Timeline Afghanistan
2008-2010
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2008
Jan 1, Across Afghanistan roadside bombs and
military operations killed 19 people, including 14 Taliban fighters.
(AP, 1/1/08)(AP, 1/2/08)
2008 Jan 3, In southwestern
Afghanistan a suicide bomber attacked Indian road construction workers
and their Afghan police escorts, killing seven and wounding 12.
(AP, 1/3/08)
2008 Jan 4, In Afghanistan’s
Uruzgan province a clash between NATO troops and Taliban insurgents
near Tirin Kot, the provincial capital, left two civilians dead and
five others wounded.
(AP, 1/7/08)
2008 Jan 6, In Afghanistan 3
Taliban militants were killed in a battle between police and NATO
troops in the Zhari district of Kandahar.
(AP, 1/7/08)
2008 Jan 7, In southern
Afghanistan a suicide bomber on a motorcycle attacked a border police
patrol, killing a policeman. In neighboring Helmand province, police
discovered and tried to defuse a remote-controlled roadside bomb in Nad
Ali district, but it exploded, killing two policemen and two civilians.
In eastern Afghanistan as roadside bomb killed two soldiers from the
US-led coalition.
(AP, 1/7/08)(AP, 1/8/08)
2008 Jan 9, Afghan authorities
said that at least 34 people had been killed in days of heavy snowfall
across the country. A NATO vehicle struck a mine in southern
Afghanistan, killing one soldier and wounding another, while a militant
attack in the east left a policeman dead.
(AFP, 1/9/08)(AP, 1/10/08)
2008 Jan 10, Afghanistan urged
Iran to stop deporting its citizens during the winter months, saying
doing so could cause a humanitarian disaster.
(AP, 1/10/08)
2008 Jan 12, In southern
Afghanistan Dutch troops killed two of their own men during a nighttime
battle in Uruzgan province, and separately two allied Afghan soldiers
they mistook for enemies. About 1,650 Dutch troops were deployed in
Uruzgan as part of the NATO mission there. 14 Dutch troops have died
since their mission began last year.
(AP, 1/13/08)
2008 Jan 13, William Wood, US
ambassador to Afghanistan, flew to Musa Qala, previously held by the
Taliban in the heart of the world's largest poppy-growing region, and
told with Mullah Abdul Salaam, the ex-militant commander now in charge
there, that Afghans must stop "producing poison." In southern
Afghanistan Taliban militants killed eight officers in an attack on a
police checkpoint in Kandahar province. A suicide bomber killed another
policeman and wounded eight other people when he blew himself up in a
housing compound in the town of Lashkar Gah in neighboring Helmand
province.
(AP, 1/13/08)(AP, 1/14/08)
2008 Jan 14, In Afghanistan
militants with suicide vests, grenades and AK-47 rifles attacked
Kabul's most popular luxury hotel, killing 8 people in a coordinated
assault. Three hotel employees and two guards were killed during the
attack along with an American citizen and a Norwegian reporter. A
Filipina spa supervisor wounded in the attack died the next day.
(AP, 1/15/08)
2008 Jan 15, Afghan authorities
raided a house in Kabul where the alleged attackers on the Serena Hotel
had spent the night before the attack. Police found a video showing two
of the assailants, identified as Farouq and Salahuddin, saying they
were ready to die. The owner of the house and his brother were
arrested. Officials said heavy snow, avalanches and cold weather have
killed at least 85 people in western Afghanistan in recent days.
(AP, 1/15/08)
2008 Jan 18, In eastern
Afghanistan more than 20 Taliban rebels were killed and over a dozen
wounded in a joint operation between Afghan and Western forces.
(AFP, 1/19/08)
2008 Jan 19, In southern
Afghanistan a roadside bomb, probably intended for Afghan or NATO
forces, killed five civilians in a taxi in the Panjwayi district of
Kandahar province. Militants attacked a convoy of trucks carrying
gravel to a NATO base in Helmand, killing four drivers and two security
guards.
(AP, 1/20/08)(AP, 1/21/08)
2008 Jan 20, In southern
Afghanistan an explosion struck a NATO patrol vehicle outside a former
Taliban town, killing one British soldier and wounding five others.
(AP, 1/21/08)
2008 Jan 21, Afghan President
Hamid Karzai told the parliament on its opening day that around 300,000
children cannot attend school because of violence in the southern
provinces.
(AP, 1/21/08)
2008 Jan 22, In Afghanistan Sayed
Parwez Kaambakhsh (23) was sentenced to death by a three-judge panel in
the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif for distributing a report he
printed off the Internet to fellow journalism students at Balkh
University. The judges said the article humiliated Islam, and members
of a clerics council had pushed for Kaambakhsh to be punished. A media
group said he is actually being punished for reporting by his brother
about abuses by northern warlords. On appeal the death sentence was
reduced to 20 years. In 2009 Kaambakhsh was freed and left the country
following a pardon signed by President Hamid Karzai.
(AP, 1/23/08)(Reuters, 9/7/09)
2008 Jan 23, In Afghanistan a
Canadian soldier was killed and two others were injured when a military
convoy struck an improvised mine near the southern city of Kandahar.
(Reuters, 1/24/08)
2008 Jan 24, In central
Afghanistan 9 Afghan policemen were killed during an anti-Taliban
operation by US-led coalition troops in Ghazni. Afghan police said the
police appeared to have been killed by the US airstrikes, which also
destroyed several houses.
(AP, 1/24/08)
2008 Jan 24, In Davos,
Switzerland, fears of world recession briefly took a back seat at the
World Economic Forum, where leaders from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq
focused on how to establish security in their volatile regions. Afghan
Pres. Karzai stressed how extremists used economic exploitation to
recruit bombers.
(AP, 1/24/08)(AFP, 1/24/08)
2008 Jan 25, In Afghanistan US-led
coalition and Afghan troops clashed with insurgents while searching a
compound near the Pakistani frontier, leaving one coalition soldier
dead.
(AP, 1/25/08)
2008 Jan 26, In Afghanistan gunmen
kidnapped Cyd Mizell (49), a burqa-clad American aid worker, and her
driver, Abdul Hadi, while they were driving through a residential
section of Kandahar. She worked for the aid agency Asian Rural Life
Development Foundation.
(AP, 1/26/08)(AP, 1/27/08)
2008 Jan 28, Afghanistan’s Health
Ministry said as many as 300 Afghans had died over the past 10 days
from bitter cold and heavy snows.
(SFC, 1/29/08, p.A4)
2008 Jan 29, In southern
Afghanistan roadside bombings killed three civilians.
(AP, 1/30/08)
2008 Jan 30, In Afghanistan a
suicide bomber in a vehicle tried to attack a NATO convoy in Kandahar
province's Zhari district, but instead hit a private car wounding 4
civilians.
(AP, 1/30/08)
2008 Jan 31, In southern
Afghanistan a suicide bomber blew himself up inside a mosque, killing
Helmand province's deputy governor and five other people. A car bomb
exploded next to an Afghan army bus in Kabul, wounding four civilians
and a solider.
(AP, 1/31/08)
2008 Feb 4, Afghan and foreign
troops conducted two raids on the homes of suspected Taliban militants,
leaving 10 people dead, including women and children. A separate clash
in southern Uruzgan province left nine suspected militants dead.
(AP, 2/4/08)
2008 Feb 5, In southern
Afghanistan a roadside bomb hit a US-led coalition vehicle in Helmand
province, killing one soldier and wounding two others.
(AP, 2/6/08)
2008 Feb 7, In Afghanistan a
suicide car bomb targeting a NATO convoy left three soldiers lightly
wounded in eastern Khost province. A bungled suicide attack hurt two
civilians in southwestern Nimroz province.
(AP, 2/8/08)
2008 Feb 7, NATO defense ministers
held talks on Afghanistan in Lithuania. France agreed to help Canada in
fighting the Taliban in southern Afghanistan.
(AP, 2/8/08)
2008 Feb 8, A suicide car bomber
blew himself up near a convoy of Afghan troops, killing one soldier and
a child who was nearby. Another four soldiers and a child were also
wounded in the attack in central Ghazni province.
(AP, 2/8/08)
2008 Feb 8, Canada said it planned
to keep its 2,500-strong military mission in Afghanistan until some
time in 2011, two years longer than initially scheduled.
(AP, 2/8/08)
2008 Feb 10, Norway closed its
embassy in the Afghan capital because of terror threats.
(AP, 2/11/08)
2008 Feb 12, In Afghanistan’s
Khost province a roadside bomb killed 4 Afghan guards working for the
US military.
(AP, 2/13/08)
2008 Feb 13, In Afghanistan an
Italian soldier was killed in an ambush while he was distributing food
and clothes to civilians. A roadside bomb struck Afghan security forces
killing 3 people and wounding four in the Musa Qala district. In
western Afghanistan Taliban militants freed the last six hostages from
a group of 21 men abducted Feb 10, while they hunted for rare birds in
Farah province. US-led coalition swoops on Taliban leaders in Uruzgan
and Zabul provinces left several insurgents dead. 2 civilians
transporting construction materials were blown up by a rebel bomb.
(AP, 2/13/08)(AFP, 2/14/08)
2008 Feb 15, In Afghanistan bitter
cold, snowstorms and avalanches were reported to have killed 926
people, half of them in the hard hit west, as the country suffered one
of the most brutal winters in decades.
(AP, 2/15/08)
2008 Feb 17, In Afghanistan a
suicide bombing at an outdoor dog fighting competition in Kandahar
killed over 100 people and wounded scores more, in what appeared to be
the deadliest terror attack there since the fall of the Taliban in
2001. The attack apparently targeted Abdul Hakim Jan, a militia
commander, who had stood up against the Taliban and died in the attack.
(AP, 2/17/08)(AP, 2/18/08)
2008 Feb 18, In Afghanistan a
suicide car bomber targeting a Canadian military convoy killed 37
civilians at a busy market in Spin Boldak in southern Kandahar
province. Afghan and NATO-led troops killed two regional Taliban
commanders in southern Afghanistan.
(AP, 2/18/08)(AP, 2/21/08)
2008 Feb 19, In southern
Afghanistan a car bomb exploded near a police compound, killing at
least one person and wounding four.
(AP, 2/19/08)
2008 Feb 20, In Afghanistan an
explosion in Helmand province claimed the life of a British soldier. 30
Taliban militants were killed in a joint Afghan and foreign special
forces operation backed by air support in southern Helmand province.
(AP, 2/21/08)(AFP, 2/21/08)
2008 Feb 21, In Afghanistan NATO
troops found 1.65 tons of opium, which ISAF said was worth $400
million, and a "significant quantity" of drug-making equipment. The
$400 million figure appeared to be the opium's estimated street value
once it was trafficked outside Afghanistan.
(AP, 2/27/08)
2008 Feb 23, In eastern
Afghanistan 7 Afghan security guards died when their car hit a roadside
bomb in the Sarkano district of Kunar province. A gunman killed a
district police chief in the region.
(AP, 2/23/08)
2008 Feb 24, In southern
Afghanistan a roadside bomb tore through a convoy carrying Kandahar
governor Asadullah Khalid, missing the official but killing three
policemen.
(AFP, 2/24/08)
2008 Feb 26, In Afghanistan a
rocket attack on an Afghan National Army patrol killed two soldiers and
wounded six others in southern Kandahar province. A roadside bomb
killed two Polish soldiers patrolling in eastern Afghanistan.
(AP, 2/27/08)
2008 Feb 27, US National
Intelligence Director Michael McConnell said told a Senate committee in
Washington that Afghan President Hamid Karzai's government controls
just 30% of the country. The resurgent Taliban controls 10-11% of the
country, while local tribes control the rest. The Afghan Defense
Ministry soon replied saying: "All Afghan people know that in the 34
provinces of Afghanistan and in more than 360 districts ... the
government has control." A remote-controlled bomb hit a civilian
vehicle in eastern Khost province, killing the driver and wounding six
people. A militant ambush of an opium poppy eradication force in
Helmand province sparked clashes that left 25 Taliban fighters and a
policeman dead.
(AP, 2/27/08)(AP, 2/28/08)
2008 Feb 28, In Afghan four
militants died and another was wounded when the roadside bomb they were
planting on a main road in Helmand exploded prematurely.
(AP, 2/28/08)
2008 Feb 29, In southern
Afghanistan Taliban militants blew up a telecommunications tower
following a warning to phone companies to shut down the towers at night
or face attack.
(AP, 2/29/08)
2008 Feb 29, The British military
decided to pull Prince Harry out of Afghanistan "immediately" after
news of his deployment leaked out in foreign media.
(AP, 2/29/08)
2008 Mar 1, In eastern Afghanistan
a roadside bomb struck a tractor, killing three people, including a
woman and a child, and wounding seven others.
(AP, 3/1/08)
2008 Mar 2, In Afghanistan several
insurgents were killed when they fired on coalition forces," who
detained four men with suspected links to the militants in Helmand
province. Afghan and foreign troops clashed with militants in Helmand's
Sangin district, resulting in 20 casualties. A Canadian soldier was
killed by a roadside bomb west of Kandahar city.
(AP, 3/3/08)
2008 Mar 3, In eastern Afghanistan
a suicide car bomber attacked a government building protected by NATO
and Afghan troops. 2 NATO troops and two civilians died in the blast.
(AP, 3/3/08)(AP, 3/4/08)
2008 Mar 4, In eastern Afghanistan
a suicide car bomb exploded near a government compound, killing a
policeman. The bombing, claimed by the extremist Taliban, was the fifth
in a week in the eastern province of Khost. In southwestern Nimroz
province Taliban militants attacked a police checkpoint, and the
ensuing two-hour gunbattle left three policemen dead. Near Hyderabad,
Afghanistan, an Afghan man was killed. Master Sgt. Joseph D. Newel
faced allegations in the case that included premeditated murder;
wrongfully mutilating a dead body; larceny; and violation of a lawful
order. In 2009 Newell was acquitted of premeditated murder and
mutilation.
(AFP, 3/4/08)(AP,
3/5/08)(http://shadowspear.com/vb/showthread.php?t=13756)(SFC, 2/26/09,
p.A4)
2008 Mar 9, Thousands of Afghan
students in Jalalabad chanted slogans and burned Danish and Dutch flags
in the latest in a series of protests over perceived insults against
Islam. 4 militants were killed in clashes with Afghan and foreign
troops in the Korengal Valley in the eastern province of Kunar.
(AP, 3/9/08)(AP, 3/11/08)
2008 Mar 10, In Afghanistan 10
militants and two officers were killed when police clashed with Taliban
fighters in the southern Uruzgan province. In southern Afghanistan two
women and two children were caught in the line of fire and killed
during a clash between NATO troops and insurgents.
(AP, 3/11/08)(AP, 3/12/08)
2008 Mar 11, In western
Afghanistan police backed by NATO-led troops killed four suspected
criminals after a spate of kidnappings and robberies. The ministry said
an Afghan soldier was killed in Kapisa province, just north of Kabul.
Taliban militants attacked a district administrative compound in
southern Zabul province, and the ensuing one-hour gunbattle left one
Taliban dead and three wounded. 5 militants set fire to the generator,
fuel tank and antenna of the tower in the Obe district of Herat
province. The tower belonged to the Areeba company. Afghan and US-led
coalition forces killed nearly a dozen suspected militants in Helmand
during a clash in Garmsir district.
(AP, 3/11/08)(AP, 3/12/08)(AP, 3/13/08)
2008 Mar 12, Afghan and
international forces attacked Taliban militants as they traveled by
motorcycle toward the Pakistan border. The troops employed airstrikes
during a four-hour battle and killed 41 militants, including 17 from
Nimroz. In southern Afghanistan a suicide car bomber attacked a convoy
of Canadian troops, killing a passing civilian and wounding one
soldier. In Zabul province, Afghan security forces and NATO troops
launched an operation against Chechen fighters meeting in Daychopan
district. The ensuing two-hour gun battle left three Chechens dead and
six wounded. in Farah province, authorities recovered the dead body of
the Pusht Rod district police chief, a day after he was kidnapped along
with five other policemen.
(AP, 3/12/08)(AP, 3/13/08)
2008 Mar 12, US-led forces in
Afghanistan fired a missile into Pakistan that killed 4 women and 2
boys. Pakistan lodged a protest the next day with coalition forces in
Afghanistan.
(AP, 3/13/08)(SFC, 3/14/08, p.A17)
2008 Mar 13, In Afghanistan a
remote-controlled bomb hit a police vehicle in Saydabad district of
Wardak province, killing one policeman and wounding four others. A
suicide bomber in Kabul targeting US troops killed 6 Afghan civilians.
(AP, 3/13/08)(SFC, 3/14/08, p.A17)
2008 Mar 13, Canada’s Parliament
voted to extend its mission in Afghanistan to 2011, provided NATO
supplies more troops and equipment to back up its forces in the
volatile south.
(AP, 3/14/08)
2008 Mar 14, Afghan and foreign
troops clashed with Taliban insurgents in southern Afghanistan, leaving
three suspected militants dead and two wounded. The US-led coalition
killed "several" militants in an operation in eastern Khost province.
(AP, 3/14/08)(AFP, 3/16/08)
2008 Mar 15, In Afghanistan a
suicide car bomb attack near a convoy of international troops killed a
13-year-old Afghan child and wounded a soldier in Khost province. 3
militants were killed in the former Taliban stronghold of Musa Qala in
Helmand province.
(AP, 3/15/08)(AFP, 3/16/08)
2008 Mar 16, In Afghanistan’s
eastern Nangarhar province four militants were killed in an exchange of
fire after attacking a police post near the border with Pakistan. A
Canadian soldier died in an explosion while on foot patrol in Kandahar
province.
(AFP, 3/16/08)(AP, 3/17/08)
2008 Mar 17, in Afghanistan 4 NATO
soldiers, 2 Danes, a Canadian and a Czech with the International
Security Assistance Force (ISAF), were killed in new attacks, including
a Taliban suicide bomb that also took the lives of three Afghan
civilians.
(AP, 3/17/08)
2008 Mar 19, US forces searching
for bomb makers raided Afghan homes near the border with Pakistan,
exchanging gunfire with militants. Six people were killed, including
two children and a woman.
(AP, 3/19/08)
2008 Mar 20, In southern
Afghanistan security forces said an exchange of fire between British
soldiers and police left a policeman dead and two men wounded from each
side. A soldier with the NATO-led force died after being struck by a
bomb.
(AFP, 3/20/08)(AP, 3/21/08)
2008 Mar 21, In southern
Afghanistan a suicide attacker blew himself up near a busy shrine in
Kandahar, killing two policemen. International forces helping the
Afghan government lost three soldiers in two separate bombings in the
south.
(AP, 3/21/08)(AP, 3/23/08)
2008 Mar 22, Afghan and
international forces killed over 40 Taliban militants in an air and
ground strike in Uruzgan province. 2 coalition soldiers were killed by
a roadside bomb in Kandahar province.
(AP, 3/23/08)(SFC, 3/24/08, p.A12)
2008 Mar 23, In Afghanistan 5
members of an Afghan mine-clearing team were killed.
(SFC, 3/25/08, p.A3)
2008 Mar 23, In Pakistan 25 trucks
carrying fuel to US-led forces in Afghanistan were destroyed in a
possible bomb attack near the Torkham customs post. At least 50 people
were injured.
(SFC, 3/24/08, p.A12)
2008 Mar 24, In Afghanistan gunmen
fatally shot 2 Afghan members of a mine-clearing team. Afghan and
allied forces killed 12 Taliban fighters.
(SFC, 3/25/08, p.A3)(WSJ, 3/25/08, p.A1)
2008 Mar 25, In Afghanistan gunmen
have attacked a group of police along the border with Iran, killing
four police and two civilians.
(AP, 3/25/08)
2008 Mar 26, In southern
Afghanistan 8 civilians were killed when a bomb-filled car exploded
near a crowded bazaar in Helmand province, in an attack claimed by the
Taliban. A police officer was killed in a roadside bombing in Helmand.
Insurgents attacked a NATO patrol, killing one soldier and wounding
another. Militants fired a rocket at opium poppy eradication police,
killing two policemen and wounding another. US-led coalition forces
killed several Taliban militants after coming under attack in Helmand
province.
(AP, 3/26/08)(AP, 3/27/08)(AP, 3/28/08)
2008 Mar 29, Afghan, US and
Pakistani officers opened the first of six joint military intelligence
centers along the Afghan-Pakistan border, an effort to cut down on
militants' movement in a region of rising terrorist activity.
(AP, 3/29/08)
2008 Mar 31, A clash in southern
Afghanistan killed a Danish soldier and wounded two others. A separate
attack on a NATO patrol killed two British troops. an airstrike killed
three men irrigating land close to a road in Kandahar province. The men
may have been mistaken for militants planting roadside bombs. In
Helmand province police arrested Mullah Naqibullah, a senior Taliban
commander who has escaped twice from Afghan prisons. Naqibullah was
nabbed during a clash that left three insurgents dead.
(AP, 3/31/08)(AP, 4/1/08)
2008 Apr 1, In southwestern
Afghanistan a suicide bomber hit a police compound, killing two
officers and wounding five others in Nimroz province. A mine struck a
civilian vehicle in southwestern Nimroz province, killing the driver
and wounding two civilians.
(AP, 4/1/08)
2008 Apr 2, France pledged to send
up to 1,000 troops to Afghanistan in a move that will avert a Canadian
threat to pull its contingent out of NATO's war in the violent south.
(Reuters, 4/2/08)
2008 Apr 3, In eastern Kunar
province, a truck supplying fuel to NATO troops hit a roadside bomb
that killed the Afghan driver.
(AP, 4/4/08)
2008 Apr 4, In southern
Afghanistan a roadside bomb killed a Canadian soldier, while a suicide
attack in the same region left three policemen and a civilian dead.
(AP, 4/5/08)
2008 Apr 5, Afghan and NATO forces
killed 15 Taliban insurgents in separate raids in southern Afghanistan,
where police also captured Abdul Jabar, a senior Taliban commander.
(AFP, 4/6/08)
2008 Apr 6, US and Afghan forces
attacked a remote village in a mountainous region of northeastern
Afghanistan following reports that an infamous insurgent leader was in
the area. At least 16 people were killed.
(AP, 4/7/08)
2008 Apr 7, In southern
Afghanistan, militants attacked a police convoy in Uruzgan province,
and the ensuing clash left 13 insurgents dead and five wounded. In the
western province of Herat, Taliban militants attacked a checkpoint in
Shindand district, killing two police officers and wounding another.
(AP, 4/8/08)
2008 Apr 8, In southern
Afghanistan militants killed 17 road workers, part of a spike in
violence that has left 40 people dead in two days. 16 other
construction workers were wounded in the attack in Zabul's Shinkay
district. A Polish soldier died and one was wounded when a NATO patrol
hit a roadside bomb in Ghazni province. Taliban militants ambushed a
police patrol. An ensuing battle left four militants and a police
officer dead in Zabul province.
(AP, 4/8/08)(AP, 4/9/08)
2008 Apr 9, In Afghanistan
international forces' warplanes dropped bombs on a group of Taliban
militants traveling by motorcycle overnight, killing 3 insurgents in
Zabul province.
(AFP, 4/9/08)
2008 Apr 10, In Kandahar city,
Afghanistan, a suicide car bomber targeting a US-led coalition convoy
killed 8 civilians and wounded 25 other people, including three
coalition soldiers.
(AP, 4/10/08)
2008 Apr 11, Afghan and foreign
troops clashed with and called airstrikes on militants in southern
Afghanistan, leaving 24 dead and eight wounded.
(AP, 4/12/08)
2008 Apr 11, Foreign Minister
Bernard Kouchner said France will boost its contribution to NATO forces
fighting al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan to some 3,000 troops,
around double the present level.
(AP, 4/11/08)
2008 Apr 12, In Afghanistan a
suicide bomber attacked an Indian road construction crew in the
southwestern Nimroz province, killing two people, including an Indian
engineer. Eight other people, including five Indian workers and two
civilians, were wounded in the blast. Militants killed four eradication
police in Kandahar’s Maiwand district.
(AP, 4/12/08)(AP, 4/13/08)
2008 Apr 13, In southern
Afghanistan Taliban militants attacked a group of police officers
sleeping on the mud floor of an isolated roadside checkpoint, killing
11. The two soldiers from Afghanistan's 47,000-strong NATO-led force
were killed and two wounded in an explosion in the south.
(AP, 4/14/08)(Reuters, 4/14/08)
2008 Apr 16, In southern
Afghanistan 2 NATO soldiers were killed and two others were wounded in
an explosion.
(AP, 4/16/08)
2008 Apr 17, Afghan and foreign
troops battled militants who ambushed their patrol in central Ghazni
province, leaving nine Taliban fighters dead. A suicide attack in front
of a mosque in Nimroz province killed 16 people and wounded over 30.
(AP, 4/17/08)(SFC, 4/18/08, p.A15)
2008 Apr 18, In Afghanistan the
son of the Netherlands' top military officer was killed by a roadside
bomb, the day after his father assumed command of the Dutch armed
forces.
(AP, 4/18/08)
2008 Apr 19, In southern
Afghanistan a roadside bomb hit a civilian vehicle, killing three
people and wounding another. An Afghan policeman and two Taliban
fighters were killed in a firefight in Panjwayi, Kandahar province.
Afghan police clashed with Iranian forces at the southwestern border
with Iran, leaving one civilian dead and two Iranian officers wounded.
(AP, 4/19/08)(AFP, 4/20/08)(AP, 4/20/08)
2008 Apr 20, In eastern
Afghanistan a child was killed in a militant rocket attack on an army
base in Kunar province. 4 Taliban were killed in a gun battle
with Afghan security forces in Kandahar province.
(AP, 4/20/08)
2008 Apr 23, In southern
Afghanistan a spate of suicide bombings and other attacks on security
forces left 13 people dead and 24 others wounded.
(AP, 4/23/08)
2008 Apr 23, Officials and a rebel
spokesman said Pakistan's new government has drafted a peace agreement
with Taliban militants in its troubled tribal belt bordering
Afghanistan.
(AP, 4/23/08)
2008 Apr 25, Some 50 Taliban
attacked Afghan police at Charbaran in Paktika province. The police
called in American help and American helicopters broke the attack.
Several insurgents were later tracked by drones and killed.
(Econ, 5/24/08, p.37)
2008 Apr 27, Suspected Taliban
militants attacked the Mujahideen Day parade attended by the Afghan
president, unleashing automatic weapons fire that sent foreign
dignitaries and senior members of the government fleeing for cover. 3
people, including a lawmaker, were killed and 8 were wounded. Pres.
Karzai later appeared on television saying several suspects in the
attack had been arrested. The Afghan government later accused the
Pakistani intelligence service of organizing the plot to assassinate
Pres. Karzai. Taliban militants attacked an Australian patrol with
automatic rifles and rocket propelled grenades in southern Afghanistan,
and the ensuing battle left one of the commandos dead and four others
wounded.
(AP, 4/27/08)(Econ, 5/3/08, p.50)(SFC, 6/26/08,
p.A10)
2008 Apr 29, In Afghanistan a
suicide bomb tore through a team preparing to eradicate opium poppy
fields, killing at least 19 people and injuring over 40 others in
eastern Nangarhar province. 12 police officers were among the dead.
(AFP, 4/29/08)(SFC, 4/30/08, p.A2)
2008 Apr 30, Afghan security
forces raided a Kabul hide-out where militants with suspected links to
the attack on President Hamid Karzai were holed up. Seven people died
in the pre-dawn raid, including a child.
(AP, 4/30/08)
2008 May 1, In Afghanistan 2
roadside bombs killed a NATO soldier and 8 civilians.
(WSJ, 5/2/08, p.A1)
2008 May 4, In Afghanistan an
accidental explosion left 2 people dead and 13 wounded at a refuse dump
in Kabul’s northern outskirts.
(AP, 5/5/08)
2008 May 5, In Afghanistan 2
accidental explosions in Kabul left 7 people dead and more than 20
wounded, including some counternarcotics police. In Nangarhar province
US-led coalition troops killed several militants during a raid. A
roadside bomb in the south wounded 5 people, including 3 policemen.
(AP, 5/5/08)(AP, 5/6/08)
2008 May 6, In Afghanistan a
Canadian soldier was killed and another was wounded in a gun battle
with insurgents near Kandahar city.
(AFP, 5/7/08)
2008 May 7, In eastern Afghanistan
3 people including a child were killed in blasts.
(AFP, 5/7/08)
2008 May 8, In southern
Afghanistan US-led coalition killed several militants.
(AP, 5/9/08)
2008 May 9, In eastern Afghanistan
the US-led coalition killed several militants during an operation in
Nangarhar province. Villagers claimed that 3 civilians were among those
killed.
(AP, 5/10/08)
2008 May 11, Rights groups and
local lawmakers about 300 Taliban suspects have been on a hunger strike
in Afghanistan's southern Kandahar prison for a week demanding fair
trials.
(AFP, 5/11/08)
2008 May 13, International and
Afghan troops forged ahead with an offensive against the Taliban near
the Pakistan border. Helmand governor Gulab Mangal insisted 150 rebels
had been killed in Garmser in the past week.
(AFP, 5/13/08)
2008 May 15, In western
Afghanistan a suicide bomber wearing a burqa attacked a police patrol
at a crowded market, killing at least 12 people and wounding 27 others.
Taliban militants attacked the compound of the Shinkay district chief
in Zabul province. The ensuing hour-long gun battle left 5 Taliban dead
and 6 wounded.
(AP, 5/15/08)(AP, 5/16/08)
2008 May 16, A bomb hit a group of
Afghan soldiers during a foot patrol in southern Kandahar province. One
soldier was killed and three were wounded. In eastern Khost province,
joint Afghan and foreign forces attacked insurgents as they were
planting roadside bombs before dawn. A brief gun battle left two
militants dead. Another wounded insurgent later died at a military
hospital. US-led coalition and Afghan troops called in airstrikes
during the raid on a compound suspected of housing militants involved
in bomb making activities. Afghan and foreign troops in western Farah
province bombed a Taliban hideout where two hostages were being held,
leaving eight militants dead.
(AP, 5/16/08)(AP, 5/17/08)
2008 May 17, In Afghanistan a
roadside blast hit a vehicle in the eastern Paktia province, left three
civilians dead. A bomb placed on a bicycle exploded as a police vehicle
passed by outside Kandahar. The blast killed a 10-year old boy and
wounded another civilian. 15 Taliban rebels were killed in an operation
by the Afghan military in southwestern Badgis province.
(AP, 5/17/08)(AFP, 5/18/08)
2008 May 18, Sayed Parwez
Kambakhsh (24), an Afghan journalism student sentenced to death for
insulting Islam, denied the charges before an appeals court, saying he
only confessed to questioning the religion's treatment of women because
he was tortured. In 2008 an appeal court overturned the death sentence,
but upheld his conviction of blasphemy and sentenced him to 20 years in
jail. A police officer was killed and two others injured when their
patrolling convoy came under fire from rebels in the southwestern
province of Farah. A soldier with a US-led military coalition and an
Afghan "non-combatant" were killed when a bomb blew up their vehicle in
southern Afghanistan. A suicide bombing in Helmand province killed four
people.
(AP, 5/18/08)(AFP, 5/18/08)(AFP, 5/19/08)(AP,
5/20/08)(AFP, 10/21/08)
2008 May 19, In eastern
Afghanistan a suicide attacker blew himself up near Afghan troops in a
bazaar near the Pakistani border, wounding four soldiers and a civilian
translator. 8 Taliban were killed in a military raid elsewhere. The
decapitated body of a policeman was found in the southwestern province
of Farah, a day after he had been captured by Taliban fighters. In
eastern Afghanistan militants fired mortars at an aid agency's water
tanker, killed the driver and stole his tanker. In southwestern Nimroz
province, a mine blew up a truck transporting sheep and killed five men
and several of the animals. In Wardak, near Kabul, a mine apparently
intended for police exploded under a civilian car and killed two
people. Two soldiers with NATO's International Security Assistance
Force were killed in separate insurgency-related incidents in southern
Afghanistan.
(AFP, 5/19/08)(AFP, 5/20/08)
2008 May 20, In Afghanistan
airstrikes and a 3-hour gun battle in Zabul province killed an Afghan
army soldier and 14 insurgents. 6 of the dead insurgents appeared to be
Arabs.
(AP, 5/21/08)(WSJ, 5/22/08, p.A9)
2008 May 21, In Afghanistan 2 NATO
soldiers and a civilian interpreter were killed when an explosion hit
them during a patrol in eastern Ghazni province. In eastern Kunar
province a rocket hit a schoolyard in Asmor district, killing one
student and wounding four others. The victims were between eight and 14
years old.
(AP, 5/21/08)(WSJ, 5/22/08, p.A9)(AP, 5/23/08)
2008 May 22, In western
Afghanistan gunfire broke out in Ghor province at a protest against a
US sniper in Iraq who used a Quran for target practice. Two civilians
were slain and seven others were wounded. A NATO soldier from Lithuania
was killed, the first of the Baltic country's troops to die while
serving there.
