2004 in Afghanistan

Incumbents

• President: Hamid Karzai
• Vice President: Hedayat Amin Arsala
• Vice President: Mohammed Fahim
• Vice President: Nematullah Shahrani
• Vice President: Karim Khalili
• First Vice President: Ahmad Zia Massoud
• Chief Justice: Faisal Ahmad Shinwari

  January

• Canadian governor general Adrienne Clarkson left Kabul, ending a four-day visit with aid workers and soldiers at Camp Julien and Camp Warehouse.
• About northeast of Kunduz, several people were detained by U.S. and Afghan troops during a raid of a drug facility, which contained about two tons of drugs and equipment. Once the people were removed a U.S. A-10 Thunderbolt II was called in to destroy the laboratory.

• Near Deh Rawood, Uruzgan Province, men attacked a U.S. military convoy that had arrested three relatives of Haji Ghulam Nabi. Two U.S. soldiers were injured.

• Gunmen threw grenades and opened fire on the United Nations High Commission for Refugees office Kandahar.
• Lakhdar Brahimi, the United Nations envoy to Afghanistan stepped down as promised to do once the Constitution of Afghanistan was approved. Brahimi's position was filled on an interim-basis by his deputy for political affairs, Jean Arnault.
• Three soldiers of the Afghan National Army died and two were wounded in a clashed with forces under the control of the Zabul Province governor. Among the dead was the commander of the army division in Zabul, Shah Alam.
• In Teheran, India, Iran and Afghanistan signed an agreement to give Indian goods heading for central Asia and Afghanistan similar preferential treatment and tariff reductions at Chabahar.

• In Afghanistan, a minibus on its way from Uruzgan to Helmand was ambushed by gunmen, leaving twelve Hazara passengers dead.
• In a report issued to the United Nations Security Council, United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan warned that violence in Afghanistan could disrupt the timing of elections scheduled for June and noted that south and south-east Afghanistan was mostly off-limits to the United Nations, NGOs and Afghan officials. He called for another political and donor conference to address these concerns.
• A grenade was thrown at the Core office in Kandahar.
• Speaking to the media via satellite telephone, senior Taliban commander Mullah Sabir Momin apologized for the bomb attack in Kandahar the previous day that killed fifteen, including many children. Momin said the intended target was the U.S. Provincial Reconstruction Team office in Kandahar.
• U.S. and Afghan National Army forces launched an operation in Spin Boldak with the goal of arresting Taliban leaders, particularly fugitive commander Mullah Akhter Mohammad.
• Fourteen tons of aid from Canadian donors was distributed by Canadian soldiers to widows and orphans in Kabul. The donations included winter clothing, blankets, toys, chewing gum, school supplies and diapers. Care Canada also distributed to each family, through funding from the Canadian International Development Agency, enough to help feed seven people for up to a month.
• In Afghanistan, a bomb found hidden under straw near a downtown Kandahar bus station was defused.
• Gunfire was exchanged on the streets of Kandahar, prompting U.S. soldiers to move in.

• In Afghanistan, Kandahar police arrested six people in possession of documents that linked them to the Taliban. A confession also linked the men to the bomb planted the day before in the bus station.
• In Jalalabad, Afghan and U.S. officials held a ceremony opening a new U.S. Provincial Reconstruction Team.
• United Nations spokesman Manuel de Almeida de Silva stated that, to date, only 274,000 of the 10 million Afghans eligible to vote have been registered.
• Pakistan launched a military operation utilizing helicopter gunships and ground troops against suspected al-Qaeda cells in the area of South Waziristan, which borders Afghanistan.
• Afghan authorities in Kabul arrested eleven people suspected of involvement with a December 28, 2003 suicide bombing near the airport.
• Protesting against the decision by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to reject their refugee claims, seven Afghan asylum-seekers on Indonesia's Lombok island began a hunger strike by sewing up their mouths.
• In Mazari Sharif, local police removed a bomb from a ditch near a United Nations office.

• A U.S. soldier died from complications caused by a vehicle accident southwest of Kabul a day earlier.

• In Helmand Province, four men were killed as they planted a land mine on a road regularly used by military patrols.
• A rocket was fired at the Khost airport in Afghanistan, which was used by U.S. troops, but it failed to explode.
• In Mazari Sharif, a guard and an employee were injured when a bomb exploded in front of the office of the Agency for Technical Cooperation and Development.
• Pakistan freed about 150 Afghan prisoners being held for violating immigration laws.

• In Nimroz Province, dozens of men armed with assault rifles attacked a police checkpoint, killing four policemen.
• An agreement was signed by ISAF and the Afghan the Ministry of Defense to begin the demobilization of heavy weapons from Kabul.
• Pakistan prime minister Zafarullah Jamali met with interim Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Kabul to discuss economic links and terrorism.
• Three videos featuring women were shown on Kabul TV. One of the clips included old footage of Salma singing a ballad; another was a religious song in Urdu to honor the visit of Pakistani Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali.

• Tribal elders in South Waziristan, Pakistan handed over to authorities three men wanted for sheltering Al-Qaeda and Taliban fugitives.

• A ban on women singing or dancing on television in Afghanistan was re-established only days after the ban had been lifted. The Supreme Court of Afghanistan wrote to the Information and Culture Minister, Sayyid Makhdum Rahin, to protest January 12 airing. The court stated that women singing or dancing was in defiance of Islamic law.
• In Khost, U.S. forces uncovered a cache of weapons that included grenades, mortar rounds, mines and rifles.
• U.S. troops near Ghazni discovered two tanks, two anti-aircraft guns.

