Timeline NATO
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The 16 member North Atlantic Treaty Organization
headquartered near Brussels. The Supreme Head-quarters of the Allied
Powers Europe was also known as SHAPE.
(SFC, 12/11/96, p.C1)(WSJ, 10/20/97, p.A1)
1893
Apr 11, Dean G. Acheson, U.S. secretary of state
(1949-53), was born. He helped create NATO.
(HN, 4/11/99)
1948 The Western European Union
(WEU) was founded as a defensive arm for postwar Europe. It led to
the formation of NATO. In 1992 its tasks were re-defined to cover
humanitarian and rescue missions, peacekeeping and crisis
management.
(SFC, 2/17/99, p.A8)
1949 Apr 4, The (NATO) North
Atlantic Treaty Organization pact was signed by the US, Great
Britain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Italy,
Portugal, Denmark, Iceland, Norway and Canada. It provided for
mutual defense against aggression and for close military
cooperation.
(www.nato.int/cps/en/natolive/official_texts_17120.htm)(TOH, 1982,
p.1949)
1949 Jul 21, The North Atlantic
Treaty (NATO) was ratified by the US Senate.
(EWH, 1968, p.1207)
1949 Jul 25, NATO was signed by
Pres. Truman.
(EWH, 1968, p.1207)
1949 Aug 24, The North Atlantic
Treaty went into effect.
(AP, 8/24/97)
1949 Sep 17, The North Atlantic
Treaty Council (NATO) met for the 1st time.
(MC, 9/17/01)
1949 Oct 6, Pres. Truman signed
the Mutual Defense Assistance Act that appropriated more than one
billion dollars for military aid primarily to members of the
Atlantic Pact (NATO).
(EWH, 1968, p.1207)
1950 Dec 19, The North Atlantic
Council named General Eisenhower supreme commander of Western
European defense forces of NATO.
(www.nato.int/multi/photos/1950/m501219a.htm)(AP,
12/19/00)
1954 Mar 31, Moscow offered to
join NATO on the condition that the West join the Soviet European
security treaty.
(HN, 3/31/98)
1954 May 7, US, Great Britain
and France rejected Russian membership in NATO.
(MC, 5/7/02)
1954 Oct 22, West Germany
joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The country had no
standing army. [see Oct 23]
(AP, 10/22/97)(SFC, 4/22/98, p.A8)
1954 Oct 23, In Paris, an
agreement was signed providing for West German sovereignty and
permitting West Germany to rearm and enter NATO and the Western
European Union. Britain, England, France and USSR agreed to end
occupation of Germany. [see Oct 22]
(HN, 10/23/98)(MC, 10/23/01)
1955 May 6, West Germany joined
NATO.
(WSJ, 10/8/01, p.A14)(MC, 5/6/02)
1966 France pulled out of
NATO's integrated military command.
(SFC, 12/25/99, p.B4)
1957 Mar 20, Britain accepted a
NATO offer to mediate in Cyprus, but Greece rejected it.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1957 May 4, It was reported
that NATO has warned the Soviet Union that it would meet any attack
with all available meads including nuclear weapons.
(SFC, 5/4/09, p.B2)
1961 Mar 4, Paul-Henri Spaak
resigned as Secretary-General of NATO.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1966 Mar 7, Charles de Gaulle
said he would pull France out of NATO's integrated military command.
French military personnel stepped down from their positions in NATO
on July 1.
(www.charles-de-gaulle.org/article.php3?id_article=181)
1980 Dec 14, After four days of
meetings, members of NATO warned the Soviets to stay out of the
internal affairs of Poland, saying that intervention would
effectively destroy the detente between East and West.
(HN, 12/14/98)
1981 Dec 17, Red Brigade
terrorists kidnapped Brigadier General James Dozier, the
highest-ranking US NATO officer in southern Europe, from his home in
Verona, Italy. Dozier was rescued 42 days later.
(HN, 12/17/98)(AP, 12/17/04)
1982 May 30, Spain
became NATO's 16th member, the first country to enter the Western
alliance since West Germany in 1955.
(AP,
5/30/97)(http://europa.eu.int/abc/history/1982/index_en.htm)
1984 Nov 28, Hans Speidel
(b.1897), German general and NATO-supreme commander (1957-63), died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Speidel)
1984 Britain’s Lord Carrington
(b.1919) began serving as Secretary-General of NATO and continued to
1988.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Carington,_6th_Baron_Carrington)
1986 Apr 14, Italy, which
opposed an American strike against Libya, warned Libya a day before
the strike, which was launched from a NATO base on the Sicilian
island of Lampedusa.
(AP, 10/30/08)
1987 Dec 11, NATO allies urged
the U.S. Senate to ratify the intermediate-range missile treaty
quickly and underscored their support by pledging to let the Soviet
Union inspect missile bases in five European countries.
(AP, 12/11/97)
1987 The NATO sec.-gen’l.
negotiated a Turkish-Greek dispute.
(WSJ, 10/8/01, p.A14)
1989 Jan 15, NATO, the Warsaw
Pact and 12 other European countries adopted a human rights and
security agreement in Vienna, Austria.
(AP, 1/15/99)
1990 Nov 19, Leaders of 16 NATO
members and the remaining six Warsaw Pact nations signed treaties in
Paris making sweeping cuts in conventional arms throughout Europe
and pledging non-aggression toward one another. The Treaty on
Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) was signed by the United
States and 21 other NATO and WTO countries at a CSCE summit in
Paris.
(AP,
11/19/00)(www.fas.org/nuke/control/cfe/chron.htm)
1991 Jun 6, NATO issued a
statement saying it would not accept any “coercion or intimidation”
against the emerging democracies of Eastern Europe.
(AP, 6/6/01)
1991 Nov 9, President Bush
returned from a four-day European trip that included a NATO summit.
(AP, 11/9/01)
1992 Jul 17, A historic accord
for deep cuts in tanks and other non-nuclear arms in Europe went
into effect, nearly two years after it was signed by NATO and the
now-defunct Warsaw Pact.
(AP, 7/17/97)
1993 Apr 13, NATO forces began
combat patrols over Bosnia to enforce a UN ban on flights.
(SFC,10/16/97, p.A12)
1994 Jan 10, On the first day
of a two-day NATO summit in Belgium, leaders signed a document
inviting nations of the former Warsaw Pact to join in a "partnership
for peace."
(AP, 1/10/99)
1994 Jan 11, NATO leaders
concluded a summit in Belgium by warning Bosnian Serbs of their
willingness to order bombing raids in former Yugoslavia to relieve
embattled Muslim enclaves. President Clinton, who attended the
summit, then traveled to the Czech Republic for a short visit.
(AP, 1/11/99)
1994 Jan, US Pres. Clinton got
NATO to reach eastward with the Partnership for Peace program.
(WSJ, 10/20/97, p.A1)
1994 Feb 9, NATO delivered an
ultimatum to Bosnian Serbs to remove heavy guns encircling Sarajevo,
or face air strikes. Hours before the ultimatum was issued, the
Bosnian Serbs agreed to withdraw their artillery and mortars from
around Sarajevo.
(AP, 2/9/99)
1994 Nov 21, NATO retaliated
for repeated Serb attacks on a U.N. safe haven by bombing an
airfield in a Serb-controlled section of Croatia.
(AP, 11/21/02)
1994 Nov 23, NATO warplanes
blasted Serb missile batteries in two air raids while Bosnian Serb
fighters, for the first time, broke into the U.N.-designated safe
haven of Bihac.
(AP, 11/23/99)
1994-1995 Depleted uranium shells were used by
NATO forces against Bosnian Serb positions around Serayevo.
(WSJ, 1/11/00, p.A14)
1995 May 25, NATO warplanes
struck Bosnian Serb headquarters. Serbs answered with swift
defiance, storming UN weapons depots, attacking safe areas and
taking peacekeepers as hostages.
(AP, 5/25/00)
1995 May 26, Serbs bombarded
Serajevo. On Jun 6 NATO launched 2 air raids against an ammunition
dump in Serb-held central Bosnia.
(SFC, 6/7/96, p.A10)(SFC,10/16/97, p.A12)
1995 Jun 6, NATO launched 2 air
raids against an ammunition dump in Serb-held central Bosnia.
The air strikes touched off a crises in which [270] 350 UN
peacekeepers were taken hostage by Bosnian Serbs. Serb forces seized
270 UN peacekeepers, shackled them to potential targets, and ordered
them to plead on camera for the NATO air attacks to stop. Serbia
improved its relations with the West by helping to arrange the
release of the hostages.
(SFC, 6/7/96, p.A10)(SFC,10/16/97, p.A12)
1995 Oct 20, NATO Secretary
General Willy Claes resigned to face corruption charges in his
native Belgium. He later received a three-year suspended jail
sentence.
(AP, 10/20/00)
1995 Nov 21, The Dayton Peace
Accord, was initialed by the leaders of Bosnia, Croatia and Serbia.
US Sec. of State, Warren Christopher and chief mediator Richard
Holbrooke manage to keep the parties talking for over 3 weeks to
reach this agreement to end three and a-half years of ethnic
fighting in Bosnia-Herzegovina. One year deployment of 20,000 US
troops as one-third of a NATO peace keeping force was estimated to
cost about $1.5 bil. The US also planned to contribute $600 mil over
three years to help rebuild Bosnia.
(WSJ, 11/22/95, p.A1,3)(SFC, 10/6/00, p.A19)(AP,
11/21/00)
1995 Dec 20, In
Bosnia-Herzegovina, NATO began its peacekeeping mission, taking over
from the United Nations.
(AP, 12/20/00)
1995 Libya declared jihad
against NATO, but no concrete action was taken.
(WSJ, 10/10/01, p.A10)
1996 Jun 4, NATO foreign
ministers approved plans to shift focus toward intervention in small
regional conflicts and away from containing Russia, its primary
focus for 47 years.
(WSJ, 6/4/96, p.A1)
1996 Sep 25, NATO generals were
ordered to prepare plans for an extension of allied military force
in Bosnia beyond the Dec. 20 deadline.
(SFC, 9/26/96, p.A12)
1996 Dec 10, NATO took formal
steps to expand and reassured Russia that it had no plans to move
nuclear weapons into the territory of new members.
(SFC, 12/11/96, p.C1)
1997 Jun 11, Pres. Clinton
announced that the US would only support Poland, Hungary and the
Czech Republic for NATO membership for now.
(SFC, 6/12/97, p.A14)
1997 Jun 13, The leaders of
France, Germany and Canada insisted that Romania and Slovenia be
allowed to join NATO next month.
(SFC, 6/14/97, p.A12)
1997 Jul 10, In Operation Tango
NATO forces captured Milan Kovacevic, a physician who was the 2nd
ranking officer in the Prijedor City Hall during the war. An attempt
to capture Simo Drljaca, a leader of local “ethnic cleansing” led to
a shootout and his death.
(SFC, 7/11/97, p.A17)
1998 Apr 30, The US Senate
approved the expansion of NATO to include Poland, Hungary and the
Czech Republic.
(SFC, 5/1/98, p.A3)
1998 May 27, Nato Ministers
agreed to help Albania and Macedonia strengthen their border
patrols.
(SFC, 5/29/98, p.A16)
1998 Aug 6, NATO set exercises
in Albania for Aug 17-22 to show force against the Serb offensive in
Kosovo.
(WSJ, 8/7/98, p.A1)
1998 Aug 17, NATO forces began
a 5-day exercise in Albania as a threat to Serbia.
(WSJ, 8/18/98, p.A1)
1998 Dec 23, In Belgium the top
court convicted former NATO chief Willy Claes, French aerospace
tycoon Serge Dessault and 2 ex-aides of corruption. All got
suspended sentences.
(WSJ, 12/24/98, p.A1)
1999 Jan 20, NATO moved forces
within striking distance of Yugoslavia and warned Belgrade to stop
its repression in Kosovo.
(WSJ, 1/21/99, p.A15)
1999 Mar 12, Poland, Hungary
and the Czech Republic formally joined NATO in a ceremony at
Independence, Mo., where Pres. Truman announced in 1949 the
formation of the Atlantic alliance for defense against the Soviet
bloc.
(SFC, 3/11/99, p.C14)
1999 Mar 23, NATO
Secretary-General Javier Solana gave the formal go-ahead for
airstrikes against Serbian targets following the failure of Kosovo
peace talks.
(AP, 3/23/00)
1999 Mar 24, In Serbia NATO
forces sent a broad wave of air attacks against Yugoslav forces in
an attempt to halt the Serbian offensive in Kosovo. Cruise missiles
and planes targeted military sites near Belgrade and some 40 sites
in total. Initial reports said 10 people were killed and 38 wounded
in the bombing. The airstrikes marked the first time in its 50-year
existence that NATO had ever attacked a sovereign country. NATO’s
78-day bombing ended on June 10.
(SFC, 3/25/99, p.A1)(WSJ, 3/25/99, p.A1)(SFC,
3/26/99, p.A6)(AP, 3/24/00)(Econ, 5/23/09, p.51)
1999 Mar 25, NATO forces struck
Serbian air defenses and other sites for a second night as Serb
forces stepped up their efforts to crush resistance in Kosovo. The
village of Goden was burned by Serb forces and 174 residents were
forced to leave. 20 men were kept back and presumed killed.
(SFC, 3/26/99, p.A1)(SFEC, 4/4/99, p.A1,8)(AP,
3/25/00)
1999 Mar 26, NATO forces
attacked Yugoslavia for a 3rd day and 2 MiG-29 fighters were shot
down as Serbian troops continued to sweep ethnic Albanian villages
in Kosovo.
(SFC, 3/27/99, p.A1)
1999 Mar 27, NATO expanded its
air assault on Yugoslavia in the fourth straight day of attacks. A
$42 million US F-117A stealth fighter was downed over Yugoslavia
during continued NATO airstrikes. The downed American pilot was
rescued by US forces. The wreckage was later believed to have been
sold.
(SFEC, 3/28/99, p.A1,16)(SFC, 9/17/99, p.A10)(AP,
3/27/00)
1999 Mar 28, UN officials
reported that some 500,000 ethnic Albanians had fled Kosovo. NATO
officials raised the possibility of using ground troops in
Yugoslavia as low-level strikes against tanks began. It was feared
that anger over the war would spill over to Bosnia.
(SFC, 3/29/99, p.A1,10)
1999 Mar 29, Albania and
Macedonia appealed for help as thousands of refugees fled Kosovo on
the 6th day of bombing. NATO said Serbs were targeting ethnic
Albanian leadership for executions and the US accused Milosevic of
"crimes against humanity."
(WSJ, 3/30/99, p.A1)
1999 Mar 30, In Serbia Pres.
Milosevic said in a meeting with Premier Primakov of Russia that he
would resume peace talks if allied bombing stops. The US called the
offer "woefully inadequate." NATO moved to step up the air war and
Serbian forces continued unopposed in Kosovo as refugees streamed
out.
(WSJ, 3/31/99, p.A1)
1999 Apr 4, NATO dropped more
bombs on downtown Belgrade and said that it would send some 8,000
troops into Albania to help Kosovo refugees. The Freedom Bridge over
the Danube at Novi Sad was destroyed. The US announced that it would
send 24 Apache helicopter gunships to attack Serbian troops and
tanks in Kosovo. Some 30,000 refugees crossed into Albania in the
last 24-hour period. Shipping on the Danube was not fully restored
until 2002.
