Afghanistan timeline February 2004

Timeline of Afghan history

February 28, 2004

• The United States and Pakistan denied an Iranian radio report that Osama bin Laden had been captured "a long time ago" in Pakistan's border region with Afghanistan.
• At a roadblock in Zeri Noor, just outside of Wana, Pakistan, Pakistani troops killed 11 Afgan 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.

February 27, 2004

• Two hundred-five South Korean medics and military engineers left Seoul for Afgahnistan to replace existing troops, and to help with reconstruction projects for six months.
• 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.

February 26, 2004

• United States Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld spoke in front of a graduating class of 48 Afghan policemen in Kandahar.

February 25, 2004

• Five Afghan employees of Serai Development Foundation were killed and two injured in an ambush northeast of Kabul.

February 23, 2004

• In Thaloqan village in Kandahar province, Afghanistan, U.S. forces from the 10th Mountain Division assisted hundreds of local police in a search for the gunman who killed an Australian pilot the previous day. Thirty suspected Taliban members were rounded up.

February 22, 2004

• Before takeoff, a Louis Berger Group helicopter was attacked by gunfire in Thaloqan village in Kandahar province, Afghanistan, killing the Australian pilot and seriously injuring a U.S. woman. Taliban spokesmen took responsibility.
• 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.

February 19, 2004

• Former Afghan king Mohammed Zahir Shah was released from a hospital in New Delhi, India after two weeks of receiving medical treatment for an intestinal problem. He remained in New Delhi, however, for further observation.
• The United States opened a provincial reconstruction team involving some 100 soldiers in Asadabad, Afghanistan.
• 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 Right 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.

February 18, 2004

• Taliban leader Mullah Dadullah warned Afghans not to vote in the election scheduled for June.
• European Union External Relations Commissioner Chris Patten visited Kabul, Afghanistan.

February 17, 2004

• In Kandahar province, Afghanistan, men loyal to two senior government officials exchanged gunfire in a bazaar wounding four people.
• Afghan official Abdorrahim 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.

February 16, 2004

• After being open for one day, a driving school in Herat, Afghanistan was shut down by local authorities.

February 15, 2004

• A Canadian soldier was shot in the face when his rifle went off in his sleeping quarters at Camp Julien in Kabul, Afghanistan. He survived and was placed in critical condition.
• In Gulbahar, Afghanistan, 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, Afghanistan.
• 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.

February 14, 2004

• Near Bala Buluk in Farah province, Afghanistan, four Afghans working for the United Nations de-mining agency were fatally shot in an ambush.
• U.S. special operations forces used helicopters to raid a village in Helmand province, Afghanistan and detained about 40 people. Two were identified as Mulvi Abdul Ghafar and Gul Agha, midlevel Taliban leaders.

February 13, 2004

• One civilian and old soldier were killed and six people were wounded in an explosion at an Afghan National Army military post near Khost, Afghanistan.
• Twenty-one rockets landed near the airport in Khost, Afghanistan.
• 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, Afghanistan, killing one U.S. soldier of the 10th Mountain Division and wounding nine others.
• In Kandahar, Afghanistan, the first women's-only site opened for voter registration.

February 12, 2004

• Addressing the National Defence College in Islamabad, Pakistan, president Pervez Musharraf admitted that some anti-government activity in Afghanistan was coming from within the Pakistan border.
• A rocket landed on a residential hillside in the Khair Khana district of Kabul, Afghanistan, injuring two children.
• A rocket landed in the Badam Bagh district of Kabul, Afghanistan, 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, Afghanistan.

February 11, 2004

• In Khost, Major Mohammed Isa Khan, the deputy intelligence director of Khost province, Afghanistan, was assassinated in his car by gunman Hafez Elal. Elal tried to escape but was chased down by bodyguards. To avoid capture, he detonated explosives strapped to his body. Taliban spokesman Mohammed Saiful Adel claimed responsibility.
• East of Kabul, Afghanistan, United Kingdom British troops found a bomb made with a modified anti-tank mine.

February 10, 2004

• In Afghanistan, the Kabul Primary Court sentenced to death two former Taliban officials, Zia Ahmad and Abdul Nab, for the murder of aid-worker Bettina Goislard November 16, 2003. The trial took three hours and the judgment took twenty minutes. No witnesses to the crime were present at the trial. The men planned to appeal the decision.
• A remote-controlled bomb exploded on a road near Asadabad, Afghanistan, as the vehicle of Kunar province governor Sayed Fazel Akbar was passing. The vehicle sustained minor damage, but no one was injured.

February 9, 2004

• Under tight security, NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer visited Kabul and met with Afghan interim president Hamid Karzai.

February 8, 2004

• Over 200 Afghan delegates gathered in Kabul for the International Conference on Counter-Narcotics in Afghanistan to discuss law enforcement, alternative livelihoods for poppy farmers and demand reduction. Keynote speakers included executive director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime Antonio Maria Costa, interim president Hamid Karzai and the United Kingdom's foreign office minister Bill Rammell.

February 7, 2004

• The Afghan Disarmament, Demobilisation and Re-Integration Program, headed by Milos Krsmanovic, launched a disarmament program in northern Afghanistan aimed at disarming some 2,000 militiamen under the command of generals Abdul Rashid Dostam and Atta Muhammad.

February 6, 2004

• The Indian company Mahindra Defence Systems announced that it would provided 80 SUVs and 40 jeeps to the Afghan National Army over the next six months.

February 5, 2004

• Police arrested the owner of a taxi used in a suicide bombing that killed a British soldier in Kabul, Afghanistan on January 28.
• Interim Afghan president Hamid Karzai said that tribal leaders would decide the fate of Bacha Khan Zadran.
• Near Orgo in Badakhshan province, Afghanistan, 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.

February 4, 2004

• Interim Afghan president Hamid Karzai fired Mohammad Aref Sarwari, the head of national security.
• 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.

February 3, 2004

• Interim Afghan president Hamid Karzai appointed Mohammad Yusuf as governor of Farah province, and Azizullah Afzali as governor of Baghdis province. Karzai also named new police chiefs in five northern and central provinces. Gul Nabi Ahmadzai was appointed chief of training for the Afghan National Army.
• Two rockets were fired on Kabul, Afghanistan. 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.

February 2, 2004

• U.S. president George W. Bush submitted a 2005 budget proposal to the U.S. Congress which contained US$1.2 billion in assistance for Afghanistan focusing on education, health, infrastructure and assistance to the Afghan National Army. The budget did not contain funding estimates for U.S. military operations.
• 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.

February 1, 2004

• Afghan families began celebrating Eid al-Adha. In Kabul, former king Mohammad Zaher Shah and interim president Hamid Karzai joined for prayers at the downtown palace.
• A report by the International Organization for Migration revealed that human trafficking in Afghanistan had increased by an alarming amount.