• In Canada, ten Afghan National Army military officers started 16-weeks of English language training. The program was to develop the officers into English instructors. Sixty-five more officers were slated for training in the program over the next three years.
• An estimated seven rockets were fired at the U.S. air base in Khost, but none hit their target.

• In spite of objections by the Afghan Supreme Court, Kabul TV aired footage of 1960s female star Ustad Mahwash singing.
• German ISAF soldiers removed from Kabul International Airport wreckage of an Antonov cargo plane left over from the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
• Interim Afghan president Hamid Karzai argued that the issue of women singing on television should be left to his government.

• In Afghanistan, Uruzgan Province governor Jan Mohammad Khan and Charcheno district chief Abdur Rahman claimed that four children and seven adults were killed January 18 by a U.S. air strike on the village of Saghatho. The U.S. military refuted the claims and said that the attack killed five armed men who near a Taliban compound.
• Three U.S. soldiers were wounded in an attack on the U.S. base in Deh Rawood in Uruzgan Province. One attacker was killed in the gunfight.
• U.S. playwright William Mastrosimone presented a play to a group of actors at the headquarters of the Afghan television company in Kabul.
• Ismail Khan, the governor of Herat Province stated at a session of the Afghan Islamic Unification Council his harsh protest against the Afghan women's songs broadcast by Afghan TV. He and other lecturers stated they wanted the government to stop the broadcasting of such songs by the TV. Khan ordered the collection of music tapes and video tapes in Herat.

• ISAF and Afghan police arrested several top suspects in the Gulbuddin Hekmatyar-network.

• Afghan National Army General Bismillah Khan arrived in New Delhi, India for a three-day official visit with planned meetings with chief of the Indian army staff general NC Vij, air chief S Krishnaswamy and Admiral Madhvendera Singh, Chairman Chiefs of Staff committee.

• In Nangarhar Province, rockets hit a governmental building, causing some damages but no injuries.
• The Faroe Islands, Hope for Humanity, HELP International, and the Adventist Development and Relief Agency completed an education project in Jowzjan Province that rehabilitated the Oramast Elementary School, the Mirwaismina School and the Jowzjan Orphanage. The six-month effort provided the schools with wooden desks and chairs, glass for windows, sports equipment kit, playground equipment and a water wells. Hygiene and sanitation curriculum was also introduced.

• Near the Afghan border town of Chaman, Pakistani forces arrested Maulvi Abdul Mannan Khawajazai, who ran the Taliban finances and was once the governor of the western Badghis Province.

• In a ceremony in Kabul, interim president Hamid Karzai officially signed the Constitution of Afghanistan.

• Afghan higher education minister Mohammed Sharif Fayez announced that more than 6,000 people who passed a matriculation exam January 26 had to retake their exams after it was discovered that questions had been sold around the country.

• Near the German base outside Kabul, five foreigners were injured by a suicide bomber. Mullah Hakim Latifi of the Taliban claimed responsibility.
• In Kabul, a group of Loya jirga delegates led by Abdul Hafiz Mansoor made claims that the version of the Constitution of Afghanistan signed by Hamid Karzai on January 26 contained more than fifteen changes from the document approved of on January 4. The group sent a copy of their complaints to the U.S. embassy, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, the European Union and former king Mohammad Zahir Shah.

• Pakistani authorities seized 1600 kg of heroin at the border town of Kili Ali Akbar, but made no arrests.
• Asadullah Abdul Rahman, Muhammad Ismail Agha and Naqibullah were released by U.S. officials from Camp X-Ray in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba and returned to Afghanistan.
• A bipartisan delegation from the United States House of Representatives visited with interim Afghan president Hamid Karzai in Kabul. Delegates included Curt Weldon, Rodney Alexander, and Mark Souder.

February

• A report by the International Organization for Migration revealed that human trafficking in Afghanistan had increased by an alarming amount.

• The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization requesting US$25.5 million to finance agricultural development projects over the next five years in Afghanistan's four main poppy producing provinces – Badakhshan Province, Helmand Province, Kandahar Province and Nangarhar Province.

• Two rockets were fired on Kabul. The first rocket struck a cemetery surrounded by houses and the second landed on a steep hillside nearby.
• Former Afghan king Mohammad Zaher Shah was flown from Kabul to New Delhi, India, for medical treatment. He was diagnosed with a minor blockage of his intestines and in stable condition.
• At a border crossing, renegade warlord Bacha Khan Zadran and his brother Amanullah Khan Zadran were handed over from Pakistani to Afghan officials.

• At an economic conference in New Delhi, India, Afghan deputy Agriculture Minister Mohammad Sharif met with Israeli deputy minister of Industry and Trade Mikhael Ratzon, requested assistance in technological innovations for agriculture and invite a team of Israeli experts to visit Afghanistan.

• Interim Afghan president Hamid Karzai said that tribal leaders would decide the fate of Bacha Khan Zadran.
• Near Orgo in Badakhshan Province, an estimated 20 people were killed when fighting broke out between forces loyal to Orgo mayor Musadeq and a local militia commander Qari Ziauddin. Hundreds of civilians left their homes. Provincial officials sent hundreds of soldiers to the area to try to quell the conflict. A delegation was sent also from Kabul.