(SFEC, 4/4/99, p.A1,12)(SFC, 4/5/99,
p.A1,10)(SSFC, 2/3/02, Par p.7)
1999 Apr 13, NATO bombs were
dropped on Pristina. Yugoslav infantry troops crossed into
northeastern Albania for a short time and clashed with Albanian
border police. Refugees in Albania reported gang-rapes and murders
by Serbian soldiers.
(SFC, 4/14/99, p.A1,13)
1999 Apr 23, On the first day
of a 50th anniversary NATO summit in Washington, Western leaders
pledged to intensify military strikes against Yugoslavia and vowed
"no compromise" on demands that Slobodan Milosevic withdraw his
troops from Kosovo.
(SFC, 4/24/99, p.A1)(AP, 4/23/00)
1999 Apr 23, NATO forces bombed
Nis and a broad swath of Yugoslavia on the 31st day of attacks. 16
civilians were killed and 16 others injured during the attack on the
headquarters and studios of Radio Television Serbia in central
Belgrade. In 2009 Amnesty International demanded that NATO be held
accountable for civilian casualties in the bombing.
(SFC, 4/24/99, p.A11)(AP, 4/23/09)
1999 Apr 24, NATO approved a
new strategic concept in Washington that allowed the use of military
force to prevent the abuse of human rights anywhere in Europe.
(SFEC, 4/25/99, p.A1)
1999 May 6, Russia joined NATO
to back a framework for ending the conflict in Kosovo that included
an international security presence to enforce peace.
(SFC, 5/7/99, p.A1)
1999 May 7, NATO bombs hit a
residential area in Nis and at least 15 people were killed and 60
wounded. NATO bombs hit the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade and 3 people
were killed and [20] 21 injured. An outdated map was blamed for the
embassy bombing. The British Observor later reported that NATO
bombed the Embassy because it was being used to transmit Yugoslav
military communications. British, NATO and US officials denied the
story. In 2000 the US CIA fired one officer and reprimanded 6 others
for the bombing. President Clinton called the attack a "tragic
mistake."
(SFC, 5/8/99, p.A1,10)(SFC, 5/10/99, p.A1)(WSJ,
10/18/99, p.A1)(SFEC, 4/9/00, p.A1,15)(AP, 5/7/00)
1999 May 8, In China protestors
attacked US diplomatic mission in demonstrations against the NATO
bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade. Many of the
demonstrations were organized by the government-controlled Beijing
Students Assoc. NATO expressed regret for a mistaken attack on the
Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, but pledged to pursue the bombing
campaign.
(SFEC, 5/9/99, p.A1)(SFC, 5/10/99, p.A8)(AP,
5/8/00)
1999 May 13, NATO bombs struck
a group of some 500 refugees in Korisa (Kosovo) and at least 79
people were killed. Some 700 hundreds refugees had been locked up by
the Serbs inside the grounds of a warehouse in Korisa.
(SFC, 5/15/99, p.A1)(SFC, 5/31/99, p.A8)
1999 May 25, NATO approved
plans for 50,000 ground soldiers to move into Kosovo.
(SFC, 5/26/99, p.A10)
1999 May 26, NATO military
commanders won political approval to strike at the civilian
telephone and computer networks of Yugoslavia. Warplanes carried out
a record 650 sorties with 284 bombing attacks.
(SFC, 5/27/99, p.C18)
1999 May 26, Serbian military
fired over 30 missiles at NATO warplanes which had begun flying at
lower altitudes to strike tanks, artillery and ground troops.
(WSJ, 5/28/99, p.A15)
1999 Jun 4, NATO commanders met
with Yugoslav army officers in Macedonia to arrange for the
withdrawal of some 40,000 Serbian troops from Kosovo.
(SFC, 6/5/99, p.A1)
1999 Jun 21, NATO finalized an
agreement with the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) to demilitarize.
(SFC, 6/21/99, p.A1)
1999 Jul 16, A NATO memorandum
warned soldiers and workers of a “possible toxic threat” from the
use depleted uranium ordnance used by the US during the air campaign
across Yugoslavia.
(SFC, 1/8/01, p.A9)
1999 Jul 23, Russia ended a
4-month boycott on contacts with NATO.
(SFC, 7/24/99, p.C1)
1999 Jul 28, Defense Sec.
William Cohen announced that NATO commander Army Gen'l. Wesley Clark
would be replaced by Air Force Gen'l. Joseph Ralston.
(SFC, 7/29/99, p.A3)
1999 Aug 4, George Robertson,
British Defense Minister, was chosen as the new secretary general of
NATO.
(SFC, 8/5/99, p.A10)
2000 Feb 16, Russia and NATO
announced a resumption of contacts that were broken in Mar 1999 due
to NATO bombing in Yugoslavia.
(SFC, 2/17/00, p.D3)
2000 Mar 21, NATO acknowledged
that depleted uranium rounds were used during the 1999 Kosovo war
whenever American A-10 ground attack aircraft engaged armored
vehicles.
(SFC, 3/22/00, p.A14)
2001 Jan 6, A Nato meeting was
scheduled in Italy on the use of ammunition with depleted uranium
following the deaths from cancer of 6 Italian soldiers following
duty in the Balkans. 5 Balkan veterans from Belgium along with
peacekeepers from Spain, Portugal and the Czech Republic had died of
cancer.
(WSJ, 1/04/01, p.A1)(SFC, 1/6/01, p.A7)
2001 Mar 12, Yugoslavia and
Nato agreed to use their forces to squeeze Albanian rebels from
separate flanks as the rebels signed a cease-fire.
(SFC, 3/13/01, p.A15)
2001 Mar 19, Nato asked for
additional troops in Kosovo to help stop Albanian guerrillas from
crossing into Macedonia.
(SFC, 3/20/01, p.A10)
2001 Apr 19, In Kosovo Nato
troops broke up Serb roadblocks set up to protest UN tax collections
on goods from elsewhere in Yugoslavia.
(WSJ, 4/20/01, p.A1)
2001 Jun 13, Pres. Bush held
his 1st meeting with Nato leaders and pitched his missile shield
plan with mixed response.
(SFC, 6/14/01, p.A1)
2001 Sep 25, Nato agreed to
keep troops in Macedonia beyond the Sep 26 expiration of its
mission.
(WSJ, 9/26/01, p.A1)
2001 Oct 2, The US gave Nato
“clear and compelling” evidence that Osama bin Laden orchestrated
the Sep 11 terrorist attacks.
(SFC, 10/3/01, p.A4)
2001 Oct 3, Pres. Putin said
Russia is ready to reconsider its opposition to Nato expansion if
the alliance assumes a broader political identity in which Moscow
can be involved.
(SFC, 10/4/01, p.A10)
2001 Oct 24, A NATO spokesman
said peacekeepers in Bosnia had disrupted a Bosnian terrorist
network.
(SFC, 10/25/01, p.A14)
2001 Nov 22, Talks on
Russia-Nato relations began in Moscow. A plan was proposed that
would give Russia equal status with the 19 permanent members.
(SFC, 11/23/01, p.A1)
2001 Dec 7, Russia and Nato
proclaimed a commitment “to forge a new relationship” following a
meeting in Brussels.
(SFC, 12/8/01, p.A5)
2002 Feb 25, NATO offered
Russia a modified membership, with no veto power over political or
military policies.
(SFC, 2/26/02, p.A7)
2002 May 14, Nato agreed with
Russia on an new framework that would include Russia on a handful of
agreed-on issues.
(SFC, 5/15/02, p.A1)
2002 May 28, Russia signed an
agreement with NATO leaders in Rome for participation in NATO
discussions on a fixed variety of subjects, but no veto power.
(SFC, 5/29/02, p.A8)(WSJ, 5/29/02, p.A1)
2002 Jul 9, NATO troops
arrested Radovan Stankovic (33), a former member of an elite Serb
paramilitary unit, for allegedly running a house where women and
girls were raped during Bosnia's 1992-1995 war.
(AP, 7/9/02)(SFC, 7/10/02, p.A8)
2002 Sep 26, NATO planned to
issued invitations in November to Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia,
Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia. Expansion would commit
the current 19 members to defend the borders of the new members.
(SFC, 9/26/02, p.A1)
2002 Oct 3, NATO and European
Union called on Croatia to cooperate with the U.N. War Crimes
Tribunal, urging the government to hand over indicted war crimes
suspect Gen. Janko Bobetko.
(AP, 10/3/02)
2002 Nov 20, On the eve of a
NATO summit in the Czech Republic, President Bush, recalling
Europe's grim history of "excusing aggression," challenged skeptical
allies to stand firm against Saddam Hussein.
(WSJ, 11/20/02, p.A1)(AP, 11/20/03)
2002 Nov 21, The 19 NATO
leaders demanded that Iraq "fully and immediately" comply with a UN
resolution to disarm. It was at the NATO Summit in Prague that
the NATO Response Force initiative was announced together with the
other major military transformation initiatives, the Prague
Capabilities Commitment and the fundamental revision of the NATO
military command structure. The NRF concept was approved by
Ministers of Defense in June 2003 in Brussels.
(AP,
11/21/02)(http://www.nato.int/issues/nrf/index.html)
2002 Nov 21, The Baltic nations
of Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania joined former communist states
Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia as the next wave of NATO
states.
(AP, 11/21/02)
2002 Nov 22, At the NATO summit
in Prague, Russian President Vladimir Putin told President Bush the
United States should not wage war alone against Iraq, and questioned
whether Pakistan and Saudi Arabia were doing enough to fight
terrorism.
(AP, 11/22/03)
2002
(Econ, 3/28/09, p.70)
2003 Jan 21, Nato blocked a US
request to begin preparations for a military backup in the event of
war with Iraq.
(WSJ, 1/23/03, p.A1)
2003 Feb 10, France, Germany
and Belgium blocked NATO efforts to begin planning for possible
Iraqi attacks against Turkey.
(AP, 2/10/03)
2003 Feb 16, The
19-member NATO alliance turned to its Defense Planning Committee,
which Paris withdrew from in 1966, to negotiate an end to the
month-long NATO deadlock over Iraq. NATO agreed to supply Turkey
with defense equipment in the event of war with Iraq.
(AP, 2/16/03)(SFC, 2/17/03, A1)
2003 Feb 19, NATO
approved the deployment of defense equipment to Turkey in the event
of a war in Iraq. Turkey and the US failed again to agree on the
size of an economic aid package.
(AP, 2/19/03)
2003 Mar 26, NATO officially
signed up 7 eastern European nations to become members: Bulgaria,
Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia.
(AP, 3/27/03)
2003 Apr 11, NATO-led
peacekeepers in Bosnia arrested Naser Oric (35), a Bosnian Muslim
wanted by the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal and flew him to The
Hague. He was the wartime army commander in the eastern Bosnian town
of Srebrenica.
(AP, 4/11/03)
2003 Apr 16, NATO agreed to
take command of the UN peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan. The NATO
stabilization force soon started in Kabul and then spread across the
country.
(AP, 4/16/03)(Econ, 3/28/09, p.69)
2003 May 21, NATO's 19 nations
agreed unanimously to start planning to help Poland lead a
multinational peacekeeping force in Iraq.
(AP, 5/21/03)
2003 Sep 22, NATO selected
Dutch Foreign Minister Jaap de Hoop Scheffer as the alliance's new
secretary general.
(AP, 9/22/03)
2003 Oct 13, The UN Security
Council approved a resolution expanding the NATO-led peacekeeping
force in Afghanistan.
(AP, 10/13/04)
2003 Oct 15, NATO launched its
elite rapid-reaction force, a prototype unit that will eventually
become a 20,000-member force able to deploy in short notice anywhere
in the world.
(AP, 10/15/03)
2003 Dec 17, NATO's Secretary
General Lord Robertson ended a tumultuous four-year term.
(AP, 12/17/03)
2004 Jan 5, Dutchman Jaap de
Hoop Scheffer took over as NATO's top official.
(AP, 1/5/04)
2004 Mar 29, Pres. Bush hosted
a White House ceremony to welcome Bulgaria, Estonia, Lithuania,
Latvia, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia into the NATO alliance.
(WSJ, 3/30/04, p.A1)
2004 Apr 2, In Brussel an
official ceremony welcomed Bulgaria, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia,
Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia into the NATO alliance.
(SFC, 4/3/04, p.A11)
2004 Jun 27, Over 40 thousand
Turks chanting anti-Bush slogans demonstrated against the
president's visit to their country and a NATO summit. NATO leaders
closed ranks on a pledge to take a bigger military role in Iraq;
Pres. Bush declared that the alliance was poised to "meet the
threats of the 21st century." Pres. Bush called on the EU to admit
Turkey as a member.
(AP, 6/27/04)(Econ, 9/11/04, p.50)(AP, 6/27/05)
2004 Jun 28, NATO leaders
agreed to help train Iraq's armed forces just hours after the new
government in Baghdad took over sovereignty from the U.S.-led
administration.
(AP, 6/28/04)
2005 Feb 22, In Belgium a Nato
summit announced a 12-year program to destroy Soviet-era weapons in
Ukraine. Ukraine’s Pres. Viktor Yushchenko attended.
(WSJ, 2/22/05, p.A1)
2005 Apr 1, Australia and NATO
signed an agreement to cooperate in the fight against international
terrorism, weapons proliferation and other global military threats.
(AP, 4/1/05)
2005 May 24, NATO Secretary
General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said NATO will offer airlift, training
and other logistics support to African Union (AU) forces struggling
to end the civil war in Sudan's Darfur region.
(AP, 5/24/05)
2005 May 31, NATO troops took
command of security and reconstruction efforts in western
Afghanistan from US forces under a plan that will likely soon put
NATO forces into insurgent hot spots.
(AP, 5/31/05)
2005 Sep 4, European Union and
NATO said the US has asked for emergency assistance, requesting
blankets, first aid kits, water trucks and food for the victims of
Hurricane Katrina.
(AP, 9/4/05)
2005 Oct 24, NATO pledged to
help Ukraine push through military reforms seen as essential to
prepare the country for membership in the Western alliance, a
prospect viewed with concern in Russia.
(AP, 10/24/05)
2005 Nov 23, A NATO official
said Uzbekistan has told NATO allies they can no longer use its
territory or airspace to support peacekeeping missions in
neighboring Afghanistan.
(AP, 11/23/05)
2005 Dec 8, NATO foreign
ministers approved plans to send up to 6,000 troops into southern
Afghanistan, a major expansion of the alliance's peacekeeping
mission into some of the most dangerous parts of the country.
(AP, 12/08/05)
2005 Dec 22, The Dutch
government said it planned to send up to 1,400 additional troops to
Afghanistan for expanded NATO peacekeeping.
(AP, 12/22/05)
2006 Jan 31, NATO ended its
earthquake relief operation in Pakistan, the first big disaster
mission involving ground troops outside an alliance country.
(AP, 1/31/06)
2006 Feb 10, In Sicily NATO
defense ministers sought to calm Islamic anger over cartoons of the
Prophet Muhammad at a counterterrorism meeting with Arab countries
including Israel, Egypt, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Jordan and
Mauritania.
