Garmser. NATO announced that suicide bombings have killed
173 people in Afghanistan this year. 151 of the year's suicide attack
victims were Afghan civilians, including children.
(AP, 9/13/06)(AFP, 9/13/06)
2006 Sep 14, Taliban militants
attacked police headquarters in western Afghanistan, raising fears that
insurgents fleeing NATO attacks in the south are opening new fronts.
Two police and two militants were killed.
(AP, 9/14/06)
2006 Sep 14, Poland will send at
least 900 troops early next year to bolster the NATO mission in
Afghanistan. NATO said the offer did not ease the immediate need for
2,500 additional soldiers in the violence-wracked south.
(AP, 9/14/06)
2006 Sep 15, In southern
Afghanistan about 60 suspected Taliban militants attacked a police
checkpoint in Uruzgan province, starting a battle in which four
militants died.
(AP, 9/16/06)
2006 Sep 16, Thousands of US-led
coalition and Afghan troops launched Mountain Fury, a large-scale
anti-Taliban operation in five Afghan provinces. A bomb blast south of
Kabul killed three Afghan aid workers and wounded another.
(AP, 9/16/06)(SSFC, 9/17/06, p.A5)
2006 Sep 17, A top NATO general
said Operation Medusa, an offensive aimed at driving Taliban militants
out of their safe havens in southern Afghanistan, has been
"successfully completed." In southern Afghanistan a suicide bomber
plowed his explosive-laden vehicle into a Canadian military convoy,
killing one civilian and wounding five.
(AP, 9/17/06)
2006 Sep 18, In southern
Afghanistan a suicide bomber on a bicycle killed four Canadian troops
handing out candy to children and wounded 27 civilians. A suicide car
bombing in Kabul killed at least four policemen and wounded one officer
and 10 civilians. In Heart a bombing killed 12 people and wounded 17
including the deputy police chief. An outdoor wedding celebration north
of Kabul was attacked by assailants who threw a grenade, killing five
women and wounding 18. Four suspects were detained after the blast in
the village of Sayadan.
(AP, 9/18/06)(AP, 9/19/06)(AP, 9/20/06)
2006 Sep 19, In central and
southern Afghanistan clashes and bombings left up to 34 Taliban
fighters and one policeman dead in five separate incidents.
(AP, 9/20/06)
2006 Sep 20, In southern
Afghanistan police clashed with militants who tried to set fire to an
oil tanker, killing four suspected members of the Taliban. Authorities
found the body of a Turkish national who was kidnapped last month along
with another Turk whose body was already recovered.
(AP, 9/21/06)
2006 Sep 21, In Afghanistan a NATO
helicopter killed 8 suspected insurgents in Helmand province.
(AP, 9/24/06)
2006 Sep 22, In southern
Afghanistan militants ambushed a bus carrying construction workers,
killing 19 of the laborers. The attack occurred in Kandahar province
when a roadside bomb exploded near the bus. A NATO helicopter killed 15
suspected insurgents in Helmand province.
(AP, 9/22/06)(AP, 9/24/06)
2006 Sep 23, Afghan and NATO-led
security forces backed by war planes killed 40 rebels in Helmand
province's Greshk district.
(AFP, 9/24/06)
2006 Sep 25, In Afghan 2 gunmen on
a motorbike killed Safia Hama Jan, the provincial director of the
Ministry of Women's Affairs, outside her home in apparent retribution
for her efforts to help educate women. In Khost province a bomb killed
2 policemen and a coalition soldier was injured in a suicide attack. 2
men believed to be suicide attackers were killed when the car they were
in blew up on a road often used by the US-led coalition and Afghan
forces. In Paktika province six suspected rebels were killed when they
were escorting a suicide bomber whose explosives detonated early.
(AFP, 9/25/06)(AFP, 9/26/06)
2006 Sep 26, In Afghanistan a
suicide bomber struck outside the compound of a southern governor,
killing 18 people, including several Muslim pilgrims seeking paperwork
to travel to Mecca. A bomb in Kabul killed an Italian soldier and a
child.
(AP, 9/26/06)
2006 Sep 27, Afghan security
forces killed 25 suspected insurgents during a clash in southern
Afghanistan, while a suicide bombing targeting a NATO convoy wounded
one civilian.
(AP, 9/27/06)
2006 Sep 27, President Bush hosted
a peacemaking dinner at the White House for the bickering leaders of
Pakistan and Afghanistan, Gen. Pervez Musharraf and Hamid Karzai.
(WSJ, 9/28/06, p.A1)(AP, 9/27/07)
2006 Sep 30, President Hamid
Karzai said that he and the Pakistani president will jointly lead a
series of tribal gatherings along their countries' shared border to
quell attacks on Afghanistan by Pakistan-based Taliban rebels. A
suicide bomber detonated his explosives in a busy pedestrian alley next
to the Interior Ministry in Kabul, killing at least 12 people and
wounding more than 40.
(AP, 9/30/06)
2006 Oct 1, In Afghanistan 5
people were killed in various Taliban attacks and bomb blasts.
(AP, 10/2/06)
2006 Oct 1, Pakistani police
arrested six Afghan Taliban fighters at a private hospital in
Pakistan's southwestern city of Quetta.
(AP, 10/1/06)
2006 Oct 2, In Afghanistan 9
people were killed in various Taliban attacks and bomb blasts. They
included four Afghan soldiers killed when their vehicle struck a bomb
in Paktia province and five civilians killed in a bomb blast in Musa
Qala in Helmand province in the south. Two gunbattles in eastern
Afghanistan killed four Afghan and two US troops. NATO prepared to
assume military command of all of the country from the US-led coalition.
(AP, 10/2/06)(AP, 10/3/06)
2006 Oct 4, Afghanistan's
intelligence agency said security agents have arrested 17 people
allegedly trained in Pakistan who they believe planned to launch
suicide attacks in three Afghan provinces. In southern Afghanistan
suspected Taliban militants attacked a police checkpoint, and the
ensuing clash left six militants dead and three wounded.
(AP, 10/4/06)(AP, 10/5/06)
2006 Oct 5, NATO took over eastern
Afghanistan from US-led forces, assuming control of 12,000 American
troops and extending its military role to the entire country.
(AP, 10/5/06)
2006 Oct 6, In eastern Afghanistan
2 suicide bombers blew themselves up, killing themselves and a
policeman and wounding 17 other people.
(AP, 10/6/06)
2006 Oct 7, In northern
Afghanistan 2 German journalists working for the country's national
broadcaster and traveling on their own were killed by gunmen, the first
foreign journalists murdered here since late 2001. In southern
Afghanistan a NATO soldier from Canada was killed in an attack by
militants who exploded a roadside bomb and fired on a military patrol.
In eastern Afghanistan the US-led coalition and Afghan forces killed
five suspected insurgents in a clash in Paktika province.
(AP, 10/7/06)(Reuters, 10/7/06)
2006 Oct 8, NATO said 142 Afghan
civilians, 40 Afghan security forces and 13 international troops have
died in suicide attacks since January.
(AP, 10/8/06)
2006 Oct 8-2006 Oct 9, A joint
offensive by coalition and Afghan forces, backed by NATO air support,
killed 30 guerrillas in one area of Deh Rawud. Another 19 were killed
in an operation by the Afghan army in another part of the district.
(AP, 10/9/06)
2006 Oct 9, In eastern Afghanistan
5 people, including 3 officials on their way to investigate a school
burning, were killed by a roadside bomb in Nangarhar province. 2
Taliban rebels were killed in return fire after insurgents attacked
ISAF and Afghan soldiers who were distributing food in southeastern
Zabul province.
(AP, 10/10/06)(SFC, 10/10/06, p.A3)
2006 Oct 10, In Afghanistan a bomb
struck a police bus in Kabul, wounding more than a dozen people.
(AP, 10/10/06)
2006 Oct 12, In eastern
Afghanistan a suicide bomber struck a vehicle carrying Afghan soldiers,
wounding 16 people. A car bomb targeting a US patrol wounded three
civilians. An Afghan soldier was killed in a separate ambush. NATO-led
forces and Afghan troops clashed with suspected Taliban militants in
southern Afghanistan, leaving as many as 20 suspected insurgents dead.
(AP, 10/12/06)(AP, 10/13/06)
2006 Oct 13, In southern
Afghanistan a suicide car bomber targeted a NATO convoy, killing a NATO
soldier and eight civilians.
(AP, 10/13/06)
2006 Oct 14, In eastern
Afghanistan a roadside bomb exploded outside a provincial governor's
compound. The governor was not hurt but another official was killed.
(AP, 10/14/06)
2006 Oct 16, Suicide bombers
struck in Afghanistan's two main cities, killing three civilians and
wounding six. Elsewhere, seven suspected militants died in fighting
with coalition and NATO forces.
(AP, 10/16/06)
2006 Oct 17, In southern
Afghanistan British troops pulled out of the Musa Qala district in
Helmand province. A US-led coalition airstrike killed a suspected
midlevel Taliban commander and up to 15 other militants. Suspected
Taliban militants destroyed an oil tanker transporting fuel for
NATO-led peacekeepers and killed its driver in southern Kandahar
province's Spin Boldak district.
(AP, 10/17/06)
2006 Oct 18, A rocket fired from
an airplane hit a house during a clash between suspected Taliban
insurgents and NATO and Afghan security forces in a southern village. A
resident said 13 civilians were killed. At least one Taliban militant
was killed and three police were wounded in four hours of fighting that
started in Tajikai late the previous night.
(AP, 10/18/06)
2006 Oct 19, President Hamid
Karzai called on NATO forces to use caution during military operations,
a day after 20 civilians were killed. In southern Afghanistan a suicide
bomber killed two children and a British soldier. In eastern
Afghanistan gunmen ambushed a car carrying Afghan civilians working on
a remote US military base and killed eight of them execution-style.
(AP, 10/19/06)(AP, 10/20/06)
2006 Oct 22, The Afghan government
and the UN appealed for $43 million in aid to respond to a severe
drought and help tens of thousands of families displaced by fighting in
the country's south. In southern Afghanistan insurgents attacked a NATO
convoy, sparking a gunbattle that killed 15 suspected militants and
wounded two NATO troops. Fighting between forces loyal to two
pro-government warlords in western Afghanistan left at least 12 people
dead.
(AP, 10/22/06)(AP, 10/23/06)
2006 Oct 23, An Afghan girl was
killed and two wounded when a mortar test-fired by NATO troops fell
short of its target and hit a home in eastern Kunar province.
(AFP, 10/24/06)
2006 Oct 24, NATO soldiers killed
38 Taliban rebels in clashes in southern Afghanistan that also claimed
a number of civilian lives. Villagers said that around 20 houses were
destroyed and 60 people killed or wounded in the fighting around the
Panjwayi area. They said none of the dead were Taliban. Afghan
officials estimated up to 60 Taliban fighters and 85 civilians were
killed in Panjwayi, a district in the former Taliban stronghold of
Kandahar province. The Interior Ministry said 40 civilians and 20
Taliban militants were killed, while a Kandahar provincial council
member, Bismallah Afghanmal, said up to 85 civilians died.
(AFP, 10/25/06)(AP, 10/26/06)
2006 Oct 27, In southern
Afghanistan a roadside blast ripped through a vehicle, killing 14
villagers and wounding three as they traveled to a provincial capital
for holiday celebrations.
(AP, 10/27/06)
2006 Oct 28, In southern
Afghanistan NATO and Afghan troops killed 70 suspected militants who
attacked a military base in Uruzgan province. A roadside blast killed
one NATO soldier and wounded 8 others. Three National Geographic TV
crew members were also hurt in a roadside bomb blast.
(AP, 10/29/06)(AP, 11/2/06)
2006 Oct 30, In southern
Afghanistan NATO troops fought a six-hour battle with insurgents in a
firefight that left 55 militants and one NATO soldier dead. ISAF
warplanes killed 12 insurgents in the southern province of Kandahar.
(AP, 10/30/06)(AFP, 10/31/06)
2006 Oct 31, In eastern
Afghanistan a roadside bomb killed 3 NATO soldiers. A suicide bombing
in southern Ghazni province's Taliban-dominated Ander district killed
one policeman. Polio cases were reported to be on the rise along the
Pakistan-Afghanistan border.
(AFP, 10/31/06)(WSJ, 11/1/06, p.A1)
2006 Nov 2, In Afghanistan a NATO
airstrike in Helmand province killed nine militants and wounded 30.
Militants attacked an Afghan army patrol in the eastern province of
Laghman, killing one solider and injuring three. British Corporal
Daniel James, an interpreter to Lieutenant General David Richards,
allegedly passed secrets to "the enemy," believed to be Iran. James
faced initial court proceedings in London in December. Richards was the
commander of NATO troops in Afghanistan.
(AP, 11/4/06)(AFP, 12/27/06)
2006 Nov 3, In Afghanistan NATO
troops backed by warplanes launched a raid north of Kabul, hitting a
compound with eight to 10 suspected Taliban fighters inside in the
Tagab Valley, some 40 miles northeast of Kabul. Taliban fighters
attacked a supply convoy heading to a NATO base in Khost province,
killing two Pakistani drivers and wounding an Afghan driver. Gabriele
Torsello, Italian photojournalist, was released after being held three
weeks by abductors who demanded the withdrawal of Italian troops from
the country.
(AP, 11/3/06)(AP, 11/4/06)
2006 Nov 4, In Afghanistan battles
continued as NATO forces battled suspected insurgents near Kabul.
Afghan authorities reported a dozen people dead in attacks.
(AP, 11/4/06)
2006 Nov 5, In eastern Afghanistan
suspected Taliban militants kidnapped four Afghan aid workers.
(AP, 11/6/06)
2006 Nov 5, Pakistan, under
international pressure to stop militants from crossing over its border
with Afghanistan, said it was willing to fence off the frontier.
(AP, 11/5/06)
2006 Nov 6, Afghan and US-led
troops detained six suspected extremists, including one described as a
"known al-Qaida terrorist." Taliban fighters ambushed a police patrol,
killing one policeman and wounding two in Zabul province. One Taliban
fighter was killed in an ensuing fight. In Helmand province Afghan and
NATO forces carried out an operation against Taliban fighters, killing
two. An Afghan army soldier was killed when another IED struck a
military patrol in the Gereshk area of Helmand province.
(AP, 11/6/06)(AP, 11/7/06)
2006 Nov 7, In Afghanistan a
suicide attacker detonated explosives strapped to his body near the
vehicle of the chief of the Tanai district on the border with Pakistan.
District chief Badi-ulzaman and his two police guards were wounded in
the suicide attack.
(AP, 11/7/06)
2006 Nov 8, NATO launched
airstrikes as clashes in the southern Afghan province of Kandahar
killed 28 suspected Taliban militants. Earlier in Zhari, police fought
for three hours with Taliban fighters. The clash left six Taliban dead
and four wounded. Suspected Taliban ambushed a police convoy on the
main Kandahar-Kabul highway in Shahjoy district of southern Zabul
province, killing two police and wounding five. Taliban attacked a
police post on a highway about 15 miles southeast of Khost. One
policeman was killed and two wounded, and the bodies of about five
militants, some dismembered, were left on the battlefield.
(AP, 11/9/06)
2006 Nov 9, Afghan and US troops
detained six people, four Afghans, an Arab and a Pakistani in the city
of Khost. Later reports said the detainees included Abu Nasir
al-Qahtani, one of four Arab al-Qaida operatives who escaped from the
US prison in Bagram in July 2005.
(AP, 11/9/06)(AP, 11/13/06)
2006 Nov 12, In eastern
Afghanistan Paktika governor Muhammad Akram Khoplwak said more than 60
Taliban fighters were killed in 6 days of fighting. Chechen and Arab
fighters were among the dead.
(AFP, 11/12/06)
2006 Nov 16, In western
Afghanistan flash floods caused by heavy rains killed nearly 60 people
with 100 more missing.
(AFP, 11/18/06)
2006 Nov 20, British PM Tony Blair
told soldiers fighting a resurgent Taliban that success in Afghanistan
would be a step toward global security, and pledged Britain's
commitment to the war-torn country "for as long as it takes."
(AP, 11/20/06)
2006 Nov 23, In central
Afghanistan an insurgent rocket attack killed one NATO soldier and
injured another while they were on patrol.
(AP, 11/23/06)
2006 Nov 24, In Afghanistan US-led
coalition troops clashed with Taliban insurgents killing seven of the
militants.
(Reuters, 11/24/06)
2006 Nov 24, Police said Pakistan
has handed over 240 suspected Taliban fighters to Afghan authorities
this week as a hunt for the Islamist militants continues in the
country's southwest.
(Reuters, 11/24/06)
2006 Nov 25, Insurgents attacked
NATO-led forces Saturday near the Tirin Kot district of Uruzgan
province. NATO returned fire and called in attack aircraft, killing
approximately 50 insurgents.
(http://tinyurl.com/yfs28z)(WSJ, 11/27/06, p.A1)
2006 Nov 26, In southeastern
Afghanistan a suicide bomber blew himself up at a restaurant, killing
15 people and wounding 24, including an Afghan special forces commander
and a district chief who were apparently targeted for the attack.
(AP, 11/26/06)
2006 Nov 27, In southern
Afghanistan a suicide car bomber attacked a convoy of foreign troops,
killing two Canadian soldiers and an Afghan civilian.
(AP, 11/27/06)
2006 Nov 28, In Afghanistan scores
of militants alleged to be with Al-Qaeda stormed a checkpoint on the
eastern border with Pakistan, sparking an hour-long battle that left at
least two rebels dead. Suicide car bombs struck in Kandahar and Herat,
killing a policeman and wounding a NATO soldier. A new UN report said
Afghanistan's criminal underworld has compromised key government
officials who protect drug traffickers, allowing a flourishing opium
trade that will not be stamped out for a generation.
