AFGHANISTAN TIMELINE

Emerged in the middle of the 18th century as a country – with a unified political system, ruled by a monarchy in Kabul.

1839-42

1st Anglo-Afghan War. The British are unsuccessful at capturing

1878- 1880

2nd Anglo-Afghan War. The British try again, fail again.

1973

Afghan Monarchy Falls. King Zahir Shah is overthrown by his cousin, former Prime Minister Mohammad Daoud. A republic is established by M. Daoud Khan.
1978

April - The Revolution, led by the People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) with communist leanings. Attempts by the new president, Noor Mohammad Taraki, to impose land reform and compulsory education for women spark a nationwide reaction. There was a conflict between the modernisers in Kabul (the communist), and large sections of the rest of society mobilized as mujahedeen or fighters/rebels.

1979

July American intelligence services begin to aid the mujahedeen in Afghanistan 6 months before the Soviet intervention This was an effort to draw the Soviets into what the CIA hoped would be their “Vietnam.” The Soviets obliged. (Admitted by former director of the CIA, Robert Gates, stated in his memoirs ["From the Shadows"], and by Zbginiew Brzezinksi, Jimmy Carter's National Security Advisor, in an interview to a French newspaper in 1998. See citations and links below. Also check this same site for interview transcript).

September - President Taraki is murdered by his deputy, Hafizullah Amin. Amin is executed is executed three months later.

December - Troops of the Soviet Union invade Afghanistan to support the government. Babrak Karmal, exiled PDPA leader in Moscow, returns as president.

 

1986

Bill Casey, then head of the CIA, gives $8 billion to train mujahedeen recruits against the Soviets (already being supported and trained by Pakistan’s ISI). As part of this mission, Stinger missiles were provided with US Congress approval. CIA also takes the help of Britain’s MI6 and the Saudi intelligence – Istakhbarat. The leader of the mujahedeen was Gulbuddin Hikmetyar, the man who made history in the 1960s by throwing acid in the face of women students at Kabul University. There were many factions (at least 7 guerilla groups) within the mujahedeen, some of them also run by Iran. One young recruit was Osama bin Laden. In late 1986, he helped set up the Khost tunnel complex, which the CIA funded as a major arms storage depot, training facility and medical center for the mujahedeen, close to the Pakistan border.

May 4:  Maj Gen Mohammad Najibullah replaces Karmal as president.

1988

Feb: Gorbachev announces a 10-month phased withdrawal of Soviet troops, beginning mid-May. The Geneva Accords, signed on April 14, allow both superpowers to continue to supply arms to the combatants.

1989

Feb.15:  The Soviet Union withdraws its last 115,000 troops from Afghanistan, after losing about 14,000 soldiers in Afghanistan.

Osama bin Laden sets up Al Qaeda or Military Base as a service center for Arab-Afghans families.

February 14: In Peshawar, the "Seven-Party Alliance of Afghan Mujahideen" announces the establishment of an "Afghan Interim Government (AIG)", with Sibghatullah Mujadeddi as president, Shia resistance groups and many key field commanders are excluded.

March-September: Battle of Jalalabad. Mujahideen forces fail to capture key eastern city after a siege claming 10,000 lives.

August 29: Foreign Minister Gulbuddin Hikmetyar, head of the radical Hizb-I Islami, breaks with the AIG.

 

1990

OBL returns to Saudi.

February 6-9: The US and the Soviet Union agree that President Najibullah will remain in power until internationally-supervised elections can be held.

May 29: Najibullah announces the introduction of a multiparty system. July 25 - Refugees begin to return home under the UN's Voluntary Repatriation Scheme.

August 2: Iraq invades Kuwait. Against OBL’s wishes, the Saudi King Fahd invites the US to fight Iraq. The United States moves into Saudi Arabia.

 

1991

February-March: US discontinues military aid to the AIG and announces it cannot guarantee humanitarian assistance for 1992.

May 21: UN Secretary-General Perez de Cuellar calls for an end to arms supplies to all sides, a cessation of hostilities and elections for a broadly-based democratic government. The AIG rejects any compromise with the Najibullah government.