(AP, 5/22/08)(AFP, 5/22/08)
2008 May 23, In eastern
Afghanistan a suicide bomber blew himself up as an Afghan army convoy
slowed to pass a pothole-riddled section of road, killing four soldiers
and a child. In southern Afghanistan several insurgents were killed and
six others detained during a US-led coalition operation.
(AP, 5/23/08)(AP, 5/24/08)
2008 May 23, Japan allocated $54
million in emergency grants to the UN to help Afghanistan, Africa and
Palestinian refugees cope with the ongoing food crisis.
(AP, 5/23/08)
2008 May 24, Top Pakistani Taliban
warlord Baitullah Mehsud said jihad, or holy war, would continue in
Afghanistan, despite peace negotiations between the militants and
Islamabad. Separate roadside bomb attacks in Pakistan's volatile
northwest killed three people, including a local police chief.
(AFP, 5/24/08)
2008 May 25, In Kandahar,
Afghanistan, a suicide bomber hit a Canadian military convoy, killing
one boy. A US-led coalition soldier was killed in an operation in
western Farah province.
(AP, 5/25/08)
2008 May 27, In Afghanistan 12
people including three policemen were killed in two bomb attacks in
Farah and Logar provinces. Officials blamed Taliban extremists. In
Helmand province the US-led coalition killed several militants during a
hunt in Garmser district for a Taliban leader involved with weapons
smuggling operations in the area. Several other rebels were killed in
similar operations in eastern Paktia province, bordering Logar.
Altogether the days violence left 24 people dead including 13 police
officers.
(AFP, 5/27/08)(WSJ, 5/27/08, p.A10)
2008 May 28, In Afghanistan a
passenger truck ran off the road in a remote mountainous region of
Badakhshan province, killing 15 people and wounding 56. Three suicide
bomb attacks around the country killed one person.
(AP, 5/28/08)
2008 May 29, In Afghanistan a
suicide car bomber hit a convoy of international soldiers in Kabul,
killing three Afghans caught in the blast. A joint operation by Afghan
and NATO forces in Farah killed 30 Taliban fighters. One policeman and
two Afghan soldiers were also killed.
(AP, 5/29/08)
2008 May 30, Afghan forces
recaptured Bakwa, a remote district in the southwestern province of
Farah, which was captured eight months ago. Authorities said they have
killed more than 100 Taliban-linked militants in the operation.
(AFP, 5/31/08)
2008 May 31, In Afghanistan 2
NATO-led soldiers and as many Afghan civilians were wounded in a
suicide car bombing in the eastern city of Jalalabad. The Taliban
claimed responsibility for that attack. 2 NATO soldiers were killed in
the attack.
(AFP, 5/31/08)(AP, 6/1/08)
2008 Jun 1, In Afghanistan a
remote-controlled bomb detonated as a bus carrying Afghan soldiers
passed by in Kabul, killing one civilian and wounding five people. In
southern Zabul province overnight, suspected Taliban militants gunned
down a district governor and his body guard. Some 150 militants
attacked a police checkpoint, triggering a daylong battle in Murghab
district, near the border with Turkmenistan. At least 10 militants were
killed. Ashraf Nasery, the governor of Badghis province, said 49
militants were killed and 35 wounded.
(AP, 6/1/08)(AFP, 6/1/08)(AP, 6/2/08)
2008 Jun 2, In Afghanistan Taliban
attacked a district in Helmand province, killing a policeman. In the
battle that followed, eight Taliban were killed.
(AP, 6/3/08)
2008 Jun 3, In Afghanistan US
General David McKiernan took over the 52,000-strong International
Security Assistance Force (ISAF) at a ceremony in Kabul attended by
President Hamid Karzai and a host of dignitaries. 2 Afghan security
guards were killed when militants ambushed their convoy in the southern
province of Zabul. In eastern Khost province unknown gunmen shot dead a
district intelligence chief. A suicide car bomber targeting Canadian
troops in Kandahar province killed one Afghan child. A Canadian officer
was killed in Kandahar province when his foot patrol came under enemy
fire. In southern Afghanistan US-led coalition forces killed more than
a dozen insurgents.
(AFP, 6/3/08)(Reuters, 6/4/08)(AP, 6/4/08)
2008 Jun 4, In Afghanistan 2
suicide bombs killed 2 people and wounded several others near the
Pakistan border.
(SFC, 6/5/08, p.A3)
2008 Jun 5, A provincial spokesman
said NATO forces bombed a location in Paktika province and killed all
32 Taliban who had gathered there. Afghan police killed three Taliban
militants in Jani Khail district of the same province and two other
militants were wounded. A roadside bomb struck a civilian vehicle in
Waza Khwa district of Paktika, killing a man, his wife and son (12).
(AFP, 6/6/08)
2008 Jun 7, In Afghanistan a
Canadian soldier died after tumbling down a well while on night patrol.
Capt. Jonathan Sutherland Snyder (26) was the 85th Canadian soldier,
the third in a month, to die in Afghanistan since 2002.
(http://tinyurl.com/6bu2q9)(Reuters, 6/8/08)
2008 Jun 8, In Afghanistan the
body of Abdul Samad Rohani (25), an Afghan reporter for the BBC, was
found in Helmand province. 3 British paratroopers were killed in
Helmand province in a suicide bomb attack, bringing total British
military deaths in Afghanistan since 2001 to 100.
(AFP, 6/8/08)(AP, 6/9/08)
2008 Jun 9, Afghan officials
uncovered 236 tons of marijuana in a massive drug bust in southern
Kandahar province. The drugs, estimated to be worth more than $400
million, were burned on site.
(AP, 6/11/08)
2008 Jun 10, US-led coalition
forces along the volatile Afghan border launched an airstrike that
killed 11 Pakistani paramilitary troops. Pakistan’s military condemned
it as an act of aggression within its border that "hit at the very
basis of cooperation" in the war on terrorism. The incident followed a
reported clash between Afghan forces and Taliban militants in the same
area. The Taliban said eight of its fighters died in the skirmish.
(AP, 6/11/08)
2008 Jun 11, Afghan officials said
31 people died in airstrikes in eastern Paktika province.
(AP, 6/11/08)
2008 Jun 12, Afghanistan's Pres.
Hamid Karzai appealed to world donors in Paris for massive, long-term
aid for police, road-building and agriculture to help make his country
safer and his countrymen less hungry. Donors ranging from the US the
World Bank pledged more than $21 billion for Afghanistan. 2 British
troops were killed by enemy fire while patrolling the area around their
base in the Upper Gereshk Valley.
(AP, 6/12/08)(AP, 6/13/08)(AP, 6/13/08)
2008 Jun 13, In southern
Afghanistan a suicide bomber hit a NATO military convoy, causing
casualties. A Romanian soldier was killed and three others injured in
Qalat, the capital of southern Zabul province. In south-central Uruzgan
province, Afghan and NATO-led forces killed 17 Taliban. In eastern
Paktia province, an operation by US-led coalition forces resulted in
the deaths of a woman and a number of militants. In Ghazni province a
coalition air strike killed seven Taliban militants. 30 insurgents on
motorbikes and two suicide bombers attacked Sarposa Prison. About 870
prisoners escaped during the bomb and rocket attack on that knocked
down the front gate and demolished a prison floor. 390 Taliban
prisoners were among those who fled the prison during the attack.
(AFP, 6/13/08)(AP, 6/14/08)
2008 Jun 14, In Afghanistan a
roadside bomb killed four US troops. Afghan and US-led coalition forces
killed more than 15 insurgents during a hunt for inmates who fled
prison after a sophisticated Taliban attack that set hundreds free,
while Afghan forces recaptured 20 prisoners. Fifteen militants were
killed in the Sangin area of Helmand province after a group of men in a
treeline fired on Afghan and coalition troops.
(AP, 6/14/08)(AP, 6/15/08)(AP, 6/16/08)
2008 Jun 15, Afghan President
Hamid Karzai threatened to send Afghan troops across the border to
fight militants in Pakistan, a forceful warning to insurgents and the
Pakistani government that his country is fed up with cross-border
attacks. Afghan and US-led coalition forces killed 20 militants in
Zabul province.
(AP, 6/15/08)(AP, 6/16/08)
2008 Jun 16, In southern
Afghanistan some 500 Taliban fighters took over several villages just
outside Arghandab, and NATO and Afghan forces were redeploying to meet
the threat.
(AP, 6/16/08)
2008 Jun 16, US President George
W. Bush won Europe's backing for tighter sanctions on Iran over its
nuclear program and secured a British pledge to send more troops to
Afghanistan.
(AP, 6/16/08)
2008 Jun 17, Residents and
officials said Taliban militants destroyed bridges and planted mines in
several villages they control outside southern Afghanistan's largest
city in apparent preparation for battle, as some 4,000 people or more
fled the Arghandab district 10 miles northwest of Kandahar city. An
explosion elsewhere killed 4 British soldiers in Helmand province.
(AP, 6/17/08)(AP, 6/18/08)
2008 Jun 18, Afghan and Canadian
forces moved into villages outside Kandahar to root out Taliban
militants, killing at least 36 insurgents.
(AP, 6/18/08)
2008 Jun 19, Afghan officials said
a swift offensive by Afghan and NATO forces drove Taliban militants
from a strategic group of villages outside Kandahar and killed 56
insurgents. Two Afghan soldiers and one civilian also died. The
militants had planted hundreds of land mines in the area before
fleeing. 2 soldiers from the US-led coalition were fatally wounded in a
shooting incident in Helmand province.
(AP, 6/19/08)(AP, 6/20/08)
2008 Jun 20, In southern
Afghanistan a suicide bomber attacked a military convoy as it drove
through a town, killing five civilians and one soldier from the US-led
coalition.
(AP, 6/20/08)
2008 Jun 21, In Afghanistan 5
foreign troops including a Polish national were slain in bombings,
extending a series of daily attacks that have lifted the death toll for
foreign forces this year to more than 100. In separate incidents
attackers detonated bombs and opened fire on vehicles carrying Afghan
troops in Zabul and Kunar provinces, killing five soldiers and wounding
three. Afghan and coalition forces attacked and killed several
militants manning a lookout post in Zabul province. Rockets fired from
Pakistan hit a village in eastern Afghanistan killing a woman and three
children, one of three cross-border attacks around the same late
evening time. A total of 27 rockets were fired from Pakistan to the
Afghan provinces of Paktika and Khost. Afghan troops responded by
firing 19 artillery rounds from Khost and nine rounds from Paktika
which landed in Pakistan.
(AP, 6/21/08)(Reuters, 6/22/08)(AP, 6/26/08)
2008 Jun 21, Sean Langan (43),
British freelance television journalist, was released by kidnappers
along the Afghan-Pakistan border after being held for 3 months. Langan
has spent the last few years making films about Afghanistan, Iraq and
Zimbabwe, and his documentary "Fighting the Taliban" was short-listed
for a Bafta this year.
(AFP, 6/24/08)
2008 Jun 22, In Afghanistan US-led
troops killed 55 militants including three senior commanders after
rebels ambushed a patrol with rockets near the eastern Afghan-Pakistani
border in fighting that had begun June 20. Militants in Pakistan fired
rockets at NATO bases across the border in Afghanistan, killing three
children in a village and prompting the alliance to launch a pair of
retaliatory artillery strikes.
(AFP, 6/23/08)(AP, 6/23/08)
2008 Jun 23, In Afghanistan a
civilian father and son were killed by coalition forces in eastern
Nangarhar province. 2 gunmen on a motorcycle killed a female police
officer in Herat province.
(AFP, 6/23/08)
2008 Jun 24, In eastern
Afghanistan coalition warplanes swooped down on militants withdrawing
from a firefight with police into the mountains, killing 15 of them.
Militants torched a convoy carrying military supplies just south of the
capital near Saydabad. 2 NATO soldiers died when a mine blast hit a
patrol in Khogyani, a district of the eastern province of Nangarhar. A
British soldier serving with a separate NATO security force was killed
in a bomb blast in Helmand province.
(AP, 6/24/08)(AP, 6/25/08)
2008 Jun 25, In Afghanistan US-led
air strikes killed 22 Taliban militants who attacked two towns with
rockets in Paktika province. In Helmand province a soldier in the
US-led coalition was killed and three others were wounded when their
vehicle hit a roadside bomb.
(AP, 6/25/08)
2008 Jun 26, In Afghanistan a bomb
hit troops from the US-led coalition patrolling in Wardak province,
causing an unspecified number of casualties. A coalition service member
was killed and five more wounded in western Farah province.
(AP, 6/26/08)(AP, 6/27/08)
2008 Jun 27, In Afghanistan a
British soldier died and two others were injured when their patrol
vehicle rolled over. An American special forces soldier was fatally
wounded by a bomb during a patrol in Kandahar province. Three US-led
soldiers were killed in a bomb explosion in Wardak province.
(AFP, 6/28/08)(AFP, 6/30/08)(AP, 6/30/08)
2008 Jun 27, A gang of Pakistani
militants in the Bajur region executed two Afghan prisoners in front of
thousands of cheering supporters, beheading Jan Wali (36) and shooting
the other after accusing them of aiding a US missile strike.
Celebratory gunfire then killed two bystanders and wounded six.
(AP, 6/28/08)(SFC, 6/28/08, p.A5)
2008 Jun 28, In Afghanistan the
US-led coalition said 32 militants were killed in southern Uruzgan
province. 2 militants were killed in a firefight in the Marja district
of troubled Helmand province. An army vehicle was struck by a roadside
bomb in Paktia province killing two Afghan soldiers. In Farah province
insurgents attacked the government headquarters in Juwain and the
ensuing battle left at least 2 police officers dead.
(SSFC, 6/29/08, p.A4)(AP, 6/30/08)(SFC, 6/30/08,
p.A10)
2008 Jun 29, In southwestern
Afghanistan US-led troops backed by warplanes battled militants,
killing 28 rebels including several Taliban leaders in Nimroz province.
The Afghan interior ministry however put the death toll at 15. NATO
said an explosion in southern Afghanistan killed one of its soldiers. A
mother and three of her sons died when a bomb the men were allegedly
constructing exploded in their home in Wardak province. 2 militants
were killed in a clash with Afghan soldiers in Helmand province. An
army vehicle was struck by a roadside bomb in Paktia province killing
two Afghan soldiers. 3 coalition soldiers were killed when their
vehicle rolled into a riverbed in Kandahar province.
(AP, 6/29/08)(AP, 6/30/08)(AFP, 6/30/08)(SFC,
7/1/08, p.A9)
2008 Jun 30, In Afghanistan 4
civilians were killed and two police were wounded in three roadside
bomb blasts in the Zurmat district of eastern Paktia province.
Militants attacked the government office in the town of Azra, Logar
province, killing a civilian employee and wounding 3 police. US-led
helicopters and bombers killed 33 insurgents in eastern Khost province,
while NATO soldiers in the same area cooperated with Pakistani troops
across the frontier to kill several more rebels. Gunmen dragged three
pro-Karzai tribal elders from their car and shot them dead in Paktika
province. A policeman was killed in a separate but similar incident in
the same area.
(AFP, 6/30/08)(AP, 6/30/08)(AP, 7/1/08)
2008 Jun 30, President Bush signed
legislation to pay for the war operations in Iraq and Afghanistan for
the rest of his presidency and beyond, hailing the $162 billion plan as
a rare product of bipartisan cooperation.
(AP, 6/30/08)
2008 Jun, Afghan opium farmers
accounted for some $500 million in annual income. This was dwarfed by
the $3.5 billion smuggling and refining business. About 15 kingpins in
control were all known to Western intelligence officials, but currently
enjoyed impunity.
(Econ, 6/21/08, p.54)
2008 Jul 1, In Afghanistan 4
police officers died when their vehicle struck a roadside bomb as they
went to reinforce a checkpost that had come under attack in southern
Uruzgan province. The US-led force said it helped Afghan security
forces kill "several" insurgents in the province and a young girl was
also killed in the fighting. Five Taliban militants died in a clash in
southern Zabul province. Another rebel was killed in southwestern
Nimroz province. Official figures showed June was the deadliest month
for foreign troops in Afghanistan since the 2001 fall of the Taliban
and the second in a row in which casualties exceeded those in Iraq.
(AFP, 7/1/08)
2008 Jul 2, In central Afghanistan
a roadside blast killed five Afghan soldiers in Logar province. Gunfire
brought down a US UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter in the same province, but
no US personnel were hurt. In the northwest Afghan and international
troops killed 25 Taliban after militants ambushed an Afghan patrol in
Muqur district.
(AP, 7/3/08)
2008 Jul 3, In Afghanistan gunmen
lobbed a grenade and sprayed a police checkpoint with gunfire in the
southern Kandahar province, killing eight officers. A roadside blast
next to a police vehicle in central Ghazni province killed two officers
and wounded five others. In eastern Paktika province, Afghan and
foreign troops killed seven suspected militants during a clash near the
Pakistan border. Afghan security forces seized 1.4 tons of opium in
western Afghanistan near the border with Iran.
(AP, 7/4/08)(AFP, 7/5/08)
2008 Jul 4, In southern
Afghanistan gunmen assassinated parliament member and former military
commander Habibullah Jan. In Helmand province a roadside bomb militants
were planting detonated prematurely, killing 10 Taliban. 22 civilians
were killed in air strikes in the Waygal district, including a woman
and a child. A spokesman for the US-led coalition said the airstrikes
in Nuristan province hit militants who earlier attacked a US military
base with mortars. Several militants were killed during an operation in
Ghazni province. More than 20 militants were killed and wounded during
a battle with NATO-backed Afghan forces in Kunar province.
(AP, 7/5/08)(AP, 7/6/08)
2008 Jul 5, In Afghanistan a clash
killed seven Taliban and two police in Helmand province. Five other
officers were wounded during the fight in Nawa district. A Canadian
military medic was killed when an explosive device detonated in the
Panjwayi District.
(AP, 7/6/08)(Reuters, 7/7/08)
2008 Jul 6, In Afghanistan the
chief government official in the Deh Bala district of Nangarhar
province said villagers reported that as many as 27 people walking in a
group toward a wedding were killed in a bombing. Up to 10 others were
wounded. The US-led coalition said an airstrike killed or wounded 20
militants in Nangarhar. An official investigation later found that the
US-led air strikes struck a wedding and killed 47 Afghan civilians.
(AP, 7/6/08)(AFP, 7/11/08)
2008 Jul 7, In Afghanistan a car
bomb detonated by a suicide bomber ripped through the front wall of the
Indian Embassy in central Kabul, killing 41 people in the deadliest
attack in the capital since the fall of the Taliban.
(AP, 7/7/08)(AP, 7/8/08)
2008 Jul 8, In eastern Afghanistan
a roadside bomb blast killed one NATO soldier and wounded four others.
a provincial police chief said five insurgents and two policemen died
during a clash in central Ghazni province.
(AP, 7/8/08)
2008 Jul 9, In northwestern
Afghanistan a group of villagers used a machine gun, sticks and stones
to kill two Taliban militants and chase 10 others away. NATO-led forces
in central Logar province killed a Taliban militant involved with
suicide bombing networks. 9 British soldiers were injured in Helmand
province when an Apache helicopter opened fire after mistaking them for
the enemy.
(AP, 7/10/08)
2008 Jul 12, In central
Afghanistan Taliban militants executed two women just outside Ghazni
city after accusing them of working as prostitutes on a US base. A
soldier serving with ISAF died of wounds caused by an explosion in
northern Afghanistan. NATO troops killed Bismullah Akhund, an insurgent
leader in Helmand's Naw Zad district.
(AP, 7/13/08)(AP, 7/17/08)
2008 Jul 12, NATO said a recent
border clash that wounded several Pakistani and Afghan security
personnel was sparked by insurgents in Afghanistan who fired at targets
in both countries, apparently to stoke cross-border tensions.
(AP, 7/12/08)
2008 Jul 13, In southern
Afghanistan a suicide bomber on a motorcycle blew himself up next to a
police patrol killing 24 people in Uruzgan province. A two-day battle
sparked by an insurgent attack killed at least 40 militants in Helmand
province. A NATO soldier died in a roadside blast in Helmand province.
In eastern Kunar province, fighting erupted when militants attacked a
NATO security force outpost. In eastern Logar province gunmen kidnapped
parliament member Abdul Wali and his driver. Well-armed militants got
inside a remote military outpost in the village of Wanat in the
mountainous northeastern province of Kunar. 9 American soldiers were
killed in the deadliest assault on US forces in Afghanistan in three
years.
(AP, 7/13/08)(AP, 7/14/08)
2008 Jul 14, In eastern
Afghanistan seven insurgents were killed in fighting in Wanat, Nuristan
province, where 9 US soldiers were killed a day earlier. An "Arab
terrorist" was captured during the operation.
(AP, 7/15/08)
2008 Jul 15, In southwestern
Afghanistan air strikes against extremist rebels killed 4 women and 5
children as well as several insurgents. NATO pulled soldiers out of the
outpost in Wanat village in northeastern Kunar province, which
militants had breached killing 9 US soldiers.
(AP, 7/16/08)
2008 Jul 16, The governor of
Kandahar said eight militants were killed during an operation in the
southern province's Khakrez district in the past two days. A regional
Taliban commander, Mullah Mahmoud, who controlled about 250 fighters,
was among those killed. Several militants were killed in the Nahr Surkh
district of Helmand. Coalition and Afghan security forces uncovered and
destroyed a large weapons cache in northern Jawzjan province.
(AP, 7/16/08)(AP, 7/17/08)
2008 Jul 17, In western
Afghanistan US Special Forces and Afghan troops called in airstrikes
during a raid on a militant cell, killing 15 insurgents while freeing
15 hostages in Herat province. Taliban militants attacked a convoy
carrying supplies for NATO forces in Zabul. A following gunbattle
killed an Afghan security worker and wounded five.
(AP, 7/17/08)(AP, 7/18/08)
2008 Jul 17, Aafia Siddiqui, a
Pakistani woman once identified as a possible al-Qaida associate, was
arrested by Afghan police, who found recipes for explosives and
descriptions of New York landmarks in her handbag. [see Aug 5]
(AFP, 8/30/08)
2008 Jul 18, In Afghanistan a
roadside blast the Nava district of Helmand province. Three guards were
killed and four wounded. 2 French aid workers were taken from their
guest house in the early hours in the central province of Day Kundi,
one of the poorest areas of Afghanistan. On August 2 Action Against
Hunger said the aid workers had been released.
(AP, 7/18/08)(AP, 8/2/08)
2008 Jul 19, Democratic
presidential contender Barack Obama started a campaign-season tour of
combat zones and foreign capitals, visiting with US forces in Kuwait
and then Afghanistan — the scene of a war he says deserves more
attention and more troops. Afghan troops clashed with Taliban
insurgents in Zabul province attacking a supply convoy for NATO troops,
killing nine militants. Roadside bombs in Kandahar province killed a
NATO soldier in a separate convoy and four policemen. In Helmand
province militants attacked a police checkpoint and in the ensuing
gunfight three Taliban fighters were killed. NATO forces accidentally
killed at least four civilians in eastern Paktika province.
(AP, 7/19/08)(AP, 7/20/08)
2008 Jul 19, Mullah Rahim, the
most senior Taliban leader in Afghanistan's Helmand province, gave
himself up to Pakistani officials.
(AP, 7/22/08)
2008 Jul 20, Democratic
presidential candidate Barack Obama pledged steadfast aid to
Afghanistan in talks with its Western-backed leader and vowed to pursue
the war on terror "with vigor" if he is elected. 9 policemen were
killed in international military air strikes called in when police and
troops clashed after mistaking each other for Taliban. International
soldiers had moved into a district in Farah province without informing
police, who thought they were militants. 3 children were killed in the
southern province of Helmand when a bomb blew up a minivan. One NATO
soldier was killed in Khost province. A precision missile strike by
British aircraft killed Abdul Rasaq, a Taliban leader who led fighters
in the Musa Qala area of Helmand province.
(AP, 7/20/08)(AFP, 7/20/08)(SFC, 7/21/08, p.A7)
2008 Jul 22, US-led coalition and
Afghan troops for a 2nd day clashed with and called in airstrikes on
Taliban militants in western Afghanistan, killing and wounding more
than 25 insurgents. In Kabul a suicide bomber on foot detonated himself
next to the walls of the city's historic Babur Gardens, a popular
public park, wounding three civilians. In central Wardak province,
US-led coalition forces killed "several militants" while hunting for a
Taliban leader said to have been behind an attack that killed three
American troops and their interpreter last month. Militants attacked a
British patrol in Kajaki district of Helmand province. The soldier was
initially wounded and later died. A civilian vehicle struck a mine in
Khost province, killing four people and wounding three. The dead
included a 2-year-old and a woman. In southern Helmand province, Afghan
troops killed five insurgents in a clash. A policeman and two Afghan
soldiers were wounded in the encounter. Gunmen killed the spokesman for
the governor of Paktika province, Ghamai Khan Mohammadyar, and wounded
his wife, his brother and his mother.
(AP, 7/22/08)(AP, 7/23/08)
2008 Jul 23, In Afghanistan
militants killed a district police chief in the eastern Nangarhar
province after striking his convoy with a roadside bomb. Police clashed
with Taliban fighters in Uruzgan province, killing three militants.
(AP, 7/23/08)
2008 Jul 24, In southern
Afghanistan insurgents attacked an Afghan military convoy in Zabul
province and 35 militants were killed after the army called for
assistance from the US-led coalition. A British army dog handler was
fatally shot by insurgents.
(AP, 7/24/08)(AP, 7/25/08)
2008 Jul 25, In southern
Afghanistan a Danish soldier died in a roadside bomb attack. The death
brings the number of Danish troops killed in Afghanistan since 2001 to
15. 3 Taliban militants died in a fight with police in the Gereshk
district of Helmand province.
(AP, 7/25/08)
2008 Jul 26, In southern
Afghanistan NATO-led soldiers killed four civilians after opening fire
on a car that did not stop at a checkpoint.
(AP, 7/26/08)
2008 Jul 27, In Afghanistan some
50 to 70 insurgents were killed when helicopter gunships and ground
fighting repulsed an attack by about 100 rebels in the Spera district
of Khost province near the Pakistan border. 2 Policemen were killed in
the attack. Elsewhere in Khost province, a suicide bomber blew himself
up inside a tent of security guards, killing one of them and injuring
six more. NATO troops killed two children in southern Afghanistan by
opening fire on a car that they feared was about to attack their convoy.
(AFP, 7/27/08)(WSJ, 7/28/08, p.A10)(AP, 7/28/08)
2008 Jul 28, US-led coalition
troops killed several militants during a raid in central Afghanistan,
while a suspected bomb maker and his family died in an accidental blast
in Kunar province.
(AP, 7/29/08)
2008 Jul 29, In Afghanistan a
roadside blast that apparently targeted an Afghan senator mediating a
land dispute in eastern Paktia province killed 3 policemen and wounded
3 others. In Logar province militants attacked a police van, killing
two officers, then taking the vehicle. A British soldier was killed in
Helmand.
(AP, 7/30/08)
2008 Jul 30, In Afghanistan
Insurgents and a roadside blast killed five Afghan policemen.
(AP, 7/30/08)
2008 Aug 1, In eastern Afghanistan
4 NATO soldiers were killed in a bomb blast in Kunar province. Another
soldier was killed in a separate explosion in Khost province. More than
a dozen" rebels were killed in ground fighting and air strikes after
attacking an Afghan and US-led coalition patrol in the southern
province of Uruzgan. Several more were killed in the southwestern
province of Farah after their hideout was discovered. Three other
militants linked to Taliban, one of them a doctor, were killed when a
bomb they were planting exploded in eastern Khost province. Islamic
rebels captured six policemen following a brief firefight in Khost
province.
(AFP, 8/1/08)(AFP, 8/2/08)
2008 Aug 2, In Afghanistan a
suspected rebel bomb struck a minibus carrying a newly married couple,
killing the bride and groom and 11 wedding guests.
(AP, 8/2/08)
2008 Aug 2, In Sri Lanka a two-day
summit of leaders of the 15th South Asian Association for Regional
Cooperation (SAARC), opened amid extraordinary security. Leaders of
Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, The Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan
and Sri Lanka attended the summit. Government troops captured
rebel-held Vellankulam village in Mannar, the last rebel stronghold in
the area. Fresh fighting between Sri Lankan troops and Tamil Tiger
separatists killed 14 rebels and two soldiers across the embattled
northern region.
(AP, 8/2/08)(AP, 8/3/08)
2008 Aug 3, In Afghanistan a
roadside bomb struck a US-led coalition vehicle, killing one service
member and wounding another on the outskirts of Kabul. Afghan and NATO
troops targeted a group of Taliban fighters in Helmand province,
killing 17 militants and wounding six others. Four police were killed
separately in a militant ambush in central Ghazni province.
(AP, 8/3/08)(AP, 8/4/08)
2008 Aug 4, In Afghanistan a pair
of Taliban fighters died when a mine they were planting exploded
prematurely in the Spin Boldak district of Kandahar province. Police
killed five Taliban fighters after the militants ambushed a police
patrol in Kandahar’s Panjwayi district.
(AP, 8/4/08)(AP, 8/5/08)
2008 Aug 5, Aafia Siddiqui, a
Pakistani woman once identified as a possible al-Qaida associate, was
extradited from Afghanistan and arraigned in New York on charges that
she tried to kill US agents and military officers. Siddiqui was
educated at Brandeis and MIT and fled to Pakistan after 9/11 because of
anti-Muslim sentiment. She and her children dropped out of sight in
March 2003, after 9/11 mastermind Khalid sheikh Mohammed mentioned her
name during an interrogation. She was arrested by Afghan police on July
17, who found recipes for explosives and descriptions of New York
landmarks in her handbag. Siddiqui is the wife of Ammar al-Baluchi, a
nephew of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who was believed to be the chief
planner of the Sep 11, 2001, attacks.
(SFC, 8/6/08, p.A3)(WSJ, 8/6/08, p.A7)(SSFC,
8/24/08, p.A5)
2008 Aug 7, Afghan and coalition
forces killed at least four militants in Nahr Surkh district of Helmand
province. In central Afghanistan US-led coalition forces
"inadvertently" killed four women and a child during a clash that
killed several militants.
(AP, 8/8/08)
2008 Aug 8, In western Afghanistan
a coalition service member died in a roadside blast. About 20 Taliban
fighters were killed in a battle with Afghan and US-led forces near a
key military supply route in the western Bala Buluk district. An Afghan
child was killed and two injured by militants who attacked alliance
troops in northeastern Kunar province.
(AP, 8/8/08)(AP, 8/9/08)
2008 Aug 9, In Afghanistan
airstrikes and clashes north of Kabul killed 11 people, some of whom
were believed to be civilians.
(AP, 8/10/08)
2008 Aug 10, In Afghanistan five
civilians died when their vehicle struck a freshly planted mine close
to an Afghan military base in Zhari district in southern Kandahar
province. Australia's Defense Department said that its troops had
captured Mullah Bari Ghul, the Taliban's senior leader in the central
province of Uruzgan during a targeted operation last week. 8 civilians
held hostage by Taliban militants were killed in an air strike by
US-led troops during a battle that also left 25 rebel fighters dead in
southern Uruzgan province.
(AP, 8/10/08)(AFP, 8/11/08)
2008 Aug 11, An Afghan police
officer was killed and two others were injured in a roadside bomb
explosion on the southeastern outskirts of Kabul. 3 civilians were
killed and 15 people were wounded, including three NATO troops, when a
suicide car bomber rammed his vehicle into a NATO military convoy in
Kabul. In the northern province of Maimana meanwhile a Latvian ISAF
soldier was killed and three others wounded when their vehicle hit a
roadside bomb.
(AFP, 8/11/08)
2008 Aug 13, In Afghanistan
militants brandishing assault rifles ambushed a US relief
organization's vehicle, killing three aid workers and their Afghan
driver and leaving their white SUV riddled with hundreds of bullets.
The three women killed in Logar province worked for the New York-based
International Rescue Committee (IRC). In southern Afghanistan militants
began launching attacks on a coalition patrol. Over 3 dozen militants
were killed in the fighting.
(AP, 8/13/08)(SFC, 8/16/08, p.A6)
2008 Aug 14, Afghan police pulled
back from posts in the Nad Ali district of Helmand province after two
weeks of clashes with militants. The Taliban claimed to have taken over
that district. An explosion targeting a foot patrol in southern
Afghanistan killed 3 members of the US-led coalition. Afghan and
foreign troops clashed with insurgents in the Shwak district of eastern
Paktika province.
(AP, 8/15/08)(SFC, 8/15/08, p.A11)(AP, 8/17/08)
2008 Aug 15, Afghan security
forces withdrew from Nawa district in eastern Ghazni province after
days of fighting with Taliban, allowing the rebels to move in and
capture the area. In eastern Afghanistan a roadside bomb and small arms
fire killed 2 soldiers serving under the separate NATO-led force.
Taliban insurgents attacked police checkpoints in Nad Ali district of
southern Helmand province, sparking clashes that killed 23 militants.
(AFP, 8/15/08)(SFC, 8/16/08, p.A6)(AP, 8/17/08)
2008 Aug 16, Afghan and foreign
troops clashed with militants in a mountainous area of Zabul province,
killing 7 militants. In Kandahar province a roadside blast killed 10
police officers on patrol. In eastern Paktika province police clashed
with militants in the Shwak district, killing 4 insurgents. In Helmand
province British troops accidentally killed 4 civilians during an
operation against Taliban insurgents.