(AP, 11/28/06)
2006 Nov 29, In southern
Afghanistan a suicide bomber on a motorcycle blew himself up next to a
NATO convoy, killing two civilians.
(AP, 11/29/06)
2006 Nov 29, NATO leaders finished
a two-day summit without agreement on some members' refusal to send
troops into combat in Afghanistan's most dangerous regions. NATO vowed
to give its troubled mission in Afghanistan the "forces, resources and
flexibility needed" to tackle increasingly ferocious Taliban fighters.
Leaders invited Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia-Herzegovina to join a
program considered a first step toward eventual membership, but urged
Serbia and Bosnia to fully cooperate with the UN war crimes tribunal.
(AP, 11/29/06)(AFP, 11/29/06)
2006 Dec 2, A civilian helicopter
crashed in southern Afghanistan. Militants attacked a NATO convoy in
southern Helmand province's Nawzad district. NATO troops fired back and
called in airstrikes that left five militants dead. In Zabul province,
suspected Taliban militants attacked a police checkpoint, sparking a
gunbattle that left four insurgents dead and one police officer
wounded. NATO troops also battled militants near Musa Qala in Helmand
province for four hours. The fighting, including airstrikes, killed or
wounded "a significant number of insurgents." Militants tried to block
the main highway linking Kandahar and Helmand province, and a clash
with police left three militants dead and eight wounded.
(AP, 12/3/06)
2006 Dec 3, In southern
Afghanistan a suicide car bomb exploded next to a British convoy in
Kandahar city, and troops speeding away from the scene fired at several
civilian cars. 3 Afghans were killed and 19 people were wounded,
including three British soldiers. In southern Afghanistan an estimated
70 to 80 Taliban militants were killed by NATO soldiers in fighting
after police told military authorities where insurgents had gathered.
(AP, 12/3/06)(AP, 12/4/06)
2006 Dec 4, In Afghanistan 2
journalists, whose identities and media organization were not
identified, reportedly went missing in Kandahar province.
(AP, 12/5/06)
2006 Dec 5, A suicide bomber
plowed his car into a convoy of NATO troops in Afghanistan's southern
city of Kandahar, wounding nine civilians and two soldiers.
(AP, 12/5/06)
2006 Dec 6, A suicide bomber
killed two Americans and five Afghans outside a security contractor's
southern Afghan compound.
(AP, 12/6/06)
2006 Dec 7, In Afghanistan a
suicide car bomb targeting a NATO convoy killed two civilians in
Kandahar. Elsewhere a district chief and a senior policemen were killed
by Taliban gunmen.
(AFP, 12/7/06)
2006 Dec 9, In Afghanistan Taliban
militants, following up on a death threat, broke into a house overnight
in the Narang district of eastern Kunar province, and fatally shot two
teachers and 3 other family members, bringing to 20 the number of
educators slain in attacks this year. The top US anti-drug official
said that Afghan poppies would be sprayed with herbicide to combat an
opium trade that produced a record heroin haul this year, a measure
likely to anger farmers and scare Afghans unfamiliar with weed killers.
Afghan opium production this year increased 49% over 2005 and was
providing 92% of the world supply.
(AP, 12/9/06)(AP, 12/10/06)(Econ, 12/2/06, p.47)
2006 Dec 12, In Afghanistan a
suicide bomber blew himself up at the governor's compound in southern
Helmand province, killing 8 people, including 6 policemen and 2
civilians. In eastern Afghanistan 4 "military-aged males" and a girl
(13) were killed in a raid by Afghan and US-led coalition forces. 8
suspected Taliban militants were killed and a policeman wounded in a
joint operation by the Afghan police and army in western Farah province.
(AP, 12/12/06)(AP, 12/14/06)
2006 Dec 13, NATO said there were
some Taliban casualties in southern Afghanistan when NATO troops
launched a "precision air strike against a known Taliban command post"
in an isolated area of the Panjwayi district of Kandahar province.
(AP, 12/14/06)
2006 Dec 14, In southern
Afghanistan a suicide bomber blew himself up on a crowded street near a
police vehicle outside the city of Qalat, killing four civilians and
wounding 25 people.
(AP, 12/14/06)
2006 Dec 16, Seven Afghan men
arrived in their home country, weary, angry and proclaiming their
innocence, after years of imprisonment in the US military prison at
Guantanamo Bay.
(AP, 12/16/06)
2006 Dec 17, Afghan officials
replaced Helmand Gov. Mohammad Daud with Asadullah Wafa. Daud led the
province that grows more than a third of the world's opium. Interior
Ministry spokesman Zemeri Bashary said the appointment of Wafa would
help increase security in Helmand, but insisted the increase in poppy
cultivation had nothing to do with the change. In eastern Afghanistan a
suicide bomber drove up to an American convoy and blew himself up,
leaving one Afghan civilian dead and two others wounded. France said it
is going to withdraw its 200-strong special forces from Afghanistan,
all of its ground troops engaged in the US anti-terror operation there.
(AP, 12/17/06)(AP, 12/18/06)
2006 Dec 18, In Afghanistan a
suicide bomber rammed his vehicle into a coalition convoy, wounding two
troops of the US-led coalition. Taliban militants beheaded a man and
fatally stabbed another as a warning to villagers not to give the
government or NATO information about Taliban activities.
(AP, 12/18/06)(AP, 12/19/06)
2006 Dec 19, In Afghanistan Mullah
Akhtar Mohammad Osmani, a top Taliban military commander described as a
close associate of Osama bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Omar was
killed, in an airstrike close to the border with Pakistan. Qari Yousef
Ahmadi, a purported Taliban spokesman, denied that Osmani had been
killed, saying the airstrike instead killed Mullah Abdul Zahir, a group
commander, and three other Taliban fighters.
(AP, 12/23/06)
2006 Dec 22, In southern
Afghanistan a roadside bomb exploded next to a police patrol killing
five policemen.
(AP, 12/22/06)
2006 Dec 26, Pakistan said it
would fence and mine parts of its border with Afghanistan to try to
stop Taliban rebels crossing to wage their growing rebellion.
(AP, 12/26/06)
2006 Dec 27, In southern
Afghanistan a bomb explosion caused a NATO vehicle to crash, killing
one British soldier and wounding three.
(AP, 12/28/06)
2006 Dec 29, Fugitive Taliban
chief Mullah Omar pledged in a statement to drive foreign troops out of
Afghanistan, as NATO and Afghan forces killed more than 10 of his
fighters in the volatile south.
(AP, 12/29/06)
2006 Sarah Chayes authored “The
Punishment of Virtue: Inside Afghanistan After the Taliban.”
(SSFC, 8/27/06, p.M3)
2006 Ann Jones authored “Kabul in
Winter: Life Without Peace in Afghanistan.”
(SSFC, 3/19/06, p.M3)
2006 In Afghanistan the justice
system was extremely corrupt. Judges earned $60 per month and most of
them were Islamic clerics with little knowledge of the secular laws
they were supposed to enforce.
(Econ, 4/15/06, p.46)
2006 In Afghanistan Arsala Jamal
was appointed as governor of Khost province. His rule marked the
beginning of progress against the tide of violence in the area.
(Econ, 12/15/07, p.32)
2006 In Afghanistan Kabul’s
electricity grid offered 4 hours of power every other day. Continuous
supply was not expected until at least 2008.
(Econ, 2/4/06, p.38)
2006 Some 15 million Pushtuns
lived in Afghanistan, making up about 50% of the population. Another 28
million lived in Pakistan, mostly in the North-West Frontier Province
(NWFP), and they represented about 15% of Pakistan’s population.
(Econ, 12/23/06, p.36)
2006 The NATO-run Int’l. Security
Assistance Force (ISAF) expected to assume full responsibility for
peace-keeping and counter-insurgency in Afghanistan by the end of this
year. American forces of 20,000 were to be merged into ISAF,
whose forces were to spread further into eastern Afghanistan.
(Econ, 2/4/06, p.37)
2006 In Afghanistan an initiative
to create the Afghan National auxiliary Police (ANAP) was designed to
boost the security forces in unstable districts by enrolling local
youths vetted by tribal leaders. Many defected or sold their equipment
to insurgents and the program was abandoned a year later.
(Econ, 4/11/09, p.40)
2006 Some 2,000 Netherlands’
forces took control of Afghanistan’s Uruzgan province.
(Econ, 3/14/09, p.48)
2006 Afghanistan produced 6,100
tons of opium, about 92% of the world total.
(Econ, 6/30/07, p.69)
2006 Fighting between soldiers and
insurgents in southern Afghanistan claimed over 4,400 lives this year,
including over 1,000 civilians.
(Econ, 8/25/07, p.78)
2007 Jan 3, Afghanistan’s the
interior ministry said Afghan and NATO troops killed 17 rebels,
including two commanders, in a sweep of a Taliban stronghold in
southern Afghanistan. In southern Afghanistan a roadside bomb killed
five Afghan security forces and wounded four as they patrolled with
NATO troops.
(AFP, 1/3/07)(AP, 1/4/07)
2007 Jan 4, NATO and Afghan forces
fought a three-hour ground battle with suspected Taliban militants in
southern Afghan mountains, killing 15 of them. 3 suspected Taliban died
when a land mine they were planting on a highway in Grieshk district
exploded prematurely.
(AP, 1/5/07)
2007 Jan 5, In eastern Afghanistan
a suicide bomber in a car wounded four soldiers.
(AP, 1/6/07)
2007 Jan 6, In southern
Afghanistan a roadside bomb struck a NATO vehicle, wounding one soldier.
(AP, 1/6/07)
2007 Jan 7, In eastern Afghanistan
a roadside bomb ripped through a vehicle, killing a woman, her two
newborn twin babies and the children's grandmother.
(AP, 1/7/07)
2007 Jan 10, NATO forces called in
airstrikes on Taliban positions during a clash in the village of
Gereshk in Helmand province. On the other side of the border, the
Pakistan military attacked trucks used by insurgents for cross-border
raids.
(AP, 1/11/07)
2007 Jan 11, NATO forces overnight
fought two large groups of suspected Taliban militants crossing the
border from Pakistan, and scores of insurgents were killed. Some 150
militants under Jalaluddin Haqqani were killed by the US 10th Mountain
Division.
(AP, 1/11/07)(WSJ, 11/7/07, p.A16)
2007 Jan 12, A suicide bomber
rammed his explosives-filled car into a two-vehicle convoy carrying
foreigners south of Kabul, wounding at least one Afghan civilian.
(AP, 1/12/07)
2007 Jan 13, In Afghanistan
British marines, supported by Dutch and British attack helicopters,
staged a pre-dawn attack on a mud-brick compound atop a barren hill
where insurgents were thought hiding, setting off a battle that killed
16 suspected militants and one marine in Helmand province. US warplanes
dropped 500-pound bombs.
(AP, 1/14/07)
2007 Jan 14, Sen. Hillary Rodham
Clinton ate breakfast with soldiers from New York and Indiana at the
main US base in Afghanistan before meeting with the top American
general in Afghanistan and Afghan President Hamid Karzai. After leaving
Kabul, Clinton went to Lahore, Pakistan, where she met with the
Pakistani president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf. A suicide bomber blew
himself up near a convoy of foreign construction workers and Afghan
soldiers in southern Afghanistan, wounding one civilian.
(AP, 1/14/07)
2007 Jan 15, In southern
Afghanistan NATO troops attacked a militant base in an operation that
left one Western soldier dead and several wounded. 13 suspected Taliban
militants were killed and 17 others were wounded during the clash with
NATO troops. Gunmen in the east killed a deputy provincial council
chief. Afghan agents arrested Abul Haq Haqiq, aka Dr. Mohammad Hanif,
one of two spokesmen who often contacted journalists on behalf of the
Taliban, in eastern Afghanistan. He said that fugitive leader Mullah
Mohammad Omar is under the protection of the ISI in Quetta. (ISI is
Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency and Quetta is a city in
southwestern Pakistan near the border with Afghanistan.) Afghan
officials have alleged some of the Taliban's leadership may be based
there.
(AP, 1/15/07)(AP, 1/16/07)(AFP, 1/17/07)
2007 Jan 16, In southern
Afghanistan NATO-led troops and Afghan forces detained a prominent
Taliban commander during a raid on a compound.
(AP, 1/17/07)
2007 Jan 18, A suicide bomber
detonated his explosives next to Afghan soldiers in an eastern Afghan
market, killing one soldier and wounding three.
(AP, 1/18/07)
2007 Jan 20, The Taliban's
governing body said it has decided to open schools in the areas
controlled by the militants in Afghanistan.
(AP, 1/21/07)
2007 Jan 22, Pakistan's military
lodged a protest saying US-led forces in Afghanistan mistakenly fired
at a Pakistani border post and killed a soldier. A suicide car bomber
attacked a military convoy in northwestern Pakistan, killing himself
and at least four soldiers.
(AP, 1/22/07)
2007 Jan 23, In eastern
Afghanistan a bomber blew himself up amid a crowd of workers outside a
US military base, killing as many as 10 and wounding more than a dozen
others in the deadliest suicide attack in four months.
(AP, 1/23/07)
2007 Jan 25, Officials said
Afghanistan's heroin-producing poppies will not be sprayed with
herbicide this year despite a record crop in 2006 and US pressure to
allow the tactic. In southern Afghanistan a NATO airstrike destroyed a
Taliban command post, killing a suspected senior militant leader. In
eastern Afghanistan border police clashed with suspected militants in
Gomal district in Paktika province, leaving 10 suspected Taliban and
one police dead.
(AP, 1/25/07)(AP, 1/26/07)
2007 Jan 26, In Afghanistan an
assailant gunned down lawmaker Maulavi Mohammed Islam Mohammadi. He was
the Taliban's governor of Bamiyan province and had overseen the
destruction of two Buddha statues carved into a cliff under the former
Taliban regime. In 2005 Mohammadi said: "It was foreigners like
Chechens and Arabs with the Taliban who made the decision. They were
crazy people. Even though I was governor, I had no power." A suicide
bomber blew himself up outside the offices of an aid group in the
capital of Helmand province, Lashkar Gah. A policeman and two civilians
were wounded.
(AP, 1/26/07)
2007 Jan 28, Afghan Pres. Karzai
told House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that his security forces need to be
stronger as the two discussed possible US troop increases.
(AP, 1/28/07)
2007 Jan 30, Pakistan's PM
Musharraf appealed to the European Union to help repatriate some 3
million Afghan refugees, a move he said would help clear his country of
militants blamed for attacks in border regions.
(AP, 1/30/07)
2007 Jan 31, The Afghan Parliament
voted for an amnesty for leaders accused of war crimes during a
quarter-century of fighting, arguing that it would help heal deep
divisions.
(AP, 2/1/07)
2007 Jan, Kashmir Khan, Taliban
commander in Konar and Nuristan provinces, met for an interview
with a Western journalist. He noted that Taliban enlistees get paid
some $140 per month as compared to $100 paid by the Afghan National
Army.
(SSFC, 1/21/07, p.A12)
2007 Feb 1, The United States
presented hundreds of armored vehicles and trucks and thousands of
weapons to the Afghan army as Afghanistan braces for renewed fighting
with Taliban-led insurgents.
(AP, 2/1/07)
2007 Feb 1, The United States
presented hundreds of armored vehicles and trucks and thousands of
weapons to the Afghan army as Afghanistan braces for renewed fighting
with Taliban-led insurgents. In southern Afghanistan Taliban militants
overran Musa Qala, where a contentious peace agreement was negotiated
last fall, roaming through the town center, burning its government
compound and threatening elders. In eastern Paktika province coalition
aircraft dropped two bombs, killing as many as seven militants.
(AP, 2/1/07)(AP, 2/2/07)
2007 Feb 2, President Gen. Pervez
Musharraf said Pakistan will erect fencing to reinforce parts of its
porous mountain border with Afghanistan, acknowledging for the first
time that some outgunned Pakistani frontier guards have allowed
militants to cross. The United States handed over eight Cobra attack
helicopters to Pakistan, which is under growing pressure to stop
Taliban guerrillas crossing into Afghanistan to fight NATO
forces.
(AP, 2/2/07)(Reuters, 2/2/07)
2007 Feb 4, Gen. Dan McNeill, the
highest-ranking US general to lead troops in Afghanistan, took command
of 35,500 strong NATO-led force, putting an American face on the
international mission after nine months of British command under Gen.
David Richards. A NATO airstrike killed a senior Taliban leader riding
in a car near Musa Qala.
(AP, 2/4/07)
2007 Feb 9, Taliban militants
ambushed a truck full of Afghan police in southern Afghanistan, killing
four officers and injuring three. A separate gunfight left 11 Taliban
fighters dead.
(AP, 2/10/07)
2007 Feb 10, In Afghanistan a
suicide bomber detonated his vehicle near a NATO convoy outside
Kandahar city, killing himself but hurting no one else.
(AP, 2/10/07)
2007 Feb 11, Helmand’s provincial
governor said an estimated 700 foreign fighters are operating in a
southern Afghan province where Taliban fighters overran a town earlier
this month. Asserting a right to self-defense the commander of US
forces in the region said American forces in eastern Afghanistan have
launched artillery rounds into Pakistan to strike Taliban fighters who
attack remote US outposts. A US service member died of a gunshot wound
in northern Afghanistan.