(AP, 2/10/06)
2006 Apr 28, Afghan President
Hamid Karzai urged Taliban militants to end the violence raging
across the country and join forces with the new government to help
Afghanistan's reconstruction. NATO foreign ministers reaffirmed the
alliance's readiness to nearly double its peacekeeping operations in
Afghanistan, where violence is increasing.
(AP, 4/28/06)
2006 Aug 20, In Afghanistan
militants ambushed a police patrol in western Farah province,
sparking a gunbattle that left one officer and 2 attackers dead. In
Helmand province a clash with insurgents left one British soldier
dead and three others wounded. A NATO airstrike killed nine
militants including a local insurgent leader in Helmand province. A
roadside bomb killed three Afghan policemen traveling on the main
highway linking Murja and Lashkar Gah districts. Two roadside bombs
targeting border police in southeastern Khost province killed two
officers and wounded five others. Tens of thousands of health
workers fanned out across Afghanistan in a polio vaccination
campaign to immunize more than 7 million children under age 5.
(AP, 8/20/06)(AP, 8/21/06)(AP, 8/22/06)
2006 Sep 3, NATO and Afghan
forces hit the Taliban with air strikes and artillery in Operation
Medusa in southern Afghanistan. Four NATO soldiers, including 3
Canadians, and more than 200 insurgents were killed in the first two
days of a major anti-Taliban operation under way in the Panjwayi
district, about 10 miles from the city of Kandahar.
(AFP, 9/3/06)
2006 Oct 31, In eastern
Afghanistan a roadside bomb killed 3 NATO soldiers. A suicide
bombing in southern Ghazni province's Taliban-dominated Ander
district killed one policeman.
(AFP, 10/31/06)
2006 Nov 28, President Bush, in
Latvia to attend a NATO summit, said he will not be persuaded by any
calls to withdraw American troops from Iraq before the country is
stabilized. Bush also enlisted renewed commitments from the NATO
allies that have deployed 32,000 troops to Afghanistan.
(AP, 11/28/06)
2006 Nov 29, NATO leaders
finished a two-day summit without agreement on some members' refusal
to send troops into combat in Afghanistan's most dangerous regions.
NATO vowed to give its troubled mission in Afghanistan the "forces,
resources and flexibility needed" to tackle increasingly ferocious
Taliban fighters. Leaders invited Serbia, Montenegro and
Bosnia-Herzegovina to join a program considered a first step toward
eventual membership, but urged Serbia and Bosnia to fully cooperate
with the UN war crimes tribunal.
(AP, 11/29/06)(AFP, 11/29/06)
2006 Dec 13, NATO said there
were some Taliban casualties in southern Afghanistan when NATO
troops launched a "precision air strike against a known Taliban
command post" in an isolated area of the Panjwayi district of
Kandahar province.
(AP, 12/14/06)
2007 Feb 4, Gen. Dan McNeill,
the highest-ranking US general to lead troops in Afghanistan, took
command of 35,500 strong NATO-led force, putting an American face on
the international mission after nine months of British command under
Gen. David Richards. A NATO airstrike killed a senior Taliban leader
riding in a car near Musa Qala.
(AP, 2/4/07)
2007 Apr 20, In southern
Afghanistan separate explosions killed two NATO soldiers. A Dutch
soldier was killed in one explosion, the first fatality from hostile
action among Dutch troops serving with NATO forces in the country.
(AP, 4/20/07)
2007 Apr 30, The presidents of
Afghanistan and Pakistan, a meeting arranged by Turkish leaders,
agreed to share intelligence on extremist groups to bolster efforts
to deny sanctuary, training and financing to terrorists in both
countries. NATO-led troops killed 75 suspected insurgents on the
first day of an operation against Taliban militants in a valley in
southern Helmand province. Hundreds of people demonstrated in the
Shindand district of the western province of Herat, after coalition
and Afghan operations there on April 27 and 29, insisting that
civilians were among the victims. Police the next day said at least
30 civilians, including women and children, were among those killed
in Shindand's fighting.
(AP, 4/30/07)(AP, 5/1/07)(AFP, 5/1/07)
2007 May 3, Russia lashed out
at the EU and NATO for supporting Estonia in its row with Moscow
over the relocation of a Soviet war monument.
(AP, 5/3/07)
2007 May 8, In southern
Afghanistan suspected Taliban militants ambushed a NATO convoy, and
a gunshot victim said soldiers fleeing the scene shot him and killed
a man in a bakery.
(AP, 5/8/07)
2007 May 8, NATO Secretary
General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer and President Pervez Musharraf agreed
to strengthen security along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border to
contain the Taliban insurgency.
(AP, 5/8/07)
2007 May 10, Talks in Brussels
between NATO's top generals and their Russian counterpart failed to
narrow the gap between Moscow and the West over missile defense and
arms control in Europe.
(AP, 5/10/07)
2007 May 20, President Bush
welcomed NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer to his
Crawford, Texas, ranch, to review strategy on a flurry of issues.
(AP, 5/20/08)
2007 Jul 14, Russia suspended
its participation in a key European arms control treaty that governs
deployment of troops on the continent. Under the moratorium, Russia
will halt inspections and verifications of its military sites by
NATO countries and will no longer limit the number of its
conventional weapons. The treaty, between Russian and NATO members,
was signed in 1990 and amended in 1999 to reflect changes since the
breakup of the Soviet Union, adding the requirement that Moscow
withdraw troops from the former Soviet republics of Moldova and
Georgia. Russia has ratified the amended version, but the United
States and other NATO members have refused to do so until Russia
completely withdraws.
(AP, 7/14/07)
2007 Jul 27, Afghan and NATO
troops over the last 24 hours clashed with Taliban insurgents and
called in airstrikes, killing at least 50 suspected militants and
dozens of civilians.
(AP, 7/27/07)
2007 Aug 16, In Afghanistan 6
civilians, including 3 children, were killed by the mortar and
machine-gun attack on the village of Nangarkhel, Paktika province.
Two other civilians died of their wounds in a hospital. 7 Polish
soldiers were later charged with war crimes. On Jun 1, 2011, a
military court in Poland acquitted the soldiers saying there was not
enough evidence to support war crime charges.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nangar_Khel_incident)(AP, 6/1/11)
2007 Aug 17, In southern
Afghanistan a suicide bomber killed a district chief and 3 of his
children. 5 civilians were reported killed in fighting between NATO
soldiers and Taliban in the east. Insurgents holed up in buildings
and trenches attacked Afghan police and coalition forces near Fire
Base Robinson. Nearly a dozen suspected militants were killed in the
ensuing battle.
(AP, 8/17/07)(AP, 8/18/07)
2007 Sep 6, Afghan and US-led
coalition forces killed "more than 20" insurgents in an eight-hour
battle that saw coalition aircraft bombing and strafing enemy
positions in Kandahar province. Two NATO soldiers were killed
in two separate bomb blasts in southern Afghanistan.
(AP, 9/7/07)
2007 Nov 14, NATO defense
chiefs chose Italian Adm. Giampaolo Di Paola as head of the
alliance's military committee.
(AP, 11/14/07)
2007 Nov 16, In western
Afghanistan a suicide attacker blew up a car bomb near an Italian
military convoy killing only himself. 4 police officers were killed
when their vehicle was hit by a remotely detonated bomb as they
traveled to work in the southern province of Kandahar. The UN said
profits from opium fuel the Taliban insurgency, in a new call on
NATO to tackle Afghanistan's burgeoning drugs trade.
(AP, 11/16/07)(Reuters, 11/16/07)
2007 Dec 7, NATO ministers
pledged to keep their KFOR peace force in Kosovo at current strength
as the Serbian province heads towards independence and to make more
troops available as necessary to deal with any violence.
(AP, 12/7/07)
2007 Dec 9, In southern
Afghanistan Afghan, British and US troops closed in on Musa Qala, a
Taliban-held town. A second NATO soldier was killed in the
operation. This was the first mission in which British forces have
participated with the Afghan army as the main fighting force. Afghan
and NATO forces killed 30 Taliban fighters in Kandahar's Panjwayi
district.
(AP, 12/9/07)(AFP, 12/9/07)
2008 Jan 10, Russia’s President
Vladimir Putin named a prominent nationalist politician as
ambassador to NATO at a time of severely strained ties between the
two.
(AP, 1/10/08)
2008 Jan 25, A World Trade
Organization (WTO) accession committee approved Ukraine's membership
bid, clearing the way for the former Soviet republic to join the
body.
(AP, 1/25/08)
2008 Jan 25, Russia's lower
house of parliament annulled an agreement with Ukraine on using
Soviet-built military radars, citing Kiev's bid to join NATO.
(AP, 1/25/08)
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 Mar 5, A NATO official
said that Uzbekistan has allowed some members of the alliance,
including the US, to use an air base on its territory in a signal of
thawing relations with the West.
(AP, 3/5/08)
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 4, Russian President
Vladimir Putin strongly criticized NATO's eastward expansion plans
but ruled out chances of a new Cold War, insisting that Moscow wants
to be friends with the Western military alliance.
(AP, 4/4/08)
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 5, In Croatia
President Bush celebrated NATO's expansion into former communist
territory and urged further enlargement, highlighting differences
with Moscow hours before final talks with outgoing Russian President
Vladimir Putin.
(AP, 4/5/08)
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 16, In southern
Afghanistan 2 NATO soldiers were killed and two others were wounded
in an explosion.
(AP, 4/16/08)
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. Officials said a
NATO soldier was killed.
(AP, 5/22/08)
2008 Jun 6, Russia's new Pres.
Medvedev met with leaders of a fractious alliance of ex-Soviet
republics, warning Ukraine and Georgia not to lead their countries
into NATO.
(AP, 6/6/08)
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.
(AFP, 6/13/08)
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. The militants had planted hundreds of land
mines in the area before fleeing.
(AP, 6/19/08)
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 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 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 28, NATO said its
troops killed two children in southern Afghanistan by opening fire
on a car that they feared was about to attack their convoy.
(AP, 7/28/08)
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 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, A top Russian
general said 64 of the country's soldiers were killed and 323
wounded in this month's fighting with Georgia. Russia informed
Norway that it plans to suspend all military ties with NATO, a day
after the military alliance urged Moscow to withdraw its forces from
Georgia.
(AP, 8/20/08)(AP, 8/21/08)
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 Sep 3, Pakistan's
government says a cross-border raid involving US-led or NATO forces
killed several civilians. Women and children were among at least 20
people reportedly killed in the attack in Musa Nika village in South
Waziristan near the border with Afghanistan.
(AP, 9/3/08)(SFC, 9/4/08, p.A8)
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 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 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 9, NATO joined a
growing international force to protect vessels off Somalia's
perilous coast, sending military ships to the treacherous waters
where pirates are negotiating the release of an arms-laden tanker.
(AP, 10/10/08)
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 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.
(AP, 10/14/08)(AFP, 10/14/08)
2008 Nov 5, Russia will deploy
missiles near NATO member Poland in response to US missile defense
plans, President Dmitry Medvedev said Wednesday in his first state
of the nation speech.
(AP, 11/5/08)
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 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 Dec 1, Militants in
northwestern Pakistan attacked trucks ferrying supplies to NATO and
US forces in Afghanistan, killing two people and destroying a dozen
vehicles. A suicide attack on a security checkpoint in the
Swat Valley killed 8 people and wounded 40.
(AP, 12/1/08)
2008 Dec 3, NATO foreign
ministers affirmed their support for US plans to install
anti-missile defenses in Europe despite Russia's strong opposition.
NATO foreign ministers said they expected Albania and Croatia to
become the alliance's newest members by April.
(AP, 12/3/08)
2008 Dec 7, Gunmen blasted
their way into two transport terminals in Pakistan and torched more
than 160 vehicles, including 790 Humvees, destined for US-led troops
in Afghanistan, in the biggest assault yet on a vital military
supply line. The losses possibly exceeded $10 million.
(AP, 12/7/08)
2008 Dec 8, In Pakistan armed
militants launched a second raid in as many days on NATO depots,
torching nearly 100 more vehicles destined for the alliance's forces
in Afghanistan.
(AFP, 12/8/08)
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 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.
(AP, 12/15/08)
2008 Dec 24, In Afghanistan a
soldier with the NATO-led force was killed in an insurgent attack in
the east of the country.
(AFP, 12/24/08)
2008 NATO set up a research
center in cyberdefence in Tallinn, Estonia. It was scheduled to be
formally inaugurated in 2009.
(Econ, 12/6/08, TQ p.21)
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 12, In Pakistan the
bodies of two men killed by Taliban militants for allegedly spying
for the US were found in the North Waziristan tribal region to the
south of Mohmand. The two were abducted a week ago as they attempted
to flee with their families. Trucks and other vehicles blocked the
main Quetta-Chaman highway, forcing about 100 trucks carrying NATO
supplies to park.
(AP, 1/12/09)
2009 Jan 14, Pakistan reopened
a supply route for NATO and US forces in Afghanistan after tribesmen
ended a three-day blockade. Thousands of people protested in Quetta
after four police officers were shot dead in what an official said
was a sectarian attack against Shiites.
(AP, 1/14/09)
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 31, 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.
(AP, 2/1/09)
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 17, NATO warned that
Pakistan risked creating a safe haven for Islamist extremists after
it struck a deal to impose Islamic law and suspend a military
offensive in the former tourist haven of Swat.
(AP, 2/17/09)
2009 Feb 19, US Defense Sec.
Robert Gates, in Europe for NATO talks, signed a new military
cooperation agreement with Poland.
(WSJ, 2/20/09, p.A12)
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.
(AFP, 2/23/09)
2009 Mar 5, NATO foreign
ministers agreed to resume high-level formal ties with Russia,
suspended last year after Moscow's military thrust into Georgia.
(AP, 3/5/09)
2009 Mar 11, French Pres.
Sarkozy announced that France will return as full-fledged member of
the 26-naqtion NATO alliance.
(SFC, 3/12/09, p.A2)
2009 Mar 16, In Pakistan the
Zardari government relented in a major confrontation with the
opposition, agreeing to reinstate Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, the
fired Supreme Court chief justice, whose fate had sparked street
fights and raised fears of political instability. The government
said Chaudhry would be sworn back in on March 21. Prime Minister
Yousuf Raza Gilani's announcement also promised the restoration of a
handful of other judges who had remained off the bench since former
President Pervez Musharraf sacked them in 2007. Up to 50 militants
attacked a terminal for trucks carrying supplies to US and NATO
troops in Afghanistan, in the second such assault in northwest
Pakistan in two days.
(AP, 3/16/09)
2009 Mar 17, Russia's defense
minister charged that the US and NATO were beefing up their military
presence near Russia's borders in a bid for natural resources that
could ignite new conflicts.
(AP, 3/17/09)
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 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.
(AFP, 3/23/09)(AP, 3/23/09)
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 Apr 3, NATO began its
2-day 60th anniversary summit in France and Germany.
(AP, 4/3/09)
2009 Apr 4, France and Germany
fully endorsed President Barack Obama's new Afghan war strategy but
firmly resisted sending more combat troops in a rift that
overshadowed symbols of unity at NATO 60th-anniversary summit.
