Where did the Taliban come from?
- Thread starter #juan
- Start date
The Taliban or, "Students of Islamic Knowledge Movement",
ruled Afghanistan from 1996 until 2001. They came to power during Afghanistan's long civil war. Although they managed to hold 90% of the country's territory, their policies—including their treatment of women and support of terrorists—ostracized them from the world community. The Taliban was ousted from power in December 2001 by the U.S. military and Afghani opposition forces in response to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attack on the U.S.
link
ruled Afghanistan from 1996 until 2001. They came to power during Afghanistan's long civil war. Although they managed to hold 90% of the country's territory, their policies—including their treatment of women and support of terrorists—ostracized them from the world community. The Taliban was ousted from power in December 2001 by the U.S. military and Afghani opposition forces in response to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attack on the U.S.
link
#juan said:
The taliban were formed in 1994, from a long civil war, they were financially and military supported by ISI, pakistan's secret service, saudi arabia and CIA, united states......again.
I guess it is a very nice tactics, once you give enough toys to your friends for free, you can play wars with them, then your friends, who financially support electoral campaign, can make a lot of money, isnt that great?
The following was the first link:
Timeline: The Taliban
Key dates in the history of the Taliban and Contemporary Afghanistan
by Laura Hayes and Borgna Brunner
1979 1980 1988 1992 1993 1994 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006
1979
Soviet Union invades Afghanistan.
1980
Soviet troops install a puppet regime in Kabul. The U.S., Pakistan, China, Iran, and Saudi Arabia offer support to mujahideen "freedom fighters" as they begin a guerrilla war against the Soviets.
Top
1988–1989
Soviet troops withdraw.
1992
Mujahideen forces, led by Ahmed Shah Massoud, remove the Soviet-backed government of Mohammad Najibullah. Rival militias vie for influence.
Top
1993
The factions agree on the formation of a government with Burhanuddin Rabbani as president, but infighting continues. Lawlessness is rampant.
1994
September
The Taliban are appointed by Pakistan to protect a trade convoy and quickly emerge as one of the strongest factions.
Top
1996
September
The Taliban, under the leadership of Mullah Muhammad Omar, seize control of Kabul and implement a strict interpretation of Islamic law. They exile President Rabbani and execute Najibullah.
The Taliban offer Osama bin Laden refuge.
1997
Sept.–Oct.
The Taliban fail to capture and hold the city of Mazar-i-Sharif (held sacred by Shiites as the site of Ali's grave). Pakistani religious schools send reinforcements to the Taliban.
Top
1998
Aug. 20
The U.S. launches missiles at suspected bin Laden bases in retaliation for the bombing of embassies in Africa.
Sept. 13
The Taliban take over the city of Bamian.
1999
March
A UN-brokered peace agreement is reached between the Taliban and their main remaining foe, the Northern Alliance under Ahmed Shah Massoud. Fighting breaks out again in July.
October
The Taliban take Mazar-i-Sharif. There are unconfirmed reports of mass arrests and executions (numbering in the thousands) of Shiites, especially of the Hazara ethnic group.
November
The U.N. imposes an air embargo and freezes Taliban assets in an attempt to force them to hand over bin Laden for trial.
Top
2000–2001
Record cold, drought, and civil war push an estimated 200,000 more Afghans into refugee camps.
2001
January
The UN adds an arms embargo against the Taliban.
March 12
Ignoring an international outcry, the Taliban blow up two 2,000-year-old Buddhist statues in the cliffs above Bamian.
May
Religious minorities are ordered to wear tags identifying them as non-Muslims; Hindu women are required to veil themselves like other Afghan women.
July
Taliban bans the use of the Internet, playing cards, computer discs, movies, satellite TV, musical instruments, and chessboards, after declaring them against Islamic law.
August
Eight Christian foreign-aid workers are arrested for proselytizing. Two are American citizens.
Sept. 9
Northern Alliance Commander Ahmed Shah Massoud is wounded in a suicide bombing, allegedly by al-Qaeda operatives. Massoud dies from his wounds several days later.