(AP, 2/11/07)
2007 Feb 12, Helmand Governor
Asadullah Wafa said at least 700 Taliban fighters have crossed from
Pakistan into Afghanistan to reinforce guerrillas attacking the key
Kajaki dam, a major source of electricity and irrigation. Several
Taliban fighters were killed in an attack targeting a senior guerrilla
leader.
(Reuters, 2/12/07)
2007 Feb 14, NATO officials said
warplanes struck a Taliban compound in southern Afghanistan with
"precision munitions," killing an area commander and about 10 of his
men. Villagers said the raid in the southern province of Helmand also
killed civilians. NATO said Taliban fighters used children as human
shields to flee heavy fighting this week during an operation by foreign
and Afghan forces to clear rebels from around a key hydro-electric dam.
In eastern Afghanistan US-led troops killed a suspected militant and
detained 6 others, including one with alleged links to fugitive Taliban
leader Mullah Omar.
(AFP, 2/14/07)(Reuters, 2/14/07)(AP, 2/16/07)
2007 Feb 16, A rebel commander
said the Taliban have deployed 10,000 fighters for a spring offensive
of "bloody attacks" against foreign troops in Afghanistan.
(AP, 2/16/07)
2007 Feb 17, NATO-led forces in
southern Afghanistan shot to death an Afghan civilian mistaken for a
suicide bomber because of twine and straps protruding from his jacket.
(AP, 2/18/07)
2007 Feb 18, A US military
helicopter crashed in southeastern Afghanistan after its pilot reported
engine failure, killing eight American troops and wounding 14. A
roadside bomb killed four officers involved in opium poppy eradication
in Farah province. In western Ghor province a clash between poppy
farmers and police involved in eradication left one civilian dead and
two wounded.
(AP, 2/18/07)(AP, 2/19/07)
2007 Feb 19, In Afghanistan
suspected Taliban insurgents briefly captured Bakwa, a small town in
Farah province after police abandoned their posts.
(AP, 2/19/07)
2007 Feb 20, In eastern
Afghanistan a suicide attacker disguised as a health worker blew
himself up at a hospital opening ceremony, wounding at least 6 US
soldiers. An official said Afghan authorities raided dozens of
guesthouses suspected of illegally serving alcohol and arrested 14
people, including five foreigners, in a crackdown on vice in this
Islamic country.
(AP, 2/20/07)(WSJ, 2/21/07, p.A1)
2007 Feb 23, In Kabul some 25,000
people, including top government figures and former fighters, rallied
to support a proposed amnesty for Afghans suspected of war crimes.
(AP, 2/23/07)
2007 Feb 27, A suicide bomber
attacked the entrance to the main US military base in Afghanistan
during a visit by VP Dick Cheney, killing up to 23 people and wounding
20. In Kandahar a suicide attacker targeting Afghan police blew himself
up, wounding three people. Suspected Islamic militants captured and
beheaded an Afghan teacher whom they accused of being a spy for the US.
The man's body was found in a large sack dumped by a road near Jandola,
a town in the South Waziristan tribal district.
(AP, 2/27/07)(AP, 2/28/07)
2007 Mar 1, In western Afghanistan
a bomb targeting a provincial police chief's vehicle killed two people
and wounded 53. Authorities in Helmand province found the
bullet-riddled body of a kidnapped doctor.
(AFP, 3/1/07)
2007 Mar 2, In western Afghanistan
insurgents attacked a police post, leaving one police officer dead and
two wounded. A mortar round landed on a US military outpost in the same
Herat province, wounding 12 civilian Afghan workers and two Afghan
soldiers.
(AP, 3/3/07)
2007 Mar 3, A bomb blast in
western Afghanistan killed two Afghan civilians and wounded 17 others.
In southern Afghanistan 2 British soldiers were killed during a NATO
combat operation.
(AP, 3/3/07)(AFP, 3/4/07)
2007 Mar 4, In eastern Afghanistan
a suicide attack by an explosives-filled minivan hit an American
convoy. US Marine Special Forces fleeing a militant ambush opened fire
on civilian cars and pedestrians on a busy highway in Nangarhar
province. As many as 19 people were killed and 34 wounded in the
violence. The marine unit involved was soon ordered to leave
Afghanistan. The attack was carried out by a breakaway faction of
Hezb-e-Islami that was once led by Younis Khalis, a former mujahedeen
commander who died last year. The group is now believed to be led by a
son of Khalis. A US-led coalition airstrike destroyed a mud-brick home,
killing nine people from four generations of an Afghan family during a
clash between Western troops and militants. On May 23, 2008, Lt. Gen.
Samuel Helland, the commander of US Marine Corps Forces, Central
Command, decided not to bring charges after reviewing the findings of a
special tribunal.
(AP, 3/4/07)(AP, 3/5/07)(SFC, 3/24/07, p.A8)(SFC,
1/9/08, p.A13)(AP, 5/24/08)
2007 Mar 6, In southern
Afghanistan a remote-control bomb targeting a police vehicle on killed
one policeman and wounded another in the Murja district of Helmand
province. Afghan soldiers caught Mullah Mahmood, a senior Taliban
commander at a checkpoint in Kandahar province. He was wearing a burqa,
the all-encompassing Islamic veil worn by women. One British soldier
and four Taliban fighters were killed. A Canadian soldier died from a
gunshot wound to the chest. Enemy action was ruled out as the cause.
The Taliban claimed that it had kidnapped 4 journalists, including a
Briton and an Italian.
(AP, 3/6/07)(AP, 3/7/07)(WSJ, 3/7/07, p.A1)
2007 Mar 7, In Afghanistan NATO
forces fought Taliban militants in the second day of the alliance's
largest-ever offensive. Mullah Abdul Qassim, a top Taliban commander in
Helmand province told The Associated Press that his group has 4,000
fighters bracing to rebuff NATO's largest-ever offensive in southern
Afghanistan. Suicide bombers are ready, land mines have been planted
and helicopters will be targeted.
(AP, 3/7/07)
2007 Mar 8, Fugitive Afghan rebel
leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar used a video to tell The Associated Press
that his forces have ended cooperation with the Taliban and suggested
that he was open to talks with embattled President Hamid Karzai. In
northern Afghanistan gunmen killed a German aid worker and robbed his
three Afghan colleagues. A suicide bomber targeting a NATO convoy
wounded five civilians in the country's south.
(AP, 3/8/07)(AP, 3/8/07)
2007 Mar 9, In Afghanistan a
remote-controlled roadside bomb ripped through the vehicle of Mullah
Naqeeb, an influential pro-government tribal elder, injuring him and
nine others. 6 people died after being wounded in the bombing of the
armored vehicle. The Afghan elder played a key role in dealing with the
Taliban. Police detained five men in connection with the killing of a
German aid worker in northern Afghanistan. The five were detained in
the province of Sari Pul, where Dieter Ruebling, 65, worked for aid
group German Agro Action. Two gunmen killed Ruebling and robbed his
three Afghan colleagues after stopping their two vehicles near the
village of Mirza Wolang in Sayyad district.
(AP, 3/9/07)(AP, 3/10/07)
2007 Mar 10, Afghanistan's lower
house of parliament voted into law a revised resolution calling for an
amnesty for groups suspected of perpetrating war crimes during a
quarter century of fighting, but also recognizing the rights of victims
to seek justice. A top Taliban commander issued a chilling threat,
promising to kill a kidnapped Italian journalist unless the movement's
arrested spokesmen were freed and a date was set for the withdrawal of
Italian troops from Afghanistan. In southern Afghanistan clashes
between Afghan police and Taliban militants killed eight officers and
two Taliban. In Zabul Taliban militants attacked police on the main
highway between Kabul and Kandahar. A ½ hour gunfight left 2
Taliban dead and 4 wounded.
(AP, 3/10/07)(AFP, 3/10/07)(AP, 3/11/07)
2007 Mar 10, In a Web statement
Islamic militants threatened to attack Germany and Austria unless the
two European nations break ranks with the US and withdraw their
personnel from Afghanistan. A separate, previously unknown Iraqi
insurgent group released a video on the Web threatening to kill a
German woman and her son kidnapped in Iraq unless Germany withdrew its
troops from Afghanistan within 10 days.
(AP, 3/11/07)
2007 Mar 12, In southern
Afghanistan NATO and Afghan troops clashed with suspected insurgents,
shortly before calling in an airstrike on a compound that left two
militants dead.
(AP, 3/12/07)
2007 Mar 13, A suicide bomber
crossed the border from Pakistan into southern Afghanistan and blew
himself up in a crowded pedestrian area, killing three civilians and
wounding eight.
(AP, 3/13/07)
2007 Mar 14, In eastern
Afghanistan a suicide bomber struck near a police convoy killing 5
people with 38 wounded. Attacks elsewhere left 4 more dead. At least
six people were killed in an explosion in Kabul caused by gunpowder in
shops selling ammunition for hunting rifles. 9 others were injured. An
Italian journalist kidnapped in Afghanistan last week appeared in a
video shown on television appealing to Premier Romano Prodi to work for
his release.
(AFP, 3/14/07)(AP, 3/14/07)(AP, 3/14/07)(SFC,
3/15/07, p.A9)
2007 Mar 15, US-led coalition
forces mistakenly killed five Afghan police in a clash in a southern
province.
(AP, 3/16/07)
2007 Mar 17, In southern
Afghanistan a suicide bomber targeting a Canadian military convoy
killed a child and wounded a NATO soldier and three other people. More
than 1,400 artifacts, protected from looters and the Taliban since 1999
at a museum-in-exile in Switzerland, were returned to the National
Museum of Afghanistan. In western Afghanistan a two-hour clash between
suspected Taliban militants and police left two officers dead. Taliban
guerrillas chopped noses and ears of at least five truck drivers in
eastern Afghanistan as punishment for transporting supplies to US-led
troops.
(AP, 3/17/07)(AP, 3/18/07)(Reuters, 3/18/07)
2007 Mar 18, Afghanistan's Taliban
said it had handed an Italian journalist, whom it captured two weeks
ago and threatened to kill, to tribal elders pending a final deal for
his release.
(AP, 3/18/07)
2007 Mar 19, In Afghanistan
Italian reporter Daniele Mastrogiacomo (52), kidnapped on March 5, was
freed by the Taliban. His translator also was kidnapped and officials
hope he will be released. However, their driver, Sayed Agha, was
beheaded by the captors. The next day the Afghan government admitted to
exchanging 5 Taliban prisoners for the Italian hostage as the UN and US
led criticism of any negotiations with "terrorists." A suicide car
bomber attacked a three-vehicle US Embassy convoy on a dangerous road
in Kabul, killing an Afghan teenager and wounding 5 security personnel.
(AP, 3/19/07)(AP, 3/20/07)(AFP, 3/22/07)
2007 Mar 21, In Afghanistan Dutch
ministers urged the Afghan government to step up its presence and
development in the troubled south, where Taliban insurgents are most
entrenched, saying NATO cannot do it alone.
(AFP, 3/21/07)
2007 Mar 22, Fighting between
Afghan forces and Taliban militants in Helmand province killed at least
49 militants and 7 police in what appears to be the biggest independent
operation yet by Afghan forces. Taliban commanders tried to negotiate
an end to four days of battles between Pakistani tribesmen and foreign
Al-Qaeda militants that have left at least 120 dead.
(AP, 3/22/07)(AFP, 3/22/07)(AP, 3/23/07)
2007 Mar 23, Militants ambushed a
convoy carrying Afghan soldiers. In the ensuing clash, three suspected
Taliban were killed and six were wounded.
(AP, 3/24/07)
2007 Mar 23, In Pakistan Ali
Mohammed Jan Aurakzai, the North West Frontier Province governor, said
clashes between Pakistani tribesmen and foreign militants near the
Afghan border this week have left up to 160 people dead, including
about 130 Uzbek and Chechen fighters. Officials said warring tribesmen
and foreign Al-Qaeda militants have agreed to a ceasefire after four
days of bloodshed in the border region.
(AP, 3/23/07)
2007 Mar 24, In Afghanistan
militants attacked a police checkpoint near Tirin Kot in Uruzgan
province in a clash that left two police and six militants dead. Afghan
and US-led coalition troops repelled an attack by insurgents in eastern
Paktika province, leaving 12 militants dead. A joint force of Afghan
army, police and intelligence killed 11 Taliban militants in Lashkar
Gah, the capital of Helmand province. Separately, suspected Taliban
insurgents clashed with villagers in western Afghanistan, leaving three
militants killed and one villager wounded.
(AP, 3/24/07)(AP, 3/25/07)(AFP, 3/25/07)
2007 Mar 25, In Afghanistan
suspected Taliban militants attacked a district office in Wardak
province in a clash that left 15 militants and two officers dead. In
Ghazni province Afghan police and soldiers launched a joint operation
against militants in Andar district, which left five suspected Taliban
dead and seven wounded.
(AP, 3/27/07)
2007 Mar 26, A suicide bomber in a
car attacked a NATO convoy in the southern province of Kandahar,
killing himself but causing no alliance casualties. The US urged
European countries to provide more troops for Afghanistan and to free
them up for combat, as well as to provide further aid to the
war-shattered country.
(AP, 3/26/07)(AP, 3/27/07)
2007 Mar 27, In southern
Afghanistan a suicide attacker dressed in army uniform blew himself up
outside a provincial police headquarters, killing four policemen.
(AP, 3/27/07)
2007 Mar 28, In Afghanistan a
suicide bomber trying to blend in with street beggars exploded himself
near a top intelligence official in a crowded part of Kabul, killing
four people.
(AP, 3/28/07)
2007 Mar 29, A NATO soldier was
killed and three wounded during an operation in eastern Afghanistan.
Suspected Taliban militants attacked a checkpoint manned by Afghan
troops, leaving eight militants and five Afghan troops dead.
(AP, 3/30/07)(AP, 3/31/07)
2007 Mar, In Afghan a group of
parliamentarians and members of government formed the National Unity
Front. It proposed various constitutional reforms including the direct
election of provincial governors. Many of the Front’s members stood
accused of war crimes.
(Econ, 4/28/07, p.46)
2007 Apr 1, In southern
Afghanistan the Taliban executed three men accused of spying for NATO
and government forces. A NATO airstrike targeted a compound housing
Taliban militants in Shahjoy district of Zabul province, killing seven
suspected militants inside. NATO-led troops and police clashed with
suspected Taliban militants in Kandahar's Zhari district, leaving six
militants dead. In eastern Afghanistan flash floods caused by
torrential rains killed at least 16 people and destroyed dozens of
houses near the Hindu Kush mountain range.
(AP, 4/1/07)(AFP, 4/1/07)(AP, 4/2/07)
2007 Apr 2, In Afghanistan 3
police died when militants attacked a checkpoint on the road linking
the southern town of Kandahar with Spin Boldak on the
Pakistan-Afghanistan border.
(AP, 4/2/07)
2007 Apr 3, UN officials in
Afghanistan said avalanches and floods triggered by heavy rains and
spring snow melt have killed about 150 people in recent days in the
mountains of central Asia. The toll in Afghanistan reached 88 with over
50 killed in Pakistan. In southwest Afghanistan 2 French aid workers
and their three Afghan staff went missing between Nimroz and
neighboring Farah province.
(AP, 4/3/07)(AP, 4/4/07)
2007 Apr 6, in Afghanistan a
suicide car bomber hit a police checkpoint in Kabul, killing four
people, including a policeman who tried to stop him. Taliban rebels
seized control of Khak Afghan district in southern Zabul province.
(AP, 4/6/07)(AFP, 4/6/07)
2007 Apr 7, In southwestern
Afghanistan suspected Taliban militants ambushed Afghan workers of an
American de-mining company, leaving seven people dead and four wounded.
Officials said more than 1,000 NATO and Afghan troops clashed with
Taliban and took over control of Sangin, a district center in southern
Afghanistan long held by the militants.
(AP, 4/7/07)
2007 Apr 8, A purported spokesman
for the Taliban said the kidnapped translator for an Italian journalist
was killed in southern Afghanistan. In the eastern Paktika province,
two Afghan guards were killed and five wounded during a four-hour
firefight with Taliban militants. In eastern Khost province, a gunman
riding on the back of a motorcycle opened fire on Afghans working for
NATO's International Security Assistance Force, killing two of the men
and wounding another. In eastern Nangarhar province, a suicide car
bomber blew himself up next to a US-led coalition convoy. 2 roadside
bombs in southern Afghanistan left seven NATO soldiers dead. 6
Canadians died in one of the 2 blasts.
(AP, 4/8/07)(AP, 4/9/07)
2007 Apr 9, Suspected Taliban
militants ambushed an Afghan army convoy with rocket propelled grenades
in southern Afghanistan, killing two soldiers and wounding up to 14.
Suspected Taliban attacked a police vehicle north of Kandahar city,
leaving a policeman dead.
(AP, 4/10/07)
2007 Apr 11, In southern
Afghanistan a suicide car bomber struck a NATO convoy, wounding seven
civilians, while a US-led coalition airstrike killed 13 suspected
militants. Another bomb blast in the south killed two Canadian soldiers
and wounded three others.
(AP, 4/11/07)(AP, 4/12/07)
2007 Apr 12, In southern
Afghanistan a US-led coalition and Afghan troops backed by aircraft
clashed with suspected Taliban fighters, leaving more than 35 militants
dead. Roadside bombs struck two NATO convoys in the east, killing two
soldiers. US and Afghan troops rescued five civilian contractors pinned
down by small arms fire from insurgents in central Afghanistan after
their helicopter made an emergency landing. A coalition aircraft
attacked the militants, killing three. The contractors were evacuated
to a nearby coalition base.
(AP, 4/13/07)
2007 Apr 13, A firefight in
southern Afghanistan killed one NATO soldier and wounded two others.