NATO's European leaders pledged a significant increase in troops for
the US-led war in Afghanistan at their summit, but the alliance
seemed sure to arouse hostility in the Muslim world by choosing the
controversial Danish PM Anders Fogh Rasmussen as the alliance's new
secretary general. All 28 NATO leaders unanimously approved
Rasmussen as the new civilian leader of the alliance. Black-clad
protesters attacked police and set a hotel and a customs station
ablaze near a bridge linking France and Germany that served hours
earlier as the backdrop for a show of unity by NATO leaders.
(AP, 4/4/09)
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 had
targeted armed militants.
(Reuters, 4/13/09)
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 18, Somali pirates
attacked two ships off the Horn of Africa, seizing the
Belgian-flagged Pompei carrying 10 crew. NATO forces intervened in
the other assault, chasing the pirates down. Dutch commandos then
freed 20 fishermen on a Yemeni dhow hijacked earlier. Seven pirates
attempted to attack the Norwegian-flagged MV Front Ardenne but fled
after crew took evasive maneuvers and alerted warships in the area.
NATO warships and helicopters pursued the Somali pirates for seven
hours after they attacked the tanker, and the high-speed chase only
ended when warning shots were fired at the pirates' skiff. NATO
forces boarded the skiff, where they found a rocket-propelled
grenade, and interrogated, disarmed and released the pirates. The
Pompei and its crew were released on June 28.
(AP, 4/18/09)(AP, 4/19/09)(AP, 6/28/09)
2009 Apr 29, NATO and Russia
resumed formal contacts eight months after they were suspended
because of last year's war with Georgia.
(AP, 4/29/09)
2009 Apr 30, Belgium stripped
the credentials of 2 high-ranking members of Russia’s permanent
mission to NATO and expelled them on accusations of espionage.
(SFC, 5/1/09, p.A2)
2009 May 6, NATO launched
military exercises in former Soviet Georgia after heavy criticism
from neighboring Russia and a brief mutiny in the Georgian military.
(AP, 5/6/09)
2009 May 6, Russia said it is
expelling two Moscow-based NATO employees who are Canadian diplomats
in retaliation for NATO's recent expulsion of two Russian envoys
from its headquarters in Belgium.
(AP, 5/6/09)
2009 May 13, In Pakistan troops
secured footholds in Swat valley overrun by the Taliban, killing 11
militants and discovering 5 headless corpses near Mingora, the
region's main town. Dozens of assailants stormed a transport depot
handling supplies for NATO troops in neighboring Afghanistan and
torched eight trucks before escaping.
(AP, 5/13/09)
2009 May 14, Russia said it was
proposing a new version of a key European arms-control treaty it
suspended more than a year ago, and could once again honor the
agreement if the US and its NATO allies accept the changes.
(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 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.
(AP, 5/20/09)
2009 May 31, Afghan and NATO
troops killed 18 Taliban militants after insurgents attacked a joint
patrol in Farah province.
(AP, 5/31/09)
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 22, Pirates off
Somalia were chased down and captured by NATO’s Portuguese warship,
the Corte-real, after an attempted hijacking of a Singaporean
freighter.
(SFC, 6/23/09, p.A2)
2009 Jun 27, NATO and Russia
agreed to resume military ties and agree to cooperate on
Afghanistan, counterterrorism and anti-piracy patrols at their first
high-level meeting since last year's war between Russia and Georgia.
(AP, 6/27/09)
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.
(AP, 6/30/09)
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 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, 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, 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 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 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 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 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 18, NATO
Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen called for the US, Russia
and NATO to link their missile defense systems against potential new
nuclear threats from Asia and the Middle East, saying that the old
foes must forget their lingering Cold War animosity.
(AP, 9/18/09)
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 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 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 23, The Czech Republic
and NATO said that they backed a reworked US missile defense plan
meant to defend against threats from Iran and other nations.
(AP, 10/23/09)
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 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 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, 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 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 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 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)
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.
(AP, 1/9/10)(AFP, 1/9/10)
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 26, NATO and Russia
formally resumed military ties in the latest sign of improving
relations between the Cold War rivals as they move to boost
cooperation in the fight against insurgents in Afghanistan.
(AP, 1/26/10)
2010 Jan 27, In northern
Afghanistan a joint NATO-Afghan air and ground assault killed 11
suspected Taliban militants, including two senior commanders.
(AP, 1/27/10)
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 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 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 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. A joint
international-Afghan patrol fired on two men mistakenly believed to
be insurgents in Gardez, south of Kabul. 3 women were "accidentally
killed as a result of the joint force firing at the men." NATO
confirmed its responsibility for the 5 deaths on April 5.
(AP, 2/12/10)(AP, 4/5/10)
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 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. A military report released on May
29 said inexperienced operators of a US drone aircraft ignored or
downplayed signs that Afghan civilians were in the convoy in Uruzgan
in which at least 23 civilians were killed.
(AP, 2/21/10)(AP, 2/22/10)(AP, 5/29/10)
2010 Mar 1, Afghanistan
announced a ban on news coverage of Taliban strikes, saying such
coverage only emboldened the Islamist militants. The move was
denounced by Afghan journalism and rights groups. Two blasts hours
apart killed at least six people in Kandahar. Four NATO service
members died in separate attacks, including a suicide car bomb that
targeted an international military convey as it crossed a bridge in
the Taliban-dominated south.
(AP, 3/1/10)(AFP, 3/1/10)
2010 Mar 1, Somali pirates
hijacked a Saudi tanker in the Gulf of Aden. The Al Nisr Al Saudi
usually carried fuel oil but was empty when it was taken with 14
crew onboard. NATO said one of its destroyers sank a pirate
mothership off the Somali coast. Pirate crew members were
transferred to a smaller boat and allowed to return to the mainland.
(AP, 3/3/10)(SFC, 3/2/10, p.A2)(SFC, 3/4/10,
p.A2)
2010 Mar 7, NATO said it is
suspending the training of Kosovo's security troops after a
military-style parade that broke the force's agreement to focus only
on civil emergencies. An armed honor guard had appeared at a parade
on March 5 marking the 12th anniversary of the killing of the leader
of the Kosovo Liberation Army.
(AP, 3/7/10)
2010 Mar 9, In southern
Afghanistan a roadside bomb killed two Afghan border police and a
civilian riding in their vehicle. A Taliban operative wearing an
Afghan police uniform infiltrated NATO’s Chergotah base in Khost
province and detonated his explosive vest next to a group of
soldiers who were warming their hands beside a fire. 2 NATO service
members were killed.
(AP, 3/9/10)(AP, 3/10/10)
2010 Mar 29, In Afghanistan a
NATO helicopter crashed, injuring 14 people in Zabul province.
Elsewhere in the south a service member was killed in a bomb strike.
(AP, 3/29/10)
2010 Apr 5, In Afghanistan NATO
forces killed 10 militants in a raid on a compound in Nangarhar
province's Khogyani district. Gunmen seriously wounded an Afghan
provincial councilwoman in a drive-by shooting in Pul-e Khumri,
capital of northern Baghlan province. In Helmand province 4
insurgents and 4 civilians died in a NATO airstrike.
(AP, 4/5/10)(AP, 4/6/10)
2010 Apr 19, The chief of
British Airways said test flights have proven that the blanket
restrictions EU governments have imposed on flights because of
volcanic ash are unnecessary. The airline industry said it has lost
at least $1 billion due to five days of closed airports. A senior
Western diplomat says several NATO F-16 fighters suffered engine
damage after flying through the volcanic ash cloud covering large
parts of Europe.
(AP, 4/19/10)
2010 Apr 22, Afghan and NATO
forces came under heavy fire while searching a compound in eastern
Logar province, sparking a gunbattle that killed two US soldiers and
five insurgents.
(AP, 4/23/10)
2010 Apr 23, NATO ministers
meeting in Tallinn, Estonia, agreed to begin handing over control of
Afghanistan to the Afghan government this year, a process that if
successful would enable President Barack Obama to meet his target
date of July 2011 for starting to bring US troops home.
(AP, 4/23/10)
2010 Apr 29, NATO troops in
Nangarhar province raided the home of a prominent Afghan lawmaker
overnight, killing one of her relatives. In Laghman province a
suicide bomber blew up a car packed with explosives near an Afghan
army training facility, killing a soldier.
(AP, 4/29/10)
2010 May 10, Afghan President
Hamid Karzai arrived in Washington, seeking to show a united front
with the United States during a pivotal time in the nine-year war.
In northeast Afghanistan heavy rain sent floodwaters tearing through
villages, killing at least 10 people and destroying hundreds of
homes. A roadside bomb struck a car in southeastern Zabul province,
killing two civilians. Afghan and NATO forces killed 18 militants
and arrested six in the Sangin district of southern Helmand
province. The NATO alliance killed "several insurgents" in Khost.
(AP, 5/10/10)(AP, 5/11/10)
2010 May 14, In eastern
Afghanistan hundreds of protesters brandished sticks, threw stones
and burned an American flag as they accused NATO forces of killing
civilians in an overnight raid, but the alliance said eight
insurgents were killed in the attack. NATO said at least nine
insurgents were killed the previous night during a pursuit of
suspected militants in the Tarnak Wa Jaldak district of eastern
Zabul province. An American service member died in an insurgent
attack in the east. A suicide bomber in Gardez jumped in front of a
vehicle in a convoy of the governor of eastern Paktiya province, who
narrowly escaped the attack. A civilian was killed and four other
people injured. Afghan and coalition forces conducted sweeps across
Afghanistan that left at least 30 militants dead, while insurgents
in the east killed five security guards in an ambush on a convoy. 8
militants were killed and two others wounded in a joint raid by
Afghan and coalition forces in Nangahar province.
(AP, 5/14/10)(AP, 5/15/10)
2010 May 18, A Taliban suicide
car bomber struck a NATO convoy in Kabul, killing six troops 5
American and one Canadian. Twelve Afghan civilians also died, many
of them on a public bus in rush-hour traffic.
(AP, 5/18/10)
2010 May 19, In Afghanistan
insurgents launched a brazen pre-dawn assault against the giant
US-run Bagram Air Field, killing an American contractor and wounding
nine troops in the second Taliban strike at NATO forces in and
around the capital in as many days.
(AP, 5/19/10)
2010 May 19, NATO and Russia
said they will boost efforts to develop a joint system to protect
their troops from attack by short-range missiles.
(AP, 5/19/10)
2010 May 22, In southern
Afghanistan 3 foreign soldiers and one civilian working with NATO's
International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) were killed in two
separate incidents. At least a dozen people were killed south of
Kabul after US troops spotted two insurgents trying to plant bombs.
The Taliban staged a nighttime assault on Kandahar Air Base that
wounded a number of coalition soldiers and civilian employees.
(AFP, 5/22/10)(AP, 5/22/10)(AP, 5/23/10)
2010 May 31, Afghan authorities
suspended two Christian foreign aid groups on suspicion of
proselytizing in the strictly Islamic nation and said a follow-up
investigation would include whether other groups were trying to
convert Muslims. US-based Church World Service and Norwegian Church
Aid will not be allowed to operate while the allegations are
investigated. About 180 Taliban attacked a police post in the
Purchaman district in southwestern Farah province, triggering hours
of fighting that killed 15 insurgents. A NATO service member was
killed by a makeshift bomb in southern Afghanistan. In Khost
province on Pakistan's border, NATO and Afghan forces captured
several commanders of the Haqqani group.
(AP, 5/31/10)(AP, 6/1/10)
2010 Jun 4, An Afghan national
peace conference urged the government to take formal steps toward
negotiating with insurgents, boosting President Hamid Karzai's plans
to open talks with the Taliban. NATO forces said NATO and Afghan
troops have killed Mullah Zergay, a top Taliban commander for
Kandahar city, along with several of his guards last week.
(AP, 6/4/10)
2010 Jun 6, Russia urged NATO
forces in Afghanistan to crack down harder on drug production and
smuggling, and offered to help put a security ring around the
country.
(AP, 6/6/10)
2010 Jun 9, In southern
Afghanistan Insurgents shot down a NATO helicopter and killed four
American troops in Helmand province. A local official said the
Taliban hanged a 7-year-old boy in public in Helmand province for
alleged spying. A suicide bomb ripped through a wedding party for a
family with ties to police in the Taliban's heartland, killing at
least 39 people and wounding dozens more in Nadahan village in the
Arghandab district of Kandahar province. Insurgents dragged a
Kandahar provincial council member, Amir Mohammad Noorzai, from his
house and fatally shot him.
(AP, 6/9/10)(AP, 6/10/10)(SFC, 6/10/10, p.A2)
2010 Jun 11, NATO leaders
declared that the alliance had regained the initiative in the Afghan
war, promising that the gains could result in a handover of security
responsibilities in some parts of the country to local authorities
by year's end. Two US troops and at least 11 civilians died in
violence across southern Afghanistan, including one attack in which
a suicide bomber wearing a burqa blew himself up in a bazaar.
(AP, 6/11/10)
2010 Jul 23, In eastern
Afghanistan a bomb exploded inside a mosque, seriously wounding a
candidate in upcoming parliamentary elections and at least 16 other
people. Two American service members left their compound in Kabul
and failed to return. They were believed to have been captured by
insurgents somewhere in Logar province. Taliban spokesman Zabiullah
Mujahid later said the pair drove into an area of Logar province
that is under insurgent control. He says that during a brief
gunfight, one American was killed and the other was captured. The
body of Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Justin McNeley (30) was found
on July 25. On July 28 the body of the 2nd sailor, Petty Officer 3rd
Class Jarod Newlove (25) was recovered. In southern Helmand province
at least 45 civilians, many women and children, were killed in a
rocket attack by the NATO-led foreign force. Alliance and
Afghan troops came under attack about 6 miles (10 km) south of the
village and responded with helicopter-borne strikes. Coalition
forces reported six insurgents killed, including a Taliban
commander.
(AP, 7/23/10)(Reuters, 7/24/10)(AP,
7/25/10)(Reuters, 7/26/10)(AP, 7/28/10)(SFC, 7/28/10, p.A3)(AP,
7/29/10)
2010 Jul 26, WikiLeaks founder
Julian Assange promised that the release of some 91,000 secret US
military documents on the Afghanistan war is just the beginning,
adding that he still has thousands more Afghan files to post online.
The files were mostly field reports and intelligence
assessments from 2004-2009. Pakistan's most powerful spy agency on
lashed out against a trove of leaked US intelligence reports that
alleged close connections between it and Taliban militants fighting
NATO troops in Afghanistan, calling the accusations malicious and
unsubstantiated.
(AP, 7/26/10)(Econ, 7/31/10, p.28)
2010 Aug 3, In Afghanistan
insurgents wearing suicide vests tried to storm NATO's largest base
in the south, but did not breach its defenses. All of the attackers
were killed in the fighting including "approximately four" people in
suicide vests. New Zealand suffered its first combat fatality in
Afghanistan when a soldier died in an ambush that left another two
New Zealand soldiers and an Afghan interpreter wounded in central
Bamiyan province. An Afghan operation began in a rugged region east
of Kabul in Laghman province to flush out the Taliban. Commanders
called for backup from foreign forces after at least 10 Afghan
soldiers were killed and up to 20 captured.
(AP, 8/3/10)(AFP, 8/13/10)
2010 Aug 5, In northern
Afghanistan a suicide car bomber struck a convoy of NATO troops and
Afghan police, killing seven police officers and wounding at least
11 people.