Sept. 11
Terrorist attack on World Trade Center and Pentagon.
Mid-Sept.
Fearing U.S. reprisals, Afghans begin fleeing Kabul. Within a week more than 4,000 people a day try to cross into Pakistan.
U.S. demands that the Taliban hand over bin Laden and al-Qaeda members.
The Taliban offers to turn over bin Laden if presented with evidence of his guilt. They also suggest that they will allow him to be tried by Muslim clerics.
Saudi Arabia and the UAE cut off diplomatic ties. Pakistan pulls diplomats from Afghanistan but maintains ties.
U.N. and Red Cross aid efforts are halted.
Sept. 16
Pakistan's president, General Musharraf, pledges support for U.S. efforts to arrest bin Laden and appeals to his nation for support. Taliban supporters mount demonstrations.
Sept. 24
The Taliban calls for a jihad against America if U.S. forces enter Afghanistan.
Top
Oct. 7
The U.S. begings bombing strategic Taliban sites in Afghanistan.
Osama bin Laden issues a statement calling on all Muslims to wage a holy war against America.
More pro-Taliban, anti-U.S. demonstrations erupt in Pakistan.
Oct. 19
U.S. begins ground assaults against the Taliban. More than 100 commandos parachute into an airfield near Kandahar while a small number of special operations forces raid a compound used by the Taliban to gather intelligence. Two Americans die when a support helicopter crashes.
Other special forces units are rumored to be aiding the Northern Alliance and hunting bin Laden.
Oct. 26
The Taliban executes former mujahideen leader Abdul Haq, his nephew, and anti-Taliban commander, Haji Dawran. The three had been on a mission to convince several Taliban leaders to defect when they were captured, then tried for treason and espionage.
Top
November
Nov. 9 Northern Alliance forces, with help of U.S. air support, take cities of Mazar-i-Sharif and Taloqan from the Taliban.
Nov. 11 Three international journalists are killed near Taloqan in a Taliban ambush.
Nov. 12 Northern Alliance forces capture Herat and advance toward Kabul.
Nov. 13 Northern Alliance enters Kabul. The Taliban fall back from Kandahar. There are reports of lawlessness from Mazar-i-Sharif.
Nov. 15 The eight foreign aid workers held since August are freed as the Taliban flees Kandahar.
Nov. 21 Taliban commanders in the city of Kunduz plan to meet with Northern Alliance leaders to negotiate a surrender. The Taliban in Kandahar announce they will continue to fight and claim to still control the provinces of Kandahar, Helmand, Oruzgan, Zabol, and part of Ghazni province. The Taliban deny knowing the location of Osama bin Laden.
Nov. 24 The Taliban surrender Kunduz.
Nov. 25 U.S. special forces and air strikes help subdue a prison revolt in Mazar-i-Sharif. The prison held several hundred Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters, many of them foreign, who had surrendered in Kunduz. The uprising lasts three days. A CIA agent, about 30 Northern Alliance soldiers, and more than 500 Taliban prisoners are killed.
Nov. 25 Hundreds of marines land near Kandahar to combat Taliban and al-Qaeda forces. This is the first major incursion of U.S. ground troops in Afghanistan.
Nov. 27 Afghan leaders meet with UN representatives in Bonn, Germany, to work out guidelines for a post-Taliban government. Afghan leaders represent 4 factions: the Northern Alliance; the "Rome Group," representing former Afghan King Mohammad Zahir Shah; the "Peshawar Group," representing Afghan refugees in Pakistan; and the "Cyprus Group," representing an Iranian-backed group of Afghan exiles.
Nov. 29 U.S. continues airstrikes on Kandahar. Mullah Omar reportedly tells the remaining Taliban forces to "fight to the death." Meanwhile, the Northern Alliance agrees to the presence of international peacekeeping forces.
Top
December
Dec. 5 Hamid Karzai, an Afghan tribal leader, is chosen to head an interim government by the delegates in Bonn.
Dec. 6 The Taliban agree to surrender Kandahar. No agreement, however, is made on the fate of Mullah Omar and Osama bin Laden.