Eight suspected insurgents were killed by British forces west of Basra.
The suspects had been planting bombs in the path of a British patrol.
(AP, 4/13/07)(AP, 4/14/07)
2007 Apr 14, In eastern
Afghanistan a suicide bomber blew himself up next to several Afghan
border policemen, leaving at least seven officers dead and six others
wounded. 3 suspected militants carrying explosives on their bodies were
killed when their bombs went off just outside the southern city of
Ghazni. Also in Ghazni, two Afghan army soldiers were killed when their
vehicle struck a roadside bomb in the province's Ander district.
(AP, 4/14/07)(AFP, 4/14/07)
2007 Apr 15, Afghanistan's
government promised to end all hostage deals with the Taliban after two
Afghan kidnap victims were executed in an agreement to free an Italian
journalist. In southern Afghanistan a suicide bomber targeted a
private US security firm, killing up to four Afghans working for the
company and wounding another. In Ghazni province, southwest of Kabul, a
clash between Afghan forces and insurgents left 15 militants dead and
15 wounded. Police and US-led coalition forces attacked suspected
Taliban insurgents crossing from Pakistan into Afghanistan, killing 10
militants and wounding 15.
(AFP, 4/15/07)(AP, 4/16/07)
2007 Apr 16, In northern
Afghanistan a suicide bomber ran onto a police training field in Kunduz
and blew himself up, killing up to 10 policemen and wounding dozens of
others.
(AP, 4/16/07)
2007 Apr 17, US Marine Gen. Peter
Pace said US-led coalition forces in southern Afghanistan recently
intercepted Iranian-made weapons that were being shipped to Taliban
fighters. A roadside bomb hit a United Nations vehicle in southern
Afghanistan's main city, killing four Nepalese guards and an Afghan
driver. An old artillery shell exploded outside a school compound in
the western city of Herat, killing four children and wounding five
others. Afghan troops searched a compound and discovered 18 rocket
propelled grenades and 27 AK-47 weapons. The compound's guard later
confessed that he commanded more than 100 Taliban fighters. Staff at
Tolo TV, the leading Afghan independent broadcaster, were beaten by
police. Attorney general Abdul Jabar Sabet had ordered their arrest
because he objected to the editing of an interview he had given. Tolo
aired footage of the raid.
(AP, 4/17/07)(SFC, 4/18/07, p.A9)(AP, 4/19/07)
2007 Apr 18, More than 100
journalists protested a police raid ordered by Afghanistan's attorney
general on a private TV station that has fueled concern over growing
government harassment of the media. Afghan and US-led coalition forces
clashed with Taliban fighters and called in an airstrike in southern
Afghanistan, leaving 24 suspected militants dead and two coalition
soldiers wounded. Three other suspected militants were reported killed
in the western provinces. In eastern Afghanistan coalition and Afghan
forces arrested five suspected al-Qaida. A US-led coalition convoy hit
a boy in Kabul and killed him.
(AP, 4/18/07)(AP, 4/19/07)
2007 Apr 20, A purported Taliban
statement demanded the release of a number of the group's fighters and
the withdrawal of French troops from Afghanistan in exchange for the
freedom of two kidnapped French aid workers. In southern Afghanistan
separate explosions killed two NATO soldiers. A Dutch soldier was
killed in one explosion, the first fatality from hostile action among
Dutch troops serving with NATO forces in the country.
(AP, 4/20/07)(AP, 4/21/07)
2007 Apr 21, Taliban insurgents
vowed a new round of attacks against Afghan and foreign troops in the
war-torn country, promising to focus more attention on the
relatively-peaceful north. Suspected Taliban militants ambushed a
police patrol in eastern Afghanistan in a clash that left five
militants and one police officer dead. NATO-led troops shot and killed
a suspected militant and wounded another in the south. In Nangarhar
province US and Afghan troops killed one person and detained nine
others during a raid on a compound.
(AFP, 4/21/07)(AP, 4/21/07)(AP, 4/22/07)
2007 Apr 22, In eastern
Afghanistan 2 suicide bombers blew themselves up in Khost, killing 11
civilians and wounding over 40 others. In Paktia province, a mob of
Taliban fighters ambushed a police patrol, kicking off a three-hour
battle that left 5 Taliban dead. Assailants in Laghman province bombed
an intelligence service vehicle in an attack that killed two
intelligence service officers, a soldier and a driver in the provincial
capital of Mehtar Lam. In Ghazni province assailants abducted and
beheaded an Afghan intelligence service employee.
(AFP, 4/22/07)(AP, 4/23/07)
2007 Apr 23, In Afghanistan
assailants in Laghman province struck an intelligence service vehicle
with a remote-controlled bomb, killing six employees and wounding
three. In Zabul province, a roadside bomb hit police as they were
patrolling in Shamulzayi district, killing two policemen and wounding
five others.
(AP, 4/23/07)
2007 Apr 24, Afghan and
international forces clashed overnight with Taliban insurgents in two
separate gun battles in the south and west, leaving 13 militants dead
and four other people wounded. Five more “enemy elements" were killed
in the northeastern province of Kunar in an operation by troops from
the Afghan security forces and US-led coalition. Militants ambushed a
police car in the west, killing four officers, in the Guzara district
in Herat province. Fighting in Ghazni province left three construction
company guards and seven Taliban dead.
(AFP, 4/24/07)(AFP, 4/25/07)
2007 Apr 25, In eastern
Afghanistan a roadside bomb attack on an Afghan military convoy left
seven soldiers dead. A suicide attacker blew himself up close to the
vehicle of a district governor of Paktika. Militants ambushed a police
vehicle in the western province of Herat overnight and killed three
policemen. Afghan police and US special troops clashed with foreign
militants in eastern Afghanistan, killing at least five militants.
(AP, 4/25/07)(AP, 4/26/07)
2007 Apr 26, More than 100
suspected Taliban attacked Giro, setting fire to buildings and cutting
telephone lines. The district mayor, police chief and three policemen
were killed during several hours of fighting. It was estimated that
about 10 of the militants also died.
(AP, 4/27/07)
2007 Apr 27, Hundreds of Afghan
soldiers and police retook the Giro district from the Taliban, pushing
out militants who had seized the area in fierce fighting a day earlier.
(AP, 4/27/07)
2007 Apr 28, Richard Holbrooke,
the former US ambassador to the UN, said Afghanistan's US-backed
government, tarnished by corruption and unable to control large swaths
of its own territory, is rapidly losing the support of ordinary Afghans.
(AP, 4/28/07)
2007 Apr 28, The Taliban freed a
female French aid worker who was kidnapped more than three weeks ago,
but demanded the withdrawal of French troops or release of prisoners
for the freedom of a French man and three Afghans still being held.
Afghan and coalition forces clashed with Taliban militants in separate
incidents in the east and south, killing 21 insurgents.
(AFP, 4/28/07)(AP, 4/28/07)
2007 Apr 29, Hundreds of angry
protesters chanting "Death to Bush" demonstrated in eastern Afghanistan
after six people, including a woman and a teenage girl, were reportedly
killed when US-led coalition and Afghan forces raided a suspected car
bomb cell. Afghanistan's education minister said at least 85 students
and teachers were killed last year in attacks blamed on insurgents who
oppose education for girls and teaching boys anything other than
religion. In western Afghanistan coalition and Afghan forces attacked
the insurgents and called in an airstrike, destroying seven Taliban
positions and killing 87 fighters during a 14-hour engagement in Herat
province.
(AP, 4/29/07)(AP, 4/30/07)
2007 Apr 30, The presidents of
Afghanistan and Pakistan, a meeting arranged by Turkish leaders, agreed
to share intelligence on extremist groups to bolster efforts to deny
sanctuary, training and financing to terrorists in both countries.
NATO-led troops killed 75 suspected insurgents on the first day of an
operation against Taliban militants in a valley in southern Helmand
province. Hundreds of people demonstrated in the Shindand district of
the western province of Herat, after coalition and Afghan operations
there on April 27 and 29, insisting that civilians were among the
victims. Police the next day said at least 30 civilians, including
women and children, were among those killed in Shindand's fighting. The
US military reported killing 136 rebels over 3 days of fighting in
western Afghanistan. One US soldier died in the clashes.
(AP, 4/30/07)(AP, 5/1/07)(AFP, 5/1/07)(WSJ, 5/1/07,
p.A1)
2007 May 2, Afghan regional
officials said that 51 villagers, some of them women and children, were
killed in recent fighting in western Afghanistan. The US-led coalition
said it had no reports of civilian deaths.
(AP, 5/2/07)
2007 May 3, A remote-control bomb
hit an Afghan army bus in Kabul, killing the driver and wounding 29
people, including 22 soldiers.
(AP, 5/3/07)
2007 May 5, Four suicide bombings
struck Afghanistan, killing two policemen, as military officials
announced more than 10 Taliban commanders were killed in major battles
a week ago.
(AP, 5/5/07)
2007 May 6, In eastern Afghanistan
a roadside bomb killed 5 police and wounded two others, while a clash
in the west left eight police and at least four suspected militants
dead. An Afghan soldier shot and killed two US troops and wounded 2
others outside Pul-e-Charkhi prison. The next day Defense Ministry
spokesman Zahir Azimi said the Afghan soldier was mentally ill. A bus
crashed in northern Afghanistan, sparking a fire that left nine people
dead and 25 injured.
(AP, 5/6/07)(AP, 5/7/07)
2007 May 7, In Afghanistan a
rocket slammed into a street outside an apartment building in Kabul,
killing one man and wounding five other people including a small boy.
(AP, 5/7/07)
2007 May 8, Afghanistan's upper
house of parliament passed a bill calling for a halt to all
international military operations unless coordinated with the Afghan
government, action seen as a rebuke of the international mission here.
In southern Afghanistan suspected Taliban militants ambushed a NATO
convoy, and a gunshot victim said soldiers fleeing the scene shot him
and killed a man in a bakery. Airstrikes called in by US Special Forces
soldiers fighting with insurgents killed at least 21 civilians in the
Sangin area of Helmand province. One coalition soldier was also killed.
The US military apologized and paid compensation to the families of 19
people killed and 50 wounded by US Marines Special Forces who fired
indiscriminately on civilians after being hit by a suicide attack in
eastern Afghanistan in March. Residents claimed that over 60 people
were killed by the bombing.
(AP, 5/8/07)(AP, 5/9/07)(SFC, 5/11/07, p.A20)
2007 May 8, NATO Secretary General
Jaap de Hoop Scheffer and President Pervez Musharraf agreed to
strengthen security along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border to contain
the Taliban insurgency.
(AP, 5/8/07)
2007 May 9, Afghan civilians
fought with Taliban militants who hit a checkpoint near Sangin, leaving
three of the attackers dead. A suicide car bomber killed two Afghans
and wounded five when he detonated his car in the eastern Paktika
province.
(AP, 5/10/07)
2007 May 10, In Afghanistan new
airstrikes in the Sangin area killed 10 Taliban fighters after the
insurgents ambushed a patrol. A Taliban commander said the militant
group kidnapped Uruzgan governor spokesman Qayum Qayumi. 4 policemen
and two more insurgents were killed when fighting erupted after a group
of the extremist militants attacked a police post.
(AP, 5/10/07)(AP, 5/11/07)
2007 May 10, The Pakistani
military said it has completed building a fence on a first section of
its border with Afghanistan, a disputed measure designed to prevent
militants from crossing the mountainous frontier.
(AP, 5/10/07)
2007 May 12, Afghan lawmakers
voted to oust the foreign minister over the mishandling of the
expulsion of Afghan refugees from neighboring Iran. Mullah Dadullah,
the Taliban's most prominent military commander, was killed in a US-led
military operation in southern Afghanistan. The one-legged fighter had
orchestrated ethnic massacre and a rash of beheadings. Around 55
Taliban fighters were killed in two battles near the Pakistan border.
(AP, 5/12/07)(AP, 5/13/07)(AFP, 5/13/07)
2007 May 12, Eric Damfreville, a
French aid worker, returned to France after five weeks in Taliban
captivity in Afghanistan and made a plea for his captors to free three
Afghans seized with him.
(AP, 5/12/07)
2007 May 13, In Afghanistan 9
policemen lost their lives in fresh attacks. Pakistani and Afghan
forces exchanged fire at their rugged border in their most serious
skirmish in years. Pakistan claimed it killed six Afghan soldiers, but
Afghanistan said just two Afghan civilians were killed.
(AP, 5/13/07)
2007 May 14, In Pakistan militants
opened fire on a group of US, Afghan and Pakistani military officials
meeting near the Afghan border, killing one American and a Pakistani
soldier. Karachi storefronts were shuttered and the streets of the
commercial hub emptied of cars on as residents angry over a weekend of
deadly political violence honored a general strike called amid growing
discontent over President Gen. Pervez Musharraf's ouster of the chief
justice.
(AP, 5/14/07)
2007 May 15, The US military said
former Guantanamo detainees have organized a jailbreak in Afghanistan,
kidnapped Chinese engineers and taken leadership positions with the
Taliban. In southern Afghanistan at least 11 suspected Taliban and
possibly dozens more were killed by airstrikes on Taliban compounds in
the Zhari district of Kandahar province.
(AP, 5/15/07)
2007 May 17, In southern
Afghanistan 2 coordinated bomb blasts killed seven people, including
three police responding to the first explosion. In western Afghanistan
airstrikes in Farah province targeted a convoy of suspected Taliban
militants who had left a meeting, killing 14 and wounding 10. In
Kandahar a suicide car bomber rammed a government convoy, killing three
bystanders and wounding Information and Culture Minister Abdul Karim
Khurram.
(AP, 5/17/07)(AP, 5/18/07)
2007 May 18, The Taliban said it
had arrested a close aide to the rebel movement's slain commander
Mullah Dadullah for treachery that led to his killing. Soldiers from
the Afghan army and a coalition led by the US killed 67 Taliban in an
ambush in the eastern province of Paktia, near the border with Pakistan.
(AFP, 5/18/07)(AFP, 5/19/07)
2007 May 19, In northern
Afghanistan a suicide attacker detonated himself next to German
soldiers shopping in a crowded market in Kunduz, killing 3 German
soldiers and 6 Afghan civilians with 16 people wounded. A district
police chief and a bodyguard were killed in a bomb blast in the eastern
province of Nangarhar.
(AFP, 5/19/07)
2007 May 20, In eastern
Afghanistan a suicide bomber on foot detonated himself in a crowded
market just after a US convoy drove by, killing at least 14 people and
wounding 31. Suspected insurgents ambushed a US-led coalition and
Afghan patrol, sparking a battle and airstrikes that killed 25
suspected insurgents in Helmand province. A suicide bomber walked into
a crowded market in the eastern city of Gardez and blew himself up,
killing 14 people and wounding 31. In eastern Nangarhar province, a
roadside bomb hit a police vehicle in the district of Dara-I-Nur,
killing two policemen and wounding seven others. A British soldier died
of wounds from an accident at a British military base in Sangin.
(AP, 5/20/07)(AP, 5/21/07)
2007 May 21, Afghanistan's lower
house of parliament voted to oust an outspoken female lawmaker who has
enraged former mujahedeen fighters now in President Hamid Karzai's
US-backed government. Malalai Joya (29) had compared parliament to a
stable full of animals in a recent TV interview. A parliament rule
known as Article 70 forbids lawmakers from criticizing one another.
(AP, 5/21/07)
2007 May 23, A bomb in northern
Afghanistan killed a Finnish soldier and an Afghan civilian, while a
suicide attacker in Kabul killed two people, including a policeman. Two
operations in southern Afghanistan killed 18 suspected militants,
including seven "foreigners," while six people died when a stash of
ammunition exploded in the east.
(AP, 5/23/07)(AP, 5/24/07)
2007 May 24, In Afghanistan Sayed
Gulab, a suspect with "extensive connections" with other senior Taliban
and al-Qaida leaders in Nangarhar and Pakistan, was detained and held
in a coalition facility.
(AP, 5/26/07)
2007 May 24, The US Congress
passed a spending bill, providing $95 billion for the wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan. Pres. Bush signed the bill the next day.
(AP, 5/26/07)
2007 May 25, In southern
Afghanistan a NATO soldier from Canada was killed and two other NATO
soldiers were wounded in overnight attacks by Taliban fighters. 7
Taliban fighters, including two local commanders, were killed in a
joint coalition-Afghan operation in Gereshk district of southern
Helmand province.
(AFP, 5/25/07)(AP, 5/26/07)
2007 May 26, In southern
Afghanistan an explosion during a fight with Taliban militants killed a
British soldier. US-led coalition and Afghan forces detained a Taliban
commander and two suspected al-Qaida militants in the east. In Kandahar
3 policemen and a civilian passer-by were wounded in a suicide attack.
Gen. Mohammad Doud said Afghan forces have eradicated some 64,250 acres
of poppies this year compared with 39,000 acres last year. Officials
expected from 407,715 acres to 482,000 acres of poppies to be
cultivated this year.
(AP, 5/26/07)(AFP, 5/26/07)
2007 May 27, The Taliban released
3 Afghan aid workers, who were kidnapped with two French colleagues
nearly two months ago. The Taliban launched a new operation targeting
government and foreign forces in Afghanistan. A roadside bomb killed
three Afghan security guards working for the coalition in the east.
Taliban militants ambushed US-led coalition and Afghan forces escorting
supply trucks in southern Afghanistan, sparking a 10-hour battle the
coalition said killed an estimated two dozen militants. Villagers said
7 civilians also died.