(AP, 8/17/08)(WSJ, 8/18/08, p.A9)(Reuters, 8/18/08)
2008 Aug 17, In Afghanistan 32
Taliban fighters died during a four-hour battle in Zabul province. 9
private security guards also died in the attack on a NATO convoy.
(AP, 8/17/08)
2008 Aug 18, In eastern
Afghanistan a suicide car bomb blew up outside Camp Salerno, a US
military base in Khost, killing 12 civilian laborers, as the country
marked Independence Day. A mine blew up a police vehicle in the
province of Nangarhar and killed two policemen. About 100 insurgents
ambushed a group of French paratroopers, killing 10 soldiers in an area
outside the capital known as a militant stronghold. An Afghan official
said insurgents kidnapped four of the soldiers and later killed them.
13 militants were reported killed [see Oct 15, 2009].
(AFP, 8/18/08)(AP, 8/19/08)(Econ, 8/34/08, p.34)
2008 Aug 19, In Afghanistan a team
of suicide bombers tried unsuccessfully to storm a US base near the
Afghanistan-Pakistan border. NATO said 3 suicide bombers detonated
their vests and 3 more were shot dead and that 7 attackers in total
were killed.
(AP, 8/19/08)
2008 Aug 20, In eastern
Afghanistan the US-led coalition killed more than 30 insurgents in a
battle whose fighters were said to be responsible for an attack that
killed 10 French troops earlier this week. 3 Polish soldiers were
killed when a roadside bomb exploded in the central province of Ghazni.
3 Canadian soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb in southern
Afghanistan.
(AP, 8/21/08)(Reuters, 8/21/08)
2008 Aug 20, In Beijing Rohullah
Nikpai of Afghanistan won a bronze medal in taekwondo. This was
Afghanistan’s first Olympic medal ever.
(http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/summer08/news/story?id=3544339)
2008 Aug 21, British PM Gordon
Brown visited Kabul after meeting with British troops in Helmand
province. Brown pledged more support for Afghanistan including 120
million dollars towards a development fund that would include paying
teachers' salaries and 17 million dollars for a radio station in
Helmand. 11 militants reportedly died in a clash in the south. Afghan
and international troops clashed with militants in Khas in Uruzgan
province, killing 11 militants.
(AP, 8/21/08)(AP, 8/22/08)
2008 Aug 22, US-led troops
attacked a compound where Taliban leaders were meeting in western
Afghanistan, and reportedly killed 30 militants. An Afghan human rights
group said that at least 78 people were killed, including women and
children, in the joint Afghan-US coalition military operation in
western Herat province. In eastern Afghanistan a roadside bomb killed a
US coalition service member. An investigation later found that more
than 90 civilians, mostly women and children, were killed in the
coalition air strikes in Herat. Officials later said the US-led attack
was based on misleading information by a rival tribesman named Nader
Tawakil. On Sep 2 the US-led coalition said that its investigation into
the controversial missile strike, thought to have killed 90 civilians,
had found that only seven non-combatants died. After video images
showing at least 10 dead children and up to 40 other dead villagers
surfaced, the US said it would send a one-star general to investigate
the strike.
(AP, 8/22/08)(AFP, 8/24/08)(WSJ, 8/29/08, p.A1)(AFP,
9/2/08)(AP, 9/14/08)
2008 Aug 23, Azizabad villagers
threw stones at Afghan soldiers who tried to give them food and
clothes. The soldiers fired into the crowd and wounded eight people,
including one child critically wounded. This was the village in Herat
province where the day before a US-Afghan operation took place leaving
many civilians dead.
(AP, 8/23/08)
2008 Aug 24, Taliban militants
attacked a patrol of US-led coalition troops in northern Afghanistan,
while insurgents came under fire by NATO aircraft after attacking an
Afghan army outpost in the south. At least 10 militants were killed in
the fighting. In eastern Kunar province, a civilian Mi-8 supply
helicopter contracted by NATO-led troops crashed shortly after takeoff,
killing one person on board and wounding three others.
(AP, 8/24/08)
2008 Aug 25, The Afghan cabinet
demanded the renegotiation of agreements regulating the presence of the
international community in Afghanistan after more than 90 civilians
were killed in US-led air strikes.
(AFP, 8/25/08)
2008 Aug 26, A UN team in Herat,
Afghanistan, said it found "convincing evidence" that 90 civilians,
including 60 children, were killed in US-led air strikes last week.
Aerial bombardment was clearly evident with some 78 houses having been
totally destroyed and serious damage to many others. Kazuya Ito (31), a
Japanese aid worker, was kidnapped at gunpoint with his driver near
Jalalabad. Ito was found killed the next day. A group of Taliban
fighters attacked a police checkpoint in Nad Ali district of Helmand
province, sparking a clash that killed 18 militants. An air strike
killed 30 Taliban in southeastern Afghanistan close to the border with
Pakistan.
(AP, 8/26/08)(AP, 8/27/08)(Reuters, 8/27/08)
2008 Aug 27, In Afghanistan a
German soldier was killed and another three injured in a roadside bomb
attack in Kunduz province. Germany counted some 3,300 soldiers as part
of the international force in Afghanistan. US-led coalition troops
clashed and called in airstrikes against militants in Kunduz province,
killing more than a dozen insurgents. In southern Afghanistan a
roadside bomb killed a US coalition soldier on a patrol. In the Nad Ali
area of Helmand province, a fight between police and militants killed
14 insurgents. More than a dozen militants were killed after they
attacked a coalition base in Shaheed Hasas district of the southern
Uruzgan province. Two Afghan guards also died during the attack. About
a dozen militants were killed during a raid by coalition troops in
eastern Paktika province.
(AP, 8/27/08)(AP, 8/28/08)(AP, 8/30/08)
2008 Aug 28, The US-backed
coalition said a four-day battle that began with an ambush on a joint
US-Afghan patrol in southern Afghanistan has killed more than 100
militants. A dozen militants were killed in a gunbattle with coalition
forces in Paktika province.
(AP, 8/28/08)(AP, 8/29/08)
2008 Sep 1, Foreign and Afghan
forces killed five children in two separate incidents, further
inflaming tensions over the killings of civilians by troops from the US
and other countries. The US military said US-led coalition and Afghan
troops killed more than 220 suspected Taliban militants in strikes in
southern Afghanistan last week.
(AP, 9/1/08)(Reuters, 9/1/08)
2008 Sep 2, In Afghanistan 22
Taliban were killed in a clash in Zabul province's Naw Bahar district.
7 Arab fighters were among the dead. Another 10 militants died in
clashes with Afghan and foreign troops in Nad Ali district of Helmand
province. NATO troops in Operation Oqab Tsuka (Eagle’s summit)
delivered a Chinese-built turbine for the power station at Kajaki.
Taliban insurgents opened fire on a patrol of Australian, US and Afghan
troops, as it returned to base. More than a dozen coalition troops were
wounded; none died. In 2009 Australian trooper Mark Donaldson was
awarded the Victoria Cross, the highest military honor in the British
Commonwealth, for his efforts to protect the wounded during the attack.
(AP, 9/3/08)(Econ, 9/6/08, p.64)(AP, 1/16/09)
2008 Sep 3, Pakistan's government
says a cross-border raid involving US-led or NATO forces killed several
civilians. Women and children were among 15 people reportedly killed in
the attack in a Pakistani village in South Waziristan near the border
with Afghanistan.
(AP, 9/3/08)
2008 Sep 5, In western Afghanistan
an overnight raid in Farah province killed six militants and two
civilians.
(AP, 9/5/08)
2008 Sep 6, In Afghanistan a
suicide bomb attack by a fake beggar inside a regional prosecutor's
office and a shoot-out between police and Taliban militants killed 15
people.
(AP, 9/6/08)
2008 Sep 7, In Afghanistan 2
suicide attackers detonated bombs inside the police headquarters in
Kandahar city, killing six policemen. In southern Afghanistan a
Canadian soldier was killed and seven wounded when their armored
vehicle struck an explosive device while on patrol.
(AP, 9/7/08)(Reuters, 9/8/08)
2008 Sep 8, A roadside blast in
southern Afghanistan killed six civilians.
(AP, 9/8/08)
2008 Sep 9, A NATO bomb missed its
target by more than 1 1/2 miles and hit a house, killing two Afghan
civilians and wounding 10 at a time of rising tension between the
Afghan government and international troops over the use of airstrikes.
(AP, 9/9/08)
2008 Sep 9, Asif Ali Zardari. the
widower of assassinated former Pakistani leader Benazir Bhutto, took
office as the country's new president, facing immediate pressure to
crack down on Islamic militants and address daunting economic problems.
Zardari and Afghan Pres. Karzai hosted a joint news conference and
declared that they stand together against the Taliban and al-Qaida.
(AP, 9/9/08)(SFC, 9/10/08, p.A7)
2008 Sep 11, In Afghanistan 10
militants were killed by US-led coalition troops north of Kabul. 2 US
soldiers were killed in eastern Afghanistan. An insurgent attack on a
compound in eastern Afghanistan killed a US soldier and another was
killed by an explosive, making 2008 the deadliest for American forces
in Afghanistan since the 2001 invasion.
(AP, 9/11/08)(AP, 9/12/08)
2008 Sep 12, Taliban militants
attacked a logistics convoy in western Afghanistan, sparking a clash
that killed 10 insurgents and five Afghan guards. Afghan police said
they had arrested three suspects accused of giving the US military
false information that led to the August 22 bombardment of the village
of Azizabad.
(AP, 9/12/08)(AP, 9/14/08)
2008 Sep 13, In Afghanistan
Mohammad Jan Abdullah Wardak, the governor of Logar province and a
former cabinet minister, was killed with 3 others in a bomb attack near
Kabul claimed by Taliban rebels and condemned by President Hamid
Karzai. A British soldier was killed in an explosion in Helmand
province. Taliban militants in Ghazni province ambushed and killed 4
police. 3 more were wounded and died the next day.
(AP, 9/13/08)(AP, 9/14/08)(AFP, 9/14/08)
2008 Sep 14, In southern
Afghanistan a suicide bomber in a vehicle attacked a convoy carrying
Afghan doctors working for the UN, killing two doctors and their
driver. They were on a mission to monitor efforts to vaccinate children
against polio. 6 children died in central Ghazni after ordnance they
were playing with exploded. An Afghan interpreter working for the US
military was shot dead as he stepped out of his home.
(AFP, 9/14/08)
2008 Sep 17, A roadside blast in
eastern Afghanistan killed four US coalition soldiers and an Afghan. In
Kabul US Defense Secretary Robert Gates expressed "personal regret" for
recent US airstrikes that killed Afghan civilians, and pledged more
accurate targeting in future. French Defense Minister Herve Morin said
years of under-investment in defense by European countries was to blame
for a critical shortage of international forces in Afghanistan.
(AFP, 9/17/08)
2008 Sep 18, In southern
Afghanistan NATO-led troops killed an ally of President Hamid Karzai
during an overnight gunbattle. The Afghan president said the death
resulted from a "misunderstanding between foreign and local forces."
Ruzi Khan Barakzai, the former police chief of Uruzgan province and a
tribal leader and militia commander, were killed outside the provincial
capital of Tirin Kot. Taliban militants killed two policemen and
wounded three others after attacking their checkpoint in the eastern
Paktika province.
(AP, 9/18/08)
2008 Sep 19, In western
Afghanistan a roadside bomb hit a US-led coalition convoy killing one
coalition soldier.
(WSJ, 9/20/08, p.A1)
2008 Sep 20, A soldier from the
US-led coalition and two Afghan civilians were killed when a bomb hit
their vehicle in southern Afghanistan.
(AFP, 9/20/08)
2008 Sep 21, The UN said guns fell
silent across much of Afghanistan for the 26th anniversary of the
International Day of Peace that saw pledges by the US, NATO, the Afghan
government and the Taliban to halt attacks. Taliban militants attacked
a security company guarding a road construction crew in the southern
province of Ghazni, killing two guards. In southwestern Afghanistan
suspected Taliban militants kidnapped about 156 civilian laborers who
were traveling in three buses in the Bala Buluk area.
(AP, 9/21/08)(AFP, 9/22/08)
2008 Sep 22, In southern
Afghanistan a roadside bomb killed a district chief and a police chief
in Kandahar province. An Afghan journalist detained for 11 months at
the US military base at Bagram alleged that his captors kicked him,
forced him to stand barefoot in the snow and didn't allow him to sleep
for days. Jawed Ahmad (21), who worked primarily for CTV, a Canadian
television network, was handed over to Afghan authorities on Sep 21.
(AP, 9/23/08)
2008 Sep 24, In Afghanistan a bomb
blast in the capital has wounded Kabul's chief criminal investigator.
Gen. Ali Shah Paktiawal was investigating the overnight killing of
three officers at the checkpoint in Kabul's western outskirts when a
blast struck his team. A remote-controlled bomb struck a police vehicle
in Spin Boldak district, killing two officers.
(AP, 9/24/08)(AP, 9/25/08)
2008 Sep 25, In Afghanistan a bomb
targeted a bus full of police trainers in Kandahar city, killing a
civilian passerby. The bomb missed the bus. The bullet-riddled bodies
of four police officers were found dumped in Ghazni province.
(AP, 9/25/08)(AFP, 9/27/08)
2008 Sep 26, In Afghanistan a
suicide bomber targeting a militia commander killed five people, and
wounded seven others in eastern Khost province. Three policemen were
killed in Ghazni province when militants linked to Taliban attacked
their patrol. Troops backed by gunship helicopters killed five
Taliban-linked militants in Ghazni province. Taliban militants released
118 Afghan laborers.
(AP, 9/26/08)(AFP, 9/27/08)
2008 Sep 27, Taliban militants
released the last 30 of approximately 150 Afghan laborers they had
abducted for almost a week after suspecting the workers of being Afghan
soldiers. 118 were released a day earlier. 3 had been released earlier
in the week due to illness.
(AP, 9/27/08)
2008 Sep 28, In Afghanistan two
gunmen on a motorbike shot and killed Malalai Kakar (41), a
high-ranking woman police official in Kandahar city. A suicide bomber
killed three police and three civilians in the Spin Boldak district of
Kandahar province. An Afghan police official said a US-led coalition
killed three civilians in an operation apparently targeting a suicide
bomb cell in eastern Afghanistan. That claim was disputed by the
coalition, which said its troops killed two al-Qaida militants. A NATO
soldier and an Afghan policeman were killed in a row that erupted after
a bomb strike. Gunmen opened fire on the head of a provincial council,
near his home in Kandahar city. Mohammad Hashim Granai survived, but 4
of his bodyguards were killed.
(AP, 9/28/08)(AP, 9/29/08)
2008 Sep 29, In Afghanistan a bomb
struck a vehicle killed two civilians and wounding two others in rural
eastern Paktika province. Taliban attacked a police outpost in Ghazni
province overnight and killed two policemen, taking one away with them.
International forces bombed a Taliban group in Ghazni and killed five
rebels.
(AP, 9/29/08)
2008 Oct 3, NATO launched an
airstrike near the Afghan border with Pakistan. A jet fighter bombed
two houses in different parts of Datta Khel. Intelligence officials in
the region said 2 women and one child were killed and 5 men wounded. A
militant attack on a US patrol in eastern Kunar province killed an
Afghan civilian and wounded four others.
(Reuters, 10/3/08)(AP, 10/3/08)
2008 Oct 3, US missiles hit a
house in Mohammadkhel near the Afghan border. Two Pakistani
intelligence officials, citing reports from field agents and
informants, said 14 Taliban militants and 8 Arabs died in the attack
about 28 miles west of Miran Shah.
(AP, 10/4/08)
2008 Oct 3, United States
Protection and Investigations, a Houston security company, was indicted
on charges of defrauding the US government for work done during the
Afghanistan war and rebuilding efforts.
(AP, 10/3/08)
2008 Oct 4, The US coalition says
its forces have killed five militants in two operations targeting
al-Qaida and Taliban insurgents in eastern Afghanistan.
(AP, 10/4/08)
2008 Oct 5, Afghan and US troops
clashed and called airstrikes on a group of insurgents in southern
Zabul province, killing 43 militants.
(AP, 10/7/08)
2008 Oct 6, A suicide bomber
attacked legislator Rasheed Akbar Niwani’s house in eastern Pakistan,
killing at least 15 people and wounding more than 50. Officials said
Pakistani authorities have begun expelling Afghan refugees from the
Bajaur tribal region that has become the main battleground between
troops and fighters linked to the Taliban and al Qaeda.
(AP, 10/6/08)(Reuters, 10/6/08)
2008 Oct 7, Afghan refugees flowed
over the border from Pakistan’s Bajur battle zone after officials
accused them of links with Taliban militants and ordered them out.
(AP, 10/7/08)
2008 Oct 7, Chancellor Angela
Merkel's Cabinet voted to extend Germany's military mission in
Afghanistan for 14 more months.
(AP, 10/7/08)
2008 Oct 8, In Afghanistan at
least 27 Islamic militants were killed in military operations across
the country. Villagers reported that 10 civilians died in rebel gunfire.
(AFP, 10/9/08)
2008 Oct 9, Afghanistan appealed
for more NATO help to attack heroin dealers at a meeting with NATO
counterparts in Budapest. General David McKiernan, the top US commander
in Afghanistan, said he backed a "political solution" to the country's
dragging conflict with Taliban-led extremists. The US pushed NATO
allies to order their troops to target Afghanistan's thriving heroin
trade in a bid to stem the flow of drug money to the widening
insurgency against the troubled international military mission.
(AFP, 10/9/08)(AP, 10/9/08)(SFC, 10/10/08, p.A16)
2008 Oct 10, NATO defense
ministers authorized their troops in Afghanistan to attack drug barons
blamed for pumping up to US$100 million (euro74 million) a year into
the coffers of resurgent Taliban fighters.
(AP, 10/10/08)
2008 Oct 11, Afghan Pres. Karzai
named Muhammad Hanif Atmar (40) as his interior minister in a Cabinet
reshuffle aimed to curb high-level corruption. In Afghanistan about 40
militants more were killed as a three-day operation wound up in the Nad
Ali district of Helmand province. Atmar was a former official in
Afghanistan’s communist-era secret police.
(AFP, 10/12/08)(SSFC, 10/12/08, p.A7)
2008 Oct 12, In Afghanistan 62
militants, part of a group of 150 that had been seen massing outside
of Lashkar Gah for several days, were killed overnight in NATO
air strikes that stopped them from entering the Helmand provincial
capital. Taliban commander Mullah Qadratullah was among the dead. The
US-led coalition killed five Taliban rebels in Ghazni. Canadian
Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) reporter Mellissa Fung (35) was
kidnapped in Kabul. She was freed on Nov 8.
(AP, 10/12/08)(AFP, 10/13/08)(SFC, 10/13/08,
p.A11)(AFP, 11/9/08)
2008 Oct 13, In Afghanistan 8
civilians were killed in separate insurgent attacks. 5 Afghan men who
worked as translators were abducted by unknown gunmen in the eastern
province of Paktia as they were driving to Kabul by taxi. A coalition
service member was killed and several others were wounded in southern
Afghanistan when their vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb.
(AFP, 10/13/08)(AP, 10/14/08)
2008 Oct 14, In eastern
Afghanistan a roadside bomb blast killed three NATO soldiers. In the
south, a bomb attack apparently intended for NATO troops exploded
against an Afghan minivan in Uruzgan province, killing nine civilians.
Dost Mohammad Arighistani, head of the government's labor and social
affairs department for the southern province of Kandahar, was killed in
his car with his bodyguard as he traveled to work. Taliban militants
attacked police checkpoints ringing Lashkar Gah. 18 militants were
killed and three police wounded. 6 policemen died after a shootout
among officers inside a police checkpoint about 15 miles north of
Lashkar Gah.
(AP, 10/14/08)(AFP, 10/14/08)(AP, 10/15/08)
2008 Oct 15, In Afghanistan
international war planes bombed a gathering of Taliban and other
militants overnight in Barham Chah on the border with Pakistan and
killed up to 70. An explosion in Helmand province killed a British
soldier.
(AFP, 10/15/08)(AP, 10/16/08)
2008 Oct 16, In southern
Afghanistan an insurgent's rocket hit Lashkar Gah, capital of the
world's largest opium producing region, killing a civilian and wounding
five other people. An Afghan policeman killed a US soldier on foot
patrol in Paktika province and a second international troop was killed
by a mortar in another "possible friendly fire" incident. Air strikes
in the Nad Ali district of Helmand province reportedly killed 17
civilians. 18 insurgents were killed in fighting in Kunar province.
(AP, 10/16/08)(AFP, 10/16/08)(SFC, 10/18/08, p.A9)
2008 Oct 17, In Afghanistan a bomb
in Paktika province killed two civilians. A two-day battle in Wardak
province left 20 militants dead. NATO-led forces assaulted the
insurgent stronghold with airstrikes 40 miles west of Kabul.
(AFP, 10/18/08)(AP, 10/20/08)
2008 Oct 18, In Afghanistan men on
motorbikes shot dead a prominent pro-government Afghan tribal elder and
his son, a former bodyguard for President Hamid Karzai, as they left a
mosque in Kandahar. A bomb in eastern Paktika province killed two
civilian men and a child.
(AFP, 10/18/08)
2008 Oct 19, Taliban militants
stopped a bus traveling on Afghanistan's main highway in the Maiwand
district of Kandahar province, captured some 50 people on board and
killed 26 of them with at least 6 beheaded. International and Afghan
forces killed 34 Taliban fighters south of the Helmand provincial
capital of Lashkar Gah. In early 2009 Canadian military police
charged Captain Robert Semrau of shooting and killing a man, described
by the military police, as a "presumed insurgent," on or about October
19, 2008.
(AP, 10/19/08)(AP, 10/20/08)(AP, 10/24/08)
2008 Oct 20, Taliban gunmen killed
Gayle Williams (34), a Christian aid worker in Kabul, as she was
walking to work. The militant group said it targeted the British-South
African citizen because she was spreading her religion. In Faryab
province militants killed five policemen, including a district police
chief. In northern Afghanistan, a suicide bomber killed two German
soldiers and five children in Kunduz province.
(AP, 10/20/08)(SFC, 10/21/08, p.A12)
2008 Oct 21, Saudi Foreign
Minister Saud al-Faisal confirmed for the first time that the kingdom
has been sponsoring talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban
militia.
(AP, 10/21/08)
2008 Oct 22, A US-led coalition
airstrike hit an Afghan army checkpoint, killing nine soldiers. The
American military acknowledged that its forces may have "mistakenly"
killed allied troops. In southern Uruzgan province a two-day battle
that ended with 35 Taliban fighters killed along with three Afghan
police. US troops killed 7 militants and detained 7 others in a series
of operations throughout Afghanistan. Among the dead was a Taliban
leader in Helmand province responsible for attacks on coalition forces
and Afghan security checkpoints. Another three militants were killed
inside a cave in the western Farah province's Bala Buluk district
during a raid by American and Afghan troops. In western Afghanistan a
roadside bomb killed three US coalition members.
(AP, 10/22/08)(AP, 10/23/08)
2008 Oct 23, In Afghanistan a US
coalition raid in Paktika province killed three insurgents and detained
four others. Three Turks were kidnapped in Khost province. In southern
Helmand province armed assailants attacked a man and gouged out his
eyes in front of his family during a gruesome assault.
(AP, 10/24/08)(AP, 10/25/08)(AP, 10/26/08)
2008 Oct 25, An Afghan guard
killed a Briton and a South African, 2 top officials working for
international courier company DHL, and them himself in a shoot out in
Kabul. A senior police official said an argument had erupted between
the foreigners and some Afghans and it was not a Taliban attack.
(AP, 10/26/08)(SSFC, 10/26/08, p.A20)
2008 Oct 27, In northern
Afghanistan a suicide bomber wearing a police uniform blew himself up
inside a police station, killing 2 American soldiers and 2 Afghans in
Baghlan province. The Taliban claimed responsibility. Insurgents downed
a US helicopter in Wardak province. Crew members survived and were
rescued.
(AP, 10/27/08)(SFC, 10/28/08, p.A8)(AFP, 11/9/08)
2008 Oct 28, Afghan and Pakistani
leaders vowed to seek dialogue with Taliban insurgents, saying the
"door is now open" for reconciliation.
(AP, 10/28/08)
2008 Oct 30, Taliban militants
stormed a government building in the center of Kabul and one of them
blew himself up inside, killing five people. 4 police were killed in
Panjwayi district of Kandahar province, after their patrol vehicle
struck a newly planted mine.
(AP, 10/30/08)
2008 Oct 31, In eastern
Afghanistan a series of operations by US forces targeted an al-Qaida
leader and a bomb-making cell, killing 19 militants in Nangarhar and
Khost provinces. Taliban spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, said the
militant group has released two aid workers from Bangladesh whom they
had kidnapped in Ghazni province late last month.
(AP, 11/1/08)
2008 Oct 31, Gunmen in Peshawar,
Pakistan, kidnapped Zia ul-Haq Ahadi, the brother of Afghanistan's
finance minister, while he was walking to his mother's home after
praying at a mosque. Ahadi, a businessman who lives in Afghanistan, was
in Peshawar to visit his mother.
(AP, 11/2/08)
2008 Oct, US Special Forces
soldiers freed a kidnapped American working for the Army Corps of
Engineers during a nighttime mission. The American, who had been
working on US government-funded infrastructure projects, was abducted
in mid-August and had been held just 30 miles west of Kabul with no
public notice of his abduction. The mission to free the contractor
killed several insurgents.
(AP, 10/22/08)
2008 Nov 1, In southern
Afghanistan Dutch Major General Mart de Kruif replaced Canadian Major
General Marc Lessard as head of 19,000 mostly British, Canadian, Dutch
and US NATO-led soldiers of the International Security Assistance Force
(ISAF).
(AP, 11/1/08)
2008 Nov 1, It was reported that
British Major Sebastian Morley, commander of SAS (Special Air Service)
troops in Afghanistan, has resigned, reportedly in disgust at equipment
failures that he believes led to the death of four of his troops.
(AFP, 11/1/08)
2008 Nov 3, In southern
Afghanistan 37 civilians, including women and children, were killed in
international air strikes that hit Wach Baghtu village in Shah Wali Kot
district of Kandahar. 26 insurgents were also reported killed. In
Afghanistan gunmen abducted Dany Egreteau (32), a French aid worker in
Kabul, and shot dead an Afghan man who tried to rescue him. The Taliban
said it was not involved. Afghan and coalition troops seized 40 tons of
hashish during a raid in Nawa Kili village in southern Kandahar
province.
(AFP, 11/3/08)(AP, 11/3/08)(AFP, 11/5/08)(AP,
11/7/08)
2008 Nov 4, In Afghanistan Gen.
David Petraeus, the new chief of the US Central Command, took a
firsthand look at the war following a two-day visit to Pakistan. US-led
troops killed five insurgents in the southern Helmand province, after
the militants ambushed their patrol. in Kandahar province Don Ayala
(46), a US military contractor, shot and killed Abdul Salam, an Afghan
civilian, after Salam Afghan ignited a pitcher of fuel and threw it on
social scientist Paula Lloyd (36), inflicting serious burns. On Nov 20
Ayala was charged in Virginia with 2nd degree murder. Lloyd died from
the burns on Jan 7, 2009.
(AP, 11/4/08)(SFC, 11/21/08, p.A3)(SFC, 1/10/09,
p.A5)
2008 Nov 6, In northwest
Afghanistan an airstrike killed 13 Taliban militants and seven
civilians in Ghormach district of Badghis province, a day after
President Hamid Karzai demanded a halt to civilian casualties in US-led
coalition operations.
(AP, 11/6/08)
2008 Nov 7, In Afghanistan a clash
between police and the Taliban in Zabul province, killed seven
insurgents and wounded two policemen.
(AP, 11/7/08)
2008 Nov 9, A Taliban suicide
attacker rammed a bomb-filled minivan into a NATO military convoy in
Afghanistan, killing two Spanish soldiers and critically wounding
another. Officials said US coalition forces killed 14 militants who
fired on them in Khost province. The province's governor, Arsallah
Jamal, said the 14 men were civilian construction workers and were not
militants.
(AFP, 11/9/08)
2008 Nov 10, Afghan writer Atiq
Rahimi won France's top book prize, the Goncourt, for a novel penned in
French, "Syngue Sabour", or Stone of Patience.
(AFP, 11/10/08)
2008 Nov 10, New York Times
reporter David S. Rohde (41) was abducted along with an Afghan reporter
colleague and a driver south of Kabul. Rohde and Afghan reporter Tahir
Ludin (35) escaped captivity in North Waziristan on June 19.
(AP, 6/21/09)
2008 Nov 11, Suspected Taliban
militants kidnapped Shamsudin Agha, a religious leader in western in
Farah province, after he criticized the use of suicide attacks as a
weapon of war in the country. Authorities recovered Agha's body the
next night.
(AP, 11/14/08)
2008 Nov 12, In Afghanistan a
bomb-filled tanker exploded outside the office of the provincial
council in Kandahar, killing six people and wounding 42. Two British
troops were killed in an explosion in southern Helmand province. Men
squirted the acid from water bottles onto three groups of students and
teachers walking to school in Kandahar. Some of the girls received
burns only on their school uniforms but others will have scars on their
faces. On Nov 25 officials announced the arrest of 10 Taliban militants
involved in the acid attack.
(AP, 11/12/08)(AP, 11/13/08)(AP, 11/14/08)(AP,
11/25/08)
2008 Nov 13, In Afghanistan a
suicide car bomber struck a US patrol, killing eight Afghan civilians
and one US soldier and wounding 74 civilians in Nangarhar province. US
troops killed four al-Qaida-linked militants during a raid in eastern
Afghanistan.
(AP, 11/14/08)(SFC, 11/14/08, p.A14)
2008 Nov 14, In Afghanistan US
forces grabbed a "key insurgent leader" in a joint raid with Afghan
police in a village in eastern Ghazni province. Coalition forces also
killed 10 militants in a strike against a bomb-making cell in the
eastern Paktia province.
(AP, 11/15/08)
2008 Nov 14, In Pakistan a
Japanese and an Afghan journalist were shot in the frontier city of
Peshawar, the third attack on foreigners in three days. Motoki
Yotsukura from the Asahi Shimbun newspaper was wounded in the leg.
Abdul Sami Yousafzai, was more seriously hurt. Missiles apparently
fired by US unmanned aircraft in North Waziristan killed at least 12
people, including 9 militants.
(AP, 11/14/08)(AFP, 11/14/08)(WSJ, 11/15/08, p.A1)
2008 Nov 15, In Afghanistan police
thwarted a suicide attack in the eastern city of Khost. Officers
surrounded a suspect, who was on foot, and the man detonated the
explosives on his body. The would-be attacker died, but no one else was
injured. Also in Khost province, coalition and Afghan troops detained a
militant leader of the network led by the Afghan insurgent leader
Jalaluddin Haqqani. Coalition forces accidentally killed a civilian
during a clash with insurgents in Zabul province. The civilian was
killed when a grenade fired by coalition forces overshot its target. 30
insurgents were killed during a clash with US-led coalition troops in
Helmand province. In eastern Paktia province's Zurmat district
coalition troops killed five al-Qaida-associated insurgents and nabbed
eight, including a militant leader accused of helping the Taliban move
and train Arab and other foreign fighters into Afghanistan. Colour
Sergeant Krishnabahadur Dura (36), from 2nd Battalion the Royal Gurkha
Rifles, was killed after an explosion in the Musa Qala district of
Helmand Province.
(AP, 11/15/08)(AP, 11/16/08)(AP, 11/17/08)
2008 Nov 16, In Afghan suicide car
bombers struck a NATO convoy in the northern Baghlan province and a US
convoy in western Herat province. One civilian was killed in the
northern attack.
(AP, 11/16/08)
2008 Nov 16, Pakistan temporarily
barred oil tankers and container trucks from a key passageway to
Afghanistan, threatening a critical supply route for US and NATO troops
and raising more fears about security in the militant-plagued border
region. NATO troops in eastern Afghanistan fired 20 artillery rounds at
insurgents inside Pakistan in an attack the alliance said was
coordinated with the government in Islamabad.
(AP, 11/16/08)(AP, 11/18/08)
2008 Nov 17, In Afghanistan 5
insurgents died in the clash in Farah's Bala Buluk region.
(AP, 11/18/08)
2008 Nov 18, In Afghanistan
insurgents in western Farah province ambushed an Afghan army supply
convoy, killing five troops and wounding five others.
(AP, 11/18/08)
2008 Nov 20, In Afghanistan US-led
forces killed an Afghan civilian in a battle that also left two
militants dead.
(AP, 11/23/08)
2008 Nov 21, In Afghanistan a
suicide bomber rammed the gate of an army base in the southern province
of Zabul, killing three civilians and seriously wounding four Afghan
soldiers. A man was killed after being interrogated by the Taliban
leadership. US-led troops shot and killed a civilian in Khost when the
vehicle he was in came too close to a patrol. 8 wedding-goers were
killed when two or three grenades were thrown into the men's section of
the wedding in the northern province of Parwan.