Dec. 9 The Taliban surrender Kandahar and withdraw from the city. While the Taliban have been completely removed from power, former Taliban soldiers show up in nearby villages and continue to push the Taliban's policies.
Dec. 11 Bin Laden's forces retreat to mountains near Tora Bora in eastern Afghanistan. The U.S. bombards a complex of caves where he is believed to be hiding.
Dec. 16 The U.S. declares that al-Qaeda has been destroyed in Afghanistan.
Dec. 16 The U.S. embassy in Kabul reopens.
Dec. 20 Afghan and international officials agree in principle to a UN peacekeeping force, which will help rebuild Afghanistan.
Dec. 22 Hamid Karzai is sworn in as chairman of an interim government replacing the Taliban. The U.S. announces that it will recognize the government, the first time an Afghan government has received official US recognition since 1979.
Dec. 26 Although rumours persist that he has left the country, or is dead, U.S. forces continue to hunt for bin Laden near Tora Bora.
Top
2002
January
The Taliban officially capitulates. Seven top Taliban officials who surrendered at Kandahar are released by the interim government and are suspected of leaving the country. Pakistani intelligence officials detain Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef, the Taliban's former ambassador to Pakistan. Zaeef is put into U.S. custody.
The U.S. continues to bomb suspected Taliban and al-Qaeda sites and search for Mullah Omar and Osama bin Laden. Taliban and al-Qaeda prisoners of war are sent to United States Naval station at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba.
March 2
The U.S. begins Operation Anaconda, a combined effort of U.S. and Afghani forces to route entrenched Taliban and al-Qaeda forces from the mountains north of Gardeyz. The operation involves more than 1,000 U.S. ground troops in addition to helicopters and bombers. In the 16-day operation U.S. forces suffer 8 casualties. Official estimates of al-Qaeda and Taliban casualties are in the hundreds. Afghan commanders, however, maintain that many al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters escaped.
September 6
Hamid Karzai narrowly escapes being gunned down by an assassin. The gunman, who was killed by U.S. Special Forces, is a known Taliban activist. This is the second attempt on Karzai's life this year—in July, security forces found a car filled with explosives.
Top
2003
March
Gunmen kill Ricardo Munguia, an engineer with the International Committee of the Red Cross. After executing Munguia with a shot to the head they warn Red Cross workers against assisting foreigners. Munguia was the first foreign aid worker killed in Afghanistan since the Taliban was deposed.
Attacks against U.S. troops in southern Afghanistan spike, culminating in an ambush of U.S. Special Forces that leaves two soldiers dead.
Taliban forces took control of two remote districts near the Pakistani border and held them for nearly a week. They were driven out by Afghan military forces back by U.S. Special Forces and helicopter gunships.
March 20 The U.S. launches Operation Valiant Strike in Kandahar. This is the largest U.S.-led mission in Afghanistan since Operation Anaconda a year earlier.
May
Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld claims that most of Afghanistan is now secure and that American forces had moved from major combat operations to stabilization and reconstruction projects. However, pro-Taliban insurgents continue to stage almost daily attacks on government buildings, U.S. bases, and aid workers.
September
U.S.-led forces drive back Taliban rebels after some of the fiercest fighting since they were overthrown. Between 70 and 100 Taliban fighters were killed during a week of clashes in Afghanistan's southeastern Zabul province.
December
The U.S. military launches Operation Avalanche, its largest offensive in Afghanistan in two years. Operation Avalanche involves some 2,000 soldiers and is intended to keep Taliban insurgents on the defensive during a historic constitutional council.
Top
2004
January
Afghanistan's Loya Jirga adopts a new constitution. The constitution grants equality for men and women and defines the country as an "Islamic Republic."
Donor countries pledge $8.2 billion in aid to Afghanistan over the next three years.
March
President Karzai announces that Afghanistan's first post-Taliban elections will be postponed until September. The Taliban vows to disrupt the electoral process.
The U.S. sends 2,000 more marines to Afghanistan to step up the hunt for al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders.
