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Afghanistan timeline March 16-31, 2003

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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Kingturtle (talk | contribs) at 00:55, 9 March 2003 (3/7 - events). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

May 13, 2003

A second group of 13 medics from Hungary are scheduled to leave for Afghanistan. The first group left on March 8, 2003.

May 1, 2003

March 18, 2003

March 8, 2003

  • An explosion in the Baghrami district of Afghanistan (about 15 kilometres (nine miles) south of Kabul) killed an interpreter working for international peacekeepers and lightly injured a Dutch soldier. Both were airlifted from the scene as ISAF troops blocked off the scene of the incident on a street lined by shops and mud houses. The injured man was a 23-year-old corporal with the 11th Air Mobile Brigade. It was unclear if the explosion had been an attack on its patrol or what kind of device was detonated.
  • Six medics and three other volunteers in charge of logistics, all from Hungary departed for Kabul, Afghanistan, where they will work at a German military hospital and a Dutch surgery unit as part of ISAF.

March 7, 2003

  • During his 3-day visit of India, Afghan President Hamid Karzai told a business meeting in Delhi that he hoped India would join an oil pipeline project to ship gas from Turkmenistan via Afghanistan and Pakistan. Later, Mr Karzai flew to the Himalayan town of Shimla, India to pick up an honorary doctorate in literature from his alma mater. Mr. Karzai took a postgraduate course in political science at Himachal University from 1979 to 1983.
  • Mortar rounds landed about 1 1/2 miles from a guard tower north of Bagram Air Base.
  • United States soldiers took a 4-year-old Afghan boy from the central Madr Valley to the base for treatment of suspected bacterial meningitis. He was in very serious condition.
  • United States Special Forces near Spin Majid, Afghanistan in the southwestern province of Helmanddetained detained seven men suspected of planning attacks on coalition forces. They were detained with bomb-making instructions in their possession. U.S. military spokesman Col. Roger King did not say whether they were suspected of being al-Qaida terrorists or supporters of the former Taliban government.
  • Sardar Sanaullah Zehri, home minister of Pakistan's Baluchistan province, said two of Osama bin Laden's sons were wounded and possibly held by United States and Afghan troops in Ribat. The White House cast doubt on the report.
  • A United States soldier sustained head injuries in a road accident on in central Bamiyan province was evacuated to Bagram, which serves as the headquarters of coalition forces in Afghanistan. The soldier was in stable condition.
  • The third explosion in as many days rattled Jalalabad, Afghanistan, blowing out windows of a government office but causing no casualties. The bomb was hidden in a sewage drain. A bomb detonated near the office of the World Food Program the previous day. The day before that another exploded near a hospital.
  • Fighting erupted on when Uzbek warlord General Abdul Rashid Dostum's men attacked positions held by supporters of Ustad Atta Mohammad's Jamiat-e-Islami faction in Pashtoon Kot district, south of Faryab's provincial capital, Afghanistan. Several people were killed or wounded.

March 6, 2003

  • A preferential trade agreement was signed in a ceremony in Dehli, India attended by Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee. The trade pact will enable free movement of goods specified by the two countries at lower tariffs. The volume of trade between the two countries in 2001-02 totaled $41.89 million. Vajpayee also announced a $70 million grant to rebuild a major road in Afghanistan. Included in the pledge was the third of three 232-seat Airbus 300-B4s to help rebuild Ariana Airlines.
  • "The Situation of Women and Girls in Afghanistan," a United Nations report revealed that intimidation and violence against women continue without resistance Afghanistan. To date, Afghan women work, study and even hold some government posts, but in more rural areas they continue to be forced into marriages and are victims of domestic violence, kidnapping and harassment.
  • United States military coroners ruled as homicides the deaths in December 2002 of two prisoners at a U.S. base in Afghanistan. The two prisoners died at the makeshift prison in the U.S. compound at the Afghan base north of Kabul. The autopsies found that the men had been beaten, and one had a blood clot in his lung.
  • At least nine suspected al Qaeda members were killed in an operation by U.S. and Afghan troops in the far west of Afghanistan in the Ribat area, where the borders of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran meet.