(AP, 11/21/08)(AFP, 11/22/08)
2008 Nov 22, In Afghanistan a
French trooper was killed and another wounded when a mine engulfed them
about 10 kilometers (six miles) south of Kabul. A bomb exploded in a
vegetable market in the eastern town of Khost, killing a 15-year-old
boy and a man passing-by. Another bomb blew up a police vehicle in the
central province of Ghazni and killed three policemen and wounded two.
The bullet-riddled body of Ghais Haqmal, the governor of Marawara
district, was found in Kunar province. He had been abducted by Taliban
three months ago and the militants had demanded the release of 50 of
their jailed comrades in exchange for his life. The US-led military
announced that troops had killed 14 insurgents in operations in the
southern provinces of Helmand and Farah in the past two days. Afghan
and coalition forces killed 17 insurgents in air strikes in the
southern province of Kandahar. The government of the central province
of Ghazni said its forces had thwarted a Taliban attack on the Ab Band
district administration center killing eight gunmen.
(AFP, 11/22/08)(AFP, 11/23/08)
2008 Nov 24, In eastern
Afghanistan US troops killed six militants and detained 12 others in
two operations.
(AP, 11/25/08)
2008 Nov 25, Afghan President
Hamid Karzai demanded at a meeting with a UN Security Council team that
the international community set a "timeline" for ending military
intervention in Afghanistan.
(AFP, 11/25/08)
2008 Nov 27, In southern
Afghanistan 2 British troops were killed after being fired at by
insurgents while on patrol. A suicide car bomber targeting an American
convoy exploded about 200 yards (meters) outside the US Embassy in
Kabul, killing at least four Afghan bystanders as people entered the
compound for a Thanksgiving Day race. In northwestern Afghanistan
Taliban insurgents killed 13 Afghan troops in an ambush of their
convoy. NATO-led troops fired on insurgents inside Pakistan. The
artillery attacks killed several insurgents and caused several
secondary explosions, indicating the presence of ammunition at the
locations. The U.N.'s drug czar said the Taliban and other warlords
could clear almost half a billion dollars from Afghanistan's opium
trade this year, money that will help finance insurgent attacks.
(AFP, 11/27/08)(AP, 11/27/08)(AP, 11/28/08)
2008 Nov 28, In Afghanistan US
troops killed Haji Yakub, a wanted Taliban commander, who tried to hide
from soldiers under a woman's burqa. Afghan and coalition forces killed
33 militants when their patrol came under attack in southern Helmand
province. In Kandahar province a three-day NATO-Afghan operation in
Zhari district killed 12 militants. Police in Farah province killed
four insurgents setting up a makeshift base in a village, apparently
aiming to launch strikes on Farah city. Afghan army and police attacked
a nine-vehicle convoy, killing four insurgents and wounding another
three as other insurgents fled. An Afghan police officer was also
killed in the gunbattle in Farah province.
(AP, 11/29/08)
2008 Nov 29, In Afghanistan a
soldier with the NATO-led force shot and killed an Afghan policeman in
a car in Lashkar Gah that was driving toward a NATO patrol at high
speed.
(AP, 11/30/08)
2008 Nov 30, In Afghanistan a
suicide bomber on foot attacked a German Embassy vehicle in Kabul. No
Germans were hurt, but the blast killed two Afghans and wounded three.
(AP, 11/30/08)
2008 Dec 2, US troops killed 10
Taliban militants during operations in southern and central
Afghanistan, while five more witnesses testified at a hearing over
allegations that two American soldiers mistreated a detainee.
(AP, 12/3/08)
2008 Dec 4, In Afghanistan 2
Danish soldiers serving with NATO's force were killed in southern
Helmand province. The governor of Afghanistan's key southern Kandahar
province said he was sacked by the central government and complained
that powerful people in his region had been sabotaging his work. US-led
troops killed four militants in Helmand province, after the insurgents
fired on a joint US-Afghan patrol.
(AFP, 12/4/08)(AP, 12/4/08)(AP, 12/5/08)
2008 Dec 5, The leaders of
Pakistan and Afghanistan met for Turkish-sponsored talks aimed at
reducing tensions over militant attacks along the countries' lawless
border.
(AP, 12/5/08)
2008 Dec 5, In Afghanistan 3
Canadian soldiers were killed by a massive bomb, bringing to 100 the
number who have lost their lives since the country's military mission
there started in 2002.
(AP, 12/6/08)
2008 Dec 9, In Afghanistan
Mohammad Bobi, a Taliban commander, was killed during a targeted
overnight operation just south of Kabul.
(AP, 12/9/08)
2008 Dec 10, In southern
Afghanistan 6 police and a civilian were killed when US-led forces
targeting a Taliban commander bombed a police station in Zabul province.
(AFP, 12/10/08)
2008 Dec 12, In central
Afghanistan NATO troops fired on a civilian bus that refused warnings
to stop, killing four passengers in Wardak province.
(AP, 12/12/08)
2008 Dec 13, Britain’s PM Gordon
Brown paid a surprise visit to Afghanistan, where he spoke to troops
battling the Taliban and held talks with President Hamid Karzai. 3
Canadian soldiers were killed and one wounded in southern Afghanistan
when an explosive device detonated near the armored car in which they
were riding.
(AFP, 12/13/08)(Reuters, 12/14/08)
2008 Dec 13, In northwest Pakistan
militants attacked a terminal used by vehicles ferrying supplies to US
and NATO forces in Afghanistan. Elsewhere in the northwest clashes
involving security forces, tribesmen and insurgents killed 8 people,
including two children. Authorities found the bodies of 2 Afghan men in
Miran Shah. A letter found nearby alleged the men gave information that
aided the US in launching missile strikes in the militant-plagued
region.
(AP, 12/13/08)
2008 Dec 14, in Afghanistan a bomb
hidden in a wooden cart exploded in Kandahar, killing three police
officers and wounding 11 people.
(AP, 12/14/08)
2008 Dec 14, Pres. George W. Bush
visited Baghdad just 37 days before he hands the war off to
President-elect Barack Obama, who has pledged to end it. At the end of
nearly two hours of meetings, Bush defended the war, now in its sixth
year, as a reporter threw his shoes at him. The reporter was later
identified as Muntadar al-Zeidi, a correspondent for Al-Baghdadia
television, an Iraqi-owned station based in Cairo, Egypt. Bush then
traveled to Afghanistan where he spoke to US soldiers and Marines at a
hangar on the tarmac at Bagram Air Base.
(AP, 12/14/08)(AP, 12/15/08)
2008 Dec 15, In Afghanistan a
5-day joint Afghan-NATO operation in Helmand province left 40 militants
dead, including the Taliban's leader in that region. Taliban fighters
near Lashkar Gah killed two Afghan police officers in a checkpoint
attack. One of the attackers also died. A British soldier was killed
"as a result of enemy fire" in a separate incident in Helmand. In
central Oruzgan province 3 insurgents were killed when a bomb they were
planting exploded.
(AP, 12/15/08)(AP, 12/16/08)
2008 Dec 15, A Pakistani
transporters association said truckers are refusing to haul supplies to
NATO and US forces in Afghanistan because of mounting attacks along the
main route.
(AP, 12/15/08)
2008 Dec 16, In eastern
Afghanistan police and US troops in Khost province killed three
insurgents suspected of links to Al-Qaeda, denying local claims that
the victims were civilians.
(AFP, 12/17/08)
2008 Dec 17, The UN said it will
double the budget of its Afghan mission next year, taking on hundreds
of new staff and opening more offices to meet more "complex"
challenges. The UN’s chief in Afghanistan called for international
military forces to revise their agreement with the Afghan government to
include practices that will better safeguard civilians.
(AFP, 12/17/08)(AP, 12/17/08)
2008 Dec 19, Three Danish soldiers
and one from the Netherlands were killed in separate incidents in
Afghanistan, losing their lives just as the commitment of some
countries to the fight in Afghanistan begins to wane.
(AP, 12/19/08)
2008 Dec 20, In Afghan coalition
forces killed four armed militants and detained five suspects during an
operation in Zabul province. Afghan and coalition troops found and
destroyed 2.5 tons of marijuana in an abandoned school in southern
Kandahar province.
(AP, 12/21/08)
2008 Dec 22, In central
Afghanistan a car bomb with two attackers exploded near the governor's
compound in Ghazni province, killing one Afghan civilian and wounding
seven. The two attackers also died.
(AP, 12/22/08)
2008 Dec 24, In Afghanistan a
soldier with the NATO-led force was killed in an insurgent attack in
the east of the country. A British soldier was shot dead on Christmas
Eve in Helmand province. Cannon fire from a US military base in the
northeastern province of Kunar killed four workers when it fell short
of its target and hit a road construction compound. The US-led
coalition killed two militants and detained two suspects in operations
targeting the Taliban in Kapisa province.
(AFP, 12/24/08)(AFP, 12/25/08)
2008 Dec 25, In southern
Afghanistan US coalition forces killed 11 Taliban militants, including
the leader of a bomb-making cell, during an operation in Kandahar
province.
(AP, 12/26/08)
2008 Dec 26, In southern
Afghanistan a Canadian soldier was killed and three others wounded in a
bomb blast. 2 suicide car bombs took place in western Afghanistan, but
only the attackers were killed in the blasts. 3 foreigners were wounded
in an attack in Herat.
(AP, 12/27/08)
2008 Dec 27, In southern
Afghanistan a suicide attacker detonated a car bomb at a police
checkpoint, killing three policemen and two civilian men on a
motorbike. 2 Canadian soldiers were killed in a blast in southern
Kandahar province. An Afghan policeman and an interpreter also died in
the attack in Panjwayi district, a Taliban stronghold about 25
kilometers (15 miles) west of Kandahar city. A member of the Kandahar
provincial council was shot dead in a mosque. US troops killed five
militants and detained six in operations against extremist networks.
(AP, 12/27/08)(AFP, 12/28/08)
2008 Dec 28, In Afghanistan 14
children were among 20 Afghans killed in new extremist attacks in Khost
province. A remote-controlled bomb exploded outside a music shop in the
southern town of Tirin Kot, killing one person and wounding two. In
Helmand province soldiers and police killed 7 insurgents as Taliban
militants attacked a police post.
(AFP, 12/28/08)(SFC, 12/30/08, p.A3)
2008 Dec 29, In Afghanistan 5
people were killed and nearly 40 wounded in two bomb blasts, one in
Charikar, north of Kabul, and the other in Spin Boldak, on the border
with Pakistan.
(AFP, 12/29/08)
2008 Dec 30, Pakistan closed the
main route used to ferry supplies to US and allied troops in
Afghanistan after launching a fresh offensive against militants in the
area.
(AP, 12/30/08)
2008 Dec 31, In Afghanistan
Taliban militants attacked a district governor's compound in southern
Helmand province, killing 20 police guards and fatally shooting the
mother of one as she pleaded unsuccessfully for her son's life. Two
foreign soldiers helping to fight the extremists were killed in
separate incidents. US-led forces killed eight armed Taliban militants
in Zabul province.
(AFP, 1/1/09)(AP, 1/1/09)
2008 Dec 31, In Pakistan tanks,
artillery and helicopter gunships continued their attacks in the Khyber
Pass. Over the last two days, security forces destroyed 19 suspected
militant compounds and arrested 28 Pakistanis. Government troops
reportedly killed three militants in the operation to secure the major
supply route to US and NATO troops in Afghanistan.
(AP, 12/31/08)
2008 The population of Afghanistan
stood at about 32 million with over half living in poverty. The country
suffered its 7th year of drought.
(SFC, 12/12/08, p.A1)
2008 Nearly 4,000 Afghan civilians
were killed this year in insurgency-linked unrest, more than two-thirds
in rebel attacks and about 1,100 by foreign forces according to
Afghanistan Rights Monitor (ARM). The UN recorded 2,118 civilian deaths
in 2008 of which 55% were attributed to the Taliban.
(AFP, 1/21/09)(Econ, 2/21/09, p.29)
2008 The UN estimated that
Afghanistan’s illegal opium trade for this year was worth about $3.4
billion, or 33% of the country’s GDP.
(Econ, 8/22/09, p.22)
2009 Jan 1, A suicide car bomb
exploded near an Afghan and NATO military convoy in the western
province of Herat and killed an Afghan policeman. 2 UN staff of the
World Food Program and 4 others were kidnapped in Nimroz province by
alleged Taliban militants. The 2 UN workers were freed on Jan 27.
(AP, 1/1/09)(AFP, 1/28/09)
2009 Jan 27, Gunmen abducted 10
Afghan workers in a daring ambush in Herat. 2 local UN staff kidnapped
on New Year’s Day by alleged Taliban militants nearly a month ago were
freed.
(AFP, 1/28/09)
2009 Jan 2, Pakistan reopened the
main supply route for US and NATO troops fighting in Afghanistan after
blocking it for three days during a military operation against
militants who have been attacking convoys.
(AP, 1/2/09)
2009 Jan 4-2009 Jan 5, In
Afghanistan 12 insurgents and 11 civilians were killed in fighting in
central Uruzgan province.
(AP, 1/7/09)
2009 Jan 5, In Afghanistan 9
Taliban militants were killed in a gunfight by Afghan and NATO troops
in the southern province of Kandahar. 2 gunmen shot a Muslim cleric to
death inside a mosque in Kandahar city.
(AFP, 1/5/09)(AP, 1/6/09)
2009 Jan 6, In southern
Afghanistan a NATO serviceman was killed in a hostile incident. In
eastern Afghanistan US-led coalition forces killed 32 armed insurgents
during a clash in Laghman province. The troops also destroyed two
caches of weapons and roadside bomb-making materials that were too
unstable to move to another location. Residents reported that some
civilians died when buildings collapsed as the cache was destroyed. In
western Farah province, Afghan army and coalition troops killed six
militants in raid on a compound.
(AP, 1/6/09)(AP, 1/7/09)
2009 Jan 7, Afghan locals said
that operations by the NATO-led force in the southern province of
Helmand had killed 19 civilians.
(AFP, 1/8/09)
2009 Jan 8, Afghan President Hamid
Karzai's office said that reports suggested 17 civilians, including
women and children, were killed in the Jan 6 US raid in Laghman
province. A suicide bomber struck US troops patrolling on foot in
southern Afghanistan, killing three civilians, 2 Americans and wounding
at least nine others. A coalition strike on a bomb-making network in
Zabul killed five militants.
(AFP, 1/8/09)(AP, 1/8/09)(AP, 1/9/09)(SFC, 1/9/09,
p.A10)
2009 Jan 9, In southern
Afghanistan a suicide bomber detonated explosives strapped to his body
inside a produce shop, killing 10 civilians and 2 policemen. 3 US
soldiers were killed in southern Zabul province.
(AP, 1/9/09)(WSJ, 1/10/09, p.A6)
2009 Jan 11, In northwestern
Pakistan security forces repulsed an attack by 600 fighters, most of
whom had crossed the border from Afghanistan, leaving at least 40
militants and 6 soldiers dead and scores of others wounded.
(AP, 1/11/09)(SFC, 1/12/09, p.A8)
2009 Jan 11, Australia's Defense
Ministry said its special forces in Afghanistan had killed Taliban
commander Mullah Abdul Rasheed, who had been involved in recruiting
suicide bombers and foreign fighters in Uruzgan province.
(AP, 1/11/09)
2009 Jan 14, In Afghanistan 2
British NATO soldiers were killed in a blast in southern Helmand
province.
(AFP, 1/15/09)
2009 Jan 15, In western
Afghanistan Gen. Fazaludin Sayar, a top Afghan army general, was killed
in a helicopter crash. All 12 others aboard were also killed.
(AP, 1/15/09)
2009 Jan 16, In Afghanistan 10
people were killed and more than 30 others had to be rescued when
avalanches buried their vehicles in the Salang pass north of Kabul.
(AFP, 1/18/09)
2009 Jan 16, Australia granted
asylum to 28 people from Afghanistan and Iran, in the first such move
since relaxing tough rules on asylum seekers.
(AFP, 1/17/09)
2009 Jan 17, In Afghanistan a
suicide bomb hit outside the German embassy in Kabul, killing four
civilians and wounding dozens of people including a US soldier who
later died of his injuries. A 2nd suicide bomber rammed his minibus
into a joint convoy of Afghan police and US military in Nangarhar
province, killing one Afghan civilian. An American soldier was killed
when a helicopter crashed under fire the northeast.
(AFP, 1/17/09)(SSFC, 1/18/09, p.A4)
2009 Jan 17, The US Department of
Defense announced that it transferred six detainees out of Guantanamo,
leaving about 245 at the offshore prison. Four detainees were sent to
Iraq, one to Algeria and one to Afghanistan. Since 2002, more than 525
detainees have departed Guantanamo. Haji Bismullah (29) of Afghanistan
had always insisted that he was no terrorist.
(AP, 1/18/09)(SFC, 1/19/09, p.A4)
2009 Jan 19, Afghan President
Hamid Karzai's office said that Russia is ready to cooperate on defense
matters with Afghanistan. The announcement coincided with an
increasingly public tussle between Afghan and Western officials.
(AP, 1/19/09)
2009 Jan 20, In Afghanistan the
coalition said a nighttime raid had killed 19 militants, including
Mullah Patang, a locally feared leader, during an operation in the
Tagab Valley, in Kapisa province just 30 miles (50 kilometers) north of
Kabul. The Afghan news agency Pajhwok quoted villagers saying 25
civilians had been killed. On Jan 27 US commanders traveled to the
village and distributed $40,000 to relatives of 15 people killed in the
US raid. The Americans also apologized for any civilians killed in the
operation.
(AP, 1/21/09)(AP, 1/28/09)
2009 Jan 20, The head of US
Central Command said the US has struck deals with Russia and
neighboring countries allowing it to transport supplies to American
troops in Afghanistan through their territory. US officials have said
that one likely route is overland from Russia through Kazakhstan and on
through Uzbekistan using trucks and trains. Another possible route is
via Azerbaijan across the Caspian Sea to the Kazakh port of Aktau and
then through Uzbekistan.
(AP, 1/20/09)
2009 Jan 21, In Afghanistan a
suicide bomber attacked a wedding party in the northern province of
Baghlan, wounding five children and a district police chief. A suicide
car bomber detonated his explosives near an Afghan army convoy in
western Afghanistan, killing two troops.
(AP, 1/21/09)
2009 Jan 22, NATO's Secretary
General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said President Barack Obama's plan to
nearly double American troop numbers in Afghanistan needs to be matched
by a similar surge in development workers and aid funding.
(AP, 1/22/09)
2009 Jan 22, Pres. Obama named
George Mitchell as envoy to the Mideast and Richard Holbrook as envoy
to Afghanistan and Pakistan.
(WSJ, 1/23/09, p.A1)
2009 Jan 23, In Afghanistan a NATO
soldier died in a bomb blast in the south of the country. Taliban
militants attacked a police post in Kandahar province sparking a battle
in which three policemen died. A roadside bomb blast struck a joint
Afghan army and NATO forces convoy in western Farah province, killing
an Afghan soldier and wounding five NATO troops.
(AFP, 1/24/09)
2009 Jan 24, In eastern
Afghanistan US-led coalition forces killed 15 militants in an overnight
operation in Laghman province. Local legislators put the number of dead
at more than 20 and said they included women and children.
(AP, 1/24/09)
2009 Jan 25, Afghan President
Hamid Karzai condemned a US operation he said killed 16 civilians,
while hundreds of villagers in Laghman province denounced the American
military during an angry demonstration.
(AP, 1/25/09)
2009 Jan 27, Gunmen abducted 10
Afghan workers in a daring ambush in Herat. 2 local UN staff, kidnapped
on New Year’s Day by alleged Taliban militants, were freed. One captive
was already freed, but 3 remained hostage. A roadside bomb struck a
vehicle carrying civilians in Kandahar province, killing four and
wounding nine.
(AFP, 1/28/09)(AP, 1/28/09)
2009 Jan 28, A White House
official said President Barack Obama will press Afghan President Hamid
Karzai to extend government control beyond the capital and fight
corruption under a new US policy with a "significant non-military
component."
(AP, 1/28/09)
2009 Jan 29, In southern
Afghanistan coalition troops killed four militants in a strike on a
bomb-making operation.
(AP, 1/30/09)
2009 Jan 31, Afghanistan's
interior minister announced a US-backed plan to create militias and
give them guns to fight the Taliban. It drew criticism from local
authorities in areas where the first units are being rolled out. An
Afghan tribal leader from southeastern Paktika province was fatally
shot by a NATO patrol after the vehicle he was in failed to stop in
response to signals from soldiers. A second Afghan was wounded. A
Canadian soldier was killed when his armored vehicle hit an explosive
device on a road west of Kandahar.
(AP, 2/1/09)(Reuters, 1/31/09)(AP, 2/4/09)
2009 Feb 1, In Afghanistan a
suicide bomber in a car attacked a convoy of foreign troops in Kabul,
wounding two Afghans. Afghans demonstrated against an overnight US
military raid in Ghazni province that one villager said killed several
civilians. The US military said its forces only killed two militants.
(AP, 2/1/09)
2009 Feb 2, In southern
Afghanistan a Taliban suicide bomber in a police uniform detonated his
explosives inside a police training center, killing 21 officers and
wounding at least 20.
(AP, 2/2/09)
2009 Feb 3, Sayed Ansari,
spokesman for the Afghan National Directorate of Security, said the
service has broken up a cell of suicide bombers allegedly responsible
for six attacks in Kabul that killed 20 civilians. He also said those
arrested had links to a Pakistani-based jihadist group, Harakat
ul-Mujahedeen, and Sirajjudin Haqqani, an eastern Afghan insurgent
leader.
(AP, 2/3/09)
2009 Feb 4, In Afghanistan a
roadside bomb killed six bodyguards working for a controversial Afghan
district governor in southern Helmand province.
(AP, 2/5/09)
2009 Feb 4, The British military
said an army officer has been arrested in Afghanistan on suspicion of
leaking official secrets. Britain’s Sun newspaper said Lt. Col. Owen
McNally had leaked figures about civilian deaths in coalition
operations to a worker from a human rights group.
(AP, 2/4/09)
2009 Feb 5, In eastern Afghanistan
a suicide car bomb struck a convoy of foreign troops.
(AP, 2/5/09)
2009 Feb 8, In Afghanistan two
American soldiers died when a roadside bomb they were trying to defuse
exploded. An Afghan interpreter and a policeman also died in the blast.
a roadside bomb ripped through a police vehicle in Khogyani district,
near the border with Pakistan, killing two police and wounding three
civilians. A suicide bomber attacked a group of Afghan soldiers in
southwestern Nimroz province, killing one soldier and two civilians.
(AP, 2/8/09)(AP, 2/9/09)
2009 Feb 10, In Afghanistan a bomb
struck a NATO convoy, killing two soldiers and wounding one. Police
spokesman Wazir Pacha said the attack in Khost province was carried out
by a suicide bomber in a vehicle. But a NATO spokesman blamed the
attack on a roadside bomb.
(AP, 2/10/09)
2009 Feb 11, In Afghanistan 8
Taliban gunmen wearing suicide vests attacked 3 government buildings in
a coordinated assault that killed 20 people in the heart of Kabul just
ahead of a planned visit from the new US envoy to the region. A
spokesman for the Taliban, said the attacks were in response to the
alleged mistreatment of Taliban prisoners in Afghan government jails.
In Logar province a roadside bomb exploded near a French military
medical team's convoy, killing one French officer and two Afghans. Also
in Logar province a helicopter with the US-backed coalition killed five
civilians as it responded to ground fire.
(AP, 2/11/09)
2009 Feb 12, In southern
Afghanistan a gunfight between Australian forces and Taliban fighters
killed at least 3 children who were caught in the crossfire in Uruzgan
province.
(AP, 2/13/09)
2009 Feb 13, US envoy Richard
Holbrooke held key talks in Afghanistan aimed at stepping up the fight
against a Taliban-led insurgency that the top US intelligence chief
warned was escalating.
(AP, 2/13/09)
2009 Feb 14, US envoy Richard
Holbrooke met Afghan President Hamid Karzai as part of Washington's
push to step up efforts against extremism. The Afghan leader admitted
to tensions with its US ally. Marine Sgt. Daniel Hansen was killed
while supporting combat operations in Farah province.
(AP, 2/14/09)(SFC, 2/19/09, p.B4)
2009 Feb 15, Afghan President
Hamid Karzai said his government will take part in a US strategic
review of the war there in a sign of increased cooperation at a time of
strained relations. An appeals court upheld 20-year prison sentences
for two men who published a translation of the Quran that drove
religious leaders to call for their execution. The controversial text
is a translation of Islam's holy book into an Afghan language without
the original Arabic verses alongside. A host of Muslim clerics have
condemned the translation, which was published in 2007 and handed out
for free, as blasphemous and accused its publishers of setting
themselves up as false prophets. A coalition airstrike killed Ghulam
Dastagir and eight other militants in the village of Darya-ye-Morghab.
Dastagir was a powerful Taliban commander who broke a promise to
renounce violence after village elders persuaded President Hamid Karzai
to free him from prison.
(AP, 2/15/09)(AP, 2/16/09)
2009 Feb 17, In Afghan a US
airstrike reportedly killed six women and two children, despite a
recent US-Afghan agreement to increase participation of Afghan forces
in US missions, a step aimed at preventing civilian casualties. The US
coalition said that the strike in the Gozara district of Herat province
killed 15 militants and targeted a leader named Ghulam Yahya Akbari.
The US military on Feb 21 said an investigation into a coalition
operation Gozara found that 13 civilians were among 16 people killed.
(AP, 2/18/09)(AP, 2/21/09)
2009 Feb 17, Pres. Obama announced
the deployment of 17,000 extra US troops to Afghanistan. Pres. Karzai
spoke on the phone with President Barack Obama for the first time.
(AP,
2/18/09)(http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20090218/us_time/08599188024600)
2009 Feb 20, US Defense Secretary
Robert Gates said up to 20 nations have offered to boost their civilian
or military commitments to Afghanistan.
(AP, 2/20/09)
2009 Feb 20, Kyrgyzstan ordered US
forces to depart within six months from an air base key to military
operations in Afghanistan, complicating plans to send more troops to
battle rising Taliban and al-Qaida violence. A US military official
said Uzbekistan will allow non-lethal US military cargo heading to
Afghanistan to transit through the country.
(AP, 2/20/09)
2009 Feb 21, In Afghanistan a
battle outside Kandahar killed at least six Taliban fighters. Fighting
continued into the next day. An airstrike against militants in Helmand
province killed 8.
(AP, 2/22/09)
2009 Feb 23, In Afghanistan a NATO
air strike killed up to 16 militants overnight in Badghis province. In
Nimrod province a twin suicide attack killed a policeman outside the
counter-narcotics office of the provincial capital of Zaranj. Lt.
General Jim Dutton, the deputy NATO force commander, said around 17,000
extra US troops earmarked for Afghanistan will deploy as fast as
possible and thousands more are requested for August elections. 3
Afghan children died when a shell blew up. Canada's army later said the
children had died after they brought back a Taliban improvised
explosive device to their village.
(AFP, 2/23/09)(AP, 3/2/09)
2009 Feb 24, In southern
Afghanistan a roadside bomb killed four US troops in the deadliest
single attack on international forces this year. Japan said it will pay
the salaries of Afghanistan's 80,000 police officers for six months as
part of its ongoing financial support for the country. Afghan soldiers
killed 18 militants targeting a poppy eradication force in Helmand
province. Two soldiers were also killed in the battle. Afghan and
coalition forces killed 10 militants in Uruzgan province. A "precision"
airstrike was called in, killing most of the militants.
(AP, 2/24/09)(AP, 2/25/09)
2009 Feb 25, In Afghanistan a
remote control bomb planted on a motorcycle exploded in Kandahar city
as a convoy of soldiers was passing. Two Afghan bystanders were killed,
and eight people, including five soldiers, were wounded. A roadside
bomb killed 3 British soldiers in Helmand province. A 4th died from
wounds sustained in a firefight.
(AP, 2/25/09)(WSJ, 2/26/09, p.A1)(AFP, 2/26/09)
2009 Feb 28, Afghan President
Hamid Karzai ordered that presidential elections be held by April,
months earlier than the August 20 date set by a voting authority, after
lawmakers said they would not recognize him as president after May 22.
Afghan security soldiers killed four militants in a clash in the
southern province of Uruzgan.
(AP, 2/28/09)(AFP, 3/1/09)
2009 Mar 1, In eastern Afghanistan
a suicide car bomb blew up near US-led soldiers, wounding six civilians
outside Jalalabad. Attacks in Kandahar province left seven security
guards dead. The US-led coalition killed four alleged militants in
Kandahar.
(AFP, 3/1/09)
2009 Mar 3, In southern
Afghanistan 3 Canadian soldiers were killed and two wounded in a bomb
blast in Arghandab, northwest of Kandahar.
(AFP, 3/4/09)
2009 Mar 4, In Afghanistan a car
bomb exploded outside the main US military base at Bagram and wounded
three people. The Taliban claimed responsibility.
(AP, 3/4/09)
2009 Mar 7, A widow in western
Afghanistan burned herself alive in what relatives called a desperate
move to escape her miserably poor life.
(AP, 3/8/09)
2009 Mar 8, Afghan President Hamid
Karzai welcomed President Barack Obama's call to identify moderate
elements of the Taliban and encourage them to reconcile with the Afghan
government. In southern Afghanistan a roadside bomb exploded, killing a
Canadian soldier and wounding four others in Kandahar province.
(AP, 3/8/09)(AP, 3/9/09)
2009 Mar 8, Iran, Afghanistan and
Pakistan carried out their first joint counter narcotics operation.
(AP, 3/11/09)
2009 Mar 10, In Afghanistan a
roadside bomb ripped through a minibus, killing four civilians and
wounding six other people in Helmand province. Gunmen in Kandahar
killed Jawed Ahmad (23), an Afghan journalist once held by the US
military in Afghanistan as an enemy combatant.
(AFP, 3/10/09)(AP, 3/11/09)(SFC, 3/11/09, p.A3)
2009 Mar 14, In Afghanistan a
helicopter-borne special operations mission by US troops and Afghan
forces killed five people in Logar province, south of Kabul, sparking
an angry protest from villagers who said the victims were civilians. 3
ISAF soldiers were killed including one French and one British soldier.
(AP, 3/14/09)(AFP, 3/14/09)(AFP, 3/15/09)
2009 Mar 15, In Afghanistan US
soldiers killed 5 militants in an operation about 60 kilometers (40
miles) west of Kandahar city. A blast in Nangarhar province
killed four US soldiers. 3 Afghan civilians died from bombs in Kabul
and Kandahar.
(AFP, 3/15/09)
2009 Mar 16, In southern
Afghanistan two suicide bombers attacked police stations, killing 10
Afghan policemen and 2 civilians, underlining the growing threat from a
Taliban-led insurgency. An Australian soldier in a joint
Australian-Afghan army patrol was shot dead during a "very intense
firefight" with 20 Taliban insurgents in Uruzgan province.
(AFP, 3/16/09)(AP, 3/17/09)
2009 Mar 17, Afghanistan called
for more international help to develop its fledgling and embattled
security forces so that it can take on a larger role in "the fight
against terrorism."
(AFP, 3/17/09)
2009 Mar 19, In Afghanistan
Helmand MP Dad Mohammad Khan, a key anti-Taliban lawmaker, was killed
with four other men when a bomb tore through their vehicle. Australia’s
defense chief said a bomb disposal expert was killed trying to defuse a
device in Afghanistan, announcing the country's 10th combat death there.
(AFP, 3/19/09)(AP, 3/19/09)
2009 Mar 20, Afghanistan's top
Muslim clerics urged President Hamid Karzai to push ahead with a
proposal for talks with the Taliban that would be mediated by Saudi
Arabia's King Abdullah. In northern Afghanistan 9 policemen and a
district chief were killed in heavy fighting with Taliban insurgents. 4
Canadian troops and a local interpreter were killed in two separate
explosions. Another NATO soldier was killed in a "hostile incident" in
the south.
(AP, 3/20/09)(AFP, 3/20/09)(Reuters, 3/21/09)
2009 Mar 21, In Afghanistan 2
separate bombings killed 11 people near the volatile eastern border
with Pakistan, marring a festive day throughout the country as citizens
celebrated the Persian new year. A bomb detonated by remote control
killed five people near a shrine in the country's eastern Khost
province as they celebrated Nowruz. North of Khost in Nangarhar
province, a suicide bomber in a car blew himself up at a police
checkpoint, killing six people, including five civilians and one
policeman. In southern Afghanistan NATO killed Maulawi Hassan, a senior
Taliban commander, and nine other suspected militants, while the
coalition and its Afghan allies suffered an equal number of deaths in
separate attacks in the same area.
(AP, 3/21/09)(AP, 3/23/09)
2009 Mar 22, Afghan and US-led
coalition troops killed five suspected militants during a raid in
northern Kunduz province. But the local mayor said his house was
targeted and that the dead included his cook and driver. A rocket
slammed into the main NATO military base at Kandahar airfield, killing
a contractor and wounding six others. 2 NATO soldiers were killed in a
"hostile incident" in the same region.