(AP, 8/5/10)
2010 Aug 12, In eastern
Afghanistan a crowd of about 300 villagers yelled "Death to the
United States" and blocked a main road as they swore that US forces
had killed three innocent villagers. NATO forces rejected the claim,
saying they had killed several suspected insurgents and detained a
local Taliban commander in the overnight raid. Elders from Zarin
Khil village said American troops stormed into a family's house and
shot three brothers, all young men, and then took their father into
custody. In nearby Paktiya province NATO and Afghan troops killed
more than 20 armed insurgents in an ongoing operation to disrupt
insurgents in the area around Dazadran district. US and Afghan
forces stepped up operations against a Taliban faction linked to
al-Qaida, arresting several key figures in the network in raids in
two eastern provinces. A British serviceman, who was injured Aug 10
in an incident involving a helicopter at a patrol base in the Nahri
Sarraj district of Helmand, died at a hospital in Britain.
(AP, 8/12/10)(AP, 8/13/10)
2010 Aug 20, In Afghanistan 2
NATO soldiers died in a roadside bombing. A woman and two
children died in an operation against Al-Qaeda-linked insurgents in
western Farah province. 6 insurgents were killed and several
suspected insurgents were detained. 6 police officers were killed by
men who approached their post posing as guests and then opened fire
in Nahri Sarraj district of Helmand province. 3 Afghan police were
apparently killed as a result of a NATO airstrike in Jowzjan
province.
(AP, 8/20/10)(AP, 8/21/10)(SSFC, 8/22/10, p.A6)
2010 Sep 2, In Afghanistan 2
American troops died in fighting, while NATO and local officials
said coalition and Afghan forces killed dozens of insurgents in a
series of ground and air engagements. President Hamid Karzai said 10
Afghan civilians were killed in a NATO air strike on three vehicles
carrying election campaign workers in the north.
(AP, 9/2/10)(AFP, 9/2/10)
2010 Sep 21, In southern
Afghanistan a NATO helicopter crashed killing 9 international troops
in a region where forces are ramping up pressure on Taliban
insurgents. It was the deadliest chopper crash for the coalition in
four years. 5 Afghan road construction workers were killed and 4
wounded when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb in Shinwari district
of Parwan province. In Khost province insurgents attacked a NATO and
Afghan army outpost near the Pakistan border and at least 25 of the
militants were killed in the resulting skirmish.
(AP, 9/21/10)(AP, 9/22/10)
2010 Sep 23, Afghan Pres.
Karzai called for the quick release of 3 Afghan journalists. All 3
were picked up over the past week, two by a joint NATO and Afghan
force and one by Afghan intelligence officials. Analysts said the
arrests were reminiscent of a strategy the US military used in Iraq
to detain local journalists as a way to disrupt insurgents'
propaganda networks.
(AP, 9/23/10)
2010 Sep 30, Pakistani troops
fired warning shots at the two NATO helicopters, which responded
with a pair of missiles that destroyed the post, killed 2 of the
soldiers and wounded the 4 others. Pakistan then blocked a vital
supply route for US and NATO troops in Afghanistan in apparent
retaliation for the alleged cross-border helicopter strike. On Oct 6
the US apologized for the deaths and wounding of the Pakistani
paramilitary troops
(AP, 9/30/10)(SFC, 10/7/10, p.A4)
2010 Oct 2, In Afghanistan at
least three civilians were killed along with 17 insurgents in a NATO
air strike targeting senior Taliban commanders in southern Helmand
province. ISAF accidentally killed two civilians when insurgents
attacked a military base in Baraki Barak district of Logar province
south of Kabul.
(Reuters, 10/3/10)
2010 Oct 4, In Afghanistan 3
NATO service members were killed by bombings in the south and an
insurgent attack killed another in the east, raising the coalition's
death toll to 11 in the first four days of October. NATO announced
that a joint Afghan-coalition unit launched a night mission that
killed a senior Taliban leader named Farman and two other militants
in eastern Paktia province. A police convoy was ambushed in Khash
Rod district. 5 militants were killed, 3 others wounded and two
captured during a gunbattle. Habibullah Aghonzada, a former district
chief, was gunned down by assailants as he prayed at a packed mosque
in Kandahar city. 3 night time explosion in Kandahar City killed up
to 4 Afghan police officers. Noor Ahman, deputy mayor in Kandahar,
was killed in an insurgent attack. In the southwest 2 civilians
riding a motorcycle died when a roadside bomb exploded as they
passed. 2 others were killed by rockets in the country's east.
(AP, 10/4/10)(AP, 10/5/10)(SFC, 10/5/10,
p.A5)(AP, 10/6/10)
2010 Oct 6, It was reported
that Afghan Pres. Karzai has begun secret talks over a negotiated
end to the war. Sources said that for the first time Taliban
representatives are fully authorized to speak for the Quetta Shura,
the Afghan Taliban organization based in Pakistan, and its leader
Muhammad Omar. Taliban commander Maulawi Jawadullah, accused of
organizing deadly ambushes, roadside bombings, and abductions of
Afghan police and soldiers in northern Afghanistan, was killed in an
airstrike in Yangi Qala district. A NATO service member died in a
roadside bombing in the south. An Afghan-NATO force killed six
insurgents and destroyed a compound used for making improvised
explosive devices in Arghandab district of Kandahar province. 3
militants were killed in Zabul province during a firefight with a
joint force. 16 militants were killed in air raids and ground
fighting overnight in the Darqad, Yangi Qala and Khwaja Bahawuddin
districts of Takhar province.
(SFC, 10/6/10, p.A2)(AP, 10/7/10)(AP, 10/8/10)
2010 Oct 8, In northern
Afghanistan Kunduz provincial governor Mohammad Omar and at least 19
other people were killed by a massive bomb blast inside a packed
mosque during Friday prayers in Takhar province. NATO helicopters
killed six Afghan militiamen in eastern Khost province. An insurgent
attack killed a NATO service member and two others died in separate
roadside bombings in the south. Armed men burst into a mosque and
shot dead religious scholar Molvi Mohammad during Friday prayers in
Kandahar city. Linda Norgrove (36) a British aid worker was killed
by her captors during a botched US rescue raid two weeks after being
abducted at gunpoint. A rescue team was closing in on the house
where Norgrove was being held when her captors threw a grenade into
the room where she was kept, killing her. Troops opened fire and
killed all the captors.
(AP, 10/8/10)(AFP, 10/9/10)
2010 Oct 9, Pakistan announced
it would reopen a key border crossing and allow convoys to resume
delivering supplies to NATO troops in Afghanistan, ending a 10-day
blockade during which trucks were stranded on their way to the
border and almost 150 were destroyed by attackers. Just hours before
the announcement of the reopening, gunmen armed with a rocket
attacked 29 tankers carrying NATO fuel supplies which had been
stopped outside a roadside restaurant in the southwest, setting them
ablaze. The border is normally closed on Sundays, so Oct 11 appeared
to be the soonest the flow of supplies over the crossing would
resume.
(AP, 10/9/10)
2010 Oct 10, Pakistan reopened
a key border crossing to NATO supply convoys heading into
Afghanistan, ending an 11-day blockade imposed after a US helicopter
strike killed two Pakistani soldiers.
(AP, 10/10/10)
2010 Oct 12, In Afghanistan a
cargo plane, carrying NATO supplies went down east of Kabul shortly
after taking off from Bagram Air Field. The bodies of 5 of 8 people
on board were recovered the next day. The plane, owned by United
Arab Emirates-based TransAfrik, was under contract by the US-based
company National Air Cargo.
(AP, 10/13/10)
2010 Oct 14, Afghan officials
requested NATO's support in smoothing new peace efforts with the
Taliban, including by halting military operations in areas where
reconciliation talks could take place. 7 NATO soldiers were killed
in separate bomb attacks, bringing to 586 the total number of
personnel killed so far this year. ISAF said 13 civilians had been
killed in militant attacks over the past week, including nine who
died in a single IED blast.
(AFP, 10/14/10)(Reuters, 10/14/10)
2010 Oct 15, Pakistan said it
was willing to assist talks between the Afghan government and the
Taliban, and NATO confirmed its forces had helped ensure a senior
Taliban commander reached Kabul. A suspected US unmanned aircraft
launched two missiles at a vehicle in North Waziristan, killing
three people.
(Reuters, 10/15/10)(AP, 10/15/10)
2010 Oct 28, In southern
Afghanistan a roadside bomb targeting the car of a district police
chief killed three police officers in Zabul province. A NATO
airstrike killed a Taliban leader and another militant in southern
Zabul province as he was showing his fighters a new anti-aircraft
heavy machine gun mounted on the back of his vehicle. Militants shot
and killed a government official in charge of the water supply in
Dand district of Kandahar province as he was walking near his home.
A NATO service member died following a bomb attack in southern
Afghanistan. In Khost province a NATO airstrike killed one insurgent
believed to be a senior leader of the Haqqani network. In
neighboring Mando Zayi district of Khost, one civilian was killed
and two others were wounded in fighting. US and Russian special
forces and Afghan police ended an operation raiding 4 drug labs in
an unprecedented collaborative military operation, destroying some
$56 million worth of heroin in Nangarhar province. Months earlier
Russia had provided US officials in Kabul with the coordinates of
175 laboratories where heroin is processed but the US failed to act.
A NATO helicopter killed more than 20 insurgents after it was fired
on during an operation in Kandahar province.
(AP, 10/28/10)(AP, 10/29/10)(AP, 10/31/10)
2010 Oct 30, Afghan President
Hamid Karzai demanded that NATO forces explain why they had carried
out a joint counter-narcotics operation with Russian forces inside
Afghanistan, calling it a violation of sovereignty. An Afghan
official said that 80 Taliban insurgents were killed during a failed
attack on a NATO combat outpost in Barmal district near the North
Waziristan border. A NATO soldier died in an attack in the volatile
south. Afghan and NATO troops killed 17 insurgents in an hours-long
gunbattle in southern Helmand province.
(Reuters, 10/30/10)(AFP, 10/30/10)(AP, 10/31/10)
2010 Oct 31, Afghan militants
attacked a convoy carrying supplies for the police, Education
Ministry, and the UN's World Food Program in western Nimroz
province. Six militants were killed and one policeman was wounded in
the gunbattle. A two-day battle over a bomb-making factory in
Reg-i-Khan Nishin district ended with NATO and Afghan troops killing
15 insurgents.
(AP, 10/31/10)(AP, 11/1/10)
2010 Nov 4, In the Czech Rep. a
two-day informal gathering of NATO experts opened in Prague. They
planned to consider the impacts of defense budget cuts by member
countries.
(AP, 11/4/10)
2010 Nov 5, In Afghanistan a
teenage suicide bomber blew himself up in a crowded bazaar in the
northwest, killing at least nine people and wounding 30 others. The
attack targeted the head of the Faryab provincial council, Mullah
Rahmatullah Turkistani. NATO said three of its service members were
killed. An Afghan and NATO force captured the Haqqani network's
shadow governor for Spera district in Khost province during an
overnight operation. An Afghan soldier reportedly shot and killed 2
NATO service members on their base in the Sangin district of Helmand
province and then defected to the insurgency.
(AP, 11/5/10)(AP, 11/6/10)
2010 Nov 7, In eastern
Afghanistan two NATO service members died in two different
insurgents attacks. A vehicle hit a mine in Helmand province,
killing five civilians. In Kandahar a government employee working at
a prison in the city was shot and killed by insurgents. Afghan and
NATO forces targeted suspected insurgent strongholds in a joint
operation in southern Kandahar province, killing 15 and capturing
13. A rocket exploded in Lashkar Gah, capital of Helmand province,
killing one civilian and wounding four. Gunmen set fire to the
girls' middle school in Laghman province, burning the structure and
its contents.
(AP, 11/7/10)(AP, 11/8/10)
2010 Nov 13, In eastern
Afghanistan a group of would-be suicide bombers tried to storm a
major NATO base on the edge of Jalalabad city, but were repelled
before they could enter. Six insurgents were killed, including two
who were wearing bomb-laden suicide vests. Insurgents in the same
area set fire to a NATO fuel convoy. The truck drivers quickly fled
and the insurgents set 12 tankers ablaze A bomb hidden in a
motorbike also exploded on a busy street in the Imam Sahib district
of the northern province of Kunduz, killing 10 people. Insurgents
killed 3 coalition service members in an attack in the south.
(AP, 11/13/10)(AP, 11/14/10)
2010 Nov 14, In Afghanistan a
series of bomb blasts and insurgents attacks killed 11 people across
the country, including five NATO service members and three Afghan
police taking part in Operation Bulldog Bite in Kunar province. A
total of 7 ISAF troops were killed today.
(AP, 11/14/10)(Reuters, 11/18/10)
2010 Nov 19, NATO leaders began
a 2-day meeting in Portugal. A top official said it will start
drawing down its troops in Afghanistan next July and its combat role
in the war-torn nation will end by 2014 or earlier so security can
be turned over to the Afghans. NATO leaders planned to approve a new
10-year vision for NATO.
(AP, 11/19/10)(Reuters, 11/19/10)
2010 Nov 19, In southern
Afghanistan a NATO soldier was killed in a bomb attack as leaders
met in Portugal to determine the future of the alliance's
mission. ISAF reported the capture of a leader from the
hardline, Pakistan-based Haqqani network in eastern Khost province.
In Baghlan a joint force targeted a series of compounds and captured
another key Haqqani figure, who served as a liaison between the
network and Taliban operatives in northern Afghanistan. Six of his
associates were taken into custody as well.
(AP, 11/19/10)
2010 Nov 20, NATO nations
meeting in Portugal formally agreed to start turning over
Afghanistan's security to its military next year and give them full
control by 2014. The US and its allies appeared to take conflicting
views on when NATO combat operations would end. NATO
Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said he did not expect NATO
troops to stay in the fight against the Taliban after 2014. Russia
was receptive but stopped short of accepting a historic NATO
invitation to join a missile shield protecting Europe against
Iranian attack.
(AP, 11/20/10)(Reuters, 11/20/10)
2010 Nov 29, Afghanistan said
its relations with the United States would not be affected by leaked
cables portraying President Hamid Karzai as weak and paranoid, and
his brother as a corrupt drugs baron. 6 NATO troops were shot dead
by a man wearing an Afghan border police uniform during a training
exercise in Nangarhar province. The shooter was killed.
(AFP, 11/29/10)(Reuters, 11/29/10)
2010 Dec 5, In Afghanistan a
Taliban suicide bomber blew himself up next to a string of shop
stalls inside the eastern Gardez army base, killing two NATO service
members and at least two civilians. In the south another NATO
service member was killed in an insurgent attack while an Afghan
employee of an American contractor was shot dead in the city of
Lashkar Gah.
(AP, 12/5/10)
2010 Dec 16, President Barack
Obama said the United States will start withdrawing US troops from
Afghanistan in July as promised. He still warned of sobering days,
saying the war will remain a "very difficult endeavor." In
Afghanistan a bomb killed 14 members of the same family north of
Herat city. 4 Afghan soldiers died overnight in a NATO air strike in
Helmand province.