• A remote-controlled bomb exploded on a road near Asadabad, as the vehicle of Kunar Province governor Sayed Fazel Akbar was passing. The vehicle sustained minor damage, but no one was injured.

• East of Kabul, United Kingdom British troops found a bomb made with a modified anti-tank mine.

• A rocket landed on a residential hillside in the Khair Khana district of Kabul, injuring two children.
• A rocket landed in the Badam Bagh district of Kabul, causing no damage or casualties.
• After losing contact with its controllers, a German unmanned spy plane used by the ISAF parachuted to the ground, landing on the roof of a home in Kabul.

• Twenty-one rockets landed near the airport in Khost.
• The unit of the 2nd infantry brigade of the Macedonian Army arrived in Afghanistan to begin a six-month tour with ISAF.
• An anti-tank mine exploded under a Humvee northwest of Ghazni, killing one U.S. soldier of the 10th Mountain Division and wounding nine others.
• In Kandahar, the first women's-only site opened for voter registration.

• U.S. special operations forces used helicopters to raid a village in Helmand Province and detained about 40 people. Two were identified as Mulvi Abdul Ghafar and Gul Agha, midlevel Taliban leaders.

• In Gulbahar, former members of the Northern Alliance turned over eight multiple rocket launchers, four tanks and three Scud missiles to the Afghan National Army.
• With the support of an NGO, a driving school for women opened in Herat.
• Dr. Zinat Karzai, the wife of Afghan interim president Hamid Karzai, registered to vote. She received her voting card from Amina-i-Fidrawi high school in Kabul.

• Afghan official Abdul Karim Umrani died in his bedroom from carbon monoxide poisoning at the consulate in Khorugh, Tajikistan. Another official of the consulate, Saidrahim Mahmadrahim, was in serious condition.

• European Union External Relations Commissioner Chris Patten visited Kabul.

• The United States opened a provincial reconstruction team involving some 100 soldiers in Asadabad.
• In Afghanistan, high ranking delegate Mahbooba Hoqooqmal, deputy of the Afghan Ministry of Women Affairs Dr. Suraya Soobhrang, and delegates of the Afghan Ministry of Justice and the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission visited Herat Province to investigate a series of women's accidents. It was reported that more than 180 women had burned themselves during the year and only one-third of them survived.
• A high commission to prevent children smuggling was set up by the Afghan Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs.

• Pakistani Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat confirmed that Pakistani paramilitary troops had been deployed along the borders of Paktia and Paktika Provinces, Afghanistan, with the intent of catching leading commanders of the Afghan resistance, including Osama bin Laden.
• The Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission announced it was investigating 85 kidnapping cases involving children.

• Afghanistan agreed to accept offers of assistance from NATO, the World Bank, and the International Civil Aviation Organization to repair and update the Kabul International Airport at an estimated to cost of US$50 million. The project will include mine removal, electrical and communications upgrades, terminal renovations and air traffic control facility improvements.

• At a roadblock in Zeri Noor, just outside Wana, Pakistan, Pakistani troops killed 11 Afghan men in a minibus that did not stop at the checkpoint. Sixteen Afghans were arrested. Pakistan officials claimed that someone from the minibus fired shots first.

  March

• In Zabul Province, Afghan forces arrested four Taliban suspects, including commander Mullah Nahim.
• 750 policemen from five Afghan provinces began a three-week training course at the Gardez Police Academy to assist in administering a fair election.
• In the tribal South Waziristan region of Pakistan bordering Afghanistan, over a dozen rockets were launched on Pakistani bunkers and checkpoints. The Pakistani troops were engaged in a hunt for Al-Qaeda members.

• In a remote border region near Afghanistan, Pakistani authorities detained at least 15 Ahmadzai Wazir tribal leaders for failing to turn over suspected al-Qaeda fugitives. The leaders had agreed to help trace foreigners suspected of terrorism but did not live up to the deal.

• Near Khost, fourteen suspected militants were captured during a U.S. air assault on a compound.

• In the Shah Joy district in Zabul Province, a Turkish engineer and a local security guard were murdered; a second Turkish worker and another local security guard were kidnapped. The Turkish men were working on a project to resurface the Kabul-Kandahar highway.

• West of Ghazni, three U.S. soldiers with the 10th Mountain Division were wounded when their vehicle struck a landmine. Three local men were detained.
• In Uruzgan Province, three Afghan civilians were killed by U.S. soldiers. The soldiers' vehicle had struck an explosive device.
• In Afghanistan, two operations involving U.S. and Afghan forces resulted in the deaths of nine rebels and the capture of fourteen.

• The United States began Operation Mountain Storm across southern and eastern Afghanistan; the aim was to further destroy the al-Qaeda and Taliban infrastructure.

• Under the auspices of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, volunteer Afghan refugees began repatriation from different parts of Balochistan in Pakistan.
• An Afghan National Army soldier was killed and another injured when rebels opened fire from a vehicle at a checkpoint near Maywand.

• Using rockets and rifles, at least a dozen rebels attacked the U.S. outpost in Nangalam, Kunar Province. U.S. forces summoned an A-10 Thunderbolt II for assistance. An Afghan civilian was wounded in the crossfire.
• In Afghanistan, Kabul-area warlords and commanders turned over more than a dozen tanks to the Afghan Defense Ministry, placing them under the control of ISAF and the Afghan National Army.