(AP, 3/22/09)(AP, 3/23/09)
2009 Mar 23, US envoy Richard
Holbrooke outlined to NATO new plans to beat insurgents in Afghanistan.
Taliban fighters ambushed a police patrol in southern Kandahar
province's Spin Boldak district, killing eight officers and wounding
another. Afghan police and intelligence agents detained five Taliban
militants in Oruzgan, including the group's senior commander for the
province, Mullah Azizullah. In Kabul Emrose TV’s Fahim Khodamani was
arrested for refusing to censor images of women dancing in short skirts
and plunging necklines.
(AFP, 3/23/09)(AP, 3/23/09)(SFC, 3/25/09, p.A4)
2009 Mar 24, NATO troops on a foot
patrol shot and killed an Afghan civilian south of Kabul after he
ignored their signals to stop as he sped toward them in a car.
(AP, 3/24/09)
2009 Mar 25, In eastern
Afghanistan a roadside bomb ripped through a van carrying civilians on
a road used by foreign troops, killing 10 and wounding 7 others in
Khost province.
(AP, 3/25/09)(SFC, 3/26/09, p.A3)
2009 Mar 27, President Barack
Obama ordered 4,000 more military troops into Afghanistan, vowing to
"disrupt, dismantle and defeat" the Taliban and al-Qaida.
(AP, 3/27/09)
2009 Mar 28, Afghanistan's
president offered support for the new US strategy for the growing
conflict in his country, praising increased civil and military aid and
highlighting a plan for reconciliation with moderate elements of the
Taliban.
(AP, 3/28/09)
2009 Mar 29, Afghanistan's Supreme
Court announced that President Hamid Karzai should remain in office
until a new leader is chosen in a late-summer election, a decision that
effectively extends his term more than three months.
(AP, 3/29/09)
2009 Mar 30, In southern
Afghanistan a suicide bomber wearing a police uniform blew himself up
inside a police headquarters in Kandahar, killing nine people and
wounding eight. A roadside bomb killed three police in the eastern
province of Paktia.
(AP, 3/30/09)
2009 Mar 31, At the Hague Afghan
President Hamid Karzai and US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton
offered an olive branch to Taliban fighters who reject al-Qaida and
pressed an international conference for help in strengthening
Afghanistan's security forces.
(AP, 3/31/09)
2009 Mar 31, In southern
Afghanistan foreign and Afghan troops killed 30 Taliban fighters and
wounded 17 others during a series of overnight clashes, while a
roadside bomb killed the mayor of eastern Khost city. A member of the
Kandahar provincial council of religious clerics was shot dead while
going home after prayers. A suicide bomber tried to attack a police
post on the border with Iran but blew himself up prematurely when
police warned him to stop.
(AP, 3/31/09)(AP, 4/1/09)
2009 Apr 1, Top spokesman
Zabihullah Mujahid said Taliban insurgents reject a US offer of
"honorable reconciliation," calling it a "lunatic idea" and saying the
only way to end the war was to withdraw foreign troops. Suicide
attackers stormed provincial council offices in Kandahar city, killing
13 people including 2 provincial officials. The attackers, who wore
Afghan military uniforms, were also killed, two in suicide bombings and
two shot dead by security forces. Afghan and US coalition troops
battled a large group of militants in southern Afghanistan before
calling in an airstrike that killed 20 insurgents.
(Reuters, 4/1/09)(AFP, 4/1/09)(AP, 4/2/09)
2009 Apr 2, Human rights groups
and some Afghan lawmakers criticized President Hamid Karzai for signing
into law legislation that some believe legalizes the rape of a wife by
her husband and prevents women from leaving the house without a man's
permission. Article 132 of the law says: "As long as the husband is not
traveling, he has the right to have sexual intercourse with his wife
every fourth night." Critics said Karzai signed the legislation in the
past month only for political gains several months before the country's
presidential election. Coalition and Afghan forces killed 12 militants
and one civilian in Logar province in a mission that included
airstrikes. a member of the NATO-led force was killed in violence in
the east. In central Ghazni province, a roadside bomb killed four
construction workers, while a battle between militants and police
elsewhere in the province killed two militants.
(AP, 4/2/09)(AP, 4/3/09)
2009 Apr 6, German Chancellor
Angela Merkel made an unannounced visit to northern Afghanistan to meet
with her country's troops and view rebuilding efforts. She pressed
President Karzai to review carefully a new law that critics say
legalizes marital rape. In southern Afghanistan an insurgent rocket
attack hit the Netherlands' main military base, killing one Dutch
soldier and wounding 5 of his colleagues and 2 Afghan soldiers.
(AP, 4/6/09)
2009 Apr 8, Over 100 Afghan
ministers, lawmakers and officials signed a petition opposing a
controversial law that critics say legalizes marital rape. The petition
said the law is unconstitutional and leads toward the "Talibanization"
of Afghanistan's legal system. The petition came as Poland's President
Lech Kaczynski held talks in Kabul with Karzai and reiterated his
country's plans to increase its troop contribution in the country by
400 over the current 1,600 in Ghazni province. A roadside blast hit a
civilian vehicle south of Kandahar city, wounding six civilians. Gen.
David McKiernan, top US general in Afghanistan, met with villagers in
Helmand and Kandahar. He apologized for past mistakes and said he is
now studying the Quran, the Muslim holy book.
(AP, 4/8/09)(AP, 4/10/09)(SFC, 4/10/09, p.A2)
2009 Apr 9, In southern
Afghanistan a suicide bomber attacked a police drug eradication unit,
killing five people and wounding 17 others. The Taliban claimed
responsibility. Four people were shot dead in the raid overnight in
eastern Khost province. The US military later admitted that they were
not "armed combatants" as first announced. A nine-months pregnant woman
had survived the shooting that killed her unborn child. US soldiers
working with Afghan forces killed 15 militants in southern Afghanistan.
Afghan and coalition forces killed five "combatants" in Kandahar
province's Maywand district. A dozen more insurgents were killed in
adjoining Uruzgan province after another attack on an Afghan and
coalition patrol.
(AP, 4/9/09)(AP, 4/10/09)(AFP, 4/10/09)
2009 Apr 10, In southern
Afghanistan Taliban attackers killed six policemen. ISAF security
troops killed 18 insurgents in the northeastern province of Kunar.
(AFP, 4/10/09)(AP, 4/12/09)
2009 Apr 11, Rebels ambushed
Afghan and foreign forces in Zabul province, sparking an exchange of
gunfire that left 22 rebels dead.
(AFP, 4/12/09)
2009 Apr 12, In Kandahar,
Afghanistan, Taliban gunmen on motorbikes gunned down female legislator
Sitara Achikzai.
(AFP, 4/12/09)
2009 Apr 13, Afghan officials said
an overnight NATO-led airstrike on a remote village killed six
civilians, including two children. Western forces said they killed 4-8
armed militants. In southern Afghanistan Taliban gunmen used a firing
squad to kill a young couple for trying to elope, shooting them with
rifles in front of a crowd in a lawless, militant-controlled region. A
young woman Canadian soldier was killed in southern Afghanistan and
four other soldiers were wounded when their armored vehicle hit a
roadside bomb.
(Reuters, 4/13/09)(AP, 4/14/09)(WSJ, 4/14/09,
p.A1)(Reuters, 4/14/09)
2009 Apr 14, Afghanistan warned
that Pakistan's deal to allow Taliban to impose Islamic law in part of
the country may have "dire consequences" for the region and could harm
ties between the neighbors.
(AFP, 4/14/09)
2009 Apr 15, Hundreds of Afghans
swarmed a demonstration of more than 100 women protesting against a new
marriage law they say restricts wives' rights. The women were pelted
with small stones as police struggled to keep the two groups apart. A
NATO soldier and 2 Afghan policemen were killed in fresh violence.
Taliban insurgents beheaded a government employee on charges of spying
for foreign forces in the Bala Murghab district of Badghis province.
(AP, 4/15/09)(AFP, 4/16/09)
2009 Apr 16, In Afghan a policeman
was killed and one wounded in Helmand province. 3 "terrorists" were
killed while the bomb they were planting on a road in the Nad Ali
district of Helmand went off prematurely. Taliban militants attacked an
Afghan counternarcotics police convoy in the Shindand district of
western Herat province, sparking a battle which left one policeman dead
and two wounded.
(AFP, 4/16/09)
2009 Apr 16, Five people were
killed and dozens wounded when a blast tore apart a boat carrying more
than 40 Afghan refugees off Australia's northwest coast. The Australian
Broadcasting Corporation later said it was told the refugees had doused
the boat in petrol to try to force the navy to land them in Australia
and not turn them back to Indonesia, but that the blast was an
accident. On Oct 28 two Indonesian fishermen were jailed for five years
for smuggling the boat full of Afghan refugees.
(AFP, 4/20/09)(AFP, 10/28/09)
2009 Apr 17, In Afghanistan two
earthquakes shook eastern Nangarhar province, collapsing mud-brick
homes on top of villagers while they slept and killing at least 21
people. Two suicide bombers on foot tried to attack the office of the
minister of refugees in southern Nimroz province. Guards shot and
killed one bomber at the scene of the attempted attack. While fleeing
the 2nd bomber detonated his explosives, killing 3 civilians. A
Norwegian intelligence officer serving with the nation's peacekeeping
force was killed by a roadside bomb near the northern city of Maymana.
(AP, 4/17/09)
2009 Apr 18, In central
Afghanistan NATO-led forces and Afghan troops killed 3 suspected
militants during a raid in Logar province, where insurgent attacks have
spiked this year. At least two other suspected militants died in an
airstrike in southern Kandahar province. A roadside bomb targeting a
police vehicle in Kandahar city killed a woman and wounded five other
people including three civilians.
(AP, 4/18/09)
2009 Apr 19, In Afghanistan
roadside bomb in Kandahar city killed one police officer and wounded
another.
(AP, 4/20/09)
2009 Apr 20, In southern
Afghanistan two police were killed and four others wounded during a
clash with insurgents in Zabul province. A roadside bomb in Uruzgan
province killed a civilian, while a second roadside bomb in eastern
Khost province killed two civilians. Two militants on motorbikes seized
the father of Education Minister Farouq Wardak in Wardak province's
Sayed Abad district.
(AP, 4/20/09)(AP, 4/21/09)
2009 Apr 20, New Zealand's PM John
Key said that he wants an exit strategy before sending the country's
Special Air Service combat troops back to Afghanistan as the US has
requested.
(AP, 4/20/09)
2009 Apr 21, In Afghanistan police
in southern Uruzgan province clashed with militants in the Khas Uruzgan
district, killing seven suspected insurgents.
(AP, 4/21/09)
2009 Apr 22, In Afghanistan a
cascading collection of deep-blue high-mountain lakes became the
country’s first provisional national park, as the violence-plagued
nation took a big first step toward protecting one of its finest
natural treasures.
(AP, 4/22/09)
2009 Apr 23, In central
Afghanistan international and Afghan troops killed two militants in an
overnight raid. Afghan and coalition troops captured three suspected
militants in a raid in eastern Logar province. 3 Afghan army soldiers
were killed when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb in eastern Paktia
province.
(AP, 4/23/09)(AP, 4/24/09)
2009 Apr 24, In Afghanistan a bomb
inside a package left at a checkpoint in Kabul exploded when police
opened it, killing one officer. Taliban militants released the father
of Afghanistan's education minister after holding him hostage for four
days. International and Afghan troops clashed with insurgents in
fighting that left at least 12 militants dead.
(AP, 4/24/09)(WSJ, 4/25/09, p.A1)
2009 Apr 25, In Afghanistan 3
suicide bombers penetrated the governor's compound in Kandahar city,
killing at least five police officers in the latest multi-pronged
attack in the Taliban's spiritual birthplace. A roadside bomb in the
eastern province of Khost killed three border police.
(AP, 4/25/09)(AP, 4/26/09)
2009 Apr 27, Afghan President
Hamid Karzai vowed to change a law critics say legalizes marital rape
to remove concerns that it violates human rights. Karzai also announced
that he intended to run for re-election in the country's second ever
presidential vote on August 20. In Kabul province 12 "terrorists" and a
police official were killed during a clash. In the east, a roadside
bomb killed four police.
(AP, 4/27/09)(AP, 4/28/09)
2009 Apr 29, In Afghanistan US-led
troops battled militants and announced they killed 42 suspected
insurgents. Two attacks on German forces killed one soldier and wounded
nine as Germany's foreign minister began a two-day visit to the country.
(AFP, 4/29/09)(AP, 4/29/09)
2009 Apr 29, Australia announced
it will increase by almost one half its troops in Afghanistan to about
1,550 as part of the US-led surge of international forces to bolster
the faltering fight against Taliban insurgents.
(AP, 4/29/09)
2009 Apr 29, Britain’s PM Gordon
Brown said it will boost its troops in Afghanistan to 9,000 to help the
country through upcoming elections, unveiling a new strategy for
Afghanistan and Pakistan.
(AP, 4/29/09)
2009 May 1, In southern
Afghanistan gunmen attacked a troops' convoy as it traveled to a
village to talk to elders about security. The troops killed one
militant in the initial clash and another 14 as they pursued insurgents
who were firing on them from a nearby hillside. 3 Afghan army soldiers
were killed in overnight fighting with insurgents in eastern Kunar
province. 5 international soldiers, including 2 American, were killed
in an insurgent attack.
(AP, 5/1/09)(AFP, 5/1/09)(SFC, 5/2/09, p.A2)
2009 May 3, Three Afghan men were
shot in Kabul by US defense contractors working for Paravant, a
subsidiary of Blackwater Worldwide. 2 of the Afghan’s died. In 2010
Justin Cannon (27) and Christopher Drotleff (29) were indicted on
charges that included 2nd degree murder.
(SFC, 1/8/10, p.A8)
2009 May 4, In Afghanistan bombing
runs by US-led coalition jets killed dozens of civilians taking shelter
from a fierce ground battle between Taliban militants and Afghan and
international forces. The US confirmed fighting in western Farah
province and opened an investigation into the overnight operation. Over
100 people were killed including 25-30 Taliban. A senior US defense
official later said that Marine special operations forces believe that
the Afghan civilians were killed by grenades hurled by Taliban
militants, who then loaded some of the bodies into a vehicle and drove
them around the village, claiming the dead were victims of an American
airstrike. On May 20 the US military said at least 20 civilians and 60
insurgents had died in the clash.
(AP, 5/5/09)(AFP, 5/6/09)(AP, 5/7/09)(AP, 5/20/09)
2009 May 4, An Afghan guard was
killed by Australian Robert William Langdon as he worked for US-based
private security company Four Horsemen International. A court later
heard that Langdon threw a hand grenade into the truck carrying the
guard's body and ordered other guards to fire into the air to simulate
a Taliban attack. Langdon allegedly admitted killing the Afghan guard
during a heated argument about security for a convoy. In October
Langdon was convicted of murder and sentenced to death in a court in
Kabul.
(AP, 1/27/10)(http://tinyurl.com/ybfe5lu)
2009 May 5, In Afghanistan a
shooting followed a car accident in Kabul leaving one Afghan died and
two others wounded. Four US contractors for the private security
company formerly known as Blackwater were detained for their
involvement in the shooting.
(AP, 5/16/09)
2009 May 7, In southern
Afghanistan a suicide bomber blew himself up, killing 21 Afghan
civilians and two British soldiers in one of the deadliest such attacks
in months. Four British soldiers were killed in attacks in Helmand
province. Police fired on a crowd of rock-throwing protesters in
western Farah province, who were angry about civilian deaths they blame
on American bombing runs.
(AP, 5/7/09)(AFP, 5/8/09)
2009 May 9, In Afghanistan 2
police died in a roadside blast in Zabul province.
(AP, 5/10/09)
2009 May 10, In southern
Afghanistan a double suicide bomb attack killed 7 people and wounded 20
in the town of Gereshk in Helmand province. The majority of casualties
were police and army units responding to the initial attack. A roadside
bomb in eastern Nangarhar province killed eight construction workers
traveling on a rural road on their way to build a checkpoint for the
country's border police. Three Afghan civilians, a truck driver and two
assistants, died in a roadside bomb blast in Zabul province while
transporting goods to an American base.
(AP, 5/10/09)
2009 May 11, The US military
accused militants in Afghanistan of using white phosphorus munitions in
attacks on American forces and in civilian areas, saying it has
documented at least 44 incidents of insurgents using or storing the
weapons. Doctors began investigating whether dozens of girls were
poisoned at a high school in northern Afghanistan after 61 girls went
to the hospital because of sudden illness.
(AP, 5/11/09)
2009 May 11, US Defense Secretary
Robert Gates replaced General David McKiernan as the commander of the
Afghanistan war, saying the Obama administration needs "fresh thinking"
to turn around the war against a resurgent Taliban. Lt. Gen. Stanley
McChrystal was named to replace McKiernan.
(AP, 5/12/09)
2009 May 12, In eastern
Afghanistan 11 Taliban suicide bombers attacked government buildings in
Khost, sparking running gunbattles that killed at least 20 people and
wounded three US troops. US and Afghan troops freed 20 hostages taken
by the insurgents. Another 98 Afghan girls were rushed to hospital in
the latest in a spate of mysterious poisonings to hit three schools
north of Kabul in a fortnight. Militants fired several rockets at two
other US military bases in eastern Paktika province. Six militants were
killed when US troops used artillery and airstrikes to fire back. Two
people not involved in the fight were also killed.
(AP, 5/12/09)(AFP, 5/12/09)(AP, 5/13/09)
2009 May 13, In Afghanistan a
vehicle drove up to the first gate outside Camp Salerno, on the edge of
Khost city, and exploded. 7 people were killed and 21 others were
wounded. Int’l. troops opened fire on a civilian vehicle in Wardak
province, killing a father and his son. A gunbattle between police and
Taliban in western Badghis province left one officer dead.
(AP, 5/13/09)(AFP, 5/13/09)(AP, 5/14/09)
2009 May 14, In southern
Afghanistan overnight fighting between Afghan police and insurgents
left 11 militants dead in Kandahar province. A British pilot was
injured after his jet crashed following takeoff in the same region.
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner pledged increased financial
support for police and health care following a meeting with President
Hamid Karzai. A suicide car bomber struck a police station in Kandahar
province's Spinboldak district, leaving only the bomber dead and 5
others wounded.
(AP, 5/14/09)
2009 May 15, In eastern
Afghanistan 2 NATO were killed in fighting with insurgents. In southern
Helmand province 22 Taliban militants, including three regional
commanders, were killed in overnight fighting.
(AP, 5/15/09)
2009 May 16, In Afghanistan 6
militants, including a "foreign national," were killed in a clash with
troops in Uruzgan province. 5 Taliban insurgents who were preparing
suicide vests in a house in central Ghazni province were killed when
some of the explosives detonated.
(AP, 5/17/09)
2009 May 17, In southern
Afghanistan militant attacks and a roadside bomb explosion killed 11
policemen and an army soldier in areas plagued by a violent Taliban
insurgency.
(AP, 5/17/09)
2009 May 18, In Afghanistan a
group of Afghan army soldiers in Jalalabad opened fire in a market,
killing three shopkeepers. Rocket-propelled grenades and machine
gunfire rained down on a motorcade carrying Ahmad Wali Karzai, the
brother of Afghanistan's president, in an apparent assassination
attempt. A bodyguard was killed.
(AP, 5/18/09)
2009 May 19, In Afghanistan an
airstrike by NATO-led forces killed eight Afghan civilians following a
battle with militants in southern Helmand province, where Afghan troops
also killed 25 militants. This was the beginning of a 4-day operation.
(AP, 5/20/09)(AP, 5/23/09)
2009 May 20, In Afghanistan a
roadside bomb near Kabul killed two Americans, one service member and a
civilian. 7 militants died after a firefight and airstrikes in central
Ghazni province.
(AP, 5/20/09)(AP, 5/21/09)
2009 May 21, In Afghanistan two
militants were killed and six others detained after a clash in southern
Helmand province. A US military statement said US and Afghan forces had
seized 16.5 tons of drugs and killed 34 Islamic militants during a
3-day operation in the south.
(AP, 5/21/09)(SFC, 5/22/09, p.A2)
2009 May 23, In Afghanistan a
group of Taliban fighters in Ghazni province ambushed police in a
market and one civilian was killed in the firefight. The US military
updated earlier reports and said international and Afghan forces have
killed 60 militants and seized 102 tons (92 metric tons) of opium poppy
seeds, drugs and chemicals during a four-day operation in southern
Helmand province. A British soldier with the NATO-led alliance was
killed in a bomb blast in the insurgency-hit south of the country.
(AP, 5/23/09)(AFP, 5/24/09)
2009 May 24, In Afghanistan US
troops detained 4 suspected Al-Qaida members during a raid in Khost
province.
(SFC, 5/25/09, p.A2)
2009 May 25, In southern
Afghanistan a roadside bomb killed four civilians in Zabul province. An
operation by US-led forces against a Taliban commander left 3 people
dead and a woman and child wounded in Helmand province. US forces
killed eight Taliban fighters in a clash Uruzgan province. 2 coalition
troops and 3 Afghan policemen were wounded during the clash.
(AP, 5/25/09)(AP, 5/26/09)
2009 May 26, In Afghanistan a
suicide bomber rammed an explosives-rigged car into a military convoy
in eastern Kapisa province, killing three American soldiers and three
Afghan civilians. In the eastern Logar province US and Afghan troops
called in airstrikes on two groups of militants, killing 13 insurgents.
In eastern Khost province, a convoy of Afghan and American troops
killed the driver of a car when the vehicle did not slow down in
response to shouts to stop and warning shots.
(AP, 5/26/09)
2009 May 27, In Afghanistan air
strikes, gunbattles and attacks killed 28 people across the country,
including a government official shot dead with three of his sons near
the Pakistani border. Mohammad Nader, governor of the Omna district in
the eastern province of Paktika, was travelling with his family to go
back home near the Pakistan border when armed insurgents attacked.
(AFP, 5/27/09)
2009 May 28, In eastern
Afghanistan US coalition troops attacked a suspected foreign fighter
camp, killing 34 insurgents, including Arabs and Pakistanis, in an
intense firefight in Paktika province. In southern Afghanistan US-led
coalition forces killed 35 militants and wounded 13 others during a
clash. Insurgents in Zabul province killed eight truck drivers ferrying
supplies for foreign troops. A NATO soldier died after a roadside bomb
attack in the south.
(AP, 5/28/09)(AP, 5/29/09)
2009 May 28, A ship packed with
Afghan migrants sank off Indonesia's western coast, killing at least 9
people and leaving 11 others missing.
(AP, 5/28/09)(AP, 5/29/09)
2009 May 29, In Afghanistan five
militants were killed in an operation in the Musa Qala region of
southern Helmand province. Six militants were killed during a battle
with police in the western province of Farah. Two would-be suicide
attackers were shot and killed in Heart. In Kandahar province a
roadside bomb killed four civilians.
(AP, 5/30/09)
2009 May 30, In western
Afghanistan an overnight battle in a militant-controlled region of
Badgis province killed 30 insurgents and nine Afghan soldiers, while a
roadside bomb in northern Kunduz province wounded an Afghan governor. A
militant attack on a police checkpoint in Farah province killed four
police.
(AP, 5/30/09)(AP, 5/31/09)
2009 May 31, Afghan and NATO
troops killed 18 Taliban militants after insurgents attacked a joint
patrol in Farah province. In southern Afghanistan a US service member
died of non-combat-related injuries.
(AP, 5/31/09)
2009 Jun 1, The US military
announced the death of US service member the previous day from
non-combat-related injuries in southern Afghanistan by posting the news
on Twitter hours before announcing it in a more formal press statement.
Officials said the US military in Afghanistan is launching a Facebook
page, a YouTube site and feeds on Twitter as part of a new
communications effort to reach readers who get their information on the
Internet rather than in newspapers. Mullah Mansur was killed in a
strike by helicopters in Helmand province. 4 US soldiers were
killed by 2 roadside bombs in Wardak province.
(AP, 6/1/09)(AP, 6/2/09)(SFC, 6/2/09, p.A3)
2009 Jun 1, Belgian PM Herman Van
Rompuy vowed to double civilian aid to Afghanistan and welcomed plans
to increase non-military assistance during a visit to Kabul.
(AP, 6/1/09)
2009 Jun 2, Six Afghan family
members, including two children, were killed in an explosion close to
the US Bagram military base outside Kabul. The Ministry of Interior
said that suspected insurgents carried out a suicide bombing against
the family while they were traveling in a car. Afghan and coalition
forces attacked a residential compound in Wardak province, killing six
militants. The men were said to be connected to a militant commander
blamed for multiple attacks. In eastern Afghanistan insurgents killed a
soldier serving with NATO. A convoy in Paktia province was hit by a
blast that killed one security guard. A second improvised explosive
device then ripped through the convoy and killed nine guards in another
vehicle. An American soldier and an Afghan interpreter were killed by a
roadside bomb also in Paktia province. 11 Taliban militants were killed
in a joint operation in Zabul province. 2 policemen were killed and
five others were wounded in a roadside bomb blast in southern Kandahar
province.
(AP, 6/2/09)(AP, 6/3/09)(SFC, 6/4/09, p.A3)
2009 Jun 3, Five Afghan private
security guards escorting a supply convoy in Kandahar province were
killed in a suicide bombing near the southern border with Pakistan.
(AP, 6/3/09)
2009 Jun 4, In Afghanistan
insurgents killed three US soldiers in a bomb and small-arms attack on
their vehicle in Kapisa province, considered a stronghold of insurgents
loyal to Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. A man was killed in
Nangarhar by a bomb he was trying to plant inside a university faculty.
Police found the body of Yeiya Mulaye Azhar, a candidate in the
provincial elections in Wardak province. he had been kidnapped 11 days
earlier.
(AP, 6/4/09)(AP, 6/5/09)(SFC, 6/5/09, p.A2)
2009 Jun 5, Three Afghan children
were killed by a mortar left over from a battle between police and
Taliban. Two roadside bombs exploded an hour apart in separate areas of
the eastern province of Nangarhar, killing six policemen. Heavy
fighting erupted in eastern Khost when militants attacked a compound
where foreign troops were based. At least 15 militants were killed at
the site in the Sabari district. A policeman and a militia soldier
contracted to the US military were also killed. Police killed three
Taliban militants in the neighboring province of Paktia overnight.
Afghan and US-led coalition forces killed two "opposition commanders"
in the southern province of Kandahar. Another four militants were
killed in incidents in Farah province in the south and Paktika in the
east.
(AFP, 6/5/09)(AP, 6/6/09)
2009 Jun 6, In Afghanistan a
suicide bomb rocked the southern town of Spin Boldak killing four
people as clashes claimed the lives of another 12 in a fresh wave of
insurgent violence. Taliban militants ambushed a private security
company in the southwestern province of Nimroz, killing three armed
guards and wounding one.
(AFP, 6/6/09)
2009 Jun 7, A joint Afghan and
US-led coalition operation against insurgents in southern Zabul
province killed more than 20 Taliban fighters. After the operation a
roadside bomb exploded and killed one Afghan policeman as the forces
were returning to base. A militant ambush in northwest Faryab province
killed four policemen. Another Taliban attack in the eastern province
of Paktika killed the police chief in Sarhawza district. Militants
elsewhere in Paktika ambushed a truck of private security guards,
killing four of them.
(AP, 6/7/09)
2009 Jun 9, In northeastern
Afghanistan a grenade explosion in a crowded bazaar near a convoy of US
Army troops in Kunar province killed 2 people and wounded about 50,
many of them children. Three US troops were wounded in the blast. In
western Ghor province a US military airstrike failed to kill Mullah
Mustafa, a militant commander with reported links to Iran's elite
military Quds Force. Ghor deputy Gov. Karimuddin Rezazada later said
that 10 civilians, including five children, and 12 militants were
killed in the airstrikes in Shahrak district. An Afghan official said a
three-day operation against Taliban fighters in southern Uruzgan
province killed 30 militants.
(AP, 6/9/09)(AP, 6/10/09)(AP, 6/11/09)
2009 Jun 10, In Afghanistan
clashes in the north killed 12 insurgents and one Afghan soldier. The
fighting spanned three villages in Baghlan province. Afghan and NATO
forces in western Baghdis "killed and wounded a significant number of
insurgents." No figures were given.
(AP, 6/11/09)
2009 Jun 11, In eastern
Afghanistan NATO mortar rounds killed two Afghan civilians during a
clash with insurgents. Two died later of their injuries while
undergoing treatment. A bomb blast killed a British soldier near
Kandahar. Four other Afghan civilians died in Kunar when a truck
collided with a NATO vehicle.
(AP, 6/12/09)
2009 Jun 12, In Afghanistan a
suicide car bomber hit a fleet of fuel tankers intended for a NATO base
in Helmand province, killing eight Afghans and wounding 21. A British
soldier was killed Helmand in an explosion during an operation in
Sangin district.
(AP, 6/13/09)
2009 Jun 13, In Afghanistan a
roadside bomb struck a vehicle travelling between the eastern provinces
of Paktya and Khost, near the border with Pakistan, and killed three
Afghan construction workers.
(AFP, 6/13/09)
2009 Jun 14, Afghanistan’s
Interior Minister Hanif Atmar said more than 250 people, many of them
militants and some foreign insurgents, were killed during attacks by
the Taliban in 25 of Afghanistan's 34 provinces last week. Police and
civilians were also among the dead. He also warned that Islamist
militants would attempt to sabotage the August 20 presidential election.
(Reuters, 6/14/09)
2009 Jun 15, US Gen. Stanley
McChrystal formally assumed command of American and NATO troops in
Afghanistan.
(SFC, 6/16/09, p.A2)
2009 Jun 15, Leaders from Central
Asia, China and Afghanistan joined Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev
at a summit. Members of the six-nation Shanghai Cooperation
Organization (China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and
Uzbekistan) and leaders of observer nations (Iran, Pakistan, India and
Mongolia) met in the Ural Mountains city of Yekaterinburg for two days
of talks that are expected to include extensive discussions of
Afghanistan.
(AP, 6/15/09)
2009 Jun 17, In southern
Afghanistan 3 Danish soldiers were when a bomb exploded as their
vehicle passed down Highway 1 heading toward the town of Barakhzai in
Helmand province.
(AFP, 6/17/09)
2009 Jun 19, New York Times
reporter David S. Rohde (41) escaped from kidnappers in Pakistan after
more than seven months in captivity and was flown to Bagram Air Base in
Afghanistan the next day.
(AP, 6/21/09)
2009 Jun 18, In southern
Afghanistan a bomb strapped to a parked bicycle exploded near a
construction office in Kandahar city, killing one employee and a child
about 11 years old. Afghan and International forces killed 16 Taliban
militants in a gunbattle in Uruzgan province. One police officer also
died in the fighting.
(AP, 6/18/09)(AP, 6/19/09)
2009 Jun 19, In Afghanistan a
university student in Kandahar City was found dead with his throat cut
in a side room of a mosque where he had gone to study. A British
soldier with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force
(ISAF) was killed in an explosion while on patrol near the town of
Lashkar Gah in the southern province of Helmand. A roadside bomb tore
through a car in the western province of Herat, killing six members of
a family. 26 Taliban were killed in an air strike conducted by foreign
forces near Lashkar Gah. 7 other insurgents were killed elsewhere in
Helmand.
(AP, 6/19/09)(AFP, 6/20/09)
2009 Jun 20, In eastern
Afghanistan one soldier serving with the US-led coalition was killed in
an insurgent attack.
(AFP, 6/20/09)
2009 Jun 21, In Afghanistan a rare
rocket attack on Bagram Air Base, the main US base, killed two US
troops and wounded six other Americans, including two civilians.
(AP, 6/21/09)
2009 Jun 22, In Afghanistan a
suicide bomber on a motorbike killed 7 civilians when he drove into the
center of eastern Khost city and set off explosives. In Kandahar
province another suicide bomber killed 3 Afghan soldiers in an attack
on a convoy of troops inspecting a highway bridge for explosives. In
eastern Nangarhar province, an explosion at a weapons cache killed a
6-year-old boy and wounded 20 others. A major clash in the southwestern
province of Farah left nine militants and two Afghan troops dead.
(AP, 6/22/09)(AP, 6/23/09)
2009 Jun 23, In Afghanistan 3
German soldiers were killed when their patrol near the northern city of
Kunduz came under fire. A suicide car bombing targeting a US-led
military convoy in the eastern province of Ghazni killed two
passers-by. Also in Ghazni, Taliban ambushed a police convoy, killing a
policeman. 3 Afghan aid workers were killed in a roadside bombing in
the northern province of Jawzjan. Another blast killed three policeman
just outside the southern city of Kandahar. Afghan and coalition forces
killed 23 suspected Taliban fighters in a clash in southern Uruzgan
province. Mullah Ismail, a Taliban commander in the region, was killed
during the clash. A box of leaflets dropped from a British plane killed
a girl.