(AP, 5/27/07)(AP, 5/28/07)
2007 May 28, In northern
Afghanistan a demonstration against a governor left at least seven dead
and 31 injured after gunfire broke out between police and protesters. A
suicide bomber targeted foreigners in a four-wheel drive vehicle,
killing two Afghan civilians and wounding two others in Kunduz. It was
reported that truck drivers in Afghanistan had more problems with
police demanding bribes that with the Taliban.
(AP, 5/28/07)(SFC, 5/28/07, p.A10)
2007 May 30, Afghan and US-led
coalition forces clashed with Taliban militants in eastern Afghanistan,
leaving six suspected insurgents dead and one wounded. A roadside bomb
killed four policemen and wounded another in the southern province of
Uruzgan. A CH-47 Chinook helicopter was shot down by Taliban militants
in an attack that killed everyone on board, five US soldiers, a
Canadian and a Briton. In western Farah province, insurgents attacked
the Pusht Rod district, and ensuing clashes with police left 10
militants dead and 15 wounded.
(AP, 5/30/07)(AP, 5/31/07)
2007 May 30, Afghanistan and
Pakistan agreed to increase cooperation after meeting with Group of
Eight foreign ministers amid concerns that enmity between the neighbors
is helping the Taliban inflict mounting losses on NATO troops and
Afghan civilians.
(AP, 5/31/07)
2007 May 31, A Taliban ambush
killed 16 policemen in a convoy on its way from the south to Kabul. A
battle pitting NATO and Afghan troops against Taliban fighters in
southern Afghanistan killed 20 militants. Taliban commander called
Mullah Naqibullah was among the dead. Taliban fighters attacked the
home of a police official in Zurmat district of Paktia province. Police
reinforcements were called in, sparking a battle that left six Taliban
dead. Five rockets were fired from the top of a mountain in Kunar
province, hitting several civilian homes and killing two women.
(AFP, 5/31/07)(AP, 5/31/07)(AP, 6/1/07)
2007 Jun 1, In Afghanistan a NATO
soldier was killed in a bomb blast while two Afghan women and a
policeman died in attacks elsewhere linked to a deepening Taliban
insurgency.
(AP, 6/1/07)
2007 Jun 2, A boat crossing the
Helmand River in Helmand province sank, and at least 60 Taliban
militants were killed. Suspected Taliban militants attacked a local
police commander's home, killing five of his family members and
sparking a gunbattle with police that left 10 insurgents dead. In
eastern Afghanistan suspected militants ambushed a NATO convoy, killing
two members of the alliance and wounding 7 troops. 15 suspected
militants were killed by police. In eastern Khost province, militants
attacked a police checkpoint in Yaqubi district and the ensuing clash
left 12 militants dead. Police clashed with Taliban militants in
neighboring Paktika province's Shakin district, leaving three suspected
insurgents dead.
(AP, 6/2/07)(AFP, 6/3/07)(AP, 6/3/07)
2007 Jun 3, In Afghanistan 3
"enemies of peace and stability" were killed when a bomb they were
planting exploded in the eastern province of Laghman. An Afghan army
soldier was killed and another was injured by a remotely-controlled
Taliban bomb in Zabul province.
(AFP, 6/4/07)
2007 Jun 4, US Defense Secretary
Robert Gates said Iranian weapons have begun flowing into Afghanistan,
but he and Afghan President Hamid Karzai agreed involvement by Tehran
cannot yet be proved. Six Taliban rebels were killed in a gunfight with
Afghan and NATO-led troops in the eastern province of Paktia. Afghan
forces sank a boat in the Helmand River carrying suspected Taliban
fighters fleeing an attack, and more than 20 drowned. In a separate
gunbattle and airstrikes killed an estimated two dozen militants.
Roadside bombs killed two Afghan soldiers and wounded five in southern
Afghanistan.
(AP, 6/4/07)(AFP, 6/4/07)(AP, 6/5/07)
2007 Jun 6, In southern
Afghanistan 2 NATO soldiers died battling militants, while US-led and
Afghan troops backed by airstrikes killed two militants and detained
nine others. In northern Afghanistan 3 gunmen fatally shot a female
owner of a radio station. A battle and airstrikes in southern
Afghanistan left 30 suspected Taliban dead or wounded.
(AP, 6/6/07)(AP, 6/7/07)
2007 Jun 7, In Afghanistan 6
people were arrested in the killing of a woman who owned a radio
station. 4 kidnapped Afghan medical workers were released after the
body of a slain top Taliban commander was retrieved by his family.
Suspected militants attacked a government compound in the Daychopan
district of Zabul province, killing a policeman and wounding 3 others.
An Afghan soldier was killed in a mine explosion in Zabul province. In
eastern Nangarhar province, coalition and Afghan troops killed a
militant during a firefight in Khogyani district. In Arghistan
district, a police operation against Taliban fighters killed or wounded
nine of the militants. In Zabul province, a two-hour gun battle killed
one policeman and four Taliban.
(AP, 6/7/07)(AP, 6/8/07)
2007 Jun 8, Afghan Attorney
General Abdul Jabar Sabet, a critic of some of the country's factional
leaders and former warlords, was set upon in the middle of a traffic
jam just outside Kabul by Gen. Din Mohammad Jurat, a senior official at
the Interior Ministry. A roadside bomb exploded in Kandahar's Panjwayi
district, killing three police officers and wounding four in a police
vehicle. In the Spin Boldak district a roadside bomb killed two
policemen and wounded three others in a border police vehicle.
(Reuters, 6/8/07)(AP, 6/9/07)
2007 Jun 9, In Afghanistan
militants attacked three separate posts in Murghab district of Badghis
province, sparking a six-hour long battle that left 20 suspected
Taliban and two police killed. In southern Zabul province, NATO and
Afghan troops clashed with militants and called in airstrikes, leaving
27 suspected Taliban insurgents dead in the district of Shinkay.
(AP, 6/10/07)
2007 Jun 10, In central
Afghanistan Taliban militants fired rockets near a school yard where
President Hamid Karzai was meeting with local leaders and residents in
an apparent assassination attempt, but no one was hurt.
(AP, 6/10/07)
2007 Jun 11, In Afghanistan’s
eastern Khost province, a suicide car bomber blew himself up as police
were approaching to search his vehicle at a checkpoint in Gurbuz
district. The US-led coalition and Afghan troops killed more than 24
suspected Taliban fighters during a battle in the south.
(AP, 6/11/07)(AP, 6/13/07)
2007 Jun 12, Afghan police in
Nangarhar province mistook US troops on a nighttime mission for Taliban
fighters and opened fire on them, prompting US forces to return fire
and call in attack aircraft. 8 Afghan police were killed. Gunmen on
motorbikes killed two schoolgirls in central Afghanistan. NATO and
Afghan forces killed 12 Taliban fighters in Zabul province. A suicide
bomber killed one policeman and wounded two in southern Helmand
province.
(AP, 6/12/07)(AP, 6/13/07)
2007 Jun 13, A senior US diplomat
said NATO has intercepted Iranian weapons shipments to Afghanistan's
Taliban insurgents, providing evidence Iran is violating international
law to aid a group it once considered a bitter enemy. The Taliban
claimed to have captured a NATO trooper. 20 militants were killed in
the Shah Wali Kot district of Kandahar province. In nearby Zhari
district six Taliban fighters were killed, including one commander. In
southern Ghazni province 7 Taliban were killed and 4 others detained by
police. A suicide attacker detonated his bomb near an Afghan army
brigade commander in Gereshk district of Helmand province. In western
Farah province two Afghans doing repair work on police vehicles were
killed by Taliban militants. US-led coalition and Afghan troops killed
a suspected militant and detained three others in a raid on a compound
in eastern Afghanistan.
(AP, 6/13/07)(AFP, 6/13/07)(AP, 6/14/07)
2007 Jun 15, In southern
Afghanistan 2 suicide attackers blew themselves up near NATO convoys,
killing five Afghan children, four civilian men and a foreign soldier.
A soldier of the US-led coalition died from a combat wound after a
clash in the eastern province of Paktika.
(AP, 6/15/07)
2007 Jun 15, Iran was reported to
have denied allegations of abuse saying it has forced Afghan laborers
back home because the 1.5 million undocumented migrants are an enormous
burden on its economy.
(AP, 6/15/07)
2007 Jun 16, In Afghanistan
suicide bombers targeting foreign forces struck two Afghan cities,
killing four civilians, and a US soldier at one of the attacks
"accidentally" shot dead a bystander. Hundreds of Taliban fighters
launched raids on police posts near the strategic town of Chora in
Uruzgan province, forcing NATO, backed by fighter jets, to respond.
(AFP, 6/16/07)(AP, 6/19/07)
2007 Jun 17, An enormous bomb
ripped through a police academy bus at Kabul's busiest transportation
hub, killing at least 35 people in the deadliest insurgent attack in
Afghanistan since the US-led invasion in 2001. The dead included 22
police academy instructors and 13 bystanders. The Taliban claimed
responsibility. In Paktika province US-led jets targeted a compound
that also contained a mosque and a madrassa, or Islamic school,
resulting in the death of seven boys, ages 10 to 16.
(AP, 6/17/07)(AP, 6/18/07)(Econ, 6/23/07, p.51)
2007 Jun 18, Afghan officials said
more than 100 people, including militants, civilians and police, have
died in three days of fierce clashes between NATO forces and Taliban
fighters in southern Afghanistan. Insurgents said they had captured
mountainous Myanishen district in the southern province of Kandahar.
(AP, 6/18/07)(AFP, 6/19/07)
2007 Jun 19, Fierce clashes
between Taliban militants and NATO and Afghan forces left more than 100
people dead over the last three days in Uruzgan province. Police
clashed with insurgents and retook control of Miya Nishin district in
Kandahar. Hours later provincial police chief forces lost Ghorak
district in the same province to the militants. A mosque attack
occurred in Ismail Kheil in Khost province. Two unidentified men
entered the building and fatally shot three people while wounding four
others.
(AP, 6/19/07)(AP, 6/20/07)
2007 Jun 20, In eastern
Afghanistan gunmen opened fire on people praying in a mosque, killing
three and wounding four others. A series of roadside bombings in
Afghanistan killed eight people, including three Canadian NATO
soldiers. One bomb blew up a police vehicle in the eastern province of
Khost, killing Qalandar district police chief Ali Mohammad and one of
his men. An ambush on a convoy belonging to UN's Office for Project
Services on the main Kabul-Kandahar highway, killed two Afghan guards.
Another bomb exploded on a road in Ghazni province and killed a man who
was cycling home after buying groceries. Fighting in Paktika province
between US-led troops and suspected Taliban left 8 militants and a
policeman dead.
(AP, 6/20/07)(AFP, 6/20/07)(AP, 6/21/07)
2007 Jun 21, In eastern
Afghanistan a land mine explosion killed a NATO soldier and wounded
four more. An official said the UN World Food Program has halted aid
deliveries in Afghanistan's most volatile provinces after 85 of its
trucks were attacked, set ablaze or looted in the last year by Taliban
insurgents and thieves.
(AP, 6/21/07)
2007 Jun 22, In southern
Afghanistan Taliban militants attacked police posts, triggering NATO
airstrikes overnight which killed 20 suspected militants, but also 25
civilians, including 9 women, 3 babies and the mullah at the local
mosque 9 miles northeast of Gereshk town. NATO and US-led coalition
forces killed 60 insurgents near the border with Pakistan, in what was
described as the largest insurgent formation crossing the region in six
months. Pakistan's army said a rocket fired during the battle hit a
house on its territory, killing nine civilians. In Helmand province an
attack on US-led coalition troops left one soldier dead and two others
wounded.
(AP, 6/22/07)(AP, 6/23/07)
2007 Jun 24, In Afghanistan a
roadside bomb hit a convoy of British troops, wounding one soldier and
prompting them to open fire in a civilian area in insurgency-plagued
Helmand province, killing one man.
(AP, 6/24/07)
2007 Jun 26, Tropical cyclone
Yemyin lashed Pakistan's coastline with heavy rains and strong winds,
killing over 400 people. 250,000 people were left homeless. Flooding
killed more than 50 people in neighboring Afghanistan.
(AFP, 6/26/07)(AFP, 6/27/07)(AFP, 6/28/07)
2007 Jun 28, A suicide car bomber
hit a convoy of security contractors in Kabul, killing two US nationals
and an Afghan woman and wounding three other Americans. The last of 18
mine clearing experts seized by the Taliban at the weekend were
released unharmed, but the insurgent group has kept hold of key
detection equipment as well as 3 specialist sniffer dogs. The Taliban
beheaded a boy (15) in Zabul province after accusing him of spying for
US forces. The headless body of Mir Zaman, who had been working as a
translator for NATO-led troops in the eastern province of Paktia, was
found in Logar province.
(AFP, 6/28/07)(Reuters, 6/28/07)(AFP, 6/29/07)
2007 Jun 29, Afghan and foreign
troops killed four men in anti-Taliban raids in the eastern province of
Nangarhar. A villager said the dead were innocent people: a father, two
sons and a nephew from the same family. Police reported that four
Taliban were killed and two policemen were injured in two clashes, one
in Zabul and one in Paktia. In southern Afghanistan US-led coalition
airstrikes left at least 30 people, including women and children,
killed or wounded. In the southern Sangin district. An investigation
the next day found that 62 insurgents had been killed. Afghan officials
also said that 45 civilians were killed. NATO-led and Afghan troops
clashed with Taliban fighters, leaving 15 militants dead. 3 children
were killed and another wounded when an old rocket they were playing
with exploded in Zabul province.
(AFP, 6/29/07)(AP, 6/30/07)(AP, 7/1/07)
2007 Jul 1, In Afghanistan a
suicide attacker on foot blew himself up near a convoy of British
forces in Gereshk district. One NATO soldier was killed and several
soldiers and civilians wounded in the attack. A suicide car bomber
killed one Afghan soldier and wounded eight others in the central
province of Wardak.
(AP, 7/1/07)
2007 Jul 2, In southern
Afghanistan a roadside bomb destroyed a police vehicle on patrol,
killing all 7 policemen on board. A doctor at Kandahar's main hospital
said NATO forces killed one man and wounded 3. Taliban militants
ambushed a police patrol in the Mizan district, killing one policeman.
A 30-minute gun battle ensued, leaving 3 suspected Taliban dead.
(AP, 7/2/07)(AP, 7/3/07)
2007 Jul 3, Afghan and NATO forces
clashed with Taliban militants in the southern Zhari district of
Kandahar overnight, leaving 33 suspected insurgents dead. US-led
coalition troops killed a suspected militant and detained two others
during an operation in eastern Afghanistan. Yousuf Ibrahim (35),
from Saudi Arabia, was detained after a brief scuffle with police in
Kabul. He had spent the last 8 years in Afghanistan, fighting alongside
the Taliban.
(AP, 7/3/07)
2007 Jul 4, In southern
Afghanistan a roadside bomb hit a NATO vehicle, killing six Canadian
soldiers and their Afghan interpreter.
(Reuters, 7/5/07)
2007 Jul 5, A suicide bomber in
southern Afghanistan blew himself up at a checkpoint, killing 10 police
and wounding 11. A roadside bomb and clashes in the east left 3 NATO
soldiers dead. In Uruzgan province 33 Taliban fighters were killed.
(AP, 7/6/07)(AFP, 7/6/07)(AP, 7/7/07)
2007 Jul 6, Afghan and US-led
coalition troops, using artillery and airstrikes, killed 33 Taliban
fighters after the insurgents attacked a police checkpoint in southern
Uruzgan province. Officials said fighting in three separate regions of
Afghanistan left more than 100 militants dead. About 60 militants died
in a battle in Kunar province, but reports of civilian deaths were not
confirmed. The next day a Kunar provincial deputy police chief said
that 25 civilians and 20 militants were killed in clashes over three
days.
(AP, 7/6/07)(AP, 7/7/07)
2007 Jul 7, In Kandahar province
Taliban fighters ambushed police traveling in between Ghorak and
Mawiwand, sparking a six-hour battle. About 20 Taliban fighters were
wounded in the engagement, and several police were missing. Taliban
fighters beheaded two civilians they accused of being spies for the
government or NATO. A roadside blast struck a NATO convoy in southern
Afghanistan and wounded four alliance soldiers.
(AP, 7/7/07)(AP, 7/9/07)
2007 Jul 9, Afghan troops and the
US-led coalition conducting a nighttime raid killed a Taliban leader
but also two children caught in the crossfire. An exchange of small
arms fire at an army base in Herat killed four Afghan soldiers.
(AP, 7/9/07)(Reuters, 7/9/07)
2007 Jul 10, In Afghanistan a
suicide bomber targeted a NATO patrol in a marketplace in Dihrawud,
Uruzgan province, killing at least 17 people, including 13
schoolchildren. 8 Dutch troops were wounded.
(AP, 7/10/07)(WSJ, 1/11/07, p.A1)
2007 Jul 12, In eastern
Afghanistan US-led coalition and Afghan troops clashed with suspected
Taliban militants, killing 11 rebels in Uruzgan province. A roadside
bomb targeting a police patrol vehicle left 6 officers dead in Khost
province. In an overnight operation in the Girishk district of Helmand
province, the Afghan army and air strikes by multinational forces
killed 20 rebels. A British soldier was killed and two others were
wounded during an operation in southern Afghanistan.
(AP, 7/12/07)(AFP, 7/12/07)
2007 Jul 13, In southern
Afghanistan NATO-led and Afghan troops clashed with Taliban militants,
leaving 10 suspected militants dead.
(AP, 7/13/07)
2007 Jul 15, A roadside bomb
killed six Afghans working for a Western security company in the east
of the country.