• The United Nations reported that 28% of the 1.4 million Afghans registered to vote were women. This percentage was up dramatically from the 16% registered in December 2003.
• About 100 British special forces soldiers arrived in Kabul and then disembarked to an unknown location in Afghanistan.

• About 2,000 ethnic Hazara supporters of Haji Muhammad Mohaqiq staged a march in Mazari Sharif, demanding that president Hamid Karzai re-instate Mohaqiq. On March 7, Karzai removed Mohaqiq from the post of planning minister.
• In Tehran, Iran, Iranian Interior Minister Abdolvahed Mousavi-Lari and his Afghan Interior Minister Ahmad Jalali signed a security pact which focused on border protection and the fight against drug trafficking.
• In Kabul, the National Unity Party of Afghanistan, led by former General Nur-al-Haq Olomi, announced its political campaign.

• In the capital of Laghman Province, two rockets landed, killing one civilian.
• In Kabul, a rocket fired flew over a U.N. compound and the U.S. military headquarters. The rocket did not detonate when it landed.
• In Kabul. a rocket flew over the center of the city and exploded on hillside.
• U.S.-led troops surprised eight insurgents in caves southwest of Qalat, Zabul Province, prompting a gunbattle in which three of the guerrillas were killed and five others were wounded.
• U.S.-led coalition troops detained five rebels in caves southwest of Qalat, Zabul Province. Anti-coalition propaganda was also found.

• Eight suspects were detained by U.S.-led coalition troops southwest of Qalat, Zabul Province.
• Rocket-propelled grenades were fired at a United Nations team trying to organize voter registration.

• Pakistani forces began an operation against suspected Al-Qaeda rebels in the mountainous region of South Waziristan, close to the border of Afghanistan. Fifteen Pakistani troops were killed and 22 wounded; twenty-four rebels were killed.

• Jordanian Army special forces arrived in Afghanistan.

• U.S. and rebel forces clashed in the Tarin Kowt District of Uruzgan Province.
• 250 more Afghan National Army troops were sent to Khost.
• Two U.S. Army soldiers of the 2nd Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment of the 10th Mountain Division died when their 11-man unit came under fire in the Hindu Kush mountains of Afghanistan. At least five rebel fighters died in a heavy exchange of fire. The mission was part of Operation Mountain Storm.

• About two dozen rebel fighters with heavy weapons launched an attack in the Barmal district of Paktika Province, but they were repelled after four hours of fighting. Three rebels were killed and the rest fled into Pakistan when U.S. helicopters fired on them.
• Pakistani troops were engaged in a pitched battle with an estimated 400 rebels near the Afghan border.

• Heavy U.S. forces were deployed to the Afghan border near Waziristan, Pakistan to assist in an offensive against an estimated 400 rebels suspected of harboring Tohir Yo‘ldosh.

• Interim Afghan President Hamid Karzai called an emergency cabinet meeting to discuss the assassination of Mirwais Sadiq. Karzai dispatched Afghan National Army troops to Herat.
• Afghan TV reported a failed assassination attempt on Ismail Khan, but Khan's spokesman denied the report.
• An unmanned NATO spy plane crashed on the grounds of the presidential palace in Kabul.
• A U.S. B-1 Lancer and a B-52 Stratofortress flew over Herat as a reminder, according to Lt. Col. Bryan Hilferty, of the presence of U.S. forces and to "rest calm."
• U.S. troops stationed at the military base in Herat provided shelter to German and Italian diplomats after fighting erupted near the German Consulate.

• Six-hundred troops of the Afghan National Army arrived in Herat to contain violence between warring factions.
• Zahir Nayebzada fled Herat.
• United States special forces set up a remote post in Orgun.
• In Kabul, the Afghanistan International Bank, managed by ING-IGA, began operation.

• Iran exported 32,000 vases of flowers to Afghanistan.

• In the Deh Rawud District of Uruzgan Province, at least ten Afghan National Army soldiers were killed in an ambush by rebel fighters.
• A suicide bomber was killed when his bomb exploded early as he tried to attack a military base in southeastern Afghanistan.
• Six people were wounded in a rebel attack in a southeastern Afghan town.
• In Khost, a rocket injured six civilians, including one child, in a restaurant near the U.S. Airbase.
• Hikmet Cetin, NATO's Senior Civilian Representative in Afghanistan, departed Kabul to attend in Berlin, Germany a two-day international conference on reconstruction assistance to Afghanistan.
• Afghan Interior Minister Ali Ahmad Jalali announced the establishment of a new province, Daykundi. The province would be entitled to its own governor, a security commander, more police and funds.

• U.S. troops searched several villages southwest of Khost, searching for weapons and information.

• A 30-year-old Afghan man died after being struck by a Canadian G-Wagon.

• The first wave of 2,000 new U.S. Marines arrived in Afghanistan to participate in the hunt for al-Qaeda and Taliban rebels.

  April

• The U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, stated that terrorist sanctuaries and bases continued to exist and develop in Pakistan. He added that U.S. troops might need to enter Pakistan to catch the rebels. Pakistan's information minister, Sheikh Ahmed Rashid, called the comments "harmful" and said Pakistan would never allow foreign troops on its soil. The White House quickly downplayed Khalilzad's comments.

• Two Afghan rebels were killed in a gun battle at a military checkpoint in Sangin District of Helmand Province.
• In Uruzgan Province, an Afghan National Army soldier was killed and another was injured when their vehicle hit a mine.