(AFP, 6/23/09)(AP, 6/24/09)(AP, 9/30/09)
2009 Jun 27, The United States
announced a new drug policy for opium-rich Afghanistan, saying it was
phasing out funding for eradication programs while significantly
increasing its funding for alternate crop and drug interdiction
efforts. Insurgent bomb attacks in Afghanistan killed a provincial
deputy police chief and two civilians as Taliban militants stormed a
checkpoint overnight and killed eight policemen. President Hamid Karzai
called on Taliban and other militants to "vote for the president they
want" in Afghanistan's presidential election, while a Taliban spokesman
said militants would "disrupt" the vote without harming civilians.
(AP, 6/27/09)(AFP, 6/27/09)
2009 Jun 28, In eastern
Afghanistan a suicide car bomber attacked a police vehicle in Nangarhar
province, killing a child nearby and wounding nine people, including
four policemen.
(AP, 6/28/09)
2009 Jun 29, In Afghanistan
gunfire broke out after Afghan forces moved into a heavily protected
government complex in Kandahar and demanded the release of a man
accused of forging documents who was being held there. When the Afghan
forces threatened to release the suspect by force, the provincial
police chief was called in to talk. Among the officials killed were
provincial police chief Matiullah Qati and the province's criminal
investigations director. Total death tolls from Afghan officials ranged
from between five and 10 police killed. 41 private guards were disarmed
and arrested. They were to be sent to Kabul for a military trial.
(AP, 6/29/09)
2009 Jun 30, Navy Adm. James
Stavridis replaced Army Gen. Bantz J. Craddock at a change of command
ceremony at the US military's Patch Barracks near Stuttgart attended by
US Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff. Stavridis, as the new head of the US European
Command and NATO's top military leader, said quelling the Afghan
insurgency would take more than bullets, calling for efforts to rebuild
roads, schools and farms to win local support against the Taliban. A US
soldier went missing and was believed captured by insurgents in eastern
Afghanistan. He was later identified as Pfc. Bowe R. Bergdahl (23) of
Ketchum, Idaho.
(AP, 6/30/09)(AP, 7/2/09)(AP, 7/19/09)
2009 Jul 1, In southern
Afghanistan an explosion killed two NATO troops and wounded six others.
(AP, 7/1/09)
2009 Jul 2, Thousands of US
Marines poured from helicopters and armored vehicles into
Taliban-controlled villages in southern Afghanistan in Operation
Khanjar (Strike of the Sword), the first major operation under
President Barack Obama's strategy to stabilize the country. A parallel
British operation, Panchai Palang (Panther’s Claw), fought the Taliban
for control of the Nad Ali district. The Taliban responded with their
own Operation Foladi (Iron Net).
(AP, 7/2/09)(AP, 7/6/09)(Econ, 7/11/09, p.40)
2009 Jul 3, US Marines moved into
villages in Taliban strongholds in southern Afghanistan, meeting little
resistance as they tried to win over local chiefs on the second day of
the biggest military operation here since the fall of the Taliban
government in 2001. In southeast Afghanistan two US soldiers were
killed when their base came under attack. The attack included an
attempted suicide truck bombing of the base in the Zirok district of
southeastern Paktika province. As many as 30 Taliban insurgents might
have been killed when troops called in air strikes.
(AP, 7/3/09)(AP, 7/6/09)
2009 Jul 3, A top Kremlin aide
said Russia will allow the US to ship weapons across its territory to
Afghanistan, in a gesture aimed at bolstering US military operations
and improving strained ties between Washington and Moscow.
(AP, 7/3/09)
2009 Jul 4, In Afghanistan
insurgent attacks in Helmand province killed 3 British soldiers. Gunmen
in the east abducted 16 mine-clearing personnel working for the United
Nations as they traveled between Paktia and Khost provinces.
(Reuters, 7/4/09)(AP, 7/5/09)(AP, 7/6/09)
2009 Jul 6, In northern
Afghanistan four US soldiers were among six people killed by a roadside
bomb in Kunduz province. Two Americans were killed in a roadside blast
in southern Afghanistan. An American soldier died in a firefight with
militants in the east. In southern Kandahar, a suicide bomber killed
two people when he drove a car packed with explosives toward a line of
truck drivers waiting to supply foreign troops. The Taliban movement
said they had launched a guerrilla operation to thwart a major assault
by newly deployed US Marines on their Helmand strongholds. 3 NATO
troops died in a helicopter crash in Zabul province.
(AP, 7/6/09)(AFP, 7/6/09)(AP, 7/7/09)
2009 Jul 7, In eastern Afghanistan
a hand grenade thrown at a police vehicle exploded in a crowd, killing
one civilian and wounding 28 others in Khost province. A British
soldier died in an explosion in Helmand province. He was the 7th
British soldier killed in Afghanistan in a week. Hundreds of insurgents
attacked police posts and a government building in eastern Nuristan
province. The attacks continued into the next day leaving 6 policemen
and 21 insurgents dead. (AP, 7/7/09)(AP, 7/8/09)
2009 Jul 8, In Afghanistan a
roadside bomb attack killed two NATO soldiers.
(AP, 7/9/09)
2009 Jul 9, An Afghan government
spokesman said President Hamid Karzai has pardoned five heroin
smugglers, at least one of them a relative of a man who heads Karzai's
campaign for re-election next month. A truck rigged with explosives
blew up near Kabul killing 25 people including 13 primary school
students. Militants attacked a district headquarters in the southern
province of Zabul, sparking a clash in which 15 Taliban were killed. 30
insurgents planting bombs in a road in Zabul were killed in an Afghan
military ambush. Overnight clashes with troops killed 27 suspected
militants in Helmand.
(Reuters, 7/9/09)(AFP, 7/9/09)
2009 Jul 10, In Afghanistan 8
British soldiers were reported killed over the last 24 hours. A US
service member wounded in June in Afghanistan died in the US.
(AP, 7/11/09)(AP, 7/12/09)
2009 Jul 11, In Afghanistan bomb
blasts killed 2 US Marines in Helmand province. At least six police
officers were killed by roadside bombs, two in southern Helmand
province and at least four south of Kabul in Logar province. In a
gunbattle in eastern Paktia province between insurgents and Afghan
police, two militants and one police officer were killed.
(AP, 7/12/09)(SFC, 7/13/09, p.A3)
2009 Jul 13, In southern
Afghanistan 2 US Marines were killed in a hostile incident. An
insurgent attack in eastern Nuristan province killed a US soldier. The
police chief of Jalrez district in Wardak province was killed along
with 3 officers in a roadside blast.
(AP, 7/14/09)(SFC, 7/14/09, p.A3)
2009 Jul 14, In Afghanistan a
NATO-contracted helicopter was shot down killing six Ukrainian crew
members on board and an Afghan child on the ground in Helmand province.
A roadside bomb killed one Italian soldier and wounded three others in
western Afghanistan. Another roadside blast hit a civilian vehicle in
Uruzgan province, killing three people and wounded six others. US
coalition and Afghan forces searched compounds in Kandahar and found
bomb-making materials, mortar rounds, AK-47 rifles, rocket-propelled
grenades and 100 pounds (45 kilograms) of opium.
(AP, 7/14/09)(SFC, 7/15/09, p.A2)(AP, 7/26/09)
2009 Jul 15, In Afghanistan at
least 4 civilians were killed and 13 were wounded in a late night
airstrike on the southern village of Shawalikot. 3 police were killed
by a suicide car bomber in Nimroz province, and two Afghan army
soldiers died in two other attacks in the south. NATO forces killed two
insurgents in an attack in the east.
(AP,
7/16/09)(http://news.yahoo.com/s/mcclatchy/20090717/wl_mcclatchy/3274354)
2009 Jul 16, In southeastern
Afghanistan local Taliban commanders threatened to kill a captured
American soldier unless the US military stops operations in Ghazni
province's Giro district and Paktika province's Khoshamand district.
The British soldier was killed during a foot patrol near Gereshk in
southern Helmand province.
(AP, 7/16/09)(AP, 7/17/09)
2009 Jul 17, In southern
Afghanistan a roadside bomb tore through a vehicle, killing a British
soldier and 11 civilians, including five children. In Nangarhar
province, a gunfight broke out between Taliban fighters and local
civilians after militants fired at an Afghan army officer who had come
to visit his relatives. 3 militants and two civilians were killed and
one civilian was missing. Eleven militants were captured, eight of them
Pakistanis.
(AP, 7/17/09)(AP, 7/18/09)(SFC, 7/18/09, p.A2)
2009 Jul 18, In Afghanistan a US
Air Force F-15E Strike Eagle fighter jet crashed in central Ghazni,
killing the two crew members. A suicide driver blew up his
explosive-laden vehicle next to an Afghan army convoy in Zabul
province, killing three soldiers and wounding three others. 35
militants were killed during a joint operation by Afghan and coalition
troops in the Shah Walk Kot district of Kandahar province. In Nangarhar
province a suicide bomber attacked the Afghan-Pakistan border crossing
at Torkham, killing a border police officer and a civilian.
(AP, 7/18/09)(AP, 7/19/09)
2009 Jul 19, In
southern Afghanistan a Russian-owned civilian Mi-8 helicopter crashed
and burst into flames shortly after takeoff from the Kandahar
NATO base, killing 16 civilians in the latest in a string of deadly
aircraft crashes in the country. Gunmen killed a candidate for
provincial council in Kunduz province as he was traveling to a campaign
event. The US military denounced the release of a video showing a
soldier captured in Afghanistan, describing the images as Taliban
propaganda that violated international law. 3 civilians were killed
when German troops opened fire on their pickup truck. In Farah
province, a van full of civilians hit a roadside bomb, killing 11
people on board, including a child and his mother. A British soldier
was killed by an explosion while on a foot patrol in the Sangin region
of Helmand province.
(AP, 7/19/09)(Reuters, 7/19/09)(AP, 7/20/09)
2009 Jul 20, In Afghanistan 10
Taliban were killed and three other militants wounded while making
bombs in a house in Ghazni province. A roadside bomb killed 4 US
soldiers.
(AP, 7/21/09)(SFC, 7/21/09, p.A3)
2009 Jul 21, In Afghanistan
Taliban militants attacked three government buildings in Gardez and a
US base near Jalalabad and in near-simultaneous attacks, a
signature of major Taliban assaults. 8 insurgents and 5 Afghan security
forces died. Canadian troops were involved in two shooting incidents in
southern Afghanistan, killing a girl and wounding three policemen.
Afghan authorities said later that police arrested 7 would-be suicide
bombers, who would have inflicted mayhem in further coordinated strikes.
(AP, 7/21/09)(AP, 7/23/09)(AFP, 7/25/09)
2009 Jul 22, Officials said
Afghanistan was repositioning forces to the south after complaints too
few are involved in major US and British offensives against the
Taliban. A convoy belonging to a minor presidential candidate, former
Taliban commander Mullah Salam Rocketi, was ambushed as he returned to
Kabul after campaigning in northern Baghlan and one of his campaign
officials was killed.
(Reuters, 7/22/09)
2009 Jul 23, In Afghanistan an
operation conducted by US-led coalition forces in the Baidar area of
Gelan district killed eight Taliban, five of them foreigners.
(AFP, 7/24/09)
2009 Jul 24, In Afghanistan four
Taliban were killed in a clash with foreign forces In northern Balkh
province. Fighting killed two US soldiers. NATO troops came under fire
in the east and one NATO soldier was killed. Air strikes followed
killing several insurgents. Up to 12 insurgents were killed in a gun
battle with US-led troops in the eastern province of Nangarhar.
(AFP, 7/24/09)(AP, 7/25/09)
2009 Jul 25, In Afghanistan 7
suicide bombers tried to storm state targets in Khost, killing one
civilian and wounding others in the third Taliban commando raid in a
week. A British soldier was killed when a bomb exploded in southern
Helmand province. A US service member died during a clash with
insurgents in the south. Afghan elders struck the first local truce
with Taliban insurgents in northwestern Badghis province after nearly
three weeks of talks.
(AFP, 7/25/09)(AP, 7/26/09)(AP, 7/27/09)
2009 Jul 26, It was reported that
Marines in Helmand working alongside DEA-mentored Afghan police seized
297 tons of poppy seeds, 77 pounds (35 kilograms) of heroin and 300
pounds (135 kilograms) of opium in raids in mid-July. Some 1,200 pounds
(550 kilograms) of hashish and 4,225 gallons (16,000 liters) of
chemicals used to convert opium to heroin were also seized. 5
insurgents were killed in a clash in Kandahar.
(AP, 7/26/09)(AP, 7/27/09)
2009 Jul 27, Afghanistan’s
President Hamid Karzai said he wants new rules governing the conduct of
US-led forces in Afghanistan and would be willing to talk with Taliban
leaders who publicly renounce violence and endorse peace. The British
government announced the end of the first phase of Operation Panther's
Claw against the Taliban in southern Afghanistan, saying it now needs
to hold and build on the ground it has cleared of insurgents. A Taliban
rocket killed 4 civilians at home in the central province of Ghazni
overnight. A civilian was killed in a bomb blast in eastern Khost
province. The US military in Afghanistan said it has stopped releasing
body counts of insurgents believed killed in operations because the
tolls distract from the US objective of protecting Afghans.
(AP, 7/27/09)(AFP, 7/27/09)
2009 Jul 28, The top UN official
in Afghanistan urged the Taliban not to disrupt elections, as militants
killed nine people, ambushed a presidential campaign manager and fired
rockets into a UN compound.
(AP, 7/28/09)
2009 Jul 28, Richard Holbrooke,
the US special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, said in Brussels that
Taliban militants are receiving more funding from sympathizers abroad
than from Afghanistan's illegal drug trade. NATO military officials in
Afghanistan have estimated that the Taliban raise between $60-$100
million a year from the trade in illegal narcotics.
(AP, 7/28/09)
2009 Jul 28, A majority of people
in Britain see the Afghan war as impossible to win, according to a new
poll taken amid steeply rising casualties and growing government
emphasis on finding a political solution to the conflict.
(AP, 7/28/09)
2009 Jul 30, The Taliban urged
Afghans to stay away from the Aug. 20 elections, dismissing the
balloting as an "American process" and threatening to block roads to
polling stations. In western Afghanistan a Taliban ambush on a NATO
convoy left nine insurgents and a policeman dead. A Taliban unit
ambushed a convoy of electoral material in Farah province. Insurgents
killed four Afghan soldiers in the gunbattle but the ballots and other
voting material were retrieved.
(AP, 7/30/09)(AP, 7/31/09)
2009 Jul 31, In Afghanistan a US
service member died in the south of the country. In Geneva the UN
issued a report stating that the number of civilians killed in conflict
in Afghanistan has jumped 24% so far this year, with bombings by
insurgent and airstrikes by international forces the biggest single
killers.
(AP, 7/31/09)
2009 Aug 1, In Afghanistan 3 US
troops were killed by improvised explosives in Kandahar province and a
French soldier was killed in an insurgent attack in Kapisa province.
Two more ISAF troops were killed when two bomb blasts struck their
patrol in the south. A dozen rebels were killed in a gunfight with
police in the southwestern province of Nimroz. 4 Afghan soldiers were
killed when their vehicle struck a roadside bomb planted by
"terrorists" in southern Helmand province. 3 policemen including a
senior officer were killed when their vehicle struck a roadside bomb in
the northern province of Baghlan.
(AFP, 8/1/09)(AFP, 8/2/09)
2009 Aug 2, In eastern Afghanistan
3 American soldiers died in a complex militant ambush, raising NATO's
two-day August death toll to nine and continuing the bloodiest period
of the eight-year war for US and allied troops.
(AP, 8/2/09)
2009 Aug 3, In Afghanistan a bomb
hidden in a rubbish bin exploded near a police convoy in Herat, killing
12 people, including a woman and a girl and 2 police officers, as a
wave of Taliban violence gripped the nation ahead of elections. An
ambush in Faryab province killed an Afghan driver, but his passenger, a
Korean engineer, escaped without injury.
(AFP, 8/3/09)(SSFC, 8/2/09, p.A2)
2009 Aug 3, Anders Fogh Rasmussen,
a former Danish prime minister, took office as NATO's new
secretary-general. He said his top priorities would be guiding the war
in Afghanistan to a successful conclusion, repairing ties with Russia,
and expanding NATO's partnership with moderate nations in North Africa
and the Middle East.
(AP, 8/3/09)
2009 Aug 4, In Afghanistan a
string of rockets slammed into Kabul at daybreak in the first major
attack on the relatively calm Afghan capital in the run-up to this
month's presidential election. A child and a man were lightly wounded
when they were hit by flying glass in residential areas next to the
airport, where most of the rockets landed. A suicide bomber killed five
people and wounded 18 in southern Zabul province.
(AP, 8/4/09)
2009 Aug 4, NATO's governing body
approved a plan to reorganize the alliance's command structure in
Afghanistan by setting up a new headquarters to handle the day-to-day
running of the war.
(AP, 8/4/09)
2009 Aug 5, Outraged southern
Afghan villagers said that a pre-dawn airstrike by foreign troops
killed three children and a man in the latest case of civilian deaths
at the hands of Western troops. A US military spokeswoman said a
helicopter had fired on four insurgents carrying jugs on motorcycles
through a field away from a populated area of the local district,
Arghandab. In eastern Nangarhar province a roadside bomb killed two
tribal elders and four armed guards. Across southern Afghanistan
roadside explosions and a US airstrike killed at least 15 people,
including members of a family who hit a mine on their way to a wedding
party.
(AP, 8/5/09)(AP, 8/6/09)
2009 Aug 6, In western Afghanistan
four American service members were killed in a roadside bombing. 3
British paratroopers were killed after their armored vehicle was hit by
a roadside bomb and Taliban opened fire during a patrol with Afghan
forces north of Lashkar Gah in Helmand province. Roadside bombs killed
5 policemen in Kandahar's Arghandab district. An airstrike in Zabul
province killed 3 suspected militants who were planting a bomb on a
road.
(AP, 8/6/09)(AP, 8/7/09)
2009 Aug 7, In eastern Afghanistan
an American service member was killed in an attack on a convoy. A blast
in Kandahar's Zhari district killed an Afghan guard escorting a NATO
supply convoy.
(AP, 8/7/09)
2009 Aug 8, NATO helicopters
wounded five Afghan police by mistake during a battle with insurgents
in Ghazni province. A British soldier, serving with NATO's
International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), was killed by an
improvised explosive device (IED). A US soldier was killed in the south
in a hostile fire incident.
(Reuters, 8/8/09)(AFP, 8/9/09)(AP, 8/11/09)
2009 Aug 9, In Afghanistan a
suicide attacker in a bomb-filled vehicle blew up close to a US-led
coalition military convoy in Nangarhar province, but did no harm to the
troops. 3 Afghan army soldiers were killed after their vehicle was
struck by a roadside bomb in Shahjoy district, Zabul province. A US
soldier was killed in the south in a hostile fire incident.
(AFP, 8/9/09)(AP, 8/11/09)
2009 Aug 10, At least three Afghan
police and two civilians were killed in a brazen attack by Taliban
gunmen and suicide bombers on government buildings near Kabul. A US
soldier was killed in the south in a hostile fire incident. 22 Taliban
insurgents and two Afghan soldiers also died in violence.
(Reuters, 8/10/09)(AP, 8/11/09)
2009 Aug 11, An Afghan official
said authorities have hired some 10,000 Afghan tribesmen to protect
this month's presidential election, raising the possibility that
village militias could be enlisted to fight against the Taliban. In
southern Afghanistan roadside bombs killed nine civilians. The body of
a Polish soldier, who had disappeared while under fire a day earlier,
was found in Ghazni province.
(AP, 8/11/09)
2009 Aug 12, In southern
Afghanistan helicopter-borne US Marines backed by Harrier jets stormed
a Taliban-held town before dawn, launching a new operation (Eastern
Resolve 2) to uproot Taliban fighters from a longtime base and provide
security for next week's presidential election. Marines said they
killed between seven and 10 militants in Dahaneh and seized about 66
pounds (30 kilograms) of opium, which the militants use to finance
their insurgency. A blast on a road in the Gereshk district of Helmand
province ripped through a vehicle carrying a family, killing 11 people,
including two women and nine men. In Kandahar province three children
were killed after they started playing with a bomb which they had found
on the side of the road west of the provincial capital.
(AP, 8/12/09)(AP, 8/13/09)
2009 Aug 12, Australian forces
shot 2 Afghan policemen on a motorcycle at the Dorafshan checkpoint
near Tarin Kowt. One of the Afghans was shot 16 times and died. The
other was wounded. The Australian military later said the soldiers did
not know the men were police and were acting in self-defense.
(AFP,
10/13/09)(www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/08/12/2653950.htm)
2009 Aug 15, In Afghanistan a
suicide car bomb exploded outside the main gate of NATO's headquarters
five days before presidential elections, killing seven and wounding 91
in the biggest attack in the Afghan capital in six months. A British
soldier succumbed to injuries sustained while out on foot patrol in
Helmand province, becoming the 201st British military fatality in
Afghanistan.
(AP, 8/15/09)(AFP, 8/16/09)
2009 Aug 16, Afghan President
Hamid Karzai took part in a live television debate with two of his main
rivals running in this week's election, a first for an incumbent head
of state in the war-scarred country. The Afghan defense ministry said
that more than 30 rebels, including foreigners, were killed in an
operation pounding Taliban centers in a bid to secure a northeast
troublespot for key elections. Two US troops and a US civilian died in
gun and bomb attacks in eastern Afghanistan. 3 British soldiers were
killed in an explosion in the volatile south.
(AFP, 8/16/09)(AFP, 8/17/09)
2009 Aug 17, In Afghanistan former
Uzbek militia chief General Abdul Rashid Dostum threw his support
behind President Hamid Karzai one day after returning from exile in
Turkey. Four minor candidates announced they were withdrawing and
throwing their support behind Karzai. A roadside bomb in southern
Afghanistan killed a US service member, while an American civilian
working for the military died after insurgents attacked a patrol in the
east.
(AP, 8/17/09)
2009 Aug 18, A Taliban suicide
bomber attacked a NATO convoy on the outskirts of Kabul, killing 8
people and wounding more than 50, just days before the presidential
election that the militant group has vowed to disrupt. A suicide bomber
struck the gates of an Afghan army base in the southern Uruzgan
province, killing 3 Afghan soldiers and two civilians. Two US soldiers
were killed and 3 wounded in a separate blast in eastern Afghanistan.
(AP, 8/18/09)(SFC, 8/19/09, p.A3)
2009 Aug 19, Afghan journalists
rejected a Foreign Ministry demand that they suspend the broadcasting
of news about attacks or violence on election day, accusing the
government of unconstitutional censorship. Police stormed a bank in
Kabul and killed three insurgents who had taken it over, while a wave
of attacks killed at least six election workers around the country on
the eve of the presidential election.
(AP, 8/19/09)
2009 Aug 20, Afghans voted to
elect a president for only the second time in history as fears emerged
of poor turnout. Some $300 million was spent in organizational costs
alone. Top security officials said 26 civilians and security forces
have died in election-day militant attacks. Insurgents launched
scattered rocket, suicide and bomb attacks that closed some polling
sites. In northern Baghlan province, insurgent attacks closed 14
polling sites, and several police were reported killed. In southern
Helmand province more than 20 rockets landed in the capital of Lashkar
Gah, including one near a line of voters that killed a child. Initial
election results weren't expected until Aug 22. Taliban militants cut
off the nose and both ears of an Afghan father of 8 he tried to vote.
The attack became the third confirmed report of the Taliban mutilating
people who sought to cast ballots in the electoral contest. Some 400
insurgent incidents took place during the poll.
(AP, 8/20/09)(AP, 8/31/09)(Econ, 8/29/09,
p.35)(Econ, 11/7/09, p.40)
2009 Aug 21, Afghan President
Hamid Karzai's campaign and chief rival Abdullah Abdullah both said
they had won Afghanistan's election, but Washington's chief envoy
warned candidates not to declare victory prematurely.
(Reuters, 8/21/09)
2009 Aug 23, Afghan former Foreign
Minister Abdullah Abdullah, President Karzai's main challenger, said he
had evidence last week's election had been widely rigged by the
incumbent and that he had lodged more than 100 complaints. The Election
Complaints Commission (ECC) said it had received 225 complaints of
which 35 had been labeled a priority. An American service member died
in an insurgent attack. Two Estonian soldiers were killed after their
unit stumbled on a roadside bomb in southern Helmand province.
(Reuters, 8/23/09)(AP, 8/24/09)
2009 Aug 23, NATO military
commanders told US President Barack Obama's envoy on that they needed
more troops and other resources to beat back a resurgent Taliban,
particularly in eastern Afghanistan near the Pakistan border.
(Reuters, 8/23/09)
2009 Aug 24, Mohammed Jawad (~21),
a Guantanamo prisoner once charged with wounding two US soldiers and
their interpreter was back home in Afghanistan, months after a war
crimes case against him unraveled when a military judge ruled his
confession was coerced.
(AP, 8/24/09)
2009 Aug 24, In the eastern
Pakistani city of Sargodha, police arrested six militants in two raids.
They were said to be linked to Mehsud's Taliban and had planned to
launch strikes next week on at least two places of worship. Among the
six was Zaid Mustafa, said to have recruited potential suicide bombers
for training in Afghanistan and who is suspected of providing
logistics, explosives and other support for terror attacks in Lahore,
Karachi or Rawalpindi. Gunmen shot dead an Afghan television journalist
and severely wounded his colleague in northwestern Pakistan.
(AP, 8/24/09)
2009 Aug 25, The Afghan election
commission said President Hamid Karzai and top challenger Abdullah
Abdullah both have roughly 40% of the nationwide vote for president
with 10% of ballots counted. A large explosion detonated in Kandahar
and was followed by gunfire on the street afterward. A major bombing
killed at least 43 people and wounded 65 in Kandahar just after dark.
(AP, 8/25/09)(AP, 8/26/09)
2009 Aug 26, Afghan President
Hamid Karzai widened his lead after officials released more partial
vote results. The latest returns boosted Karzai's standing to 44.8% and
Abdullah’s at 35.1%. The count was based on returns from 17% of polling
stations nationwide. In eastern Afghanistan a firefight left as many as
12 militants dead. Reports of the death toll varied widely. A spokesman
of the governor of Paktika province said 12 militants died, while
police said two were killed. The US military did not report any deaths.
7 insurgents, including a wounded commander, were detained.
(AP, 8/26/09)(AP, 8/27/09)
2009 Aug 27, In Afghanistan a US
service member died in a militant attack involving a roadside bomb and
gunfire, a death that pushed August into a tie with July as the
deadliest months of the eight-year war.
(AP, 8/27/09)
2009 Aug 27, In Pakistan a suicide
bomber hit a security checkpoint at the main border crossing for
convoys ferrying NATO supplies into Afghanistan, killing at least 19
security officers. A suspected US drone fired two missiles at a
militant hide-out in northwest Pakistan, killing at least six people
and wounding nine.
(AP, 8/27/09)
2009 Aug 28, Afghan Taliban
insurgents ambushed a police convoy, killing three policemen and
wounding about 30 others near Ghazni. In northern Afghanistan foreign
troops attacked a militant commander in Kunduz province, killing him
and his six men. A female militant who engaged troops with an assault
rifle and with ammunition packed to her chest was among the dead. In
eastern Afghanistan an American service member died in a bomb blast
that also wounded Cami McCormick, a CBS Radio News correspondent. This
made August the deadliest month of the eight-year war for US forces.
(AP, 8/28/09)(AP, 8/29/09)
2009 Aug 28, NATO’s Sec. Gen. Fogh
Rasmussen ended a 2-day visit to Turkey where he got a commitment for
more Turkish troops to work on reconstruction projects in Afghanistan.
(Econ, 9/12/09,
p.57)(www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=107181)
2009 Aug 29, Afghan President
Hamid Karzai widened his lead in the presidential race as new vote
tallies were released, inching closer to the 50 percent threshold of
votes he needs to avoid a run-off. The latest results show Karzai ahead
with 46.2% of the votes already counted against Abdullah's 31.4%.
(AP, 8/29/09)
2009 Aug 29, Britain’s PM Gordon
Brown made a surprise visit to Afghanistan, where he pledged to speed
up the training of Afghan security forces.
(AFP, 8/29/09)
2009 Aug 30, Major allegations of
fraud in Afghanistan's presidential election topped 550, more than
doubling the figure investigators reported just two days earlier.
(AP, 8/30/09)
2009 Aug 31, In Afghanistan 2
bombings killed two US service members, the last day of the deadliest
month of the war for US forces.
(AP, 8/31/09)
2009 Sep 1, In southern
Afghanistan an American service member died of wounds suffered in a
bombing the day before.
(AP, 9/1/09)
2009 Sep 2, A Taliban suicide
bomber killed Abdullah Laghmani, Afghanistan's deputy chief of
intelligence, during a visit to a mosque in Laghman province. The blast
east of Kabul also killed the executive director of Laghman's
governor's office, the head of Laghman's provincial council, two of
Laghmani's body guards, and 18 civilians. An intelligence officer
kidnapped a few days ago by Taliban militants in Kunduz province was
found hanging from a tree on the outskirts of Baghlan city. 4 militants
were killed overnight when a roadside bomb they were planting
detonated. On Dec 20 Abdul Rahman, a Taliban military commander in
Laghman, and three members of his insurgent network were arrested for
the murder of Laghmani.
(AP, 9/2/09)(AP, 12/29/09)
2009 Sep 2, In central Afghanistan
American troops stormed through a hospital run by a Swedish charity in
Wardak province, breaking down doors and tying up staff in a search for
militants. The charity's country director later said this went against
an agreement between NATO forces and charities working in the area, and
was a clear violation of internationally recognized rules and
principles.
(AP, 9/7/09)
2009 Sep 3, The US Embassy in
Afghanistan said it has banned alcohol and assigned American personnel
to watch over the embassy's security guards following allegations of
lewd behavior and sexual misconduct at their living quarters.
(AP, 9/3/09)
2009 Sep 4, The US Embassy in
Afghanistan said it has fired eight security guards following
allegations of lewd behavior and sexual misconduct at their living
quarters. Two other guards resigned and also left. All of them appeared
in photographs that depicted guards and supervisors in various stages
of nudity at parties flowing with alcohol. The management team of the
private contractor that provided the guards was also to being replaced
immediately.
(AP, 9/4/09)
2009 Sep 4, In northern
Afghanistan a US jet blasted two fuel tankers hijacked by the Taliban
in Kunduz province, setting off a huge fireball that killed dozens of
civilians who had rushed to the scene to collect fuel. As many as 142
civilians died in the German-ordered NATO airstrike. A French soldier
was killed and nine others injured when their vehicles were hit by a
bomb near Bagram Air Base north of Kabul. A Polish soldier was killed
in the east. A French marine was killed in an IED attack.
(AP, 9/4/09)(AFP, 9/5/09)(AP, 9/17/09)(AP,
10/8/09)(Econ, 1/2/10, p.37)
2009 Sep 5, In Afghanistan a US
soldier serving in the NATO-led coalition died after coming under fire
in the east of the country. Gunmen snatched New York Times reporter
Stephen Farrell, who has dual British-Irish nationality, and his
interpreter Sultan Munadi, while they were reporting on the aftermath
of a NATO air strike on fuel tankers that killed scores of people. On
Sep 9 Farrell was freed in a raid that killed a British soldier as well
as Afghan translator Sultan Munadi (34).
(AFP, 9/5/09)(AFP, 9/9/09)
2009 Sep 8, Afghan President Hamid
Karzai surpassed for the first time the 50% threshold needed to avoid a
run-off in the presidential election, according to preliminary results,
but with fraud allegations rising, a UN-backed commission ordered a
re-count of tainted ballots. A suicide car bomb exploded outside the
gates of the ISAF military airport in Kabul, killing three civilians
and wounding nine people, including four foreign soldiers.
(AP, 9/8/09)(AFP, 9/9/09)
2009 Sep 9, In Afghanistan a
suicide bomber blew himself up outside the Camp Bastion NATO base in
southern Helmand province, killing at least two Afghan civilians and
wounding several foreign and local troops. British commandos freed NY
Times reporter Stephen Farrell (46) in a raid on a Taliban hide-out in
northern Afghanistan. Farrell and his translator had been taken hostage
on Sep 5. A British soldier died during the raid as well as Afghan
translator, Sultan Munadi (34) and 2 civilians.
(AFP, 9/9/09)(AP, 9/9/09)
2009 Sep 10, The UN-backed
commission investigating fraud in Afghanistan's election issued its
first orders to exclude some ballots from the final tally, throwing out
votes from 83 polling stations in areas of strong support for President
Hamid Karzai. A US service member was killed in an attack on a patrol.
Another service member was killed after coming under fire.
(AP, 9/10/09)(AP, 9/11/09)
2009 Sep 11, Afghan former foreign
minister Abdullah Abdullah, the chief challenger to President Hamid
Karzai, called for a full investigation of hundreds of reports of fraud
in the Aug. 20 presidential contest. 14 civilians were killed Uruzgan
province when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb in Churra district. In
Kandahar six civilians were killed by an improvised explosive device in
the Maiwand district. Four police were killed in Nangarhar when
militants attacked a border police checkpoint. In eastern Paktika
province, a suicide bomber detonated his explosives in Bermel district.
Only the bomber died.