April
Fighting between a regional warlord and provincial governor allied to government breaks out in northwest Afghanistan.
Taliban militans are suspected of killing 20 people, including two aid workers and a police chief, in the south.
June
The Taliban is suspected in a string of attacks on foreign workers and aid agencies.
One June 2, three Europeans working for Medicins Sans Frontieres (MSF) are killed in an attack believed to have been carried out by the Taliban. MSF suspends its work in Afghanistan.
On June 16, four Afghan civilians are killed by a roadside bomb in Kunduz. The bomb is apparently aimed at an international peacekeeping force. Later that day a bomb explodes at the office of the London-based Afghanaid agency. The explosion at Afghanaid appears to be related to local power struggles and not a Taliban attack.
On June 27, suspected Taliban shoot dead 16 people after finding them in possession of voter registration cards.
July
The government pushes the presidential election to October and parliamentary elections to spring 2005.
Taliban insurgents kill a local police chief in the southern province of Kandahar.
Top
2005
The Taliban begin to regroup in larger numbers and continue to attack U.S. troops, making it the deadliest year for U.S. troops since the war ended in 2001. The insurgents intensify their attacks over the summer in an attempt to disrupt September's parliamentary elections.
June
Insurgents shot down a Chinook helicopter, killing eight Navy Seals and eight other Special Operations troops who were on a mission to rescue four Navy Seals.
July and August
U.S. and Afghan troops fight back, killing about 100 Taliban fighters and capturing dozens.
Top
2006
Throughout the spring of 2006, Taliban militants, now a force of several thousand--infiltrate southern Afghanistan, terrorizing local villagers and attacking Afghan and U.S. troops. Uruzgan, Helmand, and Kandahar provinces are particularly hard hit by militant violence. Battles between coalition troops and the Taliban kill dozens, including many civilians.
May and June
After a spate of Taliban suicide bombings and other attacks, Operation Mount Thrust is launched, deploying more than 10,000 Afghan and coalition forces in the south. About 700 people, most of whom are Taliban, are killed.
Timeline: The Taliban
Key dates in the history of the Taliban and Contemporary Afghanistan
by Laura Hayes and Borgna Brunner
1979 1980 1988 1992 1993 1994 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006
1979
Soviet Union invades Afghanistan.
1980
Soviet troops install a puppet regime in Kabul. The U.S., Pakistan, China, Iran, and Saudi Arabia offer support to mujahideen "freedom fighters" as they begin a guerrilla war against the Soviets.
Top
1988–1989
Soviet troops withdraw.
1992
Mujahideen forces, led by Ahmed Shah Massoud, remove the Soviet-backed government of Mohammad Najibullah. Rival militias vie for influence.
Top
1993
The factions agree on the formation of a government with Burhanuddin Rabbani as president, but infighting continues. Lawlessness is rampant.
1994
September
The Taliban are appointed by Pakistan to protect a trade convoy and quickly emerge as one of the strongest factions.
Top
1996
September
The Taliban, under the leadership of Mullah Muhammad Omar, seize control of Kabul and implement a strict interpretation of Islamic law. They exile President Rabbani and execute Najibullah.
The Taliban offer Osama bin Laden refuge.
1997
Sept.–Oct.
The Taliban fail to capture and hold the city of Mazar-i-Sharif (held sacred by Shiites as the site of Ali's grave). Pakistani religious schools send reinforcements to the Taliban.
Top
1998
Aug. 20
The U.S. launches missiles at suspected bin Laden bases in retaliation for the bombing of embassies in Africa.
Sept. 13
The Taliban take over the city of Bamian.
1999
March
A UN-brokered peace agreement is reached between the Taliban and their main remaining foe, the Northern Alliance under Ahmed Shah Massoud. Fighting breaks out again in July.
October
The Taliban take Mazar-i-Sharif. There are unconfirmed reports of mass arrests and executions (numbering in the thousands) of Shiites, especially of the Hazara ethnic group.
November
The U.N. imposes an air embargo and freezes Taliban assets in an attempt to force them to hand over bin Laden for trial.