March 5, 2003

March 4, 2003

March 3, 2003

  • At 6 A.M., a rocket hit a house in Kandahar, Afghanistan, injuring a man and his wife and causing panic in the area. The wife, Bibi Koh, was in serious condition.

March 2, 2003

  • The San Francisco Chronicle reported that Afghan poverty-stricken families earning money by selling their daughters was on the rise.
  • Germany pulled out its elite KSK anti-terror forces from [[Afghanistan]. The German defense ministry refused to comment on the report.
  • Afghan border guards arrested a Pakistani man, Sayed Wali, in eastern Afghanistan on charges of illegally entering Afghanistan. They accusing him of spying for his Pakistan. He was arrested in the Shinwar district near Torkham.

March 1, 2003

  • Thousands of people gathered outside a police station in the Dasht-e Barchi district of Kabul, Afghanistan after claims that a policeman tried to kidnap a woman there. Surrounding the police station, protesters wanted those responsible for the alleged attack to be punished. Protesters also nominated their own candidates to police the district. Some merchants closed shop in solidarity. No one was seriously injured. The demonstration was the first large scale disturbance in the city since violent student riots late last year.
  • The UNHCR announced that 395,752 Afghans had voluntarily returned home from Iran since a UNHCR joint program with Tehran to the effect began on April 9, 2002. (see details of the UNHCR Afghan repatriation programs)
  • Khalid Shaikh Mohammed was arrested in a joint raid by CIA agents and Pakistani police in Rawalpindi, Pakistan.
  • Armed men fired on a U.S. observation post at the Salerno base in Khost, Afghanistan. U.S. forces returned fire. There were no casualties.
  • Three Afghan soldiers were wounded when their pickup truck ran over a landmine during a routine patrol at Panjwai district, 30 kilometers (20 miles) southwest of Kandahar.

February 28, 2003

  • Eight armed men stepped into the road and opened fire on a two-vehicle United Nations World Food Program convoy at midday as they traveled from Wazahan village to Hiraqat, but no injuries were reported.
  • A lone gunman opened fire with an AK-47 on U.S. soldiers manning a guard post north of Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, but no casualties were reported.
  • United States troops discovered a "bomb-making facility" near Jalalabad, Afghanistan. The troops found the materials after searching five compounds in Shinwar district. Also recovered were three 82 mm mortars, one grenade launcher, five machine-guns, 1,000 mortar rounds, 300 rockets, mines and thousands of ammunition cases.

February 27, 2003

February 26, 2003

  • In Washington, DC, Afghan President Hamid Karzai asked members of the U.S. Senate to support a request that the United States subsidize his budget to allow him to pay 100,000 irregular militiamen in the provinces to ensure "they remain well-behaved" until the Japanese-led disarmament and reintegration drive takes off. There were thought to be at the time 8 million guns in Afghanistan.

February 24, 2003

  • Afghan Minister for Mines and Industries Juma Mohammad Mohammadi and Pakistani foreign ministry official Mohammad Farhad Ahmed were among eight people on board a Cessna plane that crashed into the Arabian Sea shortly after takeoff. The aircraft was headed for Balochistan, Pakistan near the Iranian border. Also on board the aircraft were three other Afghan officials, two crew members and a senior Chinese businessman. They had been traveling to a copper and gold mining project being run by a Chinese firm in Balochistan. Weather officials say it was clear and sunny in Karachi at the time of the crash.
  • John-Marie Guehenno, the undersecretary-general in charge of United Nations peacekeeping, called for immediate measures to improve security in Afghanistan, where international aid agencies have been threatened by kidnappings and violence. Guehenno referred to a series of recent incidents, including mine and grenade attacks in Kandahar and Kunduz, and kidnapping threats in Kabul, Jalalabad and Kunar provinces where security had been reinforced. He said contingency plans had been made for a withdrawal of U.N. agencies from certain areas of Afghanistan. He also added that human rights continued to be undermined by poor overall security, including reports of extra-judiciary executions, extortions and forced displacements.
  • Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Lobbering, a German spokesman, denied reports that Germany plans to pull its peacekeepers out of Afghanistan if there is war in Iraq.
  • The Asian Development Bank announced plans to provide about US$200 million in financial assistance for the reconstruction of Afghanistan this year. $150 million is earmarked for infrastructure rehabilitation; $50 million is earmarked for agriculture.
  • Taiwan announced that Afghanistan was included in a list of eleven countries being given ‘second-tier’ tariff rates in hopes of facilitating trade development.
  • The road between Gardez and Khost, Afghanistan was cut off by supporters of warlord Bacha Khan Zadran after local officials seized a dozen of his militiamen's vehicles. Paktia Gov. Raz Mohammad Dalili sent a delegation of elders to try to resolve the problem.