(AP, 9/11/09)(AP, 9/12/09)
2009 Sep 11, Spain's government
agreed to send 220 more troops to Afghanistan, raising the total to
about 1,000.
(AP, 9/11/09)
2009 Sep 12, In Afghanistan a
Taliban ambush killed six private security guards working for a
construction company in the eastern province of Kunar. In Khost
province a suspected militant rocket attack killed three civilians in
Sabari district. In Kandahar 3 suicide bombers tried to attack an
office of the country's intelligence agency. Officers and the bombers
traded gunfire. One bomber blew himself up and killed an intelligence
officer, while the other bombers’ explosives went off but didn't kill
anyone. Coalition and Afghan forces killed 11 militants during an
overnight raid in northern Kunduz province. In Kunduz province a
turncoat policeman poisoned 8 other officers at a guard post, killed
his commander and called in the Taliban who beheaded or shot 7 other
policemen. A roadside bomb killed two US troops in the east. In western
Afghanistan 3 US soldiers were killed following a roadside bomb attack
and small arms fire. Altogether 50 civilians, security forces and
militants were killed in the spate of attacks, including 20
noncombatants killed in two roadside bomb explosions. In western Farah
province a battle that included airstrikes killed about 50 Taliban
militants after an insurgent ambush left 3 US troops and 7 Afghan
soldiers dead.
(AP, 9/12/09)(AP, 9/13/09)(SSFC, 9/13/09, p.A4)(SFC,
9/14/09, p.A2)
2009 Sep 13, The Afghan health
ministry said it has so far recorded 673 cases of cholera countrywide
in almost a third of the country's 34 provinces, including Kabul. No
deaths have been reported. A British soldier was killed in an attack on
a foot patrol in Helmand province. A 2nd NATO service member died in a
bomb blast in the south.
(AFP, 9/13/09)(AP, 9/14/09)
2009 Sep 13, Al-Qaida leader Osama
bin Laden described President Barack Obama as "powerless" to stop the
war in Afghanistan and threatened to step up guerrilla warfare there in
a new audiotape released to mark the anniversary of the Sept. 11
attacks in the US.
(AP, 9/14/09)
2009 Sep 14, Afghan and foreign
forces killed 27 Taliban militants in gunfights and an air strike in a
rebel stronghold of Kandahar province. A Taliban spokesman said four
militants were killed and five civilians died in the crossfire.
(AFP, 9/15/09)
2009 Sep 15, In northern
Afghanistan a mass grave was unearthed in Ali Abad district of Kunduz
province, containing at least 20 bodies believed to date from the
Soviet-backed government era. During Soviet-backed rule in the late
1970s, a group of 35 people were arrested in Ali Abad district and were
never heard of again.
(AFP, 9/15/09)
2009 Sep 16, Afghanistan's
election commission released preliminary vote totals showing President
Hamid Karzai with 54.6 percent of the vote in the first full results to
be released since the country's Aug. 20 election. A UN-backed group
investigating fraud has ordered a massive audit and recount of about 10
percent of the country's voting stations. A NATO service member died
from a bomb strike in the south.
(AP, 9/16/09)(AP, 9/17/09)
2009 Sep 17, In Kabul,
Afghanistan, a suicide bomber rammed a car packed with explosives into
two Italian military vehicles killing six of those aboard and wounding
four. 10 Afghan civilians were also killed. A US service member and a
Canadian soldier died in separate roadside bomb explosions in the south.
(AP, 9/17/09)(AP, 9/18/09)
2009 Sep 18, In Afghanistan gunmen
opened fire in a mosque in Jawzjan province, killing five men and
wounding another two.
(AFP, 9/19/09)
2009 Sep 19, In Afghanistan two
children were killed when a suicide attacker, believed to have been a
woman, blew herself up in a crowded area of western Herat city. A
Danish soldier was killed and another injured after they came under
fire during a patrol in Helmand province. A suicide attacker drove a
vehicle into a Hungarian convoy morning in the northern city of
Pul-e-Khumri. The suicide attacker was killed, but there were no
casualties in the convoy. An American soldier died in fighting in the
east.
(AFP, 9/19/09)(AP, 9/19/09)(AP, 9/20/09)
2009 Sep 20, In Afghanistan NATO's
International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said 2 US soldiers were
killed in a noncombat-related incident in the south. The Afghan defense
ministry said Afghan and foreign troops will halt offensive operations
in the war against Taliban-led insurgents for the UN's International
Day of Peace on Sep 21.
(AFP, 9/20/09)
2009 Sep 20, German authorities
said al Qaeda threatened Germany with attacks for the second time this
weekend in an online video criticizing the country for its deployment
of troops in Afghanistan. The interior ministry identified al Qaeda's
messenger in the latest video as Bekkay Harrach (32), a
German-Moroccan.
(Reuters, 9/20/09)
2009 Sep 21, Grant Kippen, the
Canadian head of the UN-backed panel investigating fraud in
Afghanistan's presidential vote, said the panel has agreed to allow a
recount of just a sampling of hundreds of thousands of suspect ballots
to speed the process. In southern Afghanistan a roadside bomb killed an
American service member.
(AP, 9/21/09)(AP, 9/22/09)
2009 Sep 21, A Danish court
rejected the military's request to stop a book by a former special
forces soldier from being published. Denmark's armed forces had asked
the Bailiff's Court in Copenhagen to ban Thomas Rathsack's book,
"Ranger: At War With the Elite," for national security reasons. It
describes operations that he took part in as a member of an army ranger
unit in Afghanistan and Iraq.
(AP, 9/21/09)
2009 Sep 22, In Afghanistan a
roadside bomb blast killed five people in western Farah province. Eight
others in the van were wounded.
(AP, 9/23/09)
2009 Sep 23, In Afghanistan a
family of seven died when their vehicle struck a bomb in Panjwayi
district, in Kandahar province. All in the car were killed including
two young children.
(AP, 9/23/09)
2009 Sep 24, Afghan officials
started a partial vote recount from last month's presidential election
in a long-awaited procedure due to bring to an end weeks of uncertainty
over the ballot. The process was expected to take about two weeks. Four
US soldiers died in southeastern Zabul province, three of them killed
when their Stryker vehicle hit a bomb, and the fourth shot to death in
an insurgent attack.
(Reuters, 9/25/09)(AP, 9/25/09)
2009 Sep 25, In Afghanistan an
American died of gunshot wounds from and insurgent attack in Nimroz
province.
(SFC, 9/26/09, p.A2)
2009 Sep 26, In Afghanistan an
airstrike by international forces in Wardak province, bordering Kabul,
killed three Afghan civilians. 7 Taliban militants were killed in a
gunbattle with police in Kunduz province. 3 Afghan civilians died when
their vehicle hit a roadside bomb in western Farah province. Two US
service members died in the south, one from a roadside bomb explosion
and the other from an insurgent attack. 3 French soldiers were killed
in a violent storm in northeastern Kapisa province when one was struck
by lightning and two others were carried off by a flooding river. A 4th
French soldier was killed when an armored vehicle fell into a ravine.
(AP, 9/27/09)
2009 Sep 27, In Afghanistan a
suicide car bomb explosion targeting Afghanistan's energy minister
killed four civilians in Herat province. In southern Afghanistan a
roadside explosion killed a British soldier on a vehicle patrol in
Helmand province. Taliban militants ambushed a truck convoy in eastern
Kunar province, killing six drivers and burning their vehicles. A
private van hit a roadside bomb in northern Faryab province. Six of the
people inside were killed and another seven injured.
(AP, 9/27/09)(AP, 9/28/09)
2009 Sep 28, In Afghan three
civilians, including a woman, were killed when their car hit a bomb in
the road between Herat and Kandahar. A US team and Afghan soldiers
killed 30 Taliban fighters at a militant stronghold in Farah province.
(AFP,
9/29/09)(www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,556329,00.html)
2009 Sep 29, In southern
Afghanistan at least 30 civilians were killed when a bus hit a roadside
bomb in an attack blamed on the Taliban.
(AFP, 9/29/09)
2009 Sep 30, In southern
Afghanistan 9 civilians including six children were killed in a NATO
air strike targeting a Taliban position. Four armed Taliban were also
killed in the air attack in Khoshal village in Helmand province.
(AFP, 10/1/09)
2009 Sep 30, The UN dismissed
Peter Galbraith, the top US diplomat at the UN mission in Afghanistan,
after he quarreled with Kai Eide, his European boss, over the Afghan
presidential election.
(Reuters, 9/30/09)
2009 Oct 1, In Afghanistan an
American died when Taliban militants fired rocket-propelled grenades at
a patrol in eastern Afghanistan. A British airman was killed when a
bomb exploded alongside his patrol near Camp Bastion in southern
Helmand province. Afghans began cashing in on incentives, which ranged
from $50 to $10,000, for information leading to weapons caches or "the
disruption of enemy activities." By the end of the year “Operation
Jaeza” paid out nearly $200,000.
(AP, 10/2/09)(AP, 1/1/10)
2009 Oct 2, In southern
Afghanistan a suicide bomber struck a US convoy, killing two American
soldiers. Militants attacked a convoy of empty trucks returning to
Pakistan after delivering supplies to a NATO base in Kunar province of
eastern Afghanistan. One driver was killed, three were wounded and 13
trucks were burned. An Afghan policeman conducting a joint operation
with US soldiers opened fire on the Americans, killing two of them
before fleeing in Wardak province. A third US service member died of
wounds from a bomb attack in Wardak the day before.
(AP, 10/2/09)(AP, 10/3/09)
2009 Oct 2, President Barack
Obama, while in Copenhagen, met with General Stanley McChrystal, the
top commander of US and NATO troops in Afghanistan, for the first time
since McChrystal presented a grim assessment of the war effort and
requesting more troops.
(Reuters, 10/2/09)
2009 Oct 3, In Afghanistan a
Taliban attack on a NATO supply convoy killed a civilian contractor
escorting the trucks. Militant fighters streaming from an Afghan
village and a mosque attacked a pair of remote outposts near the
Pakistani border in the Kamdesh district of Nuristan province, killing
8 US soldiers and 3 Afghan soldiers. 13 Afghan police and 2 journalists
were captured by the Taliban, including the local police chief and his
deputy. The bodies of five enemy fighters were found after the battle.
NATO later said enemy forces suffered more than 100 dead during the
well-coordinated defense. A roadside bomb southwest of Kabul killed a
US service member.
(AP, 10/3/09)(AP, 10/4/09)(AFP, 10/6/09)(AP, 2/5/10)
2009 Oct 4, James Jones, US
national security adviser, said on CNN that Al-Qaida has fewer than 100
fighters operating in Afghanistan.
(SFC, 10/7/09, p.A3)(http://tinyurl.com/y8kax72)
2009 Oct 5, Afghan election
workers began recounting ballots from the disputed Aug. 20 presidential
election, and a senior official said he expected to announce late next
week whether President Hamid Karzai had won or would face a runoff with
his main rival. One British soldier died after an explosion in southern
Afghanistan. The Afghan defense ministry said Afghan and American
forces killed 40 militants in 24 hours as they hunted in mountainous
eastern Afghanistan for insurgents behind the Oct 3 attacks.
(AP, 10/5/09)(AP, 10/6/09)
2009 Oct 6, Afghan forces also
killed eight militants in two separate battles in Zabul and Wardak
provinces.
(AP, 10/7/09)
2009 Oct 7, The war in Afghanistan
entered its 9th year. In eastern Afghanistan an insurgent rocket ripped
through a bus on a highway, killing two people aboard and wounding
about 25. A Spanish soldier was killed when a patrol vehicle drove over
a mine near the western town of Heart. American and Afghan forces
battled militants in neighboring Wardak province, killing a number of
insurgents.
(AP, 10/7/09)(AP, 10/8/09)
2009 Oct 8, In Afghanistan a
suicide car bomber detonated his vehicle outside the Indian Embassy in
the bustling center of Kabul, killing 17 people in the second major
attack in the city in less than a month. The Afghan Foreign Ministry
hinted at Pakistani involvement, a charge Pakistan denied.
(AP, 10/8/09)
2009 Oct 9, Afghan and
international forces killed nine Taliban in a firefight in eastern
Wardak province. 2 Polish soldiers were killed when their vehicle hit a
roadside bomb also in Wardak province. Four others were wounded.
(AP, 10/10/09)
2009 Oct 10, In Afghanistan a
roadside bomb killed the district police chief and district governor of
Shah Khil in Paktika province. A US service member died of wounds
suffered in a bombing in southern Afghanistan. In Helmand province the
Afghan army killed four insurgents in Garmser district. In eastern
Khost province, a police car was struck by a roadside bomb but none of
its passengers was injured. However, shrapnel also hit a nearby car,
killing a 12-year-old girl and wounding three other civilians.
(Reuters, 10/10/09)(AP, 10/10/09)(AFP, 10/11/09)
2009 Oct 11, Afghan and US forces
killed 16 insurgents in an overnight operation in eastern Kunar
province.
(AFP, 10/11/09)
2009 Oct 12, Afghanistan's
election watchdog changed its fraud-tallying rules for the second time
in less than a week, switching back to a formula that lowers the chance
of overturning President Hamid Karzai's first-round win. Under the new
rules the commission will not take into account which candidate it
finds benefited most from any fraud. One of the two Afghans on the
UN-backed commission looking into vote fraud in the August presidential
election resigned, citing interference by foreigners.
(Reuters, 10/12/09)
2009 Oct 14, British PM Gordon
Brown ordered hundreds more troops to Afghanistan, pledging to bolster
the international effort on the condition that Britain's allies also do
their fair share to support the war effort. He said Britain's overall
contribution would rise to 9,500 troops, an increase of about 500.
(AP, 10/14/09)
2009 Oct 15, In southern
Afghanistan 4 American troops died in a bombing, as a UN-backed panel
completed most of its investigation into whether the level of fraud in
the August presidential election would require a runoff.
(AP, 10/16/09)
2009 Oct 15, Italy and NATO denied
a newspaper report that the Italian intelligence secretly paid the
Taliban thousands of dollars to maintain peace in an area in
Afghanistan that was under Italian control. The Times of London had
just reported that Italy had paid "tens of thousands of dollars" to
Taliban commanders and warlords in the Surobi district. It accused Rome
of failing to inform its allies about the payments and of misleading
the French, who took over the Surobi district in mid-2008, into
thinking the area was quiet and safe. An ambush of the French in a
mountain pass on Aug. 18, 2008, was the biggest single combat loss for
international forces in Afghanistan in more than three years.
(AP, 10/15/09)
2009 Oct 16, Four Afghans,
including at least two civilians, died during a firefight between
militants and a joint international-Afghan force in Ghazni province.
IED bomb attacks claimed the lives of 3 US soldiers. An air strike
killed 20 militants in Urgun district, in southern Paktika province. 5
militants were killed in an Afghan army commando operation in the
Gereshk district of Helmand province. In Sangin district, also in
Helmand, one Afghan soldier was killed and another injured during a
small-arms attack.
(AP, 10/16/09) (AP, 10/17/09)
2009 Oct 18, In Afghanistan
Taliban fighters attacked a NATO convoy in western Badghis province. 6
Taliban were killed including a local commander in Bala Murghab
district. In southern Uruzgan province clashes with Afghan and
international forces left eight Taliban dead and three wounded. One US
service member was killed in an improvised explosive device (IED)
attack in the south.
(AFP, 10/18/09)
2009 Oct 19, In Afghanistan fraud
investigators threw out hundreds of thousands of votes for President
Hamid Karzai in the country's disputed August election. The findings
set the stage for a runoff between him and his top challenger. Taliban
militants set fire to 15 trucks carrying supplies to a military base in
eastern Ghazni province. Afghan security guards killed two militants
during the fighting. Two Afghan security troopers were killed in a gun
battle overnight with Taliban fighters near Ghazni city.
(AP, 10/19/09)
2009 Oct 20, Afghanistan's
election commission ordered a Nov. 7 runoff in the disputed
presidential poll after a fraud investigation dropped incumbent Hamid
Karzai's votes below 50 percent of the total. Karzai accepted the
finding and agreed to a second round vote. Afghan and international
forces killed about half a dozen militants during a raid on compounds
used by a Taliban commander in eastern Wardak province.
(AP, 10/20/09)
2009 Oct 21, In Afghanistan
ex-Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah, President Hamid Karzai's chief
political rival, agreed to take part in the Nov. 7 runoff election,
setting the stage for a high-stakes showdown in the face of Taliban
threats and approaching winter snows. One US soldier died of wounds
sustained in a bomb attack in the south.
(AP, 10/21/09)(AP, 10/22/09)
2009 Oct 23, In southern
Afghanistan 2 US soldiers were killed by a home-made bomb. A Danish
soldier lost his life in clashes with Taliban-led insurgents in the
same region.
(AFP, 10/24/09)
2009 Oct 24, Taliban fighters
warned Afghans not to take part in the war-wracked country's upcoming
presidential runoff, threatening to launch a fresh wave of violence on
polling day to stop them. US troops killed four civilians when they
fired on a van approaching their convoy on the main highway in southern
Kandahar province. A bomb killed an American service member in southern
Afghanistan.
(AP, 10/24/09)(AP, 10/25/09)
2009 Oct 25, In Afghanistan 2
American service members died, one in a bomb attack in the east, and
another wounds sustained in an insurgent attack in the same region.
(AP, 10/26/09)
2009 Oct 26, In Afghanistan
Nangarhar province Gov. Gul Agha Sherzai survived an assassination
attempt after a gunman fired automatic weapons at his convoy in
Jalalabad. Sherzai's bodyguards killed the gunman, as well as another
attacker wearing a suicide vest and carrying grenades. Security forces
in Kabul fired automatic rifles into the air for a second day to
contain hundreds of stone-throwing university students angered over the
alleged desecration of Islam's holy book. US and Afghan authorities
have denied any such desecration and insist that the Taliban are
spreading the rumor to stir up public anger. A UH-1 and an AH-1 Cobra
helicopter collided in flight before sunrise over the southern province
of Helmand, killing 4 American troops. Another helicopter went down in
the west of the country after leaving the scene of a firefight, killing
10 Americans, including 7 service members and 3 Drug Enforcement
Administration agents.
(AP, 10/26/09)
2009 Oct 27, In Afghanistan 8 US
troops died in "multiple, complex" bomb attacks in the south. One
Afghan civilian was also killed, and several other troops were wounded
and taken to a nearby medical facility.
(AP, 10/27/09)
2009 Oct 27, The NY Times reported
that the brother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai has been getting
regular payments from the Central Intelligence Agency. The paper said
Ahmed Wali Karzai is a suspected player in Afghanistan's opium trade
and has been paid by the CIA over the past eight years for services
that included helping to recruit an Afghan paramilitary force that
operates at the CIA's direction in and around the southern city of
Kandahar. Ahmed Wali Karzai denied reports that he has received regular
payments from the CIA for much of the past eight years.
(Reuters, 10/28/09)(AP, 10/28/09)
2009 Oct 27, Greek authorities
said 3 adults and 5 children drowned in the eastern Aegean Sea when a
small boat carrying 17 illegal immigrants from Afghanistan hit rocks
near the shore and sank.
(AP, 10/27/09)
2009 Oct 28, President Barack
Obama signed a defense bill into law containing a new provision to pay
Taliban fighters who renounce the insurgency.
(Reuters, 10/27/09)
2009 Oct 28, In Afghanistan
Taliban militants wearing suicide vests and police uniforms stormed a
guest house used by UN staff in the heart of Kabul. 11 people were
killed, including 5 UN staff, 3 attackers, 2 security guards and an
Afghan civilian. Liberian election worker Yah Lydia Wonyene (47) was
one of the five UN staffers killed. It was the biggest in a series of
attacks intended to undermine next month's presidential runoff
election. The assault included rocket attacks at the presidential
palace and the city's main luxury hotel. Two NATO members were killed
in bomb blasts in the south, including one American.
(AP, 10/28/09)(AP, 10/29/09)(AP, 11/22/09)
2009 Oct 30, In eastern
Afghanistan a taxi carrying nine civilians hit a bomb buried in the
road, killing everyone inside, including a mother and child.
(AP, 10/30/09)
2009 Oct 30, South Korea announced
plans to send troops to Afghanistan to protect its civilian aid
workers, two years after withdrawing its forces following a fatal
hostage crisis.
(AP, 10/30/09)
2009 Oct 31, Amrullah Saleh,
Afghanistan’s intelligence chief, said authorities have arrested eight
people, including one in Saudi Arabia, in connection with this week's
deadly attack on a guest house used by UN employees. He said those
arrested claimed the assailants came from Pakistan's Swat Valley. In
southern Helmand province a British soldier was killed in an explosion.
An American died of wounds suffered from a bomb attack.
(AP, 10/31/09)(AFP, 11/1/09)(AP, 11/1/09)
2009 Nov 1, Afghanistan Challenger
Abdullah Abdullah pulled out of the nation’s run-off election, plunging
the country into fresh political chaos as international pressure grew
for the race to be scrapped. After Karzai snubbed a series of demands
promoted by his rival as a chance to avoid a repeat of massive
first-round fraud, Abdullah said he saw no point in standing, but
stopped short of calling for a boycott.
(AFP, 11/1/09)
2009 Nov 2, Afghanistan's election
commission proclaimed President Hamid Karzai the victor of the
country's tumultuous ballot. The cancellation of the runoff vote came
one day after former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah announced he
was pulling out of the Nov. 7 vote. The commission had the authority to
make the decision because the Afghan constitution only allows for a
runoff between two candidates.
(AP, 11/2/09)
2009 Nov 3, Afghanistan's Pres.
Karzai welcomed his new term, by reaching out to opponents and
promising to banish the corruption that has undermined his
administration. In northern Kunduz province, Afghan and international
troops have been fighting for two days to take the Taliban-held town of
Ghor Tapa. About 200 insurgents were holed up in the town, including
foreign fighters, mostly Chechens. 11 insurgents and one Afghan soldier
were killed. A "rogue" Afghan policeman gunned down five British
soldiers at a checkpoint in Helmand province, fuelling growing
questions about the Afghan mission.
(AP, 11/3/09)(AFP, 11/4/09)
2009 Nov 4, In western Afghanistan
2 US paratroopers went missing while trying to recover airdropped
supplies from a river. The body of one soldier was reported found on
Nov 11.
(AP, 11/6/09)(AP, 11/7/09)(AP, 11/11/09)
2009 Nov 5, Afghan villagers said
an overnight rocket strike by international forces killed nine
civilians, including at least 3 children. Local authorities said they
had no reports of civilian deaths. Residents of Korkhashien village
drove the bodies to the governor's office in the nearby provincial
capital of Lashkar Gah. In eastern Khost province, several hundred
people demonstrated against an overnight raid that killed a resident of
Baramkhil village. NATO said the man was a militant who was killed when
Afghan and international forces were pursuing an insurgent leader who
had been recruiting foreign fighters to the area. The Afghan Defense
Ministry said 17 militants have been killed in three separate clashes
in the last 24 hours. 3 NATO service members, including 2 Americans,
were killed in two bombings in the south.
(AP, 11/5/09)(SFC, 11/7/09, p.A3)
2009 Nov 5, The UN said that it
will send more than half its international staff either out of
Afghanistan or into more secure compounds following last week's deadly
Taliban attack against UN workers, the most direct targeting of its
employees during decades of work in the country.
(AP, 11/5/09)
2009 Nov 6, In Afghanistan
fighting between members of a joint search operation and insurgents in
western Afghanistan left 4 Afghan soldiers, three policemen and a
civilian interpreter dead. It appeared that an airstrike during the
search for two US paratroopers mistakenly killed 8 Afghans and wounded
more than 20 Afghan and American forces. The deputy governor of the
southern province of Zabul, Ali Khail, said NATO forces raided an
Afghan Red Crescent office in the city of Qalat, killing a security
guard and arresting three local Red Crescent employees. NATO issued a
statement saying coalition forces killed a militant and arrested a few
suspected militants, including someone who was helping insurgents
transport weapons and bomb-making materials to the area.
(AP, 11/7/09)
2009 Nov 7, In western Afghanistan
an American service member was killed in an insurgent attack. A British
soldier was killed by an explosion in the southern province of Helmand.
In the east militants twice attacked a fuel supply convoy as it
traveled along a main supply route between Pakistan and Kabul. Police
said at least two private security guards and a policeman were wounded
in the attacks.
(AP, 11/8/09)
2009 Nov 8, Afghan Pres. Karzai
pledged that there would be no place for corrupt officials in his new
administration, a demand made by Washington and its international
partners as they ponder sending more troops to confront the Taliban and
shore up his government. Some 350 Taliban prisoners began a hunger
strike at a prison in Kandahar.
(AP, 11/8/09)(AP, 11/9/09)
2009 Nov 9, The Afghan Ministry of
Public Health said that 710 of the 779 cases of H1N1 reported since
early July have been among Afghan, US and Italian troops. The 11 people
who have died from the virus were all Afghans, including one soldier.
(AP, 11/9/09)
2009 Nov 9, NATO said that 700
members of the Afghan security forces and 50 international troops were
involved in a clearing operation in northern Afghanistan. NATO said
Afghan and foreign troops have killed more than 130 insurgents,
including 8 Taliban commanders, in six days of fierce fighting during a
major offensive in the Charhar Dara district in Kunduz.
(AP, 11/9/09)
2009 Nov 10, In Afghanistan a US
soldier was killed by a roadside bomb in Helmand province.
(AP, 11/10/09)
2009 Nov 10, Japan announced $5
billion in fresh aid to Afghanistan even as it plans to bring home
refueling ships supporting US-led forces there. The pledge came just
days before President Barack Obama arrives in Tokyo for talks that are
sure to focus on the countries' military alliance.
(AP, 11/10/09)
2009 Nov 11, In Afghanistan a
suicide bomber on a motorcycle detonated his explosives near a NATO
military convoy in the province of Zabul, killing a man and a woman and
wounding another three passers-by.
(AP, 11/11/09)
2009 Nov 12, Afghanistan exported
12 tons of apples to India and touted the shipment as a key step in
exploring much-needed international markets for its agricultural
products.
(AFP, 11/12/09)
2009 Nov 12, A Norwegian freelance
journalist kidnapped a week ago in eastern Afghanistan was released
along with his Afghan interpreter. Paal Refsdal was in Afghanistan
filming a documentary for the Norwegian production company Novemberfilm.
(AP, 11/12/09)
2009 Nov 13, In Afghanistan
NATO-led troops mistakenly killed a female civilian during an operation
against militants in eastern Zabul province.
(AFP, 11/14/09)
2009 Nov 14, In Afghanistan an
armed woman died during a clash with insurgents in Shindand district of
western Herat province. The district governor, said three civilian
members of one family were killed and three children wounded. Four
Taliban militants were also said to have been killed in the clash.
(AFP, 11/14/09)
2009 Nov 15, In eastern
Afghanistan hundreds of French and Afghan troops pushed into a hostile
valley where militants launch quick attacks, then disappear into
hillside villages. Separately in eastern province of Paktika, a joint
NATO and Afghan force killed a group of militants while pursuing a
commander tied to the militant network run by Jalaluddin Haqqani.
A British soldier was shot and killed while on foot patrol in
Helmand province.
(AFP, 11/15/09)
2009 Nov 15, German Federal
Criminal Police Office confirmed a Spiegel Online report that it had
posted notices across Afghanistan warning that Jan Schneider (27), a
Kazakhstan-born ethnic German, may plan attacks on German military or
civilian institutions in Afghanistan. Authorities identified the German
convert to Islam as an al-Qaida associate.
(AP, 11/15/09)
2009 Nov 16, The Afghan government
said it had formed a major crime unit to tackle corruption, following
escalating Western pressure on President Hamid Karzai to fight graft.
Afghan insurgents fired a pair of rockets into a crowded marketplace in
Kapisa province as a French general met local leaders nearby, killing
14 civilians.
(AFP, 11/16/09)(AP, 11/17/09)
2009 Nov 17, Slovakia pledged
about 250 extra soldiers to the NATO-led force in Afghanistan, the
first of what British PM Gordon Brown said would be a series of
international reinforcements.
(AP, 11/18/09)
2009 Nov 18, Hillary Rodham
Clinton, on her first trip to Afghanistan as US secretary of state,
said that President Hamid Karzai's inauguration provides a new chance
for him to strengthen government accountability and take tangible steps
to improve the lives of Afghan citizens.
(AP, 11/18/09)
2009 Nov 18, Germany said it will
extend its mission in Afghanistan for another year, despite the growing
unpopularity of the war at home.
(AP, 11/18/09)
2009 Nov 19, Afghan President
Hamid Karzai pledged in his inauguration speech that Afghanistan will
prosecute corrupt officials and control its own security within five
years. A suicide bomber targeting an Afghan security forces convoy in
Uruzgan province killed 10 civilians and wounded another 13. Two US
service members were killed in an explosion in Zabul province.
(AP, 11/19/09)
2009 Nov 20, In Afghanistan a
suicide bomber on a motorcycle struck Farah city, the capital of the
southwestern province of Farah, killing 16 people near the governor's
home. A roadside bomb targeted a controversial warlord, who escaped
unscathed but killed five of his bodyguards northwest of Kabul. A
similar device, of the type favored by Taliban insurgents, killed three
civilians in the east.
(AFP, 11/20/09)(SFC, 11/21/09, p.A2)
2009 Nov 21, In Afghanistan a
rocket hit outside the luxury Serena Hotel in Kabul, wounding two
people. NATO took command of the training of the Afghan army and police
to consolidate efforts on building an effective security force, a vital
precondition for the withdrawal of foreign troops.
(AP, 11/21/09)(Reuters, 11/21/09)
2009 Nov 22, It was reported that
US and Afghan officials have begun helping a number of anti-Taliban
militias under a plan called the Community Defense Initiative. In
southern Afghanistan a roadside bomb killed five Afghan border security
guards traveling on a heavily used road in Kandahar province near the
border with Pakistan. NATO forces detained several militants with links
to the Taliban. South of Kabul, an Afghan-international security force
detained several militants near the village of Kashimiri Balat while
pursuing an alleged Taliban member involved in the weapons trade. Also
south of Kabul, a joint force detained several suspected militants,
including a Taliban commander linked with several local Taliban
leaders. In Ghazni province a joint force killed a militant, detained
another and recovered pistols and grenades while pursing a Taliban
commander. 3 Afghan soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb in southern
Helmand province. A bomb attack and a firefight killed 3 US troops.
(SSFC, 11/22/09, p.A8)(AP, 11/22/09)(AP, 11/23/09)
2009 Nov 23, The US signed an
agreement giving 38.7 million dollars to 27 Afghan provinces that
eliminated or significantly reduced opium production in the world's
biggest supplier country. Afghanistan’s deputy attorney general said 2
Afghan cabinet ministers are being investigated under suspicion of
embezzlement. A suicide bomber, targeting a police convoy, killed two
civilian men and three children in northern Kunduz province. Five
others were wounded in the attack. A bomb attack killed a US soldier in
eastern Afghanistan.
(AFP, 11/23/09)(Reuters, 11/23/09)(AP, 11/23/09)
2009 Nov 24, Afghanistan’s
attorney general's office said 15 current and former Afghan ministers
are under investigation over allegations of corruption that have
plagued the government of President Hamid Karzai.
(AP, 11/24/09)
2009 Nov 25, Mullah Omar, the
Taliban's reclusive leader, issued a Muslim holiday message calling on
Afghans to break off relations with the government, which he described
as a 'stooge' administration.
(AP, 11/25/09)
2009 Nov 25, British PM Gordon
Brown says 10 NATO nations are ready to offer about 5,000 more troops
for the war in Afghanistan.
(AP, 11/25/09)
2009 Nov 27, Afghan President
Hamid Karzai called on the Taliban and other extremist groups to lay
down their weapons and participate in rebuilding the battered country,
as part of reconciliation efforts he has said will be his main
objective during his second term. Turyalai Wesa, the governor of
Kandahar province survived an assassination attempt when a bomb
targeting his convoy exploded as he headed for prayers. An Afghan Red
Crescent official in Takhar province was shot to death in an apparent
attempt to settle a long-standing dispute. Police detained a father,
his son and a nephew.
(AP, 11/27/09)(AP, 11/28/09)
2009 Nov 27, A NATO official said
alliance nations may increase their fighting force in Afghanistan by up
to 6,000 soldiers in response to President Barack Obama's expected call
for 30,000 additional US and allied service members.
(AP, 11/27/09)
2009 Nov 28, Afghanistan announced
a pay rise of nearly 40 percent for police and military recruits, as
Western countries aim to increase the size and quality of Afghan
security forces so their own troops can go home. Police said a dozen
prisoners escaped jail through a tunnel they dug from their cell to the
outside in western Farah province. 26 militants were killed in a gun
battle with border security guards along the eastern Pakistan frontier.
(Reuters, 11/28/09)(AP, 11/29/09)
2009 Nov 29, In southwest
Afghanistan a rogue police officer opened fire at a checkpoint in
Nimroz province, killing six police officers and injuring two before
being killed. In northern Jowzjan province two gunmen on a motorbike
shot and killed the head of logistics for the provincial intelligence
service. In southern Helmand province, Afghan and international forces
killed two militants responsible for planting roadside bombs.