(AP, 12/16/10)(AFP, 12/16/10)
2010 Dec 16, In Belgium NATO
Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, speaking at a
groundbreaking ceremony for a new NATO building, said the new
structure is essential to meet the demands of a rapidly changing
security environment. Completion is due in 2015.
(AP, 12/16/10)
2010 Dec 23, In Afghanistan a
suicide bomber killed an Afghan policeman and wounded five civilians
in Kunduz. A blast in Ghazni killed a man suspected of being either
a suicide bomber or of trying to plant a bomb under a truck. A NATO
helicopter opened fire on a convoy of cars heading to an event
hosted by the head of a local council in Faryab province, killing a
police officer and the brother of a lawmaker. It was reported that
US-donated medicines and pharmaceutical supplies meant to keep the
new Afghan army and police healthy have been disappearing before
reaching Afghan military hospitals and clinics.
(AFP, 12/23/10)(AP, 12/23/10)
2010 Dec 26, The Afghanistan
Defense Ministry said it will investigate missing US-donated
medicines and pharmaceutical supplies meant for its army and police.
"Numerous insurgents were killed" in two separate incidents in
Helmand and Kandahar during a NATO operation targeting suspect
vehicles. Several suspected insurgents were detained.
(AP, 12/26/10)(AP, 12/27/10)
2011 Feb 5, In southern
Afghanistan two NATO service members were killed in separate bomb
attacks. NATO troops captured 48 Iranian-made warheads, 49 fuses,
and 49 rocket mortars. They were being transported in a three-truck
convoy, in southern Nimruz, near the Iranian and Pakistani borders.
(AP, 2/5/11)(AP, 3/9/11)
2011 Feb 20, Afghan provincial
Governor Fazlullah Wahidi said 64 civilians, including women and
children, were killed in 4 days of operations by NATO and Afghan
forces in eastern Kunar province. NATO said 36 armed insurgents were
killed. Coalition forces fired at three insurgents planting a
roadside mine near a NATO base in Nangarhar province. One weapon
missed the target, hit a house and killed a couple and their four
children.
(Reuters, 2/20/11)(AP, 2/21/11)
2011 Feb 27, Afghanistan's
government said that its investigations have found NATO killed 65
civilians, many of them children, during recent operations in a
remote northeastern militant stronghold. The parliament elected
Abdul Rahoof Ibrahimi, a former Uzbek warlord, as speaker, ending a
month of squabbling over the position that has further undermined
the credibility of an assembly tainted by electoral fraud.
(AFP, 2/27/11)(Reuters, 2/27/11)
2011 Mar 11, NATO defense
ministers in Brussels endorsed a list of the first cities and
provinces where Afghan police and soldiers will take control of
security, a key element in the West's exit strategy from the
decade-old war.
(AP, 3/11/11)
2011 Mar 20, Britain said its
air and sea strikes on Libya had been "very successful" and stressed
it was doing everything it could to avoid civilian casualties as it
enforces a UN-sanctioned no-fly zone. at least seven demolished
tanks smoldered in a field 12 miles (20 km) south of Benghazi, many
of them with their turrets and treads blown off. Turkey was blocking
NATO action, which requires agreement by all 28 members of the
alliance.
(AFP, 3/20/11)(AP, 3/21/11)
2011 Mar 22, France's foreign
ministry said that NATO would provide support to military
intervention by the Western-led coalition in Libya when the US
scales back its participation.
(Reuters, 3/22/11)
2011 Mar 23, In Afghanistan a
NATO helicopter gunship inadvertently killed two civilians while
attacking suspected insurgents in the eastern province of Khost. 2
British soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb in Helmand province.
(AP, 3/24/11)
2011 Mar 23, NATO nations
offered an armada of ships and submarines to enforce an arms embargo
against Libya, as Western allies sought to settle a row over the
organization's role in a no-fly zone.
(AFP, 3/23/11)
2011 Mar 24, French airstrikes
hit an air base deep inside Libya and NATO ships patrolled the coast
to block arms and mercenaries from flowing in to help Libyan leader
Moammar Gadhafi. Other coalition bombers struck artillery, tanks and
parked helicopters. NATO envoys decided to maintain the no-fly
patrols as authorized by a UN Security Council resolution last week.
(AP, 3/24/11)(AP, 3/25/11)
2011 Mar 25, In Afghanistan two
men, two women and three children died when the car they were
travelling in was hit by NATO fire in Helmand province.
(AFP, 3/26/11)
2011 Mar 25, Canadian Defense
Minister Peter MacKay said that Lt. Gen. Charles Bouchard has been
designated to lead the NATO alliance's military campaign in Libya.
Bouchard will be in charge of both the air campaign and the naval
task force implementing the arms embargo.
(AP, 3/25/11)(AP, 3/26/11)
2011 Mar 27, In southern
Afghanistan a NATO service member was killed in a roadside bombing.
A team of suicide bombers shot their way into the compound of a road
construction company in eastern Afghanistan and detonated a truck
loaded with explosives, killing at least 24 people and wounding 56
others in Paktika province.
(AP, 3/27/11)(AP, 3/28/11)(SFC, 3/29/11, p.A2)
2011 Mar 29, In northeast
Afghanistan about 300 Taliban fighters overran the tiny capital of a
remote mountainous district, forcing police to retreat from their
small outpost in the Waygal district of Nuristan province. The
Taliban said 12 police officers and their weaponry were captured.
Police chief Shamsul Rahman denied that any of his men were
captured. 6 NATO troops were killed in three separate incidents
during an operation in Kunar province.
(AP, 3/29/11)(AP, 3/30/11)
2011 Mar 31, In Afghanistan
NATO soldiers killed two civilians after opening fire on a car which
the force said had tried to attack a patrol in Kandahar city. A
local official said an ISAF soldier opened fire after a civilian car
hit one of their vehicles in a traffic accident.
(AFP, 3/31/11)
2011 Apr 4, A NATO official
said the US military will pull its warplanes from front-line
missions today and shift to a support role in the Libyan conflict.
(AP, 4/4/11)
2011 Apr 7, A NATO air strike
killed at least five rebels near the Libyan port of Brega.
Insurgents reported that Muammar Gaddafi's forces killed five more
in a bombardment of besieged Misrata. NATO blamed forces loyal to
Gaddafi for a fire in the Sarir oilfield, and denied the Western
military alliance had launched air strikes in the area.
(Reuters, 4/7/11)
2011 Apr 10, In Libya NATO
airstrikes battered Moammar Gadhafi's tanks, helping rebels push
back government troops advancing quickly toward the opposition's
eastern stronghold. After destroying 14 tanks around Misrata early
in the day, warplanes struck more tanks and anti-aircraft guns in
the late afternoon. The African Union said Muammar Gaddafi has
accepted a roadmap for ending the conflict in Libya including an
immediate ceasefire, but an opposition representative said it would
only work if Gaddafi left power.
(AP, 4/10/11)(AP, 4/10/11)
2011 Apr 14, Libyan rebels
begged for more NATO air strikes, saying they faced a massacre from
government artillery barrages on the besieged city of Misrata.
Western allies squabbled over the air campaign as forces loyal to
Gadhafi shelled Misrata, killing at least 23 people. NATO warplanes
launched air strikes on Tripoli. State-run Al-Libya TV channel
reported that there were casualties. NATO allies rebuffed French and
British calls to contribute more actively to the air war in Libya
despite fears of a military stalemate.
(Reuters, 4/14/11)(AFP, 4/14/11)
2011 Apr 14, NATO allies met in
Berlin seeking to bridge differences over their campaign in Libya,
as rebels fighting to topple Moamer Kadhafi reported an intensive
bombing blitz by alliance warplanes.
(AFP, 4/14/11)
2011 Apr 19, In Libya heavy
fighting raged in Misrata. A NATO commander complained the alliance
was having trouble destroying Gadhafi's mortars and rockets
attacking rebels there. 8 people were reported killed in Misrata.
The UN appealed for a ceasefire in Misrata, saying at least 20
children had been killed in attacks by besieging government forces
on rebel-held parts of the city. Rebels put the death toll from two
months of fighting at 10,000. NATO's commander in chief for the
operation in Libya announced military strikes against Kadhafi's
command centers, including Tripoli and a brigade accused of leading
attacks on civilians.
(AP, 4/19/11)(Reuters, 4/19/11)(AFP,
4/19/11)(Reuters, 4/20/11)
2011 Apr 25, In Libya Norwegian
F-16s flattened a building inside Muammar Gaddafi's Bab al-Aziziyah
compound, in what a press official from Gaddafi's government said
was a NATO attempt on the Libyan leader's life. Refugees fleeing the
Western Mountains told of heavy bombardment by Muammar Gaddafi's
forces as they try to dislodge rebels in remote Berber towns.
(AP, 4/25/11)(Reuters, 4/25/11)(Econ, 4/30/11,
p.52)
2011 Apr 26, In Libya late
night NATO warplanes broke up an attack by pro-Gadhafi forces in
Misrata.
(AP, 4/27/11)
2011 Apr 27, Libya's tribes
urged Moamer Kadhafi to cede power, as rebels backed by NATO air
strikes said they forced the strongman's missiles out of range of
the lifeline port of Misrata. Gaddafi forces fired Russian-made Grad
missiles into the rebel-held town of Zintan. A NATO airstrike in
Misrata reportedly killed 12 rebels.
(AFP, 4/27/11)(Reuters, 4/27/11)(AP, 4/28/11)
2011 May 5, In Libya NATO air
strikes reportedly destroyed at least two helicopters near the town
of Zintan as government forces transported them on trucks. Small
helicopters flew over Misrata dropping mines into the harbor of
Misrata. Rebels said the helicopters were marked with the Red Cross
sign.
(Reuters, 5/5/11)(AFP, 5/7/11)
2011 May 9, In Libya NATO
planes pounded government weapons depots southeast of the town of
Zintan, in a sign of widening conflict in the Western Mountains
region as rebels battled to unseat Muammar Gaddafi. Rebels were
reported to have found a way to access badly needed cash, selling
oil worth $100 million paid for through a Qatari bank in US dollars.
(Reuters, 5/9/11)
2011 May 10, In Afghanistan
hundreds of insurgents launched a large-scale attack against Afghan
police in remote Nuristan province, a part of the country that is
largely under Taliban control. A NATO service member was killed by a
roadside bomb. In southern Zabul province NATO and Afghan forces
killed 10 militants. In eastern Paktika, the provincial governor's
office said six insurgents were killed and another eight captured in
Afghan police operation.
(AP, 5/10/11)(AP, 5/11/11)
2011 May 10, In Libya NATO
warplanes struck a command center in Tripoli in the heaviest bombing
of the Libyan capital in weeks. Rebels, capitalizing on other NATO
air strikes, reported battlefront gains that could ease the siege of
the port city of Misrata.
(AP, 5/10/11)
2011 May 12, NATO airstrikes
struck Moammar Gadhafi's sprawling compound in Tripoli and three
other sites reportedly killing 3 people, hours after the Libyan
leader was shown on state TV in his first appearance since his son
was killed nearly two weeks ago.
(AP, 5/12/11)(AFP, 5/12/11)
2011 May 13, In Afghanistan two
NATO service members were killed in Helmand province by an Afghan
policeman, who was wounded and hospitalized. Another NATO service
member was killed by a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan.
(AP, 5/13/11)(SFC, 5/14/11, p.A2)
2011 May 14, NATO conducted 147
air sorties, 48 of them strike sorties that aim to identify and hit
targets but do not always deploy munitions. Targets included
surface-to-air missile launchers, ammunition stores and artillery
pieces.
(AP, 5/16/11)
2011 May 17, In eastern
Afghanistan NATO and Afghan overnight joint operations killed at
least 12 insurgents in Paktika province. Another four insurgents
were killed today in a raid in Mata Khan district. A NATO raid late
in the day killed two men and two women who were inside a home in an
area known as Gawmal, Takhar province.
(AP, 5/17/11)(AP, 5/18/11)
2011 May 17, Pakistani troops
and a NATO helicopter that crossed into Pakistani territory
exchanged fire, wounding two soldiers. The Pakistani army said it
lodged a strong protest and demanded a meeting with NATO officials
to discuss the incident. The army said a "senior al-Qaida operative"
had been arrested in the port city of Karachi. A statement said
Yemeni national Muhammad Ali Qasim Yaqub, alias Abu Sohaib Al Makki,
had been working directly under al Qaida leaders along the border
between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
(AP, 5/17/11)
2011 May 18, In Afghanistan
hundreds of protesters, angered by an overnight NATO raid that they
believed killed four civilians, clashed with security forces on the
streets of Taloqan, Takhar province. At least 12 people died in the
fighting. A suicide bomber crashed a car into a police bus, killing
14 people and wounding 16 in Nangarhar province. In the south a NATO
service member died in an insurgent attack.
(AP, 5/18/11)(AP, 5/19/11)(SFC, 5/19/11, p.A4)
2011 May 19, In Afghanistan
insurgents firing heavy machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades and
assault rifles killed 35 workers and guards in an attack on a
NATO-funded road construction site in a remote area of Paktia
province.
(AP, 5/20/11)
2011 May 20, In Libya NATO
fighter jets struck three ports in bombing runs overnight, targeting
Gadhafi's navy with a goal of protecting the nearby rebel-held port
of Misrata. A NATO strike this morning hit a police academy in the
Tripoli neighborhood of Tajoura. An international aid group said
that 3,800 Chadians who fled fighting in Libya are stranded in a
remote desert town in northern Chad. NATO warplanes bombed command
centers near Tripoli and in the southwest as part of a continuing
effort to cut communications links between Gadhafi and his units on
the battlefields.
(AP, 5/20/11)(AP, 5/21/11)
2011 May 21, In the Khyber
region of Pakistan a bomb attack on a NATO fuel tanker headed to
Afghanistan sparked a huge fire that killed 15 people who had been
scrambling to collect petrol leaking out from the bombed-out
vehicle. 11 other NATO supply vehicles, "most of them oil tankers,"
were destroyed at a terminal in nearby Torkham town.
(AFP, 5/21/11)
2011 May 22, In Libya NATO
warplanes carried out raids against the port of Tripoli and the
residence of Moamer Kadhafi near the center of the capital.
(AFP, 5/22/11)
2011 May 23, A French
diplomatic source said France and other members of a NATO-led
coalition plan to deploy attack helicopters in Libya, a move aimed
at ramping up pressure against Muammar Gaddafi's forces.
(Reuters, 5/23/11)
2011 May 24, In southern
Afghanistan a roadside bomb killed 10 workers, and NATO again
promised that the coalition would not abandon the country even if
some members plan to withdraw their forces. The Taliban shot dead
the principal of a boys' only high school in Logar province. A NATO
service member died in a bomb attack in southern Afghanistan.
(AP, 5/24/11)(AP, 5/25/11)
2011 May 24, Libyan forces
loyal to Muammar Gaddafi cut electricity supplies to much of the
Western Mountains, threatening water supplies and stepping up a war
of attrition with rebels who hold the plateau. NATO launched its
most intense bombardment yet against Gadhafi's Tripoli stronghold.
Government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said at least 3 people were
killed.