• Hamidullah, an Afghan intelligence chief, and two Afghan National Army soldiers were abducted by dozens of men near Chenartu in Uruzgan Province. Taliban leader Mullah Hakim Latifi claimed that the men had been killed, and offered to exchange their bodies for that of a Taliban held by Uruzgan officials.

• Abdul Rashid Dostum forces withdrew from Maymana, the capital of Faryab Province, but remained in the province despite orders to leave.

• In the Spera District of Khost Province, 700 Afghan and 100 U.S. troops began a new operation to hunt down Al-Qaeda and Taliban members.

• Taliban members killed two Afghan civilians for allegedly spying for the U.S. forces in Uruzgan Province.
• In Kabul, Afghan forces and ISAF peacekeepers arrested six suspected Taliban members.

• A bomb exploded in front of the U.S. military base further in Kandahar, wounding General Salim Khan, a senior police official, and two of his bodyguards.
• In Khost Province, rebels exchanged of rocket and machine-gun fire with Afghan National Army soldiers killing two and wounding two. Nine rebels were also killed.
• Police chief Yar Mohammed and nine of his officers were ambushed and killed by rebel forces in Zabul Province.
• In the Barmal District of Paktika Province, five Taliban rebels in military uniforms pretending to be pro-government forces executed seven Afghans, including five government officials, a woman and child. They were asked if they supported interim president Hamid Karzai and the government. The people in the vehicle said yes, and were killed on the spot.

• On the Del Aram Road at the last checkpoint before Farah Province, men riding in three station wagons fired rockets and machine guns when they were stopped at the checkpoint, killing eight Afghan National Army soldiers.
• Interim Afghan president Hamid Karzai and U.S. ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad attended the groundbreaking ceremony for the Hyatt Regency hotel to be constructed by Afghan-American and Turkish investors.
• U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Richard Myers met with U.S. commanders in Kabul.

• German foreign minister Joschka Fischer visited Kunduz and met the provincial governor and some of the 300 German peacekeeping troops posted there. Later he met interim president Hamid Karzai in Kabul.
• In Kabul, Abdullah Shah was killed by firing squad, marking the first sanctioned execution in the country since the fall of the Taliban in late 2001. Abdullah Shah was convicted of more than 20 murders. News of the execution was kept secret until the story was revealed by Amnesty International a week later.

• A bomb near Spin Boldak killed one person and injured two others. The blast occurred near a building where the governor was meeting with local officials.
• U.S. forces battled for four hours against rebels in the Tangi Mountains of Zabul Province, killing two fighters and arresting two others. Five AK-47 rifles and one rocket launcher were seized by the U.S. forces.
• A bomb exploded near a bazaar in Kandahar, damaging a nearby shop and killing the bomber.
• Afghan Sami Yousafzai, employed by Newsweek, was detained by Pakistani forces when he tried to enterNorth Waziristan; he was held until June 2. Eliza Griswold, a U.S. journalist employed by The New Yorker, was also detained, but was quickly freed and deported.

• After receiving pressure from Afghan interim president Hamid Karzai, the government of Nangahar Province lifted ban on women performers on television and radio.
• U.S. soldier Pat Tillman and a member of the Afghan National Army were killed by hostile fire in an ambush in eastern Afghanistan. Two other U.S. soldiers were wounded.
• In Afghanistan, an explosive device detonated on the road to Kandahar airport as a U.N. convoy passed. There were no injuries.

• Local police found and destroyed 48 new Chinese-made rockets southwest of Kabul.

• In the Panjwai District of Kandahar Province, two aid workers and an Afghan National Army soldier were killed rebels.

• In Kabul's Deputy Minister for Refugees and Repatriation, Mohammad Naim Ghiacy hosted a meeting with an Iranian delegation led by Ahmed Hosseini and with UNHCR representatives Filippo Grandi and Philippe Lavanchy to discuss Afghan repatriation progress. To date, 2 million Afghans lived in Iran, of whom 800,000 are considered refugees.

• At least two people were killed in an attack by rebels who attacked a government office in Uruzgan Province.
• The Afghan government arrested 19-year-old Mohammad Sahil, a Pakistani national, for spying. Sahil was affiliated with the Islamic party of Jamiat-ul-Ansar and fought under the Taliban command in Panjwae District of Kandahar Province.

  May

• Sixty prisoners as a first wave of suspected Taliban prisoners were moved from Sheberghan prison to the Pul-e-Charkhi jail outside Kabul. Many of them were suffering from tuberculosis. About 900 prisoners staged a riot in the prison a week earlier, protesting their conditions. They were being held without scheduled trials.
• Sixty members of the Hawaii Army National Guard's 193rd Aviation left for Afghanistan to replace U.S. soldiers from their unit who were in Kandahar since August 2003.
• Two British contractors working for Global Risk Strategies and their Afghan driver were killed by members of the Taliban in an attack in the Mandol district of Nuristan region, 200 km east of the capital Kabul. The contractors were assisting the United Nations prepare for the upcoming elections.
• U.S. troops searched houses in Pakistani territory, against the wishes of Pakistan.

• In Moscow, Russia, Afghan foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah met with Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov and Russian National Security Council Secretary Igor Ivanov to discuss key issues, including the settlement of Afghanistan's Soviet-era debt and the provision of regional security.
• In Zabul Province, U.S. forces captured at least 25 militants, including a Taliban commander, Mullah Rozi Khan.