Top
2000–2001
Record cold, drought, and civil war push an estimated 200,000 more Afghans into refugee camps.
2001
January
The UN adds an arms embargo against the Taliban.
March 12
Ignoring an international outcry, the Taliban blow up two 2,000-year-old Buddhist statues in the cliffs above Bamian.
May
Religious minorities are ordered to wear tags identifying them as non-Muslims; Hindu women are required to veil themselves like other Afghan women.
July
Taliban bans the use of the Internet, playing cards, computer discs, movies, satellite TV, musical instruments, and chessboards, after declaring them against Islamic law.
August
Eight Christian foreign-aid workers are arrested for proselytizing. Two are American citizens.
Sept. 9
Northern Alliance Commander Ahmed Shah Massoud is wounded in a suicide bombing, allegedly by al-Qaeda operatives. Massoud dies from his wounds several days later.
Sept. 11
Terrorist attack on World Trade Center and Pentagon.
Mid-Sept.
Fearing U.S. reprisals, Afghans begin fleeing Kabul. Within a week more than 4,000 people a day try to cross into Pakistan.
U.S. demands that the Taliban hand over bin Laden and al-Qaeda members.
The Taliban offers to turn over bin Laden if presented with evidence of his guilt. They also suggest that they will allow him to be tried by Muslim clerics.
Saudi Arabia and the UAE cut off diplomatic ties. Pakistan pulls diplomats from Afghanistan but maintains ties.
U.N. and Red Cross aid efforts are halted.
Sept. 16
Pakistan's president, General Musharraf, pledges support for U.S. efforts to arrest bin Laden and appeals to his nation for support. Taliban supporters mount demonstrations.
Sept. 24
The Taliban calls for a jihad against America if U.S. forces enter Afghanistan.
Top
Oct. 7
The U.S. begings bombing strategic Taliban sites in Afghanistan.
Osama bin Laden issues a statement calling on all Muslims to wage a holy war against America.
More pro-Taliban, anti-U.S. demonstrations erupt in Pakistan.
Oct. 19
U.S. begins ground assaults against the Taliban. More than 100 commandos parachute into an airfield near Kandahar while a small number of special operations forces raid a compound used by the Taliban to gather intelligence. Two Americans die when a support helicopter crashes.
Other special forces units are rumored to be aiding the Northern Alliance and hunting bin Laden.
Oct. 26
The Taliban executes former mujahideen leader Abdul Haq, his nephew, and anti-Taliban commander, Haji Dawran. The three had been on a mission to convince several Taliban leaders to defect when they were captured, then tried for treason and espionage.
Top
November
Nov. 9 Northern Alliance forces, with help of U.S. air support, take cities of Mazar-i-Sharif and Taloqan from the Taliban.
Nov. 11 Three international journalists are killed near Taloqan in a Taliban ambush.
Nov. 12 Northern Alliance forces capture Herat and advance toward Kabul.
Nov. 13 Northern Alliance enters Kabul. The Taliban fall back from Kandahar. There are reports of lawlessness from Mazar-i-Sharif.
Nov. 15 The eight foreign aid workers held since August are freed as the Taliban flees Kandahar.
Nov. 21 Taliban commanders in the city of Kunduz plan to meet with Northern Alliance leaders to negotiate a surrender. The Taliban in Kandahar announce they will continue to fight and claim to still control the provinces of Kandahar, Helmand, Oruzgan, Zabol, and part of Ghazni province. The Taliban deny knowing the location of Osama bin Laden.
Nov. 24 The Taliban surrender Kunduz.
Nov. 25 U.S. special forces and air strikes help subdue a prison revolt in Mazar-i-Sharif. The prison held several hundred Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters, many of them foreign, who had surrendered in Kunduz. The uprising lasts three days. A CIA agent, about 30 Northern Alliance soldiers, and more than 500 Taliban prisoners are killed.
Nov. 25 Hundreds of marines land near Kandahar to combat Taliban and al-Qaeda forces. This is the first major incursion of U.S. ground troops in Afghanistan.