February 23, 2003

  • An Afghan soldier working with U.S. special forces was killed and another wounded in a firefight at a compound just east of Tarin Kot in the central province of Uruzgan, Afghanistan. The clash also left one enemy fighter dead and another wounded.
  • A truck full of American military supplies including sandbags and a generator struck a landmine about 200 yards south of Bagram Air Base. No casualties were reported.

February 22, 2003

  • A one-day international donors' conference to help Afghan President Hamid Karzai tighten control over Afghanistan took place in Tokyo, Japan. There were about 45 donor nations and international organizations in attendance. The meeting, called by Japan, sought to raise money for efforts to disarm warlords and extend President Karzai's authority outside Kabul, Afghanistan.
  • In Islamabad, Pakistan, Afghan Minister for Petroleum and Mines Juma Mohammad Mohammadi and other administrators from Pakistan and Afghanistan agreed to invite India to take part in a potential $2.5 billion gas pipeline project to connect the states.

February 21, 2003

  • Afghan President Hamid Karzai arrived in Tokyo, Japan to attend a conference of nations involved in pledging donations to Afghanistan. In a press conference, Karzai expressed confidence that his government would succeed in creating a unified Afghan fighting force, and in stabilizing areas beyond Kabul. But he also acknowledged that fighting has continued between rival warlords and that terrorist pockets continue to plague areas along the Afghan-Pakistani border. He estimated that about 100,000 irregular troops still need to disarm.
  • Canada announced it would not able to run peacekeeping operations in Afghanistan alone later this year, and asked for NATO help. Canada will send a battlegroup and a brigade-level headquarters to Afghanistan in August, 2003 to take over command of the 4,000 member United Nations force. Canada's commitment could involve as many as 2,800 troops on each of two six-month rotations. The general in charge of international security policy in the Canadian Department of Defense resigned over the decision.
  • David Singh, the public information officer for the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, warned staff to take precautions following anonymous threats warning of increased retaliation in the context of the possibility of war between the United States and Iraq.
  • In a press conference, United States Military spokesman Colonel Roger King said that in the last 24-hours Operation Viper brought about the detention of seven more suspected Taliban members, bringing the number during the mission up to about 25. King also said that there was no indication that a land mine this week that blew off the foot of a US soldier near Gardez, Afghanistan was planted recently or was targeted at US patrol.
  • German Defense Minister Peter Struck said Germany could withdraw its 2,500 troops from the 4,700 strong ISAF in Afghanistan if a war in Iraq began and escalated tensions in the region.
  • Pakistan donated arms and ammunition to the Afghan National Army, signifying an attempt to strengthen Pakistan’s influence in the post-Taliban government in Afghanistan. The weapons include 5000 submachine guns, 180 mortars, 75 rocket-propelled grenade launchers and 10,000 mortar bombs. Pakistan will also help train Afghan army personnel.
  • The managing director of Sui Southern Gas Company reported that Pakistan needed to finalize one natural gas import pipeline project by the end of 2003 to meet soaring gas demands in the years ahead. The three projects under discussion included an Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline, a Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan pipeline, and a Qatar-Pakistan pipeline.