 

1992

April: As mujahideen forces converge on Kabul, Najibullah is removed by military officers and takes refuge in a UN compound. Mujahedeen leaders sign the Peshawar Accord, agreeing to a power-sharing period of transitional rule leading to elections. Hekmatyar is not a signatory.

June 24:  Prof Burhanuddin Rabbani is declared transitional president of the "Islamic State of Afghanistan" for six months. Hekmatyar's forces fire missiles and rockets into Kabul.

July-August: Fighting erupts between rival mujahedin factions in Kabul. The UN evacuates staff from the city and relocates its offices to Islamabad.

December 30:  In defiance of the Peshawar Accord, Rabbani is confirmed as president for a further two years by a "Council of Wise Men". Five of the nine key party leaders boycott the council.

1993

January 19: Government launches an offensive against Hekmatyar, who responds with a month-long rocket bombardment of the capital. Thousands of civilians perish.

February: Four UN staff are assassinated in Nangarhar Province on the road of the Khyber Pass.

March 7: Under the Islamabad Accord, Rabbani's term is reduced to 18 months and Hekmatyar is brought in as prime minister. Fighting resumes two days later over the unresolved status of both Defence Minister Ahmad Shah Massoud and General Dostum, the former communist who controls northern Afghanistan.

June 16: Hekmatyar is sworn in as prime minister, Massoud resigns.

 

1994

The Taliban is created as a force in Afghanistan to fight the mujahedeen which was not bringing stability to the region, especially not opening up the supply lines from Central Asia.

January 1: The Battle for Kabul intensifies as General Dostum forms an alliance with Hekmatyar. Fighting continues throughout the year but no clear winner emerges. A blockade halts the delivery of relief food and medicine.

February 14: Ambassador Mahmoud Mestiri is named head of a Special UN Mission with a mandate to restart the peace process. He tables proposals for a ceasefire, the creation of a neutral security force and the summoning of a Loya jirga, or representative council, to oversee the formation of a transitional government.

October 1994: Kandahar falls the Taliban, led by Mullah Mohammad Omar.

November 11: The UN appeals for $106.4 million to meet the humanitarian requirements of Afghanistan for the next twelve months. Fighting during the year has killed 7,000, injured around 100,000 and made more than half a million people homeless, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross.

 

1995

February: Taliban force Hekmatyar to abandon his rocket bases at Charasyab and Maidanshahr, ending the first siege of Kabul.

March 20: Following the killing of Abdul-Ali Mazari, leader of the Shia Hizb-I Wahdat, Taliban forces are expelled from Kabul by government forces.

September 5: After fierce fighting in western Afghanistan, Heart falls to the Taliban. Local warlord Ismail Khan flees with 8,000 followers to Iran.

September 6: Pakistan's embassy in Kabul is set ablaze by rioting Afghans.

October: Second siege begins as the Taliban rocket the capital and tighten the blockade.

October 4: At the UN General Assembly in New York, Deputy Foreign Minister Abdul Rahim Ghafoorzai accuses Pakistan of orchestrating and supplying the Taliban movement.

November 10: - UNICEF suspends assistance to education in Taliban-controlled regions.

 

1996

Osama Bin Laden returns to Afghanistan.
April 3: 1,000 Muslim clergymen elect Mullah Mohammad Omar as Amir ul-Momineen, or Leader of the Faithful.

June 26: - After a peace deal between Rabbani and Hekmatyar, the latter re-assumes his title as prime minister. Islamic dress code is enforced for women in Kabul.

September 5: - Taliban launch offensive in eastern Afghanistan, capturing Jalalabad.

September 26: - Massoud abandons Kabul.

September 27: - Taliban take control of Kabul, hang Najibullah and declare Afghanistan a "completely Islamic State".

October 7: - Rabbani, Dostum and Karim Khalili, leader of Hizb-I Wahdat, announce formation of an anti-Taliban alliance called the Council for the Defence of Afghanistan.

 

1997

May 13: Afghan opposition forms new government under Rabbani in Mazar-I Sharif.

May 19: General Abdul Malik, governor of Faryab, mutinies and allies with the Taliban. Dostum flees to Turkey.