• Two Afghan National Army soldiers were killed by rebels on a highway near Shahjoy in Zabul Province.
• An Afghan National Army vehicle was ambushed near Qalat, Zabul Province. Its driver was shot and wounded.

• U.S. troops killed five suspected Taliban rebels and arrested five more during a clash the Paj Kotal mountain pass region of Kandahar Province.

• In Helmand Province, U.S. forces defused a bomb at a bridge.
• In the Panjwayi district of Kandahar Province, local police seized 80 AK-47s smuggled in an oil transport truck. Two of the arrested men were alleged to be brothers of Mullah Shirien.

• In Farah, night letters were scattered warning people not to register to vote "or they will be punished."

• In Seoul, South Korea, the Korea Resources Corporation signed a memorandum of understanding with Afghanistan on cooperation in developing mineral resources.
• Former King of Afghanistan Mohammad Zahir Shah was brought to a hospital in the United Arab Emirates because of nose bleeding caused by heat. He was reported in stable condition.

• A homemade bomb was uncovered in a girls' school being used as a voter registration center in Puli Alam.
• U.S. troops deployed in Afghanistan crossed into Pakistan's tribal.

• Local Pakistani newspapers reported an incursion by U.S. troops from Afghanistan into Pakistan.
• About 20 rebels on motorcycles killed an Afghan National Army soldier in an attack on troops guarding a shipment of tractors and generators as it moved toward Waza Khwa in Paktika Province.
• Afghanistan's first commercial television channel went on air in Kabul, funded by Ahmed Shah Afghanzai.

• Two people were killed in a rocket attack near Tirin Kot in Uruzgan Province. Police chief Rozi Khan said the victims were civilians; police chief Abdul Rahim Khan said the victims were of the Afghan National Army.

• U.S. planes helped Afghan National Army forces attack suspected Taliban forces in the mountains of the Arghistan District in Kandahar Province, killing some 20 suspected insurgents at a recently discovered camp. Three of his Afghan soldiers were injured.
• In Paris, France, Frenchmen David Courtailler and Ahmed Laidouni and Algerian Mohamed Baadache were convicted of organizing networks that sent militants to Afghan camps for training in terrorism.

• Three children were killed by a recently planted roadside bomb in Kandahar.

• In Helmand Province, four Afghan National Army soldiers and one rebel died in a clash.
• In Afghanistan, rebels in vehicles swept into Musa Qala and opened fire on the government office with assault rifles and heavy machine-guns. Four of the 30 soldiers defending the compound were killed and eight others wounded. One rebel was also killed and four were captured.

  June

• Sami Yousafzai, an Afghan journalist employed by Newsweek was freed from Pakistan after being detained since April 21.
• U.S. and Afghan troops backed by U.S. warplanes fought rebels in the mountains in the Miana Shien district of Kandahar Province, killing 13 rebels and arresting eight. Two U.S. troops and one Afghan National Army soldier were wounded.
• The United States Congress unanimously approved a $25 billion emergency request from George W. Bush to fund military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

• UNHCR suspended all travel in Badghis Province.

• In Qalay-e Naw, Badghis Province, a grenade was tossed over the wall of the compound housing the Italian relief group Alisei. A vehicle and a water tank were damaged, but no one was injured.

• Afghan interim president Hamid Karzai began a week-long visit to the United States. His first appearance was at Fort Drum, New York.

• U.S.-led coalition troops swept portions of Uruzgan Province, capturing a score of insurgents and killing eight.
• Afghan interim president Hamid Karzai attends the G-8 Summit in Sea Island, Georgia.

• In the Bak District of Khost Province, a U.S. encountered three roadside bombs; one discharged. There were no casualties.

• During his visit to the U.S., Afghan interim president Hamid Karzai scrubbed his planned weekend visit to the Afghan community in California and began his visit to Washington by representing Afghanistan at the state funeral of former U.S. president Ronald Reagan. This marked the first time an Afghan head of state or government had ever attended a funeral of an American president.

• In Kabul, a group of 100 protesters led by Mahfooz Nedaye and Sayed Abdul Hadi called for the resignation of Hamid Karzai on the grounds that his term of office had expired under the terms of the Bonn Agreement.
• In Kandahar, Hamid Agha, the local chief of refugees affairs was assassinated by gunmen on motorcycles. Three of his bodyguards were also wounded.

• In the HSBC-sponsored ACC Trophy at the Kilat Club at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Afghanistan recorded its first win in an international cricket competition by defeating Bahrain by eight wickets.

• In an afternoon-long siege, hundreds of troops of Abdul Salaam Khan attacked Chaghcharan, the capital of Ghor Province.
• Two New Zealand Special Air Service soldiers were wounded in a pre-dawn gunbattle in central Afghanistan.
• The two U.S. soldiers were wounded when their vehicle struck a landmine north of Qalat, Zabul Province.

• Rebels fired at least two rockets at the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Kandahar.
• Scores of rebels attacked a government office in Mezana District, Zabul Province, killing two Afghan National Army soldiers and wounding three during the two-hour exchange. Five attackers also died.

• In Uruzgan Province, rebels stopped four trucks bound for a U.S. base, set them on fire, and abducted twelve men operating the vehicles.

• U.S. and Afghan National Army troops traded gunfire with rebels near Daychopan district, killing five and capturing seven. One Afghan soldier was wounded.