(Reuters, 7/15/07)
2007 Jul 16, Afghanistan's
government fired Abdul Sattar Murad, the governor of Kapisa province,
days after he said Afghans are distancing themselves from Pres. Hamid
Karzai and that a "vacuum of authority" is allowing the Taliban,
al-Qaida and other groups to gain power. In southern Kandahar province
suspected Taliban militants ambushed two police officers riding a bike
in Zhari district, killing both.
(AP, 7/17/07)(AP, 7/19/07)
2007 Jul 18, Suspected Taliban
militants ambushed a convoy of Afghan police officers driving through
Zabul province, killing six. Suicide bombers in Khost killed three
police officers. Militants fatally shot two police officers in southern
Kandahar province, where four suspected Taliban were killed in a clash
with NATO and Afghan forces. In Paktia province, an attack on a road
construction crew left one person from the Philippines dead and three
guards wounded. Taliban fighters also ambushed police in Logar
province, killing six of the officers. Armed men kidnapped two Germans
and two Afghans working on a dam project in central Afghanistan. One of
the Germans, Ruediger Diedrich, was found shot dead three days later;
the others were later released.
(AP, 7/18/07)(AP, 7/19/07)(AP, 7/18/08)
2007 Jul 19, Taliban gunmen
abducted 23 members of a South Korean church group in southern
Afghanistan. The next day a purported spokesman for the Islamic militia
said it will question them about their activities in Afghanistan before
deciding their fate. Two hostages were fatally shot; the rest were
later freed. In northern Afghanistan a suicide bomber blew himself up
outside a police station, killing one civilian and wounding 25 other
people. In Helmand's Marja district, Taliban militants ambushed police,
leaving six officers dead and two others wounded. 2 separate bombings
in southern Afghanistan left five civilians dead, while a Taliban
ambush killed six police officers. A car bomb targeting a US-led
coalition convoy in Helmand province's Sangin district killed two
civilians and wounded two coalition troops. A mine exploded under a
civilian car in Kandahar province's Zhari district, killing three
civilians.
(AP, 7/19/07)(AP, 7/20/07)(AP, 7/19/08)
2007 Jul 21, A purported Taliban
spokesman said the militia killed two German hostages because Germany
didn't announce a troop withdrawal. The Afghan government, however,
said one of the Germans died of a heart attack and that the second was
still alive. Ruediger Diedrich, one of two Germans kidnapped in
southern Afghanistan on July 18, was found dead. Germany has 3,000
soldiers in NATO's International Security Assistance Force.
(AP, 7/21/07)(AP, 7/21/08)
2007 Jul 22, Afghan villagers
found the body of a German aid worker kidnapped in southern
Afghanistan, while a delegation of South Korean officials arrived hours
before a purported evening deadline set for 23 Korean hostages. A large
group of Taliban had attacked a convoy in Helmand province, and the
resulting battle in the Sangin district left more than 30 militants
dead and many wounded. In Zabul province Afghan police forces reported
killing 14 "enemies" during a 12-hour battle, including a Taliban
commander identified as Mohammad Hassan.
(AP, 7/22/07)(AP, 7/23/07)
2007 Jul 23, Mohammad Zahir Shah
(b.1914), the last king of Afghanistan (1933-1973), died. In 2002 he
had returned from 3 decades of exile to bless his country's fragile
course toward democracy. In southern Afghanistan troops killed at least
75 militants in three separate battles, while the Taliban extended the
deadline for the lives of 23 South Korean hostages until the evening of
July 24. Norway said one if its soldiers was killed in Logar province,
and NATO said a soldier was killed in the south. A roadside blast
killed 4 US soldiers in eastern Paktika province.
(AP, 7/23/07)(AP, 7/24/07)(Econ, 7/28/07, p.88)
2007 Jul 25, Afghan authorities
found the bullet-riddled body Bae Hyung-kyu (42) in Qarabagh district
of Ghazni province, where 23 South Koreans were abducted July 19. Bae,
a deputy pastor and a founder of Saemmul Presbyterian Church, was
killed on his birthday. Militants said the hostage was sick and
couldn't walk, and therefore was shot. 22 South Koreans were still
believed held but were not suffering health problems. A German
journalist and two Afghans colleagues apparently kidnapped by Taliban
militants in eastern Afghanistan were freed.
(AP, 7/25/07)(AP, 7/26/07)
2007 Jul 26, In southern
Afghanistan US-led coalition forces and Afghan troops fought two
separate battles with militants, killing more than 60 suspected Taliban
insurgents. A British soldier was killed in the fighting.
(AP, 7/26/07)(AFP, 7/26/07)
2007 Jul 27, Afghan and NATO
troops over the last 24 hours clashed with Taliban insurgents and
called in airstrikes, killing at least 50 suspected militants and
dozens of civilians. The third British soldier to die in three days in
southern Afghanistan was killed in a rocket attack.
(AP, 7/27/07)(AFP, 7/28/07)
2007 Jul 28, It was reported that
over 4,000 Hazaras, a Shia Muslim ethnic minority concentrated in
Afghanistan’s central highlands, had been displaced from Behsood
district, Wardak province, over the last 2 months by bands of Kuchi
nomads. Some 200 ethnic Pushtun and Sunni Muslim nomads, together with
their families and livestock, emptied about 65 Hazara villages and left
about a dozen people dead.
(Econ, 7/28/07, p.43)
2007 Jul 30, A 2nd South Korean
hostage was slain by the Taliban in central Afghanistan.
(AP, 7/30/08)
2007 Jul 31, In central
Afghanistan police discovered the body of a second South Korean
hostage, and the Taliban threatened to kill more captives if their
demands were not met by a new deadline. A suicide car bomber blew
himself up near a convoy of US troops on the outskirts of Kabul,
leaving up to 7 civilians and three soldiers wounded.
(AP, 7/31/07)
2007 Aug 1, The bodies of 4 Afghan
judges, kidnapped 11 days ago, were found in Ghazni province, the same
province where 21 South Korean hostages were held. Afghanistan dropped
leaflets in the area to warn of military action.
(SFC, 8/2/07, p.A10)(WSJ, 8/2/07, p.A1)
2007 Aug 2, In southern
Afghanistan US-led airstrikes in Helmand province killed at least 3
senior Taliban figures, including commander Mullah Rahim.
(SFC, 8/4/07, p.A3)
2007 Aug 4, A suicide car bomber
blew himself up next to a convoy of foreign troops just west of
Kandahar city, killing two civilians who were nearby. Four civilians
were killed in a roadside blast in Zhari district of Kandahar province.
(AP, 8/4/07)(AFP, 8/5/07)
2007 Aug 5, In Afghanistan 3
policemen were killed when a remotely detonated mine tore through their
vehicle in the eastern province of Kunar. A gunfight, which began the
previous evening, left two policemen dead and two others wounded. At
least four militants were killed. A roadside bomb typical of those
deployed by the Taliban killed two Afghan civilians in the southern
province of Kandahar. A policeman was killed in an overnight attack on
his post by several Taliban rebels. Four police officers were killed in
the southern province of Logar just south of the capital Kabul when
they were ambushed on patrol overnight.
(AFP, 8/5/07)
2007 Aug 6, President Bush wrapped
up two days of talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai at Camp David.
Bush and Karzai ruled out making any concessions to the Taliban
militants during their 2-day meeting at Camp David.
(AP, 8/7/07)(AP, 8/6/08)
2007 Aug 6, Pres. Bush and Pres.
Karzai ruled out making any concessions to the Taliban militants during
their 2-day meeting at Camp David.
(AP, 8/7/07)
2007 Aug 6, Militants attacked
police at a checkpoint in Zabul province, and the ensuing clash left
five suspected militants dead. Militants attacked a police vehicle just
outside Kandahar city, killing two officers and wounding eight others.
Dutch soldiers fatally shot a motorcyclist who approached their convoy
and failed to heed warning signals and shots.
(AP, 8/7/07)
2007 Aug 7, A group of 75 Taliban
militants tried to overrun a US-led coalition base in southern
Afghanistan, a rare frontal attack that left more than 20 militants
dead. Taliban militants clashed with police in the same district where
23 South Koreans were abducted by Afghan insurgents. Four militants
were killed and six wounded.
(AP, 8/7/07)(AP, 8/8/07)
2007 Aug 9, President Hamid Karzai
said extremism that plagues Afghanistan has crept across the border
into Pakistan, at the opening of a 4-day meeting between more than 600
Pakistani and Afghan tribal leaders.
(AP, 8/9/07)
2007 Aug 12, Afghanistan and
Pakistan pledged to eliminate terrorist sanctuaries in their respective
tribal regions and fight the opium trade financing Islamic militants.
Pakistan’s President Gen. Pervez Musharraf told more than 600 Afghan
and Pakistani tribal leaders that the two countries have been mired in
the rise of militancy, extremism and radicalism while the rest of the
world races forward with economic development. He spoke at the closing
session of a four-day US-backed cross-border jirga, or tribal council,
aimed at finding ways to stem Afghanistan's rising bloodshed. In
southern Afghanistan police and army soldiers battled militants in
Kandahar province's Shohrawak district. The joint Afghan forces
thwarted a planned militant ambush at the district chief's compound,
and the ensuing clash left nine militants dead. During a cleanup
operation after the battle, a roadside bomb hit a police vehicle in the
same district, killing five officers and wounding two others.
(AFP, 8/12/07)(AP, 8/12/07)(AP, 8/13/07)
2007 Aug 13, In Afghanistan 2
women among the 23 South Koreans kidnapped by the Taliban in mid-July
were freed on a rural roadside and then driven to a US base. A German
held hostage said in a telephone conversation orchestrated by his
captors that he was in ill health and the Taliban had threatened him
with death. In southern Afghanistan 6 civilians were killed when a
rocket-propelled grenade blew up their vehicle when Taliban militia
attacked a military convoy. A separate clash between troops and
insurgents in Ghazni province, further north, left four Taliban dead.
(AP, 8/13/07)(AP, 8/14/07)
2007 Aug 14, A NATO soldier was
killed when a joint ISAF-NATO patrol was ambushed by Taliban insurgents
in eastern Paktia province.
(AP, 8/14/07)
2007 Aug 15, In Afghanistan US led
ground troops and airstrikes targeted "hundreds of foreign fighters"
dug into positions in the Tora Bora region of eastern Nangarhar
province. 2 German police officers and a German foreign ministry
employee were killed in Kabul, in a bomb attack claimed by the Taliban.
(AP, 8/15/07)
2007 Aug 17, In southern
Afghanistan a suicide bomber killed a district chief and 3 of his
children. 5 civilians were killed in fighting between NATO soldiers and
Taliban in the east. Insurgents holed up in buildings and trenches
attacked Afghan police and coalition forces near Fire Base Robinson.
Nearly a dozen suspected militants were killed in the ensuing battle.
(AP, 8/17/07)(AP, 8/18/07)
2007 Aug 18, In southern
Afghanistan a suicide car bomber detonated near a convoy of private
security forces, killing four Afghan guards and 11 civilians, including
3 women and 2 children. Armed assailants abducted a German woman from a
restaurant in Kabul.
(AP, 8/18/07)
2007 Aug 19, In southern
Afghanistan, dozens of Taliban insurgents attacked an Afghan army
compound, and the ensuing gunbattle left 10 suspected militants dead
and 4 others wounded. A Canadian soldier was killed when his vehicle
struck a roadside bomb near Kandahar.
(AP, 8/19/07)(AP, 8/20/07)
2007 Aug 20, In Kabul 4 suspected
kidnappers were captured as Afghan police freed Christina Meier, a
German aid worker who had been snatched from a restaurant while she ate
with her husband.
(AP, 8/20/07)
2007 Aug 22, Taliban militants
wearing Afghan army uniforms attacked a remote NATO base in eastern
Afghanistan, killing two Afghan soldiers and wounding 11 alliance
soldiers. In southern Afghanistan 2 Canadian soldiers and an
interpreter were killed and two journalists injured during an attack.
(AP, 8/22/07)(Reuters, 8/22/07)
2007 Aug 23, In southern
Afghanistan a bomb dropped by a US fighter jet was believed to have
killed 3 British soldiers in Helmand province. Two other soldiers were
injured.
(AP, 8/24/07)
2007 Aug 24, In Afghanistan
insurgents attacked a police patrol in eastern Paktika province,
sparking a gunbattle that killed six militants and one officer.
(AP, 8/25/07)
2007 Aug 25, A suicide car bomber
attacked a convoy carrying foreigners near the Afghan capital Kabul.
Two foreigners and four Afghans were wounded. A roadside bomb killed
two Afghans guarding a convoy carrying supplies for NATO-led forces in
Kandahar province, while eight suspected insurgents and a police
officer died in fighting elsewhere in the country. Afghan soldiers in
neighboring Helmand province shot and killed two suspected Taliban
fighters as they attempted to plant a roadside bomb. In southern
Afghanistan clashes between coalition troops and Taliban fighters left
at least 18 civilians dead according to witnesses. NATO officials said
no noncombatants were killed. 12 Taliban fighters were killed by
artillery fire along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border after insurgents
attacked a military post with rockets and mortars. US-led and Afghan
troops struck Taliban positions inside Pakistan in fresh clashes with
the extremist Islamic militia that left at least 19 rebels dead. A
Pakistani military spokesman denied any permission was given. Afghan
troops clashed with rebel fighters in southern Zabul province and
killed nine of them. 3 suspected militants, one of them a foreign
national, were arrested in Paktia province, dressed in all-covering
burqas worn by most Afghan women. Dozens of Taliban guerrillas attacked
police in the eastern province of Nangarhar, injuring a district chief
and one of his guards before they were repelled.
(AP, 8/25/07)(AP, 8/26/07)(AFP, 8/26/07)
2007 Aug 26, Afghan police killed
six suspected militants during a one-hour gunbattle in Paktika
province, which borders Pakistan. Unidentified assailants shot and
killed a soldier from the 37-nation strong security assistance force
during a foot patrol in eastern Afghanistan. A Dutch soldier was killed
by a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan. In southern Zabul province,
Afghan and coalition troops clashed with insurgents in Daychopan
district, killing four suspected Taliban and wounding four others.
Afghan troops destroyed a heroin laboratory in Helmand province after
battling Taliban fighters guarding the facility.
(AP, 8/27/07)
2007 Aug 26, A road bridge linking
Tajikistan and Afghanistan paid for by the US was officially opened at
a ceremony attended by the presidents of the two Central Asian
countries.
(AP, 8/26/07)
2007 Aug 27, The US-led coalition
in Afghanistan accused Taliban militants of falsely reporting civilian
casualties to discredit Afghan and international forces. Afghan and
US-led coalition troops killed up to 21 suspected Taliban militants in
3 separate clashes in southern Afghanistan. A roadside blast killed 4
Afghan soldiers in the east. 3 American and 2 Afghan soldiers were
killed in a Taliban ambush in the Ghazi Abad district of eastern Kunar
province. A NATO trooper died in a nearby area.
(AP, 8/27/07)(Reuters, 8/27/07)(AP, 8/28/07)(AFP,
8/28/07)
2007 Aug 28, The Taliban agreed to
free 19 South Korean church volunteers held hostage since July after
the government in Seoul pledged to end all missionary work and keep a
promise to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan by the end of the year.
In eastern Afghanistan a suicide bomber attacked NATO troops helping
build a bridge, killing three soldiers. Afghan and US-led coalition
forces killed more than 100 suspected Taliban insurgents in southern
Afghanistan. The clash left one Afghan soldier dead.
(AP, 8/28/07)(AP, 8/29/07)
2007 Aug 29, Taliban militants
released 12 of 19 South Korean captives they promised to free under a
deal struck with the South Korean government to resolve a nearly
six-week hostage crisis. A suicide bomber blew himself up in a crowded
bazaar in eastern Afghanistan, killing four civilians and two Afghan
soldiers. A Canadian soldier, based in the Afghan capital Kabul, died
of a gunshot wound after he was found injured in his room.
(AFP, 8/29/07)(Reuters, 8/29/07)(AP, 8/29/08)
2007 Aug 30, Taliban militants
released the last 7 South Korean hostages. Mullah Brother, a wanted
Taliban insurgent leader in Afghanistan, was killed in a US-led raid in
the southern province of Helmand.
(AFP, 8/30/07)(Reuters, 8/30/07)(AP, 8/31/07)
2007 Aug 31, In eastern
Afghanistan a barrage of rockets missed a US-led coalition base but hit
houses in the nearby village of Babul, killing 10 civilians and
wounding seven. Outside the gates of the Kabul airport, a suicide car
bomber targeting a patrol of German soldiers killed two Afghan soldiers
and wounded 10 others. A senior Afghan official close to the
negotiations alleged the South Koreans paid a ransom for their released
hostages. In southern Helmand province, a combined police and US-led
coalition patrol came under attack with mortar, rocket-propelled
grenade and small-arms fire. In the fight that ensued, "almost two
dozen" insurgents were killed. More than 20 insurgents were killed and
11 others were detained, while officers also discovered a bomb-making
factory in the remote Pitigal Valley border region. Afghan police
attacked a group of Taliban who were planning to strike security forces
in the central Afghan province of Ghazni, killing 18 and arresting six
others.
(AP, 8/31/07)(AP, 9/1/07)
2007 Sep 4, Afghan security forces
in overnight fighting said they have killed Mullah Mateen, a Taliban
commander alleged to be behind the July kidnappings of 23 South Korean
church workers. The Taliban denied the dead man was one of their
militants. Up to 27 other insurgents were also slain. Taliban spokesman
Qari Yousef Ahmadi said 7 insurgents were killed in the clash, all of
them ordinary fighters. He said the Taliban had no commander called
Mullah Mateen, and said he did not know who the government was
referring to. Afghan and coalition soldiers in Shah Wali Kot district,
in southern Kandahar province, came under attack while on patrol. They
fought back before calling in air support and over a dozen insurgents
were killed in the engagement. About 18 miles away, insurgents
sheltering in a traditional low-walled Afghan compound attacked another
joint patrol. Airstrikes later pounded the position, killing six
insurgents.