Nov. 27 Afghan leaders meet with UN representatives in Bonn, Germany, to work out guidelines for a post-Taliban government. Afghan leaders represent 4 factions: the Northern Alliance; the "Rome Group," representing former Afghan King Mohammad Zahir Shah; the "Peshawar Group," representing Afghan refugees in Pakistan; and the "Cyprus Group," representing an Iranian-backed group of Afghan exiles.
Nov. 29 U.S. continues airstrikes on Kandahar. Mullah Omar reportedly tells the remaining Taliban forces to "fight to the death." Meanwhile, the Northern Alliance agrees to the presence of international peacekeeping forces.
Top
December
Dec. 5 Hamid Karzai, an Afghan tribal leader, is chosen to head an interim government by the delegates in Bonn.
Dec. 6 The Taliban agree to surrender Kandahar. No agreement, however, is made on the fate of Mullah Omar and Osama bin Laden.
Dec. 9 The Taliban surrender Kandahar and withdraw from the city. While the Taliban have been completely removed from power, former Taliban soldiers show up in nearby villages and continue to push the Taliban's policies.
Dec. 11 Bin Laden's forces retreat to mountains near Tora Bora in eastern Afghanistan. The U.S. bombards a complex of caves where he is believed to be hiding.
Dec. 16 The U.S. declares that al-Qaeda has been destroyed in Afghanistan.
Dec. 16 The U.S. embassy in Kabul reopens.
Dec. 20 Afghan and international officials agree in principle to a UN peacekeeping force, which will help rebuild Afghanistan.
Dec. 22 Hamid Karzai is sworn in as chairman of an interim government replacing the Taliban. The U.S. announces that it will recognize the government, the first time an Afghan government has received official US recognition since 1979.
Dec. 26 Although rumours persist that he has left the country, or is dead, U.S. forces continue to hunt for bin Laden near Tora Bora.
Top
2002
January
The Taliban officially capitulates. Seven top Taliban officials who surrendered at Kandahar are released by the interim government and are suspected of leaving the country. Pakistani intelligence officials detain Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef, the Taliban's former ambassador to Pakistan. Zaeef is put into U.S. custody.
The U.S. continues to bomb suspected Taliban and al-Qaeda sites and search for Mullah Omar and Osama bin Laden. Taliban and al-Qaeda prisoners of war are sent to United States Naval station at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba.
March 2
The U.S. begins Operation Anaconda, a combined effort of U.S. and Afghani forces to route entrenched Taliban and al-Qaeda forces from the mountains north of Gardeyz. The operation involves more than 1,000 U.S. ground troops in addition to helicopters and bombers. In the 16-day operation U.S. forces suffer 8 casualties. Official estimates of al-Qaeda and Taliban casualties are in the hundreds. Afghan commanders, however, maintain that many al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters escaped.
September 6
Hamid Karzai narrowly escapes being gunned down by an assassin. The gunman, who was killed by U.S. Special Forces, is a known Taliban activist. This is the second attempt on Karzai's life this year—in July, security forces found a car filled with explosives.
Top
2003
March
Gunmen kill Ricardo Munguia, an engineer with the International Committee of the Red Cross. After executing Munguia with a shot to the head they warn Red Cross workers against assisting foreigners. Munguia was the first foreign aid worker killed in Afghanistan since the Taliban was deposed.
Attacks against U.S. troops in southern Afghanistan spike, culminating in an ambush of U.S. Special Forces that leaves two soldiers dead.
Taliban forces took control of two remote districts near the Pakistani border and held them for nearly a week. They were driven out by Afghan military forces back by U.S. Special Forces and helicopter gunships.
March 20 The U.S. launches Operation Valiant Strike in Kandahar. This is the largest U.S.-led mission in Afghanistan since Operation Anaconda a year earlier.
May
Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld claims that most of Afghanistan is now secure and that American forces had moved from major combat operations to stabilization and reconstruction projects. However, pro-Taliban insurgents continue to stage almost daily attacks on government buildings, U.S. bases, and aid workers.