(Reuters, 5/29/11)(AP, 5/24/11)
2011 May 26, African leaders
demanded an outright end to NATO air strikes on Libya. Spain says it
and other European governments have received a message from Libyan
PM Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi proposing an immediate cease-fire in his
country's war. Global Witness said Goldman Sachs and HSBC together
held $335 million of the Libyan oil fund's assets, while Societe
Generale held $1 billion in structured products for the fund.
(AFP, 5/26/11)(AP, 5/26/11)(Reuters, 5/26/11)
2011 May 27, NATO reported that
Moamer Kadhafi's forces had laid landmines in Misrata. Russia joined
the call of Western powers for Kadhafi to step down as G8 leaders
met in France.
(AFP, 5/27/11)
2011 May 28, NATO aircraft
destroyed the guard towers at Muammar Gaddafi's compound in Tripoli,
then staged a rare daytime air strike, heightening pressure on him
to quit.
(Reuters, 5/28/11)
2011 May 30, In western
Afghanistan Taliban insurgents led by suicide bombers attacked an
Italian military base and set off another explosion that left dozens
wounded. 4 insurgents died. An Afghan policeman and four civilians
were killed in the explosions in Heart. 4 NATO soldiers were killed
in other parts of the country. NATO officials apologized for an
airstrike on May 28 that inadvertently killed women and children,
saying that they thought that only insurgents were inside the
targeted compound when they ordered the strike.
(Reuters, 5/30/11)(AP, 5/30/11)
2011 May 30, South Africa
President Jacob Zuma arrived in Tripoli for talks on ending the
Libyan conflict as NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Moamer
Kadhafi's "reign of terror" was near its end. 5 generals, 2 colonels
and a major announced they had defected from Kadhafi's forces, and
said the regime's army was now at 20-percent capacity.
(AFP, 5/30/11)(AFP, 5/31/11)
2011 May 31, NATO pounded
Tripoli, only hours after South African President Jacob Zuma left
Libya's capital having failed to close the gap between Kadhafi and
rebels fighting to oust him since February. Zuma said Kadhafi was
"ready to implement the roadmap of the AU" and that he had insisted
"all Libyans be given a chance to talk among themselves" to
determine the country's future.
(AFP, 5/31/11)
2011 May 31, Afghan President
Hamid Karzai said he will no longer allow NATO airstrikes on houses,
issuing his strongest statement yet against strikes that the
military alliance says are key to its war on Taliban insurgents. A
NATO spokeswoman said attacks on houses in Afghanistan are necessary
and will continue in cooperation with Afghan security forces. A NATO
service member was killed in an insurgent attack in eastern
Afghanistan.
(AP, 5/31/11)(AP, 6/1/11)
2011 Jun 1, NATO agreed to
extend its Libyan air war by three months and dismissed charges by
Moamer Kadhafi's regime that the bombing campaign has already killed
718 civilians. Libyan oil minister Shukri Ghanem said in Rome that
he now supports the rebel insurgency who have set up a de-facto
capital in Benghazi. A UN panel said government forces have
committed crimes against humanity and war crimes in a conflict that
has left an estimated 10-15 thousand people dead.
(AP, 6/1/11)(AP, 6/2/11)(SFC, 6/2/11, p.A4)
2011 Jun 3, In Libya a series
of at least 10 NATO strikes hit in and around Tripoli, targeting
military barracks close to Gadhafi's sprawling compound, a police
station and a military base. A rebel military leader said his troops
had broken the siege of two towns in the western Nafusa mountain
range, Yefren and Shakshuk. The Chinese Foreign Ministry said that
China's ambassador to Qatar had recently met with the head of
Libya's rebel council.
(AP, 6/3/11)
2011 Jun 4, In eastern
Afghanistan a roadside bomb killed four NATO service members. In the
east a female suicide bomber detonated her explosives near a
coalition convoy, wounding three Afghan guards in Kunar province. In
Nangahar province at least two Taliban gunmen shot to death a local
counterterrorism official in the Khogyani district.
(AP, 6/4/11)(AP, 6/5/11)
2011 Jun 4, In Libya British
Apache and French attack helicopters struck targets for the first
time in NATO's campaign, hitting Moammar Gadhafi's troops near a key
coastal oil city.
(AP, 6/4/11)
2011 Jun 7, The EU imposed
sanctions on 6 ports still held by Colonel Qaddafi. Russian
President Dmitri Medvedev sent an envoy to Libya for the first time
to meet with rebel leaders in the city of Benghazi and promise
support. At least 40 NATO strikes hit Tripoli as Khadafy spoke in an
audio address and vowed never to surrender.
(Econ, 6/18/11, p.53)(AFP, 6/7/11)(SFC, 6/8/11,
p.A4)
2011 Jun 16, In Libya NATO
airstrikes pounded the area near Moammar Gadhafi's compound again
before dawn. Moamer Kadhafi's regime told visiting Russian envoy
Mikhail Margelov that the embattled Libyan leader is "not ready" to
go, despite growing calls for him to quit and a months-long
uprising. Muammar Gaddafi’s son said his father is willing to hold
elections and step aside if he lost, an offer unlikely to placate
his opponents but which could test the unity of the Western alliance
trying to force him out.
(AP, 6/16/11)(AFP, 6/16/11)(Reuters, 6/16/11)
2011 Jun 19, The Libyan
government accused NATO of bombing a residential neighborhood in the
capital and killing civilians, adding to its charges that the
alliance is striking nonmilitary targets. 9 people, including two
children, were reported killed. NATO admitted it carried out an air
strike that killed civilians in Tripoli.
(AP, 6/19/11)(Reuters, 6/20/11)
2011 Jun 20, Libya's government
said a NATO airstrike on a large family compound belonging to
Khoweildi al-Hamidi, a close associate of Moammar Gadhafi, killed 13
people, including three children, west of Tripoli. Hamadi escaped
unharmed, but his wife and 2 grandchildren were among the dead. NATO
acknowledged obliterating the compound. On July 28 attorneys for
Hamadi filed a civil lawsuit in Belgium accusing NATO of killing the
13 civilians.
(AP, 6/20/11)(SFC, 6/21/11, p.A2)(AP, 7/28/11)
2011 Jun 25, Libyan authorities
accused NATO of killing 15 people in an airstrike that hit a
restaurant and bakery in the east, while the alliance said there
were no indications that civilians had died. Two loud explosions
were heard in Tripoli as jets flew over the city. The rebel
authority said 4 members of Libya's national soccer team and 13
other football figures have defected.
(AP, 6/25/11)(Reuters, 6/25/11)
2011 Jun 27, In Libya NATO
operations entered a 100th day with airstrikes having eased the
siege of key rebel cities but with Moamer Kadhafi still in power and
fears of an open war lingering. Rebels south of Tripoli advanced to
within about 80 km (50 miles) of the capital and fought government
troops for control of the town of Bir al-Ghanam.
(AFP, 6/27/11)(Reuters, 6/27/11)
2011 Jun 28, In Afghanistan a
roadside bomb killed two women and injured a child who were walking
in Panjwai district of Kandahar province. A NATO service member was
killed in an insurgent attack. Heavily armed Taliban militants
stormed a top Kabul hotel, sparking a ferocious battle involving
Afghan commandos and a NATO helicopter gunship that left at least 21
dead including the nine attackers. The hotel was hosting delegates
attending an Afghan security conference and a large wedding party
when the insurgents struck late in the day.
(AP, 6/28/11)(AFP, 6/29/11)
2011 Jul 2, NATO said it has
begun ramping up its airstrikes on military targets in the western
part of Libya, where rebel forces claim a string of advances through
territory still largely under Moammar Gadhafi's control.
(AP, 7/2/11)
2011 Jul 7, In Afghanistan a
roadside bomb killed 8 Afghan policemen on a patrol in the northern
district of Fayz Abad. A NATO service member died as a result of a
non-battle related injury in the south. In the east a NATO
helicopter crashed in Parnwan province, but the crew was recovered.
Up to 13 civilians, mostly women and children, were killed in a NATO
air strike in the eastern province of Khost.
(AP, 7/7/11)(AFP, 7/7/11)
2011 Jul 14, Afghan President
Hamid Karzai ordered an investigation into provincial government
claims that a NATO raid killed six civilians in Khost province. NATO
said its troops killed insurgents linked to the Haqqani network
during gunfights in the area and that only one civilian was wounded.
A demonstration broke out after bodies of the dead were carried
through Khost and the provincial council announced it was going on
strike in protest over the deaths. A suicide bomber hiding
explosives in his turban blew himself up inside a mosque during a
memorial service for the slain half brother of President Karzai,
killing at least 5 people. A French soldier was killed in a skirmish
with insurgents in Kapisa province.
(AFP, 7/14/11)(AP, 7/14/11)
2011 Jul 17, Afghanistan began
handing responsibility for security from NATO soldiers to its own
troops, igniting a process designed to leave the country free of
foreign combat forces by 2014. Afghan and NATO troops killed at
least 13 Taliban fighters in Nangarhar province after an overnight
gunbattle ended with an airstrike on a building occupied by the
insurgents.
(AFP, 7/17/11)(AP, 7/17/11)
2011 Jul 18, US General David
Petraeus, Washington's new intelligence chief, handed over command
of US and NATO-led troops in Afghanistan to US Marine Corps General
John Allen. A British soldier was killed in an explosion in Helmand
province. 7 Afghan policemen manning a checkpoint in Helmand
province were fed poisonous food and shot dead. In a separate
incident two civilians were kidnapped and killed by insurgents.
(AP, 7/18/11)(AFP, 7/19/11)(AFP, 7/19/11)
2011 Jul 19, Mortar shells from
Afghanistan killed four Pakistani soldiers, the latest cross-border
escalation as Afghan Pres. Karzai and his Pakistani counterpart
called for peace. NATO handed over responsibility for the security
of Mehterlam, the capital of eastern Laghman province, to Afghan
forces.
(AFP, 7/19/11)(AP, 7/19/11)
2011 Jul 24, In Afghanistan
NATO forces battling insurgents along a highway in Wardak province
accidentally killed three civilians who were caught in the
crossfire.
(AP, 7/24/11)
2011 Jul 24, In Libya NATO
warplanes blitzed a string of military targets in Tripoli, as Moamer
Kadhafi blamed a "colonial plot" for the conflict engulfing his
country. The latest NATO strikes came after rebel forces said they
had lost 16 fighters in two days of fighting for Zliten and had
infiltrated the capital and attacked a regime command post where a
son of the strongman was among officials targeted.
(AFP, 7/24/11)
2011 Jul 25, The Libyan
government showed foreign journalists a destroyed flu clinic in
Zlitan and food warehouses it said had been hit earlier in the day
by NATO airstrikes, killing eight people. NATO denied that it had
targeted civilians and said it had only hit a number of military
objectives in the area.
(AP, 7/25/11)
2011 Jul 26, Kosovo's special
police forces, that moved into the country's disputed north
overnight to extend the government's writ at borders with Serbia,
will withdraw as part of a deal between Kosovo and Serbia and
mediated by NATO.
(AP, 7/26/11)
2011 Jul 28, In Kosovo American
and French peacekeepers under NATO took control of two customs posts
on the northern border with Serbia after they were attacked by Serbs
armed with firebombs.
(AP, 7/28/11)
2011 Jul 29, NATO forces in
Kosovo withdrew from a barricade put up by hundreds of Serbs on
Friday to avoid confrontation with Serb extremists blocking the
peacekeepers from reaching a base in the Serb-run north.
(AP, 7/29/11)
2011 Aug 1, NATO removed
roadblocks put up by Serbs in Kosovo's north, but barricades still
remain following a week of violence that left one Kosovo policeman
dead.
(AP, 8/1/11)
2011 Aug 3, Libya’s Seif
al-Islam Kadhafi, the high-profile son of leader Moammar Gadhafi,
said his family had forged an alliance with Islamist rebels among
the insurgents to drive out the secular opposition to his father's
40-year rule. He claimed to have negotiated the pact with Ali
Sallabi, a leading Islamist in the rebel-held east. Sallabi
acknowledged their conversations but denied the Islamists had
switched sides. Rebels reportedly seized the Cartagena, which NATO
had prevented from delivering oil to Tripoli.
(AFP, 8/4/11)(Econ, 8/6/11, p.38)
2011 Aug 5, In southern
Afghanistan insurgents opened fire on police at an anti-NATO rally
in Qalat, Zabul province, sparking a gunbattle that killed three
civilians and a police officer. The townspeople were protesting an
overnight NATO operation that killed 3 suspected insurgents,
including a local Taliban commander. NATO said insurgents killed 2
alliance service members. In the east a CH-47 military helicopter
crashed killing 30 US special operation troops, an interpreter and 7
Afghan commandos. The Taliban claimed they downed the helicopter
with rocket fire while it was taking part in a raid on a house where
insurgents were gathered in Wardak province. In southern Helmand
province NATO troops attacked a house and inadvertently killed eight
members of a family, including women and children. A British
coalition service member was killed in the south.
(AP, 8/5/11)(AFP, 8/5/11)(AP, 8/6/11)
2011 Aug 5, Libya's rebels said
they have reports that Moammar Gadhafi's youngest son, was killed in
a NATO airstrike in the western town of Zlitan. Khamis Gadhafi (27)
commanded one of the regime's strongest military brigades. He was
reportedly among 32 troops killed when NATO hit a government
operations center. Deputy Foreign Minister Khaled Kaim said Khamis
is alive. NATO reportedly struck and destroyed a caravan of camels
carrying heavy caliber machine guns, mortars and ammunition from
neighboring Chad. State television later said 33 children and 32
women were among 85 people killed in the NATO attack.
(AP, 8/5/11)(AP, 8/6/11)(AP, 8/11/11)
2011 Aug 7, In Afghanistan two
French Foreign Legion soldiers and five others were injured in a
clash with insurgents in the northeastern Tagab valley. They were
among four NATO troops killed in two separate insurgent attacks.
(AFP, 8/7/11)(AP, 8/7/11)
2011 Aug 9, Around 200 Afghans
burned tires and blocked key roads near the presidential palace in
angry protests after at least three people were killed over a land
dispute. Members of the Kuchi nomadic tribe had clashed with guards
working for a housing project linked to the family of lawmaker Qais
Hasan. NATO troops reportedly killed four Afghan policemen by
accident in Kandahar province.
(AFP, 8/9/11)(AP, 8/10/11)
2011 Aug 11, In southern
Afghanistan 5 NATO soldiers were killed by a bomb. Another NATO
service member died in an insurgent attack in the south. The Taliban
rejected a US claim to have killed the fighters who shot down an
American helicopter killing 38 troops. 5 Afghan police were killed
in an overnight clash with the Taliban in Helmand province. 2 Afghan
soldiers, abducted a day earlier, were found dead in Logar province.
A French soldier was killed when a roadside bomb exploded on a
convoy in Kapisa province.
(AFP, 8/11/11)(AP, 8/12/11)
2011 Aug 17, In Libya rebels
battled Moammar Gadhafi loyalists for control over the only
functioning oil refinery in the western city of Zawiya, as the
opposition tried to cut off fuel supplies to the regime's stronghold
of Tripoli. NATO warplanes sunk a tugboat carrying troops loyal to
Gadhafi away from Zawiya as rebels advanced closer to Tripoli.