(AP, 9/4/07)(AP, 9/5/07)
2007 Sep 5, Afghan and US-led
coalition troops killed more than 40 suspected Taliban militants in
southern Afghanistan. 13 mine-clearing workers were kidnapped in Paktia
province.
(AP, 9/5/07)(AP, 9/6/07)(AP, 9/7/07)
2007 Sep 6, Afghan and US-led
coalition forces killed "more than 20" insurgents in an eight-hour
battle that saw coalition aircraft bombing and strafing enemy positions
in Kandahar province. Two NATO soldiers were killed in two
separate bomb blasts in southern Afghanistan.
(AP, 9/7/07)
2007 Sep 8, The Afghan defense
ministry said at least 50 Taliban rebels have been killed in two days
of operations by Afghan and US-led troops across southern Afghanistan.
In southern Afghanistan 2 British soldiers were killed in a Taliban
attack and a number of other troops were wounded.
(AP, 9/8/07)
2007 Sep 9, Afghanistan President
Hamid Karzai said he was ready to hold talks with Taliban militants in
an effort to end their bloody insurgency against his US-backed
administration.
(AFP, 9/9/07)
2007 Sep 10, In Afghanistan a
suicide bomber on a motorized rickshaw set off his explosives in a
crowded area killing 28 people in Gereshk, Helmand province. Children
selling chewing gum and cigarettes were among the victims of the blast.
(AP, 9/10/07)
2007 Sep 12, Qari Yousef Ahmadi, a
Taliban spokesman, said that US and other military forces must leave
Afghanistan before the militant group would consider holding peace
talks with the Afghan government, backtracking from an earlier
statement. Fighting in Afghanistan killed some 75 people as the Muslim
holy month of Ramadan began, including 45 suspected Taliban militants
who died in airstrikes and Afghan army gunfire.
(AP, 9/12/07)(AP, 9/13/07)
2007 Sep 13, Afghan police in
Helmand province shot and killed a would-be suicide bomber before he
could detonate his explosives.
(AP, 9/13/07)
2007 Sep 14, Afghan police in the
Qarabagh district of Ghazni province killed 3 Taliban commanders
allegedly involved in the abduction of 23 South Koreans two months ago.
(AP, 9/16/07)
2007 Sep 15, An estimated 40
insurgents armed with mortars and rocket-propelled grenades attacked an
Afghan police and coalition patrol in the Musa Qala district of nearby
Helmand province. The joint forces repelled the attack and called in
airstrikes, leaving a dozen suspected militants dead. A Bangladeshi
development worker was kidnapped by unknown men in a brazen daytime
attack on his office in Pul-i-Alam, about 30 miles south of Kabul.
(AP, 9/16/07)
2007 Sep 16, In Garmser district
of south Helmand province, Afghan and coalition forces using small-arms
fire and airstrikes killed about 10 insurgents. Four other rebels were
killed overnight in a battle that erupted after they attacked a police
post in the eastern province of Paktia. Afghan and NATO troops came
under fire in Surobi district, about 25 miles east of Kabul, and called
in airstrikes, killing at least one suspected insurgent. The
bombardment destroyed one house in the village of Gazbala, killing two
men and wounding two others. General Dan McNeill, the top NATO
commander, said a convoy of explosives seized last week by NATO troops
in Afghanistan definitely came from Iran but not necessarily from the
government in Tehran.
(AFP, 9/16/07)(AP, 9/17/07)
2007 Sep 17, In southern
Afghanistan a suicide bomber on foot entered a government office and
blew himself up in the Nad Ali district center in Helmand province,
killing 8 people, including 4 policemen. In Helmand province a
gunbattle in Garmser district killed six suspected Taliban, while 9
others died in an airstrike in Kajaki district. An explosion killed a
NATO soldier and wounded another.
(AP, 9/17/07)(AP, 9/18/07)
2007 Sep 18, Afghan Mullah
Abdullah Jan, the Taliban commander of Qara Bagh district in Ghazni
province, was among 12 killed in the strike on a mud-brick housing
compound overnight in neighboring Giro district.
(AP, 9/18/07)
2007 Sep 19, The US-led coalition
accused the Taliban of using children as human shields during a battle
in southern Afghanistan. The troops fought Taliban trying to flee a
compound, and more than a dozen suspected militants were killed. 6
civilians, including women and children, died in Helmand province's
Gereshk region after Taliban fighters fled fighting with NATO forces
and sought shelter in the civilian homes. About 2,500 Afghan and NATO
troops launched a new military operation in the Gereshk region of
Helmand province. Militants attacked a private security company in
Zabul province, killing one security guard. The ensuing gunbattle left
one suspected insurgent dead. More than three dozen Taliban fighters
were reported killed in Uruzgan province. In Kandahar province, an
Afghan was killed and several others were wounded in a road accident
involving a NATO patrol vehicle and a civilian car. NATO said it
was investigating a shipment of weapons intercepted near the border
with Iran on Sep 6. Some 10,000 vaccinators began the weeklong campaign
with the aim to vaccinate 1.3 million Afghan children against polio.
(AP, 9/19/07)(AP, 9/20/07)(AP, 9/21/07)(AP, 9/22/07)
2007 Sep 20, A gunbattle between
Afghan police and insurgents left 20 suspected militants and four
officers dead in Badghis province bordering Iran and Turkmenistan. A
suicide bomber on a bicycle detonated his explosives near Afghan army
soldiers in Ghazni province, wounding two soldiers.
(AP, 9/20/07)
2007 Sep 21, A bomb attack in
western Kabul against a convoy of French troops killed one French
soldier and injured 8 Afghan civilians near the blast. Airstrikes
against "anti-coalition militants" in the Garmsir district of Helmand
province killed about 40 fighters.
(AFP, 9/21/07)
2007 Sep 22, Afghan authorities
said they had seized dozens of Iranian and Chinese-made weapons after a
brief battle with Taliban fighters near the border with Iran. In
northern Afghanistan NATO helicopters fired on a group of suspected
insurgents in response to a rocket attack. Four Afghans died and 12
were wounded. 2 Italian soldiers and their two Afghan staff on a
weekend patrol disappeared in western Afghanistan. In southern Zabul
province the Taliban kidnapped three Afghan men accused of spying for
the US and executed them.
(AP, 9/22/07)(AP, 9/23/07)
2007 Sep 24, In western
Afghanistan Italian special forces rescued two captive Italian
intelligence agents from a militant convoy, killing at least eight
kidnappers. Both kidnapped Italians were wounded in the raid, but one
died from his wounds in Rome on Oct 4. In southern Afghanistan a
Canadian soldier was killed and four were wounded during a military
operation.
(AP, 9/24/07)(Reuters, 9/25/07)(AP, 10/4/07)
2007 Sep 25, In Afghanistan about
400 villagers blocked a major highway during a protest after two
civilians, a father and son, were killed by international forces who
were conducting a search operation in the Zhari district of Kandahar
province.
(AP, 9/26/07)
2007 Sep 25, The US unmanned
aerial vehicle (UAV) called MQ-9 Reaper began operating in Afghanistan.
It engaged in combat with a successful strike for the first time on
October 27.
(www.defense-update.com/newscast/1107/news/081107_reaper.htm)
2007 Sep 26, In southern
Afghanistan two battles that began the previous day killed more than
165 Taliban fighters and a US-led coalition soldier. Two foreign Red
Cross workers who aided in freeing a group of South Korean hostages
last month have been abducted in Afghanistan as they were trying to
help secure the release of a German captive.
(AP, 9/26/07)(AP, 9/27/07)
2007 Sep 29, A Taliban suicide
bomber wearing an Afghan army uniform set off a huge explosion while
trying to board a military bus in the capital, killing 30 people, most
of them soldiers. Hours later, the Afghan president offered to meet
personally with the Taliban leader for peace talks and give the
militants a position in government. Four employees with the
International Committee of the Red Cross, kidnapped earlier this week
while negotiating the release of a German hostage, were freed in good
health. Afghan insurgents ambushed a convoy of foreign troops in
eastern Paktia province. After a brief gunbattle, airstrikes were
called in that killed 11 militants. 3 Afghan civilians were killed
during the clash of NATO-led forces with Taliban insurgents in Paktia.
Another battle in Paktia between police and militants left one
suspected insurgent dead. In neighboring Ghazni province, coalition
forces fought with insurgents, killing two Taliban in Andar district.
Police in Kandahar city discovered a landmine that exploded while they
were trying to defuse it, killing two police.
(AP, 9/29/07)(AP, 9/30/07)(Reuters, 9/30/07)
2007 Sep 30, President Hamid
Karzai's office said that there is "serious debate" among some Taliban
fighters about laying down arms, while a spokesman for the militants
said they will "never" negotiate with Afghan authorities until foreign
troops leave. Two workers with the Danish Committee for Aid to Afghan
Refugees (DACAAR) were abducted in the province of Logar about 50
kilometers (30 miles) south of Kabul. Taliban militants hanged a
teenager in southern Afghanistan because he had US money in his pocket,
and they stuffed five $1 bills in his mouth as a warning to others not
to use dollars. Taliban insurgents in Ghazni province ambushed a police
convoy, killing eight officers.
(AP, 9/30/07)(AFP, 10/1/07)(AP, 10/1/07)
2007 Oct 1, The US military
launched a new "Most Wanted" campaign offering rewards of up to
$200,000 for information leading to the capture of 12 Taliban and
al-Qaida leaders. Three men driving trucks to supply foreign soldiers
in the central province of Wardak were kidnapped.
(AP, 10/1/07)(AFP, 10/1/07)
2007 Oct 2, In Afghan a mother and
her two children boarded a police bus in Kabul only seconds before a
suicide bomber detonated his payload inside, an attack that killed 13
police and civilians. Taliban militants killed two policemen and
destroyed a remote government office in central Afghanistan, as five
Dutch troops were wounded in a clash in the country's south.
(AP, 10/2/07)(AP, 10/3/07)
2007 Oct 3, Afghan troops backed
by NATO-led forces clashed with suspected Taliban fighters in southern
Afghanistan, leaving 20 militants dead.
(AP, 10/4/07)
2007 Oct 4, A British soldier was
killed in an explosion about 19 miles west of Kandahar city. 82 British
personnel, including 57 soldiers, have been killed in Afghanistan since
operations began there in November 2001.
(AP, 10/5/07)
2007 Oct 5, Afghan and US-led
coalition troops clashed with insurgents during a raid in eastern
Afghanistan, and civilians as well as militants were killed. In the
country's volatile south, a suicide bomber approaching NATO and Afghan
forces blew himself up prematurely in Helmand province's Sangin
district, killing two children.
(AP, 10/5/07)
2007 Oct 6, International military
planes called in by Afghan security forces killed 16 rebels, apparently
all foreigners, suspected of preparing an attack in the country's east.
The dead were said to be from Pakistan, Uzbekistan and Chechnya. Two
officers were killed and two others were wounded when a bomb exploded
under their car in Yaqoubi district in Khost province. A Taliban ambush
in Nuristan province left two other officers dead. Four militants were
also killed in the clash, which occurred in the remote Kamdesh
district. 2 Afghan civilians were killed in Kunar province after
speeding toward a checkpoint without stopping. In Paktika province, a
"suspicious" man was shot and killed after being asked to halt. A
suicide car bomber attacked an American military convoy on the road to
Kabul's airport, killing a US soldier and four Afghans. In the south,
in Uruzgan province, Taliban fighters attacked an Afghan security
company guarding a road construction project, killing five of the
security guards. In Helmand province's Gereshk district, a roadside
bomb explosion killed a policeman.
(AP, 10/6/07)(AFP, 10/7/07)(AP, 10/7/07)
2007 Oct 7, In eastern Afghanistan
16 militants fighting under a wanted Uzbek warlord with a $200,000
bounty on his head were killed in airstrikes. Afghanistan executed 15
inmates by gunfire at its main prison outside Kabul, carrying out the
death penalty for the first time in more than three years.
(AP, 10/8/07)
2007 Oct 8, Australia suffered its
first combat fatality in the war on terror when a soldier was killed in
a roadside bomb attack in Afghanistan.
(AP, 10/8/07)
2007 Oct 10, Rudolf Blechschmidt,
a German engineer, and four Afghans taken hostage on July 18 were freed
in exchange for six Taliban fighters. Wardak province district chief
Mohammad Nahim later changed his statement saying five imprisoned
criminals had been freed. NATO-led and Afghan troops clashed overnight
with Taliban fighters in southern Afghanistan, leaving eight suspected
militants dead and three detained.
(AP, 10/10/07)
2007 Oct 9, Afghan authorities
shut down two private security companies and said more than 10 others,
some suspected of murder and robbery, would soon be closed. In Kabul 82
illegal weapons had been found during the two raids at the Afghan-run
security companies Watan and Caps.
(AP, 10/11/07)
2007 Oct 13, A suicide bomber on a
motorbike detonated his explosives in a crowded marketplace near Afghan
police, killing nine people and injuring at least 29.
(AP, 10/14/07)
2007 Oct 14, In southern
Afghanistan a mother who tried to stop her son from carrying out a
suicide bomb attack triggered an explosion in the family's home that
killed the would-be bomber, his mother and three siblings.
(AP, 10/15/07)
2007 Oct 16, A Taliban ambush on a
police patrol in southern Afghanistan left one officer dead and four
others wounded.
(AP, 10/17/07)
2007 Oct 17, Taliban used heavy
machine guns and rocket propelled grenades to ambush a US-led coalition
patrol in southern Afghanistan that wounded nine troops. In the east, a
roadside bomb on a police vehicle close to the border with Pakistan
killed an officer and wounded three others in Khost province.
(AP, 10/18/07)
2007 Oct 19,
A battle in southern Afghanistan between US-led coalition forces
and Taliban militants left more than a dozen of the insurgents dead.
(AP, 10/20/07)
2007 Oct 20,
In eastern Afghanistan suspected Taliban militants fought fierce
battles with US forces, killing 20 insurgents and one civilian.
(AP, 10/21/07)
2007 Oct 22,
NATO and Afghan troops called in airstrikes during a battle
against insurgents that left 20 suspected militants but also several
civilians dead in Wardak province.
(AP, 10/23/07)
2007 Oct 23, In Afghanistan a
child and 5 militants were killed in Zabul province after militants
fired on coalition soldiers from a tent.
(AP, 10/23/07)(AP, 10/24/07)
2007 Oct 24, Afghan officials said
five militants were killed in two clashes with Afghan troops in the
southern provinces of Zabul and Helmand. US-led coalition and Afghan
attack on a gathering of another group of Taliban militants in the
Daychopan district of Zabul province killed 10 insurgents. A suicide
car bomb went off near the convoy of cars carrying Arsallah Jamal, the
provincial governor of Khost, wounding two of his bodyguards and two
civilians.
(AP, 10/24/07)(AP, 10/26/07)
2007 Oct 24, A French defense
ministry official said France will for the first time send dozens of
military trainers to the volatile south of Afghanistan.
(AP, 10/24/07)
2007 Oct 25,
Insurgents ambushed NATO-led forces in eastern Afghanistan,
leaving two alliance troops dead and three others wounded in Kunar
province.
(AP, 10/26/07)
2007 Oct 26, In Afghanistan an
airstrike on a group of Taliban fighters left 18 militants dead in the
mountainous area of Daychopan district, in Zabul province.
(AP, 10/26/07)
2007 Oct 27, A suicide bomber
wearing an Afghan security uniform detonated his explosives at the
entrance to a combined US-Afghan base, killing four Afghan soldiers and
a civilian. In Helmand province Taliban militants killed three Afghan
police who had been trying to prevent them from carrying out a
kidnapping. The militants successfully kidnapped an Afghan man during
the gunbattle. US-led coalition forces killed about 80 Taliban fighters
during a six-hour battle outside a Taliban-controlled town near Musa
Qala in southern Helmand province.
(AP, 10/27/07)(AP, 10/28/07)(SSFC, 10/28/07, p.A16)
2007 Oct 28,
A six-hour battle in southern Afghanistan left over 50 Taliban
fighters killed or wounded in Uruzgan province. In the east, coalition
forces raided a compound suspected of housing al-Qaida facilitators,
killing several militants in Kunar province.
(AP, 10/29/07)
2007 Oct 29, In Afghanistan a
suicide bomber targeting a police patrol ended in the deaths of three
civilians and an officer in Lashkar Gah, capital of Helmand province.
(AP, 10/29/07)
2007 Oct 31, Officials said
Afghan, US and Canadian troops have surrounded a pocket of some 250
Taliban fighters who have commandeered people's homes in villages just
outside Kandahar. In western Farah province six police officers were
killed and two others wounded, and 14 Afghan army troops were missing
after clashes with Taliban militants. A nighttime raid in eastern
Afghanistan by Afghan troops with US support sparked a gunbattle that
killed three people, including two children.
(AP, 10/31/07)(AP, 11/1/07)(AP, 11/3/07)
2007 Nov 1, Taliban militants
attacked a police checkpoint in Nad Ali district, in the southern
Helmand province, killing five officers and wounding three others. In
Kandahar province hundreds of Taliban militants fled from Arghandab
district following three days of fighting which left more than 50
militants dead and hundreds displaced.