September
U.S.-led forces drive back Taliban rebels after some of the fiercest fighting since they were overthrown. Between 70 and 100 Taliban fighters were killed during a week of clashes in Afghanistan's southeastern Zabul province.
December
The U.S. military launches Operation Avalanche, its largest offensive in Afghanistan in two years. Operation Avalanche involves some 2,000 soldiers and is intended to keep Taliban insurgents on the defensive during a historic constitutional council.
Top
2004
January
Afghanistan's Loya Jirga adopts a new constitution. The constitution grants equality for men and women and defines the country as an "Islamic Republic."
Donor countries pledge $8.2 billion in aid to Afghanistan over the next three years.
March
President Karzai announces that Afghanistan's first post-Taliban elections will be postponed until September. The Taliban vows to disrupt the electoral process.
The U.S. sends 2,000 more marines to Afghanistan to step up the hunt for al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders.
April
Fighting between a regional warlord and provincial governor allied to government breaks out in northwest Afghanistan.
Taliban militans are suspected of killing 20 people, including two aid workers and a police chief, in the south.
June
The Taliban is suspected in a string of attacks on foreign workers and aid agencies.
One June 2, three Europeans working for Medicins Sans Frontieres (MSF) are killed in an attack believed to have been carried out by the Taliban. MSF suspends its work in Afghanistan.
On June 16, four Afghan civilians are killed by a roadside bomb in Kunduz. The bomb is apparently aimed at an international peacekeeping force. Later that day a bomb explodes at the office of the London-based Afghanaid agency. The explosion at Afghanaid appears to be related to local power struggles and not a Taliban attack.
On June 27, suspected Taliban shoot dead 16 people after finding them in possession of voter registration cards.
July
The government pushes the presidential election to October and parliamentary elections to spring 2005.
Taliban insurgents kill a local police chief in the southern province of Kandahar.
Top
2005
The Taliban begin to regroup in larger numbers and continue to attack U.S. troops, making it the deadliest year for U.S. troops since the war ended in 2001. The insurgents intensify their attacks over the summer in an attempt to disrupt September's parliamentary elections.
June
Insurgents shot down a Chinook helicopter, killing eight Navy Seals and eight other Special Operations troops who were on a mission to rescue four Navy Seals.
July and August
U.S. and Afghan troops fight back, killing about 100 Taliban fighters and capturing dozens.
Top
2006
Throughout the spring of 2006, Taliban militants, now a force of several thousand--infiltrate southern Afghanistan, terrorizing local villagers and attacking Afghan and U.S. troops. Uruzgan, Helmand, and Kandahar provinces are particularly hard hit by militant violence. Battles between coalition troops and the Taliban kill dozens, including many civilians.
May and June
After a spate of Taliban suicide bombings and other attacks, Operation Mount Thrust is launched, deploying more than 10,000 Afghan and coalition forces in the south. About 700 people, most of whom are Taliban, are killed.
Hi Colpy
I've been doing so much running around today I've kind of forgotten about this topic. I found this site last night and it seemed a halfway reasonable source for info on the Taliban. I think most people are sick of the Taliban----I don't blame them.
I've been doing so much running around today I've kind of forgotten about this topic. I found this site last night and it seemed a halfway reasonable source for info on the Taliban. I think most people are sick of the Taliban----I don't blame them.
While I am sick of the Taliban, we must understand the strength and support for this group comes from the ignorance of the west and the interference westen powers exercised in this region.
The Russian ivnasion and the Americans arming the so called freedom fighters who in fact were terrorists. There were all kinds of weapons around, in the hands of tribal lunatics, who fought each other for power.
The United States helped finance terror, or the so called freedom fighters, the same way they helped Saddam come to power in Iraq.
What was it Kennedy once said? He who rides the back of the tiger, ultimately ends up inside.
The Russian ivnasion and the Americans arming the so called freedom fighters who in fact were terrorists. There were all kinds of weapons around, in the hands of tribal lunatics, who fought each other for power.
The United States helped finance terror, or the so called freedom fighters, the same way they helped Saddam come to power in Iraq.
What was it Kennedy once said? He who rides the back of the tiger, ultimately ends up inside.