February 20, 2003

  • President Hamid Karzai left Kabul, Afghanistan for a four-nation tour (Japan, Malaysia, the United States, and India). Karzai is accompanied by Foreign Minister Dr. Abdullah Abdullah and a high-level official delegation. Japan is the second largest donor nation of Afghanistan after the United States.
  • In Washington, DC, NATO Secretary-General Lord George Robertson discussed a proposal that in the summer of 2003 NATO might assist Canada when it took over from the Netherlands and Germany in peacekeeping operations in Afghanistan. "We’ll be examining that over the next few weeks," he said "to see whether there is a consensus on it, whether it makes sense, how best the job can be done.”
  • Thirty United States soldiers of the 82nd Airborne Division’s 405th Parachute Infantry Regiment marched to Engran, Afghanistan. After setting up sniper positions, soldiers entered the village. They told village elder Haji Abdul Had that they had come as part of the Afghan government’s disarmament efforts. In an orchard behind a compound, soldiers found two AK-47 assault rifles beneath a wet burlap sack. The village elder said some families kept guns for their own security. The soldiers confiscated the arms. The soldiers searched four other villages, but found nothing else. Another platoon searching separate villages nearby seized 27 AK-47s.
  • Seeking more ethnic balance, Afghanistan's Defense Minister Mohammed Fahim announced that it replaced 15 ethnic Tajik generals and created a new, high-level post. The ousted generals were replaced by officers from the Pashtun, Uzbek and Hazara ethnic groups. The new position of a fourth deputy defense minister was given to Gen. Gul Zarak Zadran, a Pashtun. Rashid Dostum kept his post as one of the four deputy ministers. The ousted generals will be given other jobs within the ministry.

February 19, 2003

February 18, 2003

  • A fire swept through an observation post outside the United States headquarters outside the US military Bagram Air Base, forcing a quick evacuation. The cause of the fire was not known. No one was injured.
  • A lone gunman opened fire on United States Special Forces in Urgun, Afghanistan. No one was hurt
  • The United Nations confirmed reports of new Taliban training camps in eastern Afghanistan.
  • An 81-year old man from Ohio, Daniel Chick, armed with two pistols and dressed in military-style pants and sweater, was briefly detained in Haifa, Israel. He told police that he was on his way to Afghanistan in hopes of hunting down Osama bin Laden and claiming a $25 million bounty. He was trying to board a boat for Cyprus. To avoid facing charges after appearing before a judge, Chick agreed to give up his weapons and leave Israel. Allegedly, after leaving the United States, Chick made stops in Germany to visit his daughter and Italy, where he caught a flight to Israel. His attorney was Gideon Costa.

February 17, 2003

  • Afghan officials, workers, and citizens gathered at the Kabul museum for the opening of two newly renovated rooms. The British government has paid for the renovation and the British Museum gave advice. Ana Rodriguez said the cost of the destruction wrought by the Taliban was immeasurable. In the spring of 2001, the Taliban smashed nearly 2000 sculptures there.

February 16, 2003

  • In Balochistan, Pakistan, strong winds and heavy rains caused a wall to collapse in a Latifabad refugee camp, killing a nine-year-old girl and injuring three of her family members. Some 50 Afghan families in a Mohammad Kheil camp also lost their homes and tents in the storms. Later in the week, UNHCR will distribute tents, food, coal and blankets to the affected refugees, along with 150 tents and 900 quilts to storm-hit refugees in Chaghi refugee village in Baluchistan’s Dalbandin area.
  • United Nations officials in Kabul said that rains brought signs of recovery in southern Afghanistan, where reservoirs are filling up in drought ravaged Kandahar and Helmand provinces.
  • Afghanistan and UNICEF announced a program to re-train thousands of teachers, particularly women forced out of work during the Taliban regime. About 70,000 teachers across 29 of the country's 32 provinces will begin to receive the on-the-job training in the coming weeks. Teachers will be instructed on new ways to teach Dari and Pashtu. They will also be trained to teach awareness of the dangers of landmines.
  • The United Nations said that authorities were looking for new housing for 100 impoverished families who recently moved into cliff-side caves that surround the famed Buddha statues destroyed by the Taliban in central Afghanistan.