(AP, 11/1/07)
2007 Nov 2, In southern
Afghanistan a US-led coalition soldier and an Afghan soldier were
killed in clashes with insurgents.
(AP, 11/2/07)
2007 Nov 3, German Chancellor
Angela Merkel made her first visit to Afghanistan and said Berlin would
increase efforts to strengthen the Afghan police.
(AP, 11/3/07)
2007 Nov 4, Taliban insurgents
seized Khak-e Sefid without a fight, its third district in western
Farah province. A Farah provincial police chief said: "There are many
Iranians and Pakistanis fighting among the Afghan Taliban." Local
residents have complained that NATO-led troops, under Italian command
in western Afghanistan, have not helped Afghan forces to retake the
districts.
(AP, 11/5/07)
2007 Nov 6, In Afghanistan a bomb
targeted a group of lawmakers in the northern province of Baghlan,
killing at least 75 people, including 6 lawmakers. 61 schoolchildren
were among the dead and 96 other students were wounded. A UN report
later said up to two-thirds of the 77 people killed and 100 wounded
were hit by bullets from visiting lawmakers' panicked bodyguards.
(Reuters, 11/6/07)(AP, 11/9/07)(AP, 11/17/07)(AP,
11/6/08)
2007 Nov 9, A British soldier
serving in Afghanistan was killed after the vehicle he was traveling in
came off a road and rolled over a bridge. 6 US and 2 Afghan troops were
killed when insurgents ambushed their foot patrol in the high mountains
of eastern Nuristan province. The attack, the most lethal against
American forces this year, put US troop deaths to at least 101 this
year making 2007 the deadliest for US troops in Afghanistan since the
2001 invasion.
(AP, 11/9/07)(AFP, 11/10/07)
2007 Nov 10, In Afghanistan’s
eastern province of Khost, police patrolling on foot were hit by a
land-mine blast that killed one officer and wounded two civilians.
Taliban militants attacked a police checkpoint near Qalat city in Zabul
province. The ensuing gun battle left two policemen dead and one
wounded. Another policeman was missing. Six US troops died in an
insurgent ambush, making 2007 the deadliest year for American forces in
Afghanistan since 2001.
(AP, 11/11/07)(AP, 11/10/08)
2007 Nov 11, In western
Afghanistan unknown gunmen on motorbikes shot dead six pro-government
tribal elders as they headed to a prayer service. In southern
Afghanistan a suicide attacker on foot blew himself up near a NATO
convoy in Helmand province, seriously wounding 3 civilians, while two
separate attacks left 3 policeman dead elsewhere in the country. US-led
coalition troops battling suspected militants in the Garmser district
of Helmand lobbed a grenade that destroyed a house and killed 15
militants as well as a woman and two children. A service member with
the US-led coalition died of wounds suffered during a gun battle a day
earlier near the Tagab Valley of Kapisa province.
(AFP, 11/11/07)(AP, 11/11/07)(AP, 11/12/07)
2007 Nov 13, Afghan and US-led
coalition forces clashed with militants in southern Afghanistan and
called in airstrikes that killed dozens of insurgents.
(AP, 11/14/07)
2007 Nov 14, In Afghanistan’s
Helmand province coalition forces killed several militants with gunfire
and airstrikes. Five rebel fighters were killed in a clash in Uruzgan
province.
(AP, 11/15/07)(AP, 11/16/07)
2007 Nov 15, Taliban insurgents in
Paktia province killed an Afghan man teaching English courses, sparking
a clash that left two suspected militants and two policemen dead. The
bodies of 20 Taliban were found on the battlefield following a clash in
the south-central province of Uruzgan. Two policemen were killed in the
three hours of fighting there, which also involved international troops.
(AP, 11/15/07)(AP, 11/16/07)
2007 Nov 16, In western
Afghanistan a suicide attacker blew up a car bomb near an Italian
military convoy killing only himself. 4 police officers were killed
when their vehicle was hit by a remotely detonated bomb as they
traveled to work in the southern province of Kandahar. The UN said
profits from opium fuel the Taliban insurgency, in a new call on NATO
to tackle Afghanistan's burgeoning drugs trade. In the western province
of Ghor, between 4 and 9 police were killed after militants attacked
them during a police operation in Shahark district.
(AP, 11/16/07)(Reuters, 11/16/07)(AP, 11/17/07)
2007 Nov 17, A suicide bomber on a
motorbike attacked a NATO convoy in Nangarhar province's Chaparhar
district, killing an Afghan civilian and wounding another NATO soldier.
In Kandahar province Canadian and Afghan troops battled militants and
called in airstrikes in Zhari district, leaving an Afghan soldier and
at least 20 suspected militants dead. In Helmand province 23 Taliban
militants were killed during a US-led coalition operation aimed at
disrupting a weapons transfer. Also in the south 2 Canadian soldiers
and their Afghan interpreter were killed when a bomb struck their
armored vehicle. In Zabul province the Taliban ambushed and clashed
with an Afghan army patrol, leaving 11 suspected insurgents dead and
four soldiers wounded. Taliban militants tortured five abducted
policemen in southern Afghanistan and then hung their mutilated bodies
from trees in a warning to Gazak villagers against working with the
government.
(AP, 11/17/07)(AP, 11/18/07)
2007 Nov 18, A new Afghanistan
Human Development Report said Afghanistan is fifth last on a global
index of human development, despite billions of dollars in aid and help
since the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001. Police shot and killed
two suspected Taliban militants as they approached a police checkpoint
on a motorbike. In southern Helmand province, Taliban militants
attacked a police checkpoint, killing two officers and wounding four
others.
(AP, 11/18/07)(AFP, 11/18/07)(AP, 11/19/07)
2007 Nov 19, In Afghanistan a
suicide bomber struck outside a governor's residence, killing six
policemen and wounding 14 people in southwestern Nimroz province. Gov.
Ghulam Dastagir Azad said his son was among those killed.
(AP, 11/19/07)
2007 Nov 23, In Afghanistan
Taliban militants beheaded 7 police officers after overrunning their
checkpoints. An Australian commando (26) and 3 civilians were killed in
a clash with Taliban militia in Uruzgan province. In 2008 the
Australian military cleared its soldiers over the deaths of two women
and a baby during this battle but said all civilian casualties were
"highly regrettable."
(Reuters, 11/23/07)(SFC, 11/24/07, p.A3)(AFP,
5/12/08)
2007 Nov 24, A Taliban suicide
bomber killed eight people, including three children and an Italian
military engineer, when he blew himself up in a scenic town near Kabul.
Insurgents attacked police in the Pathan district and were targeted by
airstrikes from NATO or coalition helicopters. The bodies of 69 dead
militants were said to be left in the area. Among those killed were
four Taliban who were traveling with two cars full of explosives and
ammunition.
(AFP, 11/24/07)(AP, 11/25/07)
2007 Nov 25, NATO's ISAF confirmed
that airstrikes targeted and killed 3 Taliban militants who were
planting mines in nearby Gardez.
(AP, 11/25/07)
2007 Nov 26, In Afghanistan a
roadside bomb struck an Afghan army vehicle, killing 4 soldiers and
wounding two others in eastern Paktia province. 4 civilians were killed
by a roadside blast in the Musayi district of Kabul province. In
eastern Afghanistan US-led coalition troops killed 14 road construction
workers in airstrikes after receiving faulty intelligence.
(AP, 11/26/07)(AP, 11/27/07)(AP, 11/28/07)
2007 Nov 27, In Afghanistan a
suicide car bomber triggered a huge blast near two armored vehicles
used by US-led coalition troops in Kabul, killing at least two
civilians and destroying the wall of a nearby house.
(AP, 11/27/07)
2007 Nov 28, Afghan and foreign
troops battled Taliban fighters and called in airstrikes in southern
Afghanistan, leaving 30 militants dead. Four other militants were
killed in a separate clash in the east. In eastern Khost province
gunmen on motorbikes shot to death a school principal. In Ghazni
province Taliban insurgents ambushed police in Khogyani district, and
the ensuing clash killed one policeman and four suspected militants.
Militants in Paktia province attacked trucks carrying supplies for
foreign troops, killing one driver. In Paktika province a roadside bomb
hit Afghan troops, leaving one soldier dead and three wounded.
(AP, 11/29/07)
2007 Nov 29, In Afghanistan 2
Danish soldiers were killed in a gunbattle with the Taliban. They were
part of a Danish reconnaissance unit that came under fire in Gereshk
Valley in Helmand Province. Denmark has some 600 troops in Helmand
province that are part of NATO's 40,000-member force in Afghanistan.
(AP, 11/30/07)
2007 Nov 29, Al-Qaida chief Osama
bin Laden released a new tape calling on Europeans to stop helping the
US in the war in Afghanistan.
(AP, 11/30/07)
2007 Dec 1, Afghan and NATO-led
troops battled with Taliban militants and called in airstrikes in a
series of clashes in the country's south that left 40 insurgents dead.
(AP, 12/2/07)
2007 Dec 2, In southern
Afghanistan coalition forces killed five suspected Taliban militants in
an operation targeting a commander believed to be involved in the
kidnapping of an Italian journalist earlier this year.
(AP, 12/3/07)
2007 Dec 3, In Afghanistan’s
southwestern Nimroz province a suicide bomber blew himself up next to a
police patrol, killing four other people, including two policemen.
(AP, 12/3/07)
2007 Dec 4, In Kabul US Defense
Secretary Robert Gates said he was pushing the world's countries for
more commitment to Afghanistan's fight against growing extremist
violence. A suicide car bomber targeted a NATO convoy in Kabul,
wounding 22 civilians passing nearby. An explosion struck a patrol of
NATO-led troops, leaving one soldier dead and two others wounded.
(AP, 12/4/07)(AP, 12/5/07)
2007 Dec 5, Afghan forces clashed
with Taliban who had blocked a main highway in the south, killing 10
militants. A suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden car into a
minibus carrying Afghan soldiers south of Kabul, killing at least 13
people and wounding 20 others.
(AP, 12/5/07)
2007 Dec 7, Afghan and NATO troops
surrounded the town of Musa Qala and launched air strikes to dislodge
Taliban rebels who had been in control for 10 months.
(AFP, 12/7/07)
2007 Dec 8, A NATO and Afghan
operation to retake Musa Qala, a Taliban-controlled town in southern
Afghanistan, left at least 12 Taliban fighters and two children dead. A
NATO soldier killed in a mine explosion during the operation, which
began Dec 7. Taliban militants armed with rocket-propelled grenades and
machine guns ambushed a district chief's vehicle in western Farah
province, killing him, his son, nephew and three bodyguards.
(AP, 12/8/07)(AFP, 12/8/07)
2007 Dec 9, In southern
Afghanistan Afghan, British and US troops closed in on Musa Qala, a
Taliban-held town. A second NATO soldier was killed in the operation.
This was the first mission in which British forces have participated
with the Afghan army as the main fighting force. Afghan and NATO forces
killed 30 Taliban fighters in Kandahar's Panjwayi district.
(AP, 12/9/07)(AFP, 12/9/07)
2007 Dec 10, Afghan and
international forces retook the southern town of Musa Qala, held by
Taliban militants since February. A Taliban spokesman said the
militants fled to avoid civilian and Taliban casualties. In Sangin
district Afghan police clashed with a group of Taliban militants,
leaving 15 militants dead and 11 others wounded. An Afghan army
helicopter crashed in central Afghanistan because of bad weather,
killing four people. British PM Gordon Brown stopped in at Camp
Bastion, the main British camp in Helmand province.
(AP, 12/10/07)(AFP, 12/10/07)
2007 Dec 11, In eastern
Afghanistan US-led coalition and Afghan forces killed Mullah Sangeen, a
senior militant commander responsible for roadside bombings and other
attacks. Sangeen was second-in-command to Siraj Haqqani, a militant
leader in eastern Afghanistan.
(AP, 12/14/07)
2007 Dec 12, Afghanistan's Defense
Ministry said Afghan soldiers backed by NATO air power killed more than
50 Taliban fighters during a two-day battle with militants who tried to
attack Sangin near Musa Qala, where they were routed from this week. A
suicide car bomb exploded near an Afghan army convoy in the southern
city of Kandahar, killing one person.
(AP, 12/12/07)
2007 Dec 13, In southern
Afghanistan a civilian car hit a freshly planted land mine, killing six
people and wounding six others. Taliban militants beheaded a woman they
accused of spying and her grandson.
(AP, 12/13/07)
2007 Dec 14, South Korea brought
home 195 army medics and engineers from Afghanistan, ending its
five-year deployment to help rebuild the war-ravaged country at
Washington's request.
(AP, 12/14/07)
2007 Dec 15, A rocket landed in a
crowd of civilians near Kabul's police headquarters, and a truck full
of rockets smuggled into the city under a pile of hay exploded nearby
moments later. At least five people were killed.
(AP, 12/15/07)
2007 Dec 16, In eastern
Afghanistan a roadside bomb blast killed two Afghan civilians and
wounded five others, while a clash in the south left four Taliban dead.
Harald Kleber (42) a German national locally known by his Muslim name,
Abdul Rahman, was kidnapped in heart province. The next day German
authorities said Kleber was wanted in Germany for fraud.
(AP, 12/16/07)(AFP, 12/17/07)(AFP, 12/18/07)
2007 Dec 17, In southern
Afghanistan several militants were killed in airstrikes and a
subsequent operation by US-led coalition troops.
(AP, 12/18/07)
2007 Dec 18, In western
Afghanistan Taliban fighters killed 15 Afghan guards working for a
private security company who were guarding a convoy of fuel tankers. 6
Taliban were killed in the ensuing fight. Elsewhere in Farah fighting
between police and militants left 2 militants dead.
(AP, 12/18/07)
2007 Dec 21, Two Afghans were
killed in Kandahar province when a bomb exploded that was planted in a
decapitated Afghan.
(AP, 12/24/07)
2007 Dec 22, Making the first-ever
trip to Afghanistan by a French president, Nicolas Sarkozy met with
Afghan President Hamid Karzai to discuss the political and military
situation in the war-torn country.
(AP, 12/22/07)
2007 Dec 23, In Afghanistan
echoing pledges by the leaders of France and Australia, Italian PM
Romano Prodi emphasized his county's long-term commitment in a meeting
with President Hamid Karzai. Afghan intelligence agents detained a
50-year-old foreign woman carrying a suicide vest in eastern
Afghanistan. A roadside explosion killed one policeman and wounded
three others in Kunar province. Police clashed with Taliban militants
in the Gelan district of central Ghazni province, killing a local
insurgent leader and two of his bodyguards. Another booby-trapped body
was discovered in Kandahar province.
(AP, 12/23/07)(AP, 12/24/07)
2007 Dec 25, Afghan officials said
2 European diplomats who went to one of Afghanistan's most volatile
regions have been asked to leave Afghanistan.
(AP, 12/25/07)
2007 Dec 26, Pakistan's Pres.
Pervez Musharraf and Afghan Pres. Hamid Karzai vowed to boost
intelligence cooperation to meet the menace of terrorism that was
destroying both countries.
(Reuters, 12/26/07)
2007 Dec 26, Britain’s Daily
Telegraph newspaper reported that British intelligence agents held
secret talks with Taliban leaders on several occasions this year.
Earlier this month, British PM Gordon Brown ruled out direct talks with
Taliban insurgents, telling the House of Commons: "I make it clear that
we will not enter into any negotiations with these people."
(AFP, 12/26/07)
2007 Dec 27, The Afghan government
expelled UN advisor Mervyn Patterson and EU official Michael Semple, on
accusations they held unauthorized meetings with Taliban militants. A
spokesman for the UN mission said the diplomats had traveled to Musa
Qala, a former Taliban stronghold in southern Helmand province on Dec
24, where they met with local leaders.
(AP, 12/27/07)
2007 Dec 29, Taliban militants in
Wardak province fired rocket-propelled grenades from their vehicles at
a convoy of private security guards on Afghanistan's main highway,
killing six guards and two police officers. Taliban militants attacked
a police checkpoint in the south and killed 16 officers.
(AP, 12/30/07)(AP, 12/31/07)
2007 Dec 30, In Uruzgan province
four Afghan soldiers were killed in a mine explosion. One soldier was
killed in Paktia province in another blast. A Taliban ambush killed 8
Afghan security personnel near Maydon Shahr, about 20 miles southwest
of Kabul.
(AP, 12/31/07)(SFC, 12/31/07, p.A6)
2007 Dec 31, In southern
Afghanistan a roadside bomb killed a NATO soldier and wounded four
others. In Helmand province, a roadside bomb exploded against a police
vehicle driving through Musa Qala, killing two officers. Taliban
militants killed more than 925 Afghan police this year, and large
swaths of the country remained outside government control. More than
6,500 people, mostly militants, died in 2007, according to an
Associated Press count based on figures from Afghan and Western
officials. Also in 2007, 110 US soldiers were killed in the country,
the highest American toll since the 2001 invasion. US military deaths,
suicide bombings and opium production hit record highs in 2007.
(AP, 12/31/07)
2007 Roshan, a cell-phone network
in Afghanistan, was the country’s largest taxpayer and investor. The
Aga Khan Development Network owned 51%.
(Econ, 3/10/07, p.66)
2007 China signed a deal to invest
some $3.5 billion in the Aynak copper mine in Logar province,
Afghanistan. It was said to be the 2nd largest source of untapped
copper in the world.
(Econ, 11/7/09, p.44)
2007 Some 8,000 Afghan’s were
killed this year. UN estimates said over 1,500 of those killed were
civilians.
(Econ, 5/24/08, p.37)
Go to 2008
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Subject = Afghan
End of file.