  July

• A roadside bomb exploded near Lashkargar, Helmand Province, injuring the mayor, Haji Manaf Khan, and his bodyguard.

• Intelligence agents captured Taliban members Mullah Sakhi Dad Mujahid and Nisar Hamed in a raid on a compound in Shah Wali Kot, Kandahar Province. Mujahid was carrying a cell phone containing phone numbers of top level Taliban leaders, including founder Mohammed Omar.
• U.S. Major Harry Schmidt was found guilty of dereliction of duty in regard to his killing of four Canadians on April 17, 2002 in Afghanistan.
• In a program organized by the UNHCR, the first of 525 Afghan refugees departed from Kyrgyzstan to Canada to start new lives.

• In Afghanistan, a bus on the Kandahar-Kabul highway crashed when the driver lost control, killing eleven people and injuring forty-four.

• U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage visited Kabul.

• Less than a kilometer from the headquarters of NATO-led peacekeepers, a rocket landed on a house in the Shashdarak section of Kabul, killing a woman.mortally wounding a woman.

• In a village 100 miles northeast of Kandahar, troops confiscated nine motorcycles and about 10 rifles.
• Four men riding two motorcycles attacked two U.S. Humvees on patrol in Arghandab, Zabul Province, injuring one soldier.
• Dozens of rebels armed with assault rifles attacked the mayor's office in Naish District in Kandahar Province. One attacker was wounded and detained.

• Afghan security forces captured Mullah Amanullah, a brother-in-law of Mohammed Omar, on Tuesday as he drove near Deh Rawood, Uruzgan Province. Three remote-controlled bombs and a cell phone as well as an AK-47 were found in his vehicle.
• Afghanistan freed 66 Pakistani prisoners caught fighting for the Taliban during the U.S.-led war in late 2001. Pakistan matched the move by releasing 34 Afghan prisoners.

• In the district of Mama Karez, rebels attacked U.S. soldiers patrolling in a pickup truck. Three of the attackers were killed during the hour-long gunfight.
• Two rebels on motorcycles opened fire on two pickup trucks carrying Afghan election workers in Lashkargah.

• Near central Kabul, a wing of the Jamhuriat Hospital, being rebuilt by a Chinese-Afghan construction consortium, collapsed, killing four and injuring 26.

• Doctors Without Borders announced it was withdrawing its staff from Afghanistan because of security concerns.
• Two rocket-propelled grenades were fired at a construction site in Kabul where South Koreans were building a job training center for the Afghan people. There were no casualties.

• An Afghan official was killed along with his bodyguard during an ambush by rebels in Helmand Province. At least one other bodyguard was wounded.
• In Gujranwala, Pakistan local police picked up about thirty-five Afghan students studying at a madressah in the Jamia Muhammadia on the Grand Trunk Road. Officials said the students were residing there without any passport, visa or legal documents which were violation of the Immigration Act. The students would be sent back to Afghanistan to obtain their complete documents and return for their studies.

  August

• Several people were killed in a gunfight between rebels and Afghan forces in Gurbuz District, Khost Province.
• In Kandahar Province, rebels threw grenades at the office of a demining group.
• In Logar Province, a bomb hit a vehicle carrying a mayor and a judge, killing three of the judge's children.

• Afghan Defense Minister Mohammed Fahim endorsed the presidential candidacy of Hamid Karzai.
• At an undisclosed school in Parwan Province, about 100 boy soldiers enroll in the Afghan New Beginnings Program.

• In Kabul, authorities charged Reza Khan of murder, rape and highway robbery involving four foreign journalists on November 19, 2001.

• Rebels set off a roadside IED near Qalat, Zabul Province, injuring three U.S. soldiers.
• In response to the killings of two relief workers on August 4, the UNHCR announced it was scaling operations down in southeastern Afghanistan.
• In Uruzgan Province, rebels ambushed a convoy of Afghan election workers, killing two.

• U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld visited Kabul.

• United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan reported to the United Nations Security Council that more than 9.9 million people had registered to vote in Afghanistan, a number that exceeded the estimated total of eligible voters for the whole country.

• Members of the Afghan National Army raided rebel hideouts near the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan.
• Twelve Afghan presidential candidates called for interim president Hamid Karzai to resign and to withdraw from the October 9 election. They argued that as an incumbent, he has an unfair advantage.

• Ten people, including nine children, were killed after a bomb exploded at a religious school in Paktia Province.

• At least nine children and one adult were killed when a bomb exploded in a school in Paktia Province.
• At least nine people were killed and dozens injured when a bomb hidden in a car exploded in front of the DynCorp office in Kabul. Taliban spokesman Mullah Hakim Latifi claimed responsibility.
• In Afghanistan, a Dutch AH-64 Apache on regular patrol over Kabul crashed, slightly injuring one crewman.
• In Kandahar, Afghan security forces arrested five men suspected of planning an ambush on U.S. troops., an Afghan official said.
• Iran opened its first bank, Arjan, in Afghanistan.

• The U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan e-mailed U.S. citizens in Kabul, informing them to limit their movements, take strict security measures and avoid "potential target areas" such as government offices, military bases and upscale restaurants frequented primarily by foreigners.
• Eight people in Waradesh in Pech district in Kunar Province were killed and an Afghan aid worker injured when U.S. planes bombed the village.