(AP, 11/30/09)
2009 Dec 1, President Barack Obama
shared his new US strategy for Afghanistan with President Hamid Karzai,
spending an hour discussing troops levels, security, political and
economic elements of his revised war plan. Obama planned to send 30,000
more troops to be deployed over the next six months, escalating the
8-year-old war. In his prime-time speech to the nation, Obama laid out
a rough timeframe, for when the main US military mission will end.
Obama proposed an 18-month timeline for starting to bring troops home.
(AP, 12/1/09)(Reuters, 12/2/09)
2009 Dec 2, NATO's chief Fogh
Rasmussen said European and other US allies will contribute more than
5,000 more troops to the international force in Afghanistan, declaring
that "this is not just America's war."
(AP, 12/2/09)
2009 Dec 2, Poland said it plans
to send 600 more troops to Afghanistan next year.
(AP, 12/2/09)
2009 Dec 4, Afghan troops and US
Marines launched the first offensive since President Barack Obama
announced an American troop surge, striking against Taliban
communications and supply lines in Helmand province. About 1,000
Marines as well as Afghan troops were taking part in the operation,
known as "Cobra's Anger."
(AP, 12/4/09)
2009 Dec 4, The New York Times
reported that the White House has authorized the CIA to expand the use
of unmanned aerial drones in Pakistan to track down and strike
suspected Taliban and Al-Qaeda members.
(AFP, 12/4/09)
2009 Dec 4, NATO said 25 countries
had pledged a total of around 7,000 more troops to support the US-led
war in Afghanistan, following President Barack Obama's commitment of
30,000 extra US troops.
(Reuters, 12/4/09)
2009 Dec 5, Afghan officials said
US Marines and Afghan troops have killed at least seven Taliban
fighters in Operation Cobra’s Anger in Helmand province. In eastern
Afghanistan a US service member was killed by a planted bomb.
(AP, 12/5/09)(AP, 12/6/09)
2009 Dec 6, In eastern Afghanistan
a NATO airstrike killed six militants who were planting bombs along a
road in Laghman province. A group of militants attacked a police convoy
on a main road. Mullah Amiruddin, a key Taliban leader in northern
Faryab province's Ghormach district. 4 police officers were killed in
the gunbattle.
(AP, 12/6/09)(AP, 12/7/09)
2009 Dec 7, Afghan lawmakers,
refusing to be a rubber stamp, demanded a full, not partial, list of
President Hamid Karzai's new Cabinet, the first test of the embattled
leader's commitment to clean up graft and bribery in his government.
Kabul Mayor Abdul Ahad Sahebi 963) was found guilty of awarding a
contract for a city project without competition. An Afghan court
sentenced him to four years in jail and ordered him to repay more than
$16,000 involved in the contract. A British soldier from 1st Battalion
The Royal Anglian Regiment was killed in Nad-e Ali in southern Helmand
Province. He became Britain’s 100th soldier to die in the current war.
(AP, 12/7/09)(AFP, 12/8/09)(AP, 12/9/09)
2009 Dec 8, The Afghan government
said NATO forces killed six civilians during a pre-dawn operation in
eastern Afghanistan. NATO disputed the allegation, saying only
militants died.
(AP, 12/8/09)
2009 Dec 12, In Afghanistan
Wahibuddin Sadat, the deputy mayor of Kabul, was arrested for alleged
misuse of authority, part of a crackdown in the wake of massive
international criticism of corruption in President Hamid Karzai's
government. 3 Taliban fighters were killed when a roadside bomb they
were planting exploded in Helmand province. 4 Afghan private security
guards were killed when their car hit a roadside bomb elsewhere in
Helmand.
(AP, 12/12/09)
2009 Dec 14, In Afghanistan 16
policemen were killed in two separate attacks. 8 police were killed by
militants in Baghlan province. Taliban fighters attacked an outpost in
Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand province, killing another 8
policemen.
(AP, 12/14/09)(SFC, 12/15/09, p.A2)
2009 Dec 15, Afghan President
Hamid Karzai opened a 3-day conference on corruption. He used his
keynote speech to defend the most senior of his officials. He called
for large-scale reform to stamp out the bribery and graft that permeate
ministries and state offices. A suicide car bomber blew up his vehicle
outside a former vice president's home in the heavily secured main
diplomatic and government residential neighborhood of Kabul, killing
eight people and wounding dozens. The wreckage of the bomber's car was
in flames outside the gate to the Heetal Hotel, a small hotel used by
foreigners in the Wazir Akbar Khan district. A roadside bomb killed
four police officers near western Heart city. 2 Afghan army soldiers
were killed in militant attacks in eastern Laghman province and
southern Kandahar province.
(SFC, 12/15/09, p.A5)(AP, 12/15/09)(Reuters,
12/15/09)(AP, 12/16/09)
2009 Dec 17, In Afghanistan a key
conference on corruption ended with delegates suggesting the government
end immunity for corrupt officials and intensify the fight against
graft. A suicide attacker wounded 5 Afghan soldiers and 4 tribal
leaders in the central province of Uruzgan.
(AFP, 12/17/09)(AP, 12/17/09)
2009 Dec 19, Afghan President
Hamid Karzai unveiled his choice of cabinet, reflecting a need to
please all his backers from warlords to Washington and commit to clean
government. Out of the 23 nominations, only one woman was put forward,
to head the Ministry for Women's Affairs.
(AFP, 12/19/09)(AP, 12/20/09)
2009 Dec 20, In Afghanistan 8
insurgents were killed in southern Helmand province, 6 in Ghazni in the
east, 7 in northern Kunduz province, 2 in Kandahar province in the
south and one in Wardak, west of Kabul. The joint Afghan-international
force killed several militants after coming under fire while searching
a compound in Wardak province. In eastern Nangarhar province a civilian
was killed and 2 were injured when their vehicle was hit by a roadside
bomb.
(AP, 12/21/09)
2009 Dec 21, In Afghanistan police
fought a three-hour gunbattle in the center of Gardez, Paktia province,
finally killing two Taliban militants who stormed a multistory market
with dozens of civilians inside.
(AP, 12/21/09)
2009 Dec 22, In Afghanistan 4
militants were killed in two separate operations. In the Qarabagh
district of Ghazni province, 3 insurgents were killed by a joint
Afghan-international force. An Afghan army and police patrol killed a
militant suspected of making bombs in Zabul province. In Kandahar
province, 2 civilians were killed and 3 wounded when a roadside mine
explosion hit their vehicle.
(AP, 12/23/09)
2009 Dec 23, In Afghanistan
Mohammad Yunos Shirnagha, a lawmaker from northern Baghlan province,
was killed as he returned home in an early morning shootout between his
bodyguards and police officers. In Helmand province a bomb killed three
civilians and wounded five people, including a soldier. A Taliban
commander responsible for several roadside bomb attacks was killed in a
clash with Afghan and international forces in Zurmat district of Paktia
province in the southeast. A Canadian soldier was killed in a roadside
bomb attack.
(AP, 12/23/09)(AP, 12/24/09)
2009 Dec 24, In Afghanistan a
suicide bomber with a horse and cart detonated himself in Kandahar,
killing 8 people and wounding 5.
(AFP, 12/24/09)
2009 Dec 25, In southern
Afghanistan an American service member was killed in an attack in
Kandahar. A joint force in Khost province captured several militants,
including a known operative of the Jalaluddin Haqqani militant network,
which is linked to al-Qaida. The Taliban released a 36-minute video in
which Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl denounced the American military effort in
Afghanistan. Bergdahl went missing on June 30, 2009.
(AP, 12/26/09)(SFC, 12/26/09, p.A3)(SFC, 12/28/09,
p.A4)
2009 Dec 26, In eastern
Afghanistan a heavily armed Taliban commander was killed during an
pre-dawn shootout at a mosque in Wardak province. An ISAF service
member from the United States died following an IED strike in southern
Afghanistan. Two members of the Afghan National Police were killed when
militants attacked a checkpoint in western Afghanistan. 3 other
policemen were missing following the attack in the Qadis district of
Badghis province.
(AP, 12/26/09)(AFP, 12/27/09)(AP, 12/28/09)
2009 Dec 27, In Afghanistan 10
civilians, including 8 students, were killed in fighting involving
international forces in eastern Kunar province. Pres. Karzai condemned
the deaths and called for an investigation. Afghan and international
security forces captured militants in Kandahar province in southern
Afghanistan and in Wardak and Khost provinces in the east. On Dec 30
Asadullah Wafa, a senior adviser to Pres. Karzai, said that 8
schoolchildren between the ages of 12 and 14 were among the dead
discovered in a village house in the Narang district of Kunar province.
(AP, 12/28/09)(AP, 12/30/09)
2009 Dec 28, In Afghanistan 5
people died in an explosion inside a house where militants were making
homemade explosives near Khost city. In the north 6 militants were
killed and 8 wounded in a clash with Afghan forces in Old Baghlan town.
Two Afghan National Army soldiers and a member of the Afghan National
Police also were killed in the fighting.
(AP, 12/29/09)
2009 Dec 29, In Afghanistan an
American soldier was killed and two Italian soldiers were injured when
an Afghan soldier opened fire on a base in the province's Bala Murghab
district.
(AP, 12/29/09)
2009 Dec 30, In Afghanistan
bombings killed 14 people, including 8 Americans and an Afghan in a
suicide attack at a CIA base at the edge of Khost city, and 4 Canadian
soldiers and a journalist by a roadside bomb in the southern Kandahar
province. Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi (32), a physician from
Jordan, was an Al-Qaida triple agent. 7 CIA employees and a Jordanian
intelligence officer were among the victims. An airstrike by
international forces in Helmand province killed 7 civilians, 2 Taliban
and wounded another civilian. The attack took place after an
international patrol came under fire from insurgents and called for air
support. Suspected Taliban militants kidnapped 2 French journalists
working for France's public television and 3 Afghan companions in
Kapisa province.
(AP, 12/31/09)(AFP, 12/31/09)(AP, 1/1/10)(AP, 1/5/10)
2009 Dec 31, Afghan police said
militants beheaded 6 Afghans for cooperating with government
authorities. The men were killed near the provincial capital of Tarin
Kot. A seventh victim was being treated for serious neck wounds. A US
service member died in eastern Afghanistan of injuries not related to
battle. A British soldier was killed in an explosion in Helmand
province.
(AP, 12/31/09)(AP, 1/1/10)
2009 Seth G. Jones authored “In
the Graveyard of Empires: America’s War in Afghanistan.”
(SSFC, 8/2/09, Books p.F2)
2009 Sam Kiley, British
journalist, authored “Desperate Glory: At War in Helmand with Britain’s
16 Air Assault Brigade.”
(Econ, 10/3/09, p.106)
2009 Colonel Stuart Tootal,
British commander, authored “Danger Close: Commanding 3 Para in
Afghanistan.”
(Econ, 10/3/09, p.106)
2010 Jan 1, In Afghanistan 5
civilians were killed when their vehicle hit a bomb on a main road in
Bala Murghab district in the northern province of Badghis. At least 4
security guards for a road construction crew were killed when their
vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb in the northern part of Khost
province.
(AP, 1/1/10)
2010 Jan 2, Afghanistan's
parliament dealt a stinging rebuke to President Hamid Karzai by
rejecting 17 out of 24 of his nominees for a new cabinet, including a
regionally powerful warlord and the country's only female minister.
(AP, 1/2/10)
2010 Jan 3, Afghan President Hamid
Karzai ordered parliament to cancel its winter recess so lawmakers can
consider his new cabinet nominees. In southern Afghanistan 4 US troops
and a British soldier were killed in two separate roadside bomb attacks.
(AFP, 1/4/10)
2010 Jan 6, In Afghanistan an
explosion tore through a group of children gathered around foreign
soldiers visiting a US-funded road project, killing 4 kids and a
policeman and wounding scores, including at least 3 American troops in
eastern Nangarhar province. The blast occurred when a passing police
vehicle hit a mine. In a separate attack in the province, 4 Afghan
policeman were killed when a remote-controlled bomb blew up their
vehicle in the Khagyani district. At least 15 people were injured in an
explosion at a market in eastern Khost city. Soldiers found more than
5,300 pounds (2,400 kg) of processed opium, more than 1,000 pounds (450
kilograms) of wet opium paste, about 50 pounds (20 kilograms) of heroin
and multiple firearms with ammunition in the Maywand district of
Kandahar province.
(AP, 1/6/10)(AP, 1/8/10)
2010 Jan 7, In Afghanistan a
suicide bomber killed 8 civilians and a senior security commander in
Gardez, the capital of eastern Paktia province, hours after a
provincial governor survived a blast in nearby Khost province. A
roadside bombs in Uruzgan province killed 8 Afghan soldiers. Another
roadside bomb in the east killed a US service member.
(AFP, 1/7/10)(AP, 1/8/10)(SFC, 1/8/10, p.A4)
2010 Jan 8, In Afghanistan two
local intelligence guards were killed at a dog fight in the provincial
capital of Pul-e Alam in Logar province. A suspected suicide bomber had
entered the dog fight and opened fire. Other intelligence officers
killed the gunman, who never detonated his alleged cache.
(AP, 1/8/10)
2010 Jan 9, Afghan President Hamid
Karzai presented a second slate of nominees to fill his Cabinet after
parliament rejected 70 percent of his first picks. Afghan and NATO
officials signed an agreement for NATO to hand over control of the
prison at Bagram airbase near Kabul to Afghan authorities. A blast hit
a convoy carrying a provincial council member from Wardak province,
killing a bodyguard and wounding five others. Another explosion killed
one policeman and wounded two in Kandahar. In southern Helmand province
an explosion outside Nawa village killed a US Marine and Sunday Mirror
journalist Rupert Hamer (39), a veteran war correspondent. Hamer became
the first British journalist killed in the conflict. Photographer
Philip Coburn (43) was seriously wounded. Mahmoud Mahdi Zeidan, a
Jordanian militant who served as a bodyguard for al-Qaida's No. 3
leader, was killed in a US drone attack near the Afghan-Pakistan border.
(AP, 1/9/10)(AFP, 1/9/10)(AP, 1/10/10)
2010 Jan 10, In Afghanistan a
roadside bomb killed three charity workers and wounded two others in
Uruzgan province. Bombs killed an American service member and two
Afghan road construction workers in separate attacks in Helmand
province.
(AP, 1/10/10)(AP, 1/11/10)
2010 Jan 11, In Afghanistan 6 NATO
service members, including 3 Americans, were killed, making it the
deadliest day for the international force in more than two months. The
Americans died in a firefight with militants during an "operational
patrol" in southern Afghanistan. A French officer was killed during a
joint patrol with Afghan troops in Alasay, some 50 miles (80 km)
northeast of Kabul. A French service member was killed in the clash. A
6th NATO service member was killed by a roadside bomb in the south. A
new poll was released that said nearly 7 in 10 Afghans support the
presence of US forces in their country, and 61% favor the military
buildup of 37,000 US and NATO reinforcements now deploying. A missile
fired from an unmanned aircraft killed three insurgents farther south
in the Nad Ali district of Helmand. A member of the Afghan National
Police was killed and two others were wounded in a suicide at a police
station in Uruzgan province. 13 insurgents were killed in the early
hours when the Marines called in a Hellfire missile strike from an
unmanned Predator drone into Bar Now Zad.
(AP, 1/11/10)(AP, 1/12/10)(Reuters, 1/12/10)
2010 Jan 12, In Afghanistan
protesters claiming that international troops destroyed copies of the
Quran clashed with Afghan and foreign security forces, leaving six
people dead in Helmand province's Garmsir district. Coalition troops
saw a group of insurgents near a safe house preparing ammunition as
well as insurgent mortar teams moving equipment and launched one
missile in the Naw Zad area of Helmand province, killing 13 militants.
A French army captain died of wounds suffered a day before during an
insurgent ambush in the Alasay valley east of Kabul.
(AP, 1/12/10)
2010 Jan 13, In Afghanistan 2 US
soldiers, a French trooper and 5 Afghans were killed in bomb blasts.
The United Nations reported that 2,412 Afghan civilians killed in 2009,
the highest toll since the US-led invasion in late 2001. Four would-be
suicide bombers were killed in a premature explosion near the city of
Kandahar.
(AFP, 1/13/10)(AP, 1/14/10)
2010 Jan 14, In Afghanistan a
suicide bomber apparently planning to attack a meeting of NATO and
tribal officials blew himself up in a busy market district in Dihrawud,
Uruzgan province, killing at least 20 people, making it the deadliest
attack against civilians in more than three months. Another suicide
bomber targeted a police patrol in the southern town of Musa Qala,
killing an Afghan national police officer and wounding four civilians.
(AP, 1/14/10)
2010 Jan 15, In southern
Afghanistan a roadside bomb struck a family traveling home after
visiting a shrine, killing five people, including four children. Kabul
police investigated a rocket attack in the Shar-e-Naw district, home to
embassies, businesses and residences in Kabul.
(AP, 1/15/10)
2010 Jan 16, Afghanistan's
parliament rejected more than half of President Hamid Karzai's second
list of Cabinet nominees, including two of three women, dealing him a
fresh political blow as his government struggles to face the growing
Taliban threat. The Taliban kidnapped two Chinese engineers and four
Afghans accompanying them in the north of the country.
(AP, 1/16/10)(AFP, 1/17/10)
2010 Jan 16, Pakistan, Afghanistan
and Iran said they had agreed to work together more closely to combat
extremism, illegal weapons trading and drug trafficking.
(AP, 1/16/10)
2010 Jan 18, Afghan Taliban
militants wearing explosives vests launched a brazen assault on the
heart of Kabul, as suicide bombings and gunbattles near the
presidential palace and other government buildings paralyzed the
capital for hours. The 12 people killed included 7 attackers, 2 of whom
detonated suicide bombs.
(AP, 1/18/10)(SFC, 1/19/10, p.A2)
2010 Jan 19, A UN report said
corruption in Afghanistan is so entrenched that Afghans had to pay
bribes worth nearly a quarter of the country's GDP last year. 13
Uighers and two Turks were killed by a missile fired by a US unmanned
aircraft near the Pakistan border.
(AP, 1/19/10)(AP, 1/23/10)
2010 Jan 20, The Afghan government
and its international partners agreed to significantly increase the
country's security forces and outlined plans to lure Taliban militants
from the fight and combat corruption in a bid to turn the tide of the
war. A NATO raid in the Qara Bagh district targeted a Taliban commander
and killed 4 suspected insurgents, including a 15-year-old boy shot
while allegedly reaching for a soldier's gun. Villagers insisted the
dead were civilians.
(AP, 1/20/10)(AP, 1/22/10)
2010 Jan 22, Afghanistan banned
the use of ammonium nitrate fertilizer, which was also used to make
bombs, giving farmers and other holders a month to turn in their
supplies. 4 Afghan soldiers were killed and one wounded when the convoy
of the governor of Wardak province near Kabul was struck by a bomb. 7
Afghan civilians were killed and one wounded in the north when they
tried to dig out a bomb left over from the Soviet invasion.
(AP, 1/22/10)(AFP, 1/22/10)
2010 Jan 23, Afghanistan’s Pres.
Karzai unveiled an ambitious Western-funded plan to offer money and
jobs to tempt Taliban fighters to lay down their arms. Militants in the
south killed two US soldiers and kidnapped a police chief in a series
of attacks. Insurgents killed 3 Afghan women in the eastern province of
Paktika. 12 militants were killed in Helmand.
(AFP, 1/23/10)
2010 Jan 24, An Afghan official
said authorities have arrested the ringleader of a group that staged a
brazen attack in Kabul and now believe the assault was coordinated by
al-Qaida. 3 US service members were killed in two bombings in the
south. An explosion in the southern of Helmand killed a British
soldier. A rocket attack struck the Kandahar Air Field, injuring four
Bulgarians and at least two Romanians.
(AP, 1/24/10)(AP, 1/25/10)
2010 Jan 25, In Afghanistan a
Norwegian soldier died when his vehicle hit a roadside bomb in Faryab
province in the north.
(AP, 1/25/10)
2010 Jan 26, In Afghanistan gunmen
killed 4 policemen overnight in Helmand province. Hours later a suicide
car bomber targeted a US base in Kabul, wounding six Afghans and 8
Americans. In eastern Kunar province a NATO airstrike killed several
suspected insurgents who were maneuvering into fighting position in an
area previously used to stage attacks on int’l forces.
(AP, 1/26/10)(SFC, 1/27/10, p.A2)
2010 Jan 27, In northern
Afghanistan a joint NATO-Afghan air and ground assault killed 11
suspected Taliban militants, including two senior commanders. Leaders
of the Shinwari, one of the largest Pushtun tribes, agreed to support
the Afghan government and battle insurgents. American commanders in
exchange agreed to channel $1 million in development projects directly
to the tribal leaders, bypassing the Afghan government.
(AP, 1/27/10)(SFC, 1/28/10, p.A4)
2010 Jan 27, In Britain world
powers gathered in London for talks on how to tackle Al-Qaeda militants
operating out of Yemen. The conference was called to help world powers
chart a roadmap out of Afghanistan amid rising US and NATO casualties
and falling public support.
(AFP, 1/27/10)(AP, 1/28/10)
2010 Jan 27, NATO's top officer
said that Russia had agreed to boost cooperation with the alliance in
Afghanistan, including opening more transit routes for supplies to
international troops and helping service Soviet-built helicopters used
by the security forces. NATO said it had finalized an agreement with
Kazakhstan to open the last leg on an overland route to Afghanistan
from Europe via Russia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, offering an
alternative to the one through Pakistan.
(AP, 1/27/10)(AP, 1/28/10)
2010 Jan 28, The Afghan government
invited the Taliban to a peace council of elders, the strongest signal
yet that Kabul and its Western allies are looking for a way out of the
eight-year war in Afghanistan. US soldiers shot and killed an Afghan
cleric as he drove with his young son near an American base on the
eastern edge of Kabul, underscoring the dangers facing civilians
despite NATO efforts to minimize casualties.
(Reuters, 1/28/10)(AFP, 1/28/10)(AP, 1/28/10)
2010 Jan 28, In Britain world
powers agreed on a timetable for the handover of security duties in
Afghan provinces starting in late 2010. The 70 nations said Pres.
Karzai had promised to crack down on corruption and said a summit in
Kabul later this year would offer specific plans to bolster his
faltering government. The Afghan Taliban dismissed the London
conference as a propaganda ploy and said the London summit will fail to
produce results.
(AP, 1/28/10)(AFP, 1/28/10)
2010 Jan 29, Afghan troops backed
by NATO attack helicopters battled Taliban fighters wearing suicide
vests who launched an assault in the heart of a Lashkar Gah in southern
Helmand province. 6 militants were killed in the assault. In Ghazni
province 2 Afghans were killed after failing to stop their vehicle when
ordered. An Afghan interpreter working for the US military shot dead
two American soldiers in Wardak province. Iranian guards opened fire
and killed 5 laborers as they crossed into Iran from the southwestern
province of Nimroz.
(AP, 1/29/10)(AFP, 1/30/10)(SFC, 1/30/10, p.A3)(AP,
2/2/10)
2010 Jan 30, A joint US-Afghan
force clashed with Afghan troops manning a snow-covered outpost and
called in an airstrike, killing four Afghan soldiers. Both sides called
the clash a case of mistaken identity.
(AP, 1/30/10)
2010 Jan 31, Afghanistan's Pres.
Karzai appealed to Taliban fighters to lay down their weapons and
accept Afghan laws as the government and its international allies push
a program to entice militants away from the insurgency. Karzai also
said that Afghanistan, one of the world's poorest countries, is
sitting on mineral and petroleum reserves worth an estimated one
trillion dollars.
(AP, 1/31/10)(AFP, 1/31/10)
2010 Feb 2, In Afghanistan gunmen
on a motorcycle killed two associates of Pres. Karzai’s brother.
(AP, 2/2/10)
2010 Feb 2, Saudi Arabia said it
will not get involved in peacemaking in Afghanistan unless the Taliban
stops providing shelter and severs all ties with Osama bin Laden and
Al-Qaeda. Afghan Pres. Karzai was in Saudi Arabia hoping for an active
Saudi role to persuade Taliban militants to switch sides.
(SFC, 2/3/10, p.A4)
2010 Feb 3, Afghan and NATO forces
killed 32 suspected militants in southern Helmand province, the focus
an imminent anti-Taliban offensive. Three Afghan soldiers were killed
and four others wounded.
(AP, 2/4/10)
2010 Feb 4, Russia hailed a new
agreement with the United States intended to boost joint anti-drug
efforts, but urged the US and NATO to do more to stem a flow of drugs
from Afghanistan that has sickened millions of Russians.
(AP, 2/4/10)
2010 Feb 5, In Afghanistan a bomb
planted on a motorcycle ripped through a crowd gathered to watch a dog
fight in southern Helmand province, killing three people and wounding
more than 30. Afghan border police mistook a group of villagers
gathering wood near the Pakistan border as insurgents and opened fire,
killing seven civilians. US forces detained Atahullah Wahaab, deputy
police chief in Kapisa province, for alleged corruption and links to
insurgents.
(AFP, 2/5/10)(AP, 2/6/10)(AFP, 2/7/10)
2010 Feb 7, In Afghanistan 2 two
British soldiers were killed by an explosion in Sangin in Helmand
Province, taking the death toll in Afghanistan to 255 since 2001. This
raised Britain's death toll to that of the Falklands war.
(AFP, 2/8/10)
2010 Feb 9, In Afghanistan US Army
soldiers launched a preliminary operation in support of a planned
US-Afghan attack on Marjah, the largest Taliban-controlled town in the
south. Two NATO service members were killed in separate attacks,
including an American who died in a bombing in the south. A French
soldier was killed during a gunfight after insurgents attacked an
Afghan army convoy being escorted by French troops in the eastern
Kapisa province.
(AP, 2/9/10)
2010 Feb 9, In Afghanistan massive
avalanches roared down a northern mountain pass. The death toll soon
reached 171 and it was unclear how many more bodies might be buried in
the snow. Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak said 3,000 people had
been trapped in vehicles along the mountain pass at 3,400 meters
(11,000) feet.
(AP, 2/9/10)(Reuters, 2/10/10)(AP, 2/11/10)
2010 Feb 11, A Taliban suicide
bomber wearing a border police uniform entered a US military base near
the Pakistani border and blew himself up injuring five Americans. A
joint Afghan-NATO force killed several insurgents during a raid on a
compound where troops discovered the bodies of two men and two bound
and gagged women. Family members accused US soldiers of killing
innocent civilians.
(AP, 2/12/10)
2010 Feb 12, Afghan and US troops
fought back small-scale attacks by Taliban fighters on the northern
outskirts of Marjah, as tribal elders pleaded for NATO to finish its
planned attack on the Taliban stronghold quickly and carefully to
protect civilians. Cars and trucks jammed the main road out Marjah as
hundreds of civilians defied militant orders and fled the area ahead of
the anticipated US-Afghan assault.
(AP, 2/12/10)
2010 Feb 13, Thousands Afghan
soldiers and US Marines stormed the Taliban stronghold of Marjah by air
and ground, meeting only scattered resistance but facing a daunting
thicket of bombs and booby traps that slowed their advance. NATO
reported two troop casualties, an American and a Briton, on the first
day of the offensive, called "Moshtarak," or "Together."
(AP, 2/13/10)(AP, 2/14/10)
2010 Feb 14, Twelve Afghans,
including 6 children, died when two rockets fired at insurgents missed
their target and struck a house during the second day of NATO's most
ambitious effort yet to break the militants' grip on the country's
dangerous south. Thousands of NATO and Afghan troops encountered
pockets of resistance, as they moved deeper into Marjah, a town of
80,000 people that is the linchpin of the militants' logistical and
opium-smuggling network in Helmand province. Afghan officials said at
least 27 insurgents have been killed in the operation. In the south two
British service members died, one from small-arms fire and the other
from a roadside bomb explosion.
(AP, 2/14/10)(AP, 2/15/10)
2010 Feb 15, In Afghanistan sniper
teams attacked US Marines and Afghan troops across the Taliban haven of
Marjah, as several gun battles erupted on the third day of a major
offensive to seize the extremists' southern heartland.
(AP, 2/15/10)
2010 Feb 17, Military commanders
raised the Afghan flag in the bullet-ridden main market of the
Taliban's southern stronghold of Marjah as firefights continued to
break out elsewhere in the town between holed-up militants and US and
Afghan troops. Helmand Gov. Gulab Mangal said about 40 insurgents have
been killed since the offensive began Feb 13. Four NATO service members
have been killed, and one Afghan soldier.
(AP, 2/17/10)
2010 Feb 18, The Afghan Interior
Ministry said a NATO airstrike aimed at insurgents missed its target,
killing 7 policemen in northern Kunduz province. Another Afghan
official said Pakistan has captured two "shadow governors" belonging to
Afghanistan's Taliban movement. The Afghan governor for Kunduz said
Mullah Abdul Salam and Mullah Mir Mohammad, respectively the shadow
governors of the northern Afghan provinces of Kunduz and Baghlan
happened in Pakistan's Baluchistan province and were captured about a
week ago. 9 militants linked to al-Qaida were nabbed overnight near
Karachi. Six coalition troops were killed in the assault on Marjah,
making it the deadliest day since the offensive began. The death toll
so far is 11 NATO troops and one Afghan soldier.
(AP, 2/18/10)(AP, 2/19/10)
2010 Feb 18, In Pakistan a bomb
blast at a mosque in the northwestern Khyber tribal region killed 29
people including some militants. Missiles fired from a US unmanned
drone aircraft killed Mohammad Haqqani, the brother of Afghan Taliban
commander Siraj Haqqani, along with 3 associates. Both Haqqanis are
sons of Jalaluddin Haqqani, a former US ally in the war against the
Soviets in the 1980s.
(AP, 2/18/10)(AP, 2/19/10)(Reuters, 2/19/10)(SFC,
2/19/10, p.A2)
2010 Feb 19, In Afghanistan a
Western service member was killed in small arms fire as coalition
forces continued to drive the Taliban from Marjah.
(SFC, 2/20/10, p.A3)
2010 Feb 20, In Afghanistan 2 NATO
service members were killed, one by rocket or mortar fire in the east
and another in a bombing in the south. The fatalities was not related
to the Marjah area fighting.
(AP, 2/21/10)
2010 Feb 21, Afghan and US Marine
units converged on a dangerous western quarter of the Taliban
stronghold of Marjah, with NATO forces facing "determined resistance"
as their assault on the southern town entered its second week. One
service member involved in the Marjah offensive was killed in a
roadside bombing. A NATO airstrike killed at least 27 Afghan civilians
in central Uruzgan province, in the third coalition strike this month
to kill noncombatants.
(AP, 2/21/10)(AP, 2/22/10)
2010 Feb 22, In Afghanistan a
suicide bomber killed 15 people in Nangarhar province, including a key
tribal leader who played a major role in a failed attempt to capture
al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden at Tora Bora in 2001.
(AP, 2/22/10)
2010 Feb 23, In Afghan Gen.
Stanley McChrystal apologized for the Feb 21 strike in central Uruzgan
province that Afghan officials say killed at least 21 people. The
Afghan Cabinet said 27 civilians were killed including 4 women and a
child. The video was also posted on a NATO Web site. The civilian
deaths occurred as 15,000 NATO, US and Afghan soldiers were in their
10th day of fighting insurgents in Marjah, Helmand province. A Romanian
soldier was killed and another was wounded in a bombing in the south
unrelated to the offensive. A morning explosion in Lashkar Gah, the
capital of Helmand, left eight people dead and at least 16 others
wounded. The death toll of US troops in the Afghan war surpassed the
grim milestone of 1,000.
(AP, 2/23/10)(SFC, 2/23/10, p.A3)
2010 Feb 24, Afghanistan's main
opposition criticized President Hamid Karzai's removal of foreign
observers from a UN-backed electoral watchdog as "autocratic" and urged
international pressure to ensure impartial elections. The decree took
effect on February 13 and Karzai now has the power to choose the ECC's
members after consulting with the chief justice and heads of
parliament's two chambers.
(AP, 2/24/10)
2010 Feb 25, The Afghan government
took official control of the southern Taliban stronghold of Marjah,
installing an administrator and raising the national flag while US-led
troops worked to root out final pockets of militants.
(AP, 2/25/10)
2010 Feb 25, Pakistan’s government
confirmed the arrest of Afghan Taliban leader Maulavi Abdul Kabir. The
paramilitary Frontier Corps killed 25 militants near the northwestern
district of Darra Adam Khel during a joint 2-day operation with police.
(SFC, 2/26/10, p.A4)(AP, 2/27/10)
2010 Feb 26, In Afghanistan
insurgents struck in the heart of the Kabul with suicide attackers and
a car bomb, targeting hotels used by foreigners and killing at least 17
people and wounding dozens. Pres. Karzai said were aimed at Indians
working in Kabul. The dead included 6 Indians, an Italian diplomat, a
French filmmaker and 3 police officers.
(AP, 2/26/10)(SFC, 2/27/10, p.A3)
2010 Feb 26, German lawmakers
voted 429-111 with 46 abstentions to increase the maximum number of
German troops allowed to serve in Afghanistan to 5,350 from 4,500.
(AP, 2/26/10)
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