(AP, 8/17/11)(AP, 8/19/11)
2011 Aug 18, In Libya 5 loud
explosions shook the center of Tripoli, as rebels in the western
mountains claimed control of the Zawiya oil refinery. Gadhafi troops
were still in control of Gamal Abdel-Nasser Street and were hiding
in the hospital there. PM al-Baghdadi Ali al-Mahmoudi said the
government was in negotiations with rebels. NATO planes took out
five tanks in Zawiya. NATO hit four military facilities in Tripoli.
(AP, 8/18/11)(AP, 8/19/11)
2011 Aug 22, Libyan rebels
claimed to be in control of most of Tripoli after their lightning
advance heralded the fall of Moammar Gadhafi's nearly 42-year
regime. Scattered battles erupted, and the mercurial leader's
whereabouts remained unknown. NATO said it will continue its combat
air patrols over Libya until all pro-Gadhafi forces surrender or
return to barracks.
(AP, 8/22/11)
2011 Aug 26, In northwest
Afghanistan a bomb exploded at an outdoor mosque, killing four
worshippers in Faryab province. In western Herat a bomb placed on a
small cart exploded, killing an Afghan woman and wounding seven
other civilians. A NATO airstrike reportedly killed six civilians,
including four women, in Logar province.
(AP, 8/26/11)(AP, 8/27/11)
2011 Aug 26, In Libya British
warplanes struck a large bunker in Moammar Gadhafi's hometown of
Sirte, his largest remaining stronghold, as NATO turned its
attention to loyalist forces battling advancing Libyan rebels in the
area. The two main tribes in Sirte, the Gadhadhfa and the Urfali,
remained loyal to the Libyan leader. About 80 decomposing bodies
were found in an abandoned hospital in Tripoli.
(AP, 8/26/11)(AFP, 8/26/11)
2011 Aug 30, Libyan rebels
pledged to launch an assault within days on Sirte, Moammar Gadhafi's
hometown. Rebels told Khadafy backers to give up by Sep 3 or face
assault. Gadhafi's daughter gave birth to a baby girl in Algeria.
NATO planes bombed Gaddafi forces near Sirte, targeting tanks and
other armored vehicles as well as military facilities. They also hit
targets in the area of Bani Walid, another Gaddafi stronghold 150 km
southeast of Tripoli.
(AP, 8/30/11)(Reuters, 8/31/11)(SFC, 8/31/11,
p.A3)
2011 Aug 30, A Lithuanian
military plane collided midair with a French fighter jet during a
NATO training flight and crashed into a swamp in northern Lithuania
after its two pilots safely ejected. The French Mirage fighter was
only "lightly damaged" and landed safely.
(AP, 8/30/11)
2011 Sep 2, Afghan and NATO
forces killed Saber Lal Melma, a former Guantanamo detainee. He had
returned to Afghanistan after being released in 2007 to become a key
al-Qaida ally.
(AP, 9/3/11)
2011 Sep 2, Turkey said it has
agreed to host an early warning radar as part of NATO's missile
defense system aimed at countering ballistic missile threats from
neighboring Iran.
(AP, 9/2/11)
2011 Sep 3, In Afghanistan
officials said NATO forces killed a child and a shopkeeper who were
caught up in a firefight between a military patrol and a gunman in
Kandahar. NATO said that one of its service members was killed in an
insurgent attack in the south but did not say if it was the same
incident.
(AP, 9/3/11)
2011 Sep 6, In Libya tribal
elders from one of Moammar Gadhafi's last strongholds tried to
persuade regime loyalists holed up there to lay down their arms.
Mansour Dao, Gadhafi's security chief, was at the head of the first
convoy to roll into Niamey, the capital of Niger. NATO made a number
of airstrikes around Sirte, hitting six tanks, six armored fighting
vehicles and an ammunition storage facility, among other targets.
They also targeted the Gadhafi loyalist strongholds of Hun, Sabha
and Waddan.
(AP, 9/6/11)(AP, 9/7/11)
2011 Sep 7, The Afghan
government charged that a NATO decision to stop transferring
detainees to some Afghan-run detention centers is unjustified and
damages the handover of security to local forces. A French
paratrooper was killed by insurgent fire during an operation in the
eastern province of Kapisa. A roadside bomb in eastern Khost
province killed five Afghan soldiers. A Turkish engineer was killed
by a roadside bomb in Herat province.
(AP, 9/7/11)(AP, 9/8/11)
2011 Sep 11, In Libya NATO
warplanes struck several targets in areas still loyal to fugitive
leader Moammar Gadhafi as revolutionary forces said they had to
retreat from Bani Walid, a key loyalist stronghold, after coming
under heavy fire. At least 12 people were killed and 16 wounded when
a brigade from Gharyan and Kikla came under fire at the western town
of Asabah. Many people in Asabah were Kadhafi supporters and 20 of
his fighters were reported captured during the fighting.
(AP, 9/11/11)(AFP, 9/11/11)
2011 Sep 13, Romania signed a
deal to host a crucial part of a US missile defense system.
Romania's President Traian Basescu announced the deal after meeting
with President Obama in Washington. Under NATO plans, a limited
system of US anti-missile interceptors and radars planned for Europe
include interceptors in Romania and Poland as well as radar in
Turkey.
(AP, 9/14/11)
2011 Sep 14, Turkey’s foreign
ministry announced that an early warning radar will be stationed in
Kurecik in the southeast as part of NATO's missile defense system.
(AP, 9/14/11)
2011 Sep 21, In Libya NATO
airstrikes pounded an area in Moammar Gadhafi's hometown of Sirte as
revolutionary forces surrounding the city came under rocket fire.
NATO allies agreed to extend their air campaign in Libya by another
90 days. Rebel forces captured the base between Waddan and Hun at
dawn and took Hun during the day. Rebels began a 3-day attack on the
region of the al-Meshashya tribe, which had earlier pledged support
for Gadhafi. Public property was destroyed, private cars and farm
animals were stolen, and homes were burned.
(AP, 9/21/11)(AFP, 9/21/11)(AFP, 9/22/11)(AP,
9/28/11)
2011 Sep 27, NATO troops shot
at Serb protesters after the military alliance's troops were
attacked near Kosovo's border with Serbia.
(AP, 9/27/11)
2011 Sep 28, In southern
Afghanistan gunmen killed 8 policemen at checkpoint in Helmand
province. In Uruzgan province a district police chief was killed and
three of his bodyguards were injured when their vehicle struck a
roadside bomb. The UN said the average number of armed clashes,
roadside bombings and other violence in the country each month is
running 39% higher in 2011 compared to last year. NATO said Afghan
and US-led coalition troops destroyed drugs worth more than $350
million and 3 drug laboratories in what is believed to be
Afghanistan's largest drug seizure this past decade. A New Zealand
special forces soldier was shot in the head and killed during a
gunbattle with suspected insurgents in Kabul. 3 foreign soldiers
were killed by an improvised explosive device (IED) in the east, and
another 3 died in another IED attack in the south, along with two
others in separate incidents.
(AP, 9/28/11)(AFP, 9/28/11)(AFP, 9/29/11)
2011 Sep 29, In southern
Afghanistan a roadside bomb killed three NATO service members, while
a bomb targeting Afghan policewomen killed three people in Herat.
(AFP, 9/29/11)
2011 Oct 7, Afghan Pres. Hamid
Karzai admitted his government and NATO had failed to provide
security to Afghans, as Afghanistan marked the 10th anniversary of a
war that has cost thousands of lives and hundreds of billions of
dollars. Karzai claimed the Taliban are being propped up by
Pakistan, saying the militants can't lift a finger without the
Pakistanis. A suicide bomber and rocket fire struck 3 US-run
outposts near the Pakistani border.
(AFP, 10/7/11)(AP, 10/7/11)(SFC, 10/8/11, p.A4)
2011 Oct 14, In southern
Afghanistan a suicide attacker blew up an explosives-packed car
while it was being inspected at a border police checkpoint that had
been set up because of a warning of an imminent attack. 3 officers
and one civilian were killed. NATO and Afghan forces killed 13
insurgents in an overnight operation targeting local Taliban
leaders. One police officer was killed in the operation. 3 NATO
service members were killed in separate attacks. Violence left at
least 30 dead across Afghanistan.
(AP, 10/14/11)(AP, 10/15/11)
2011 Oct 19, Kosovo Serb
leaders, defying a NATO warning, refused to unconditionally lift
their roadblocks in the north of the country. A day earlier the
5,500-strong NATO-led force in Kosovo, known as KFOR, said it will
take unspecified "resolute" action if the Serbs fail to lift the
blockade.
(AP, 10/19/11)
2011 Oct 19, Turkish soldiers,
air force bombers and helicopter gunships launched an incursion into
northern Iraq, hours after Kurdish rebels killed 24 soldiers and
wounded 18 in attacks along the border. The United States and NATO
both issued statements supporting the offensive, the largest in more
than three years.
(AP, 10/19/11)(AFP, 10/21/11)
2011 Oct 20, Kosovo's NATO-led
peacekeepers confronted crowds of angry Serbs as they tried to
remove Serb roadblocks in the volatile north of the country.
(AP, 10/20/11)
2011 Oct 20, Libya’s National
Transition Council said that its fighters found and shot dictator
Moammar Gadhafi (69). Sirte finally fell to the rebels today after
weeks of tough fighting. NATO war planes struck 11 armed
vehicles in the vicinity of Sirte. The strikes marked the
culmination of a NATO-led air war mandated by the UN to protect
civilians from Gadhafi's forces Gadhafi was shot in the head after
being captured at a sewage culvert on the outskirts of Sirte.
(AP, 10/20/11)(AFP, 10/21/11)
2011 Oct 21, NATO announced
plans to end its 7-month mission in Libya on October 31 but will
issue a formal decision next week after consulting the UN and
Libya's interim authorities.
(AFP, 10/22/11)
2011 Oct 22, NATO-led
peacekeepers tried to remove roadblocks in northern Kosovo, but were
prevented by Serbs guarding the blockade that has paralyzed travel
in the tense region.
(AP, 10/22/11)
2011 Oct 24, Hundreds of
Afghans took to the streets in Kabul, shouting "death to America" in
an angry protest urging the government not to sign a strategic
partnership with the US. The US coalition said tens of thousands of
Afghan and NATO troops killed or captured 200 insurgents in eastern
Afghanistan during two operations targeting the Haqqani network.
(AFP, 10/24/11)
2011 Oct 26, Libya's interim
leader Mustafa Abdel Jalil urged NATO to continue its Libya campaign
until year's end, saying loyalists of slain despot Moamer Kadhafi
still pose a threat to the country. NATO unexpectedly postponed a
definite decision to end its bombing campaign.
(AFP, 10/26/11)(SFC, 10/27/11, p.A4)
2011 Oct 26, Marcel Ceccaldi, a
French lawyer representing the family of Moamer Kadhafi said he
plans to file a war crimes complaint against NATO with the
International Criminal Court (ICC) for the alliance's alleged role
in his death.
(AFP, 10/26/11)
2011 Oct 28, NATO allies
formally agreed to end the seven-month mission in Libya Oct 31.
(AFP, 10/28/11)
2011 Oct 29, In Afghanistan a
Taliban car bomber struck a NATO military convoy in the Kabul,
killing at least 13 people, including 5 troops and 8 civilians. 3
Australian army trainers were killed when an Afghan soldier in
Uruzgan province turned his gun on them. In the eastern city of
Asadabad in Kunar province, a female suicide bomber blew herself up
outside a local branch of Afghanistan's spy agency, wounding two
guards.
(AFP, 10/29/11)(AFP, 10/30/11)
2011 Oct 29, In Libya
volunteers reportedly buried more than 500 bodies across Sirte since
October 23, most of them believed to be fighters. This included more
than 50 bodies of civilians were found under the rubble of a
several-storey building flattened in a NATO air strike.
(AFP, 10/29/11)
2011 Oct 31, NATO’s
Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen arrived in Tripoli for talks
with Libya's interim leaders before NATO operations end at midnight
today.
(AP, 10/31/11)
2011 Nov 2, NATO said it is
pouring extra resources to set up an Afghan force to take over from
private security firms after a report showed the Afghans are
unlikely to be ready for the planned disbanding of private security
companies in March.
(AP, 11/2/11)
2011 Nov 4, NATO said US Major
General Peter Fuller, deputy commander of NATO's mission to train
and equip Afghan forces, has been dismissed after making
"inappropriate public comments." He had accused leaders including
President Hamid Karzai of being out of touch and ungrateful for
American support.
(AFP, 11/4/11)
2011 Nov 23, President Dmitry
Medvedev said Russia will deploy new missiles aimed at US missile
defense sites in Europe if Washington goes ahead with the planned
shield despite Russia's concerns. The stern warning to the US and
NATO seemed to be directed at rallying nationalist votes in the
polls.
(AP, 11/23/11)
2011 Nov 26, Pakistan accused
NATO helicopters and fighter jets of firing on two army checkpoints
in the country's northwest and killing 24 soldiers. Afghan troops,
who came under fire while operating near the Pakistan border, called
in the NATO airstrikes. Islamabad retaliated by closing the border
crossings used by the international coalition to supply its troops
in neighboring Afghanistan. The Pakistani government demanded the US
vacate an air base within 15 days that the CIA is suspected of using
for unmanned drones.
(AP, 11/26/11)(AP, 11/27/11)
2011 Nov 28, A German NATO
officer and a soldier were shot and wounded in a clash with Serb
protesters in northern Kosovo after the military alliance's troops
used heavy machinery to remove trucks and buses blocking a main road
in the tense region.
(AP, 11/28/11)
2011 Dec 5, The US said it is
vacating the Shamsi air base in Pakistan used by American drones
that target Taliban and al-Qaida militants, complying with a key
demand made by Islamabad in retaliation for the NATO airstrikes that
killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.
(AP, 12/5/11)
2011 Dec 8, NATO informed Iraq
that it will withdraw its training mission at year-end after Baghdad
refused to grant it legal immunity, mirroring the nearly-complete
pullout of US forces.
(AFP, 12/11/11)
2012 Jan 17, In Afghanistan
assailants gunned down Mohammad Nahim Agha Mama, a prominent
anti-Taliban tribal leader as he was praying in a mosque in
Kandahar. A suicide car bomber slammed into the entrance of a
military base jointly run by NATO and Afghan troops in Nangarhar
province, wounding three Afghan private security guards. NATO forces
reportedly killed 5 civilians, including a woman and 2 children,
during an overnight raid in Kunar province.
(AP, 1/17/12)(AP, 1/18/12)
2012 Jan 27, France announced
it would withdraw its troops from Afghanistan a year earlier than
the 2014 date agreed by NATO. Pres. Sarkozy, alongside Afghan
President Hamid Karzai who was in Paris for a previously planned
visit, said France had told the US of its plan, and will present it
at a Feb. 2-3 meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels.
(AP, 1/28/12)
2012 Feb 1, NATO confirmed a
secret report saying that the Taliban, backed by Pakistan, are set
to retake control of Afghanistan after NATO-led forces withdraw,
raising the prospect of a major failure of Western policy after a
costly war.
(AP, 2/1/12)
2012 Feb 2, NATO's top official
joined the US and France in calling for Afghan forces to take the
lead in all combat operations by mid-2013, a year earlier than the
original timeline.
(AP, 2/2/12)
Go to www.timelinesdb.com
Subject = NATO
End of file