• Afghan Foreign Minister Abdullah traveled to India to discuss a US$400 million Indian aid package for Afghanistan. He met with Natwar Singh and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and other senior officials.
• NATO peacekeepers seized dozens of rockets, mortar shells and hand grenades from a truck which was trying to enter Kabul.
• In Kabul, Afghan intelligence agents arrested a bus driver with several guns and ammunition in his vehicle.

  September

• Near the village of Waradesh, at least six civilians died during a U.S. air raid.

• In the Deh Rawood District, militants, armed with guns and grenades, attacked an Afghan National Army checkpoint on a bridge, wounding three soldiers.
• The Afghan National Army, backed by U.S. aircraft and artillery, killed several rebels in Khost Province.

• A U.S. patrol in the Khost Province was fired on by rebels travelling in a pickup truck, and a U.S. helicopter fired back, destroying the truck and killing one rebel.
• At a security checkpoint in Helmand Province, three rebels were killed, and five wounded in a clash.
• The Asian Development Bank granted US$750,000 to help Afghanistan improve its gas supply. The money was slated to draw a plan to establish an independent regulator for gas supply and help it come up with laws and regulations.
• Rebels fired up to four rockets over a U.S.-led civil-military base in Nangarhar Province, killing one Afghan National Army soldier and injuring another four.

• In Kabul, five rockets were fired the ISAF base. Taliban spokesman Mullah Abdul Latif Hakimi claimed responsibility.

• In Kabul, 363 Pakistanis jailed for fighting alongside the Taliban were released from the Pul-e-Charki jail and allowed to go home.
• An estimated 40 rebels attacked U.S.-led coalition soldiers, prompting two AH-64 Apache helicopters to open fire on the fighters, killing 22.
• Rebel gunmen ambushed a U.S.-coalition patrol near Kandahar.

• In Uruzgan Province, one boy was killed and another wounded during an exchange of fire between U.S.-led coalition forces and rebels.
• Afghan interim president Hamid Karzai eluded his U.S. security guards and drove into the Microrayon District of Kabul, where he walked around and conversed with local citizens.
• The United Nations Security Council voted unanimously to renew the mandate of the multinational security force in Afghanistan for another year until October 2005.

• The Afghan National Army established a regional command headquarters in the Kandahar region of Afghanistan.

• In Paktika Province, two U.S. soldiers were killed and two were wounded along with six Afghan National Armytroops in a clash with rebels near the Pakistani border.
• U.S. forces killed a rebel during an exchange of fire in the Deh Chopan District of Uruzgan Province.
• In Zabul Province, a U.S. air attack killed six rebels after rebels shot a rocket at a U.S. UH-60 Black Hawk.
• Two U.S. soldiers were wounded when a homemade bomb destroyed their Humvee in the Shinkay District of Zabul Province. The soldiers were flown to Germany for treatment.
• Three rockets were fired at the U.S. base in Paktika, landing within 100 yards of the compound.
• A roadside bomb attack on a U.S. convoy in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, caused no injuries.
• U.S. soldier, Wesley Wells, age 21, died when his security patrol was ambushed by rebels in Khost Province.

• Using pamphlets, Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar warned Afghan refugees in camps in Pakistan not to vote in the October presidential election.
• During a search operation in Kalatak village, Afghan National Army forces arrested Taliban commander Mullah Usman.

• Near Poshakan village in Uruzgan Province, a shootout began when two men on a motorcycle refused to stop when U.S. troops confronted them. The two men were killed. One was identified as local Taliban commander Mullah Dur Mohammed.

• Six Royal Air Force RAF Harrier II GR7 aircraft along with 315 British troops set off for Kandahar to replace six U.S. AV-8B Harrier II jets as part of a routine rotation of forces.
• A message from 300 elders of the Terezay tribe was broadcast by radio in Khost Province telling its members they must vote for Hamid Karzai in presidential elections in October or their houses would be burned.

• Char Cheno District chief Malem Wali Jan was killed in a rebel attack during a security convoy in Uruzgan Province.
• Rebels killed nine Afghan National Army soldiers in attacks on several security posts in Helmand Province.

• Afghan interim president Hamid Karzai and General Abdul Rashid Dostum were present at a road project inauguration Shiberghan.

• Rebels attacked a government building the Khake Afghan District, Zabul Province in a clash that left at least three soldiers and four militants dead.
• Rebels attacked a convoy of U.S. and Afghan forces in Zabul Province.
• Four people were injured, one seriously, when two rockets were fired on the German Provincial Reconstruction Team in Kunduz.

October

• Former Afghan Education Minister Yunus Qanooni held a rally in Herat that drew several hundred people.
• Near the city of Spin Boldak, Afghan National Army authorities arrested 60 rebels who were planning to derail the upcoming presidential election.

• Karim Khalili, the running-mate of Afghan interim president Hamid Karzai, held a rally at the Herat Airport.
• In Policharki district, local intelligence agents backed by ISAF peacekeepers arrested 25 people allegedly linked to the Taliban.
• Rebels killed two guards at the home of a former senior official in Uruzgan Province.

• Three members of a Japanese election monitoring team arrived in Kabul.

• Yunus Qanuni held a presidential campaign rally before 2,000 people at a Kabul football stadium.
• In Mazari Sharif, Rashid Dostum held a presidential campaign rally.
• In Kandahar Province, seven policemen were killed when their vehicle drove over a landmine.

November

December

• December 16–28 Americans die in Helmand way.