May 24: Taliban forces enter Mazar-I-Sharif.

May 25: Pakistan recognises the Taliban government, followed by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

May 28: General Malik, in alliance with Hizb-i wahdat, turns on Taliban. Hundreds killed and 2,000 captured as fierce fighting drives them from the city.

June 10: Mullah Mohammad Omar makes his first public visit to Kabul to rally morale.

August: Taliban blockade the Hazarajat.

September: Taliban arrest EU Commissioner Emma Bonino in Kabul.

October: UNOCAL announces trans-Afghanistan pipeline consortium.

November: General Malik and his brothers flee into exile.

November 18: - US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright condemns Taliban treatment of women.

 

1998

February 23: Osama bin-Ladin calls on Muslims to 'kill the Americans and their allies - civilian and military'.

March 25: UN withdraws staff from Kandahar.

April 17: US ambassador to UN Bill Richardson holds peace talks with the Taliban.

May 3: Peace talks collapse.

July 13: Two UN staff murdered in Jalalabad.

July 21: Foreign NGOs leave Kabul.

August 7: US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania are attacked with grievous loss of life. The prime suspect is Osama Bin Laden. Clinton responds by bombing Sudan and Afghanistan.

August 8: 4-5,000 people, including nine Iranian diplomats, are killed as Mazar-i Sharif falls to the Taliban.

August 20: US cruise missiles attack four training campus near Khost, Afghanistan and Khartoum, Sudan. 8 months later the US admitted it made a mistake in Sudan but did not apologize.

August 21: After UN observer is murdered in Kabul, the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross withdraw all foreign staff.

September: Saudi Arabia withdraws diplomats; Taliban capture Bamiyan.

October 21: UN defers decision on recognition.

November 8: US posts $5 million reward for information leading to the capture of bin-Ladin: Taliban respond with offer to try bin-Laden in Afghanistan, finding him "innocent" of wrongdoing by the end of the month.

December 6: UNOCAL announces its withdrawal from the pipeline consortium.

 

1999

February 12: Taliban announce the "disappearance" of bin-Laden. UN staff return to Kabul.

April 21: Taliban recapture Bamiyan.

July 6: US imposes trade sanctions on Afghanistan.

July 28: Taliban launch three-pronged offensive against Massoud, capturing Bagram air base.

August 4: Ethnic cleansing of Shomali Plain; Massoud launches successful counter-offensive.

August 24: Attempted assassination of Mullah Mohammad Omar.

October 7: ISI chief Lt-Gen. Khawaja Ziauddin flies to Kandahar to denounce the presence of "terrorist training camps" on Afghan soil.

December 15: UN imposes sanctions on Afghanistan.

 

2000

September 5: After 33 days fighting, Massoud's northern capital, Talaqan, falls to a combined Taliban/Pakistani/Arab force. Thousands of refugees head for the Tajik and Pakistani borders.

November: UN leaves the Afghanistan seat with President Rabbani. Taliban and Opposition agree to peace talks.

December 7: US and Russia ask the UN Security Council to strengthen sanctions.

December10-19: - UN and NGO foreign staff withdraw amid fear of reprisals.

December 19: UN tightens sanctions, imposing an arms embargo, closing Taliban offices abroad and forbidding Taliban officials to leave Afghanistan.

 

2001

January 3: The trial, in absentia, of Osama bin Laden, and scores of others allegedly implicated in the East African embassy bombings commences in a Manhattan court.

 

Compiled from various sources including:

1.      Griffin, Michael; Reaping the Whirlwind: The Taliban Movement in Afghanistan. Pluto Press; London; 2001

2.       http://www.rte.ie/news/features/afghanistan/halliday.html Site of Fred Halliday, Professor of International Relations, London School of Economics

3.      Rashid, Ahmed. Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia. Yale University Press. 2000.

4.      Robert Gates From the Shadows : The Ultimate Insider's Story of Five Presidents and How They Won the Cold War. 1997.

5.      Interview of Zbigniew Brzezinski  “How Jimmy Carter and I Started the Mujahideen” Le Nouvel Observateur (France), Jan 15-21, 1998, p. 76