February 15, 2003

  • United States Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said that the Bush administration continued to hold the belief that Afghanistan still belonged to the Afghans. He said US forces were in the Afghanistan to promote the goal of long-term stability and independence through the development of local institutions. In response to concerns over the United States shifting its focus onto Iraq, he said that whatever else happens in the world, the US would not abandon Afghanistan.
  • Afghan President Hamid Karzai expressed concerns for the safety of civilians in operations carried out by US-led military coalition hunting for Islamic militants. Local officials and villagers in Helmand province have said that at least 17 civilians, mostly women and children, had been killed in coalition bombing raids in the mountainous region that week. The US military said that only an eight-year-old boy was wounded in the operation.

February 14, 2003

  • In Kabul, Afghanistan, four armed robbers stormed into the office of a French charity (Solidarity, working to help farmers), tied up two Afghan employees and stole cash. Police chief General Basir Falangi said authorities were investigating and vowed to find the robbers.
  • Suspected Taliban remnants fired two rockets into the southern Afghan town of Spin Boldak, but there were no casualties. A third rocket landed near a Pakistani border post.

February 13, 2003

  • In Operation Eagle Fury, coalition warplanes dropped four 500 pound bombs and fired several hundred rounds of ammunition at the caves. Special forces patrols had collected abandoned ammunition casings and rocket-launchers. 15 fighters were captured by more than 100 US troops, while an estimated 30 rebels were believed to have suffered heavy injuries.
  • The United States Congress stepped in to find nearly $300M in humanitarian and reconstruction funds for Afghanistan after the Bush administration failed to request any money in the latest budget. In its budget proposal for 2003, the White House did not ask for any money to aid humanitarian and reconstruction costs in Afghanistan. The chairman of the committee that distributes foreign aid, Jim Kolbe, said that when he asked administration officials why they had not requested any funds, he was given no satisfactory explanation.

February 12, 2003

  • Canada said it would send up to 2,000 troops (consisting of a battle group and a brigade headquarters) to Afghanistan later in the year to bolster the United Nations peacekeeping mission. To date, Canada had two warships, two maritime patrol aircraft, three transport plans, and about 850 military personnel in the region searching for al Qaeda or Taliban operatives from Afghanistan.
  • Afghan President Hamid Karzai urged he international community not to abandon Afghanistan in the event of a United States-led war on Iraq. Such a move, he told the BBC, would lead to instability not just in Afghanistan, but within the region.

February 10, 2003

  • Afghanistan became the 89th nation to join the International Criminal Court. The ratification will take effect May 1, 2003. The court will prosecute those accused of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. It will intervene only when a country is unable or lacks the political will to carry out the trail.
  • In the the Baghran mountains of Afghanistan, United States soldiers looking for weapons were attacked with rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns; they sustained no casualties. Eyewitnesses said 13 people had been killed in the bombing. The US claims that the only civilian confirmed injured was an eight-year-old son of a suspected Taliban fighter. The boy was taken to the US military base at Kandahar (on February 14, 2003) for treatment of shrapnel wounds to the face and leg and was in stable condition.
  • Germany and the Netherlands took over joint command of the international peace-keeping force in Afghanistan. The command was handed over by Turkey’s Maj-Gen Hilmi Akin Zorlu during a ceremony at a secondary school in the Kabul. Dignitaries present included Afghan President Hamid Karzai, German Defense Minster Peter Struck, and the Dutch Defense Minister Benk Korthals. As Lt-Gen Norbert Van Heyst vowed to maintain law and order, a rocket landed a hundred meters from a German base in Kabul. Struck was taken to shelter during the visit to Kabul when two rockets landed in his vicinity. To date, The German contingent in the peacekeeping force numbered about 2,500. The Turkish contingent numbered about 1,400, but was likely to be reduced to 160 men.

February 8, 2003

February 3, 2003

  • A private memo was sent from Canadian deputy chief, Vice-Admiral Greg Maddison to the chief of the Canadian defense staff, Gen. Ray Henault, saying that command of the United Nations forces in Afghanistan was "not viable with Canada as the lead nation" without multinational support. Canada was scheduled to take over command in August, 2003.
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