Afghanistan timeline 1996-1999

Afghanistan timeline

1996

Popular enthusiasm about the Taliban is soon diluted, when the Taliban turn their captured rockets against civilians, especially in Kabul. In all areas under their control, the Taliban enforce a rigorous Islamic social order, insisting that all men grow beards and forbidding women to work outside their homes. Schools for girls are closed, and Islamic law is enforced by amputations and public executions. Restrictions on women provoke international criticism.

April 3, 1996

About 1,000 Muslim clergymen elect Taliban leader Omar as amir al-momineen (commander of the faithful), denouncing Rabbani as unfit to lead the Islamic nation.

June 26, 1996

Hekmatyar, whose Hezb-i-Islami forces have bombarded the government in Kabul until driven from their positions by the Taliban, is sworn in again as prime minister. He immediately attempts to open contacts with northern Afghanistan's powerful warlord, General Dostum. From his power base in Mazar-i-Sharif, Dostum continues to control a virtually independent northern Afghanistan. On July 3 President Rabbani names a 10-man cabinet under Prime Minister Hekmatyar. Foreign minister: Abdul Rahim Ghafoorzai; defense: Wahidullah Sabawoon; finance: Abdul Hadi Arghandiwal; interior: Mohammad Younus Qanuni.

September 5, 1996

The Taliban launch a rapid offensive in eastern Afghanistan. Their forces capture the city of Jalalabad, together with important areas in Nangarhar and Laghman provinces. With these territorial advances most of Afghanistan's traditionally Pashtun homelands are united under Taliban control. The gains include Kabul's main road to Pakistan and seal the fate of Rabbani's mostly Tajik government.

September 27, 1996

The long power struggle between Afghanistan's armed factions takes a decisive turn when Taliban militias enter Kabul, where they meet little resistance from government forces. Despite the fundamentalist nature of the Taliban movement, many hope that it might mean an end to the deadly rivalry between Afghan factions, which have killed 25,000-45,000 Afghans, mostly civilians, since the collapse of Afghanistan's communist government in April 1992. The Taliban's first act is to execute the last communist president, Najibullah, together with his brother, Shahpur Ahmadzai. Najibullah had been living inside the UN compound in Kabul since 1992. Rabbani and other members of his government retreat north of Kabul. Government forces under Ahmad Shah Masood withdraw to the Panjsher valley. The country is now to be run by a six-man Supreme Council headed by Mullah Mohammad Rabbani (no relation), who appoints Mullah Mohammad Ghous as his foreign minister.

October 1996

Masood and other former government forces form a military alliance with General Dostum.

December 1, 1996

Former head of state Babrak Karmal dies in Moscow.

End of 1996

It is reported that Taliban forces have captured an opposition air base north of Kabul.

May 24, 1997

Opposition warlord Dostum is ousted from his fiefdom in northern Afghanistan by a combined assault of Taliban fighters and followers of Gen. Abdul Malik, who switched sides to the Taliban. The Taliban forces and their new allies capture Kunduz, Baghlan and Samangan provinces, now controlling 26 of the 32 provinces. Dostum flees to Turkey, vowing to continue his struggle. Malik promises a strict Islamic regime in the northern areas under his control, centred on Mazar-i-Sharif, which was the last major city to hold out against the Taliban. On May 25 Pakistan becomes the first country to recognize the Taliban government. On May 28, however, Malik turns against the Taliban again, and the Taliban are driven out of Mazar-i-Sharif in a bloody battle in which several thousand of them are taken captive.

June 13, 1997

The Taliban leadership names a new foreign minister, Mullah Abdul Jalil, to replace Mullah Mohammad Ghous, who was taken prisoner by opposition forces in late May.

July 24, 1997

Opposition forces come within 20 km of Kabul, within rocket range. Aid workers leave.

July 30, 1997

The Taliban tighten regulations in Kabul, punishing over 700 people for breaking Islamic laws forbidding women from working outside their homes and men from trimming beards.

August 7, 1997

Aid workers return to Kabul, but are hampered by Taliban rules limiting access to women.

August 11, 1997

Following an initiative by the UN special representative in Afghanistan, Norbert Holl, to build a broad-based government, the opposition names a new administration lineup, including Abdul Rahim Ghafoorzai as prime minister, Abdul Malik Pahlawan as foreign minister, and Ahmad Shah Masood as defense minister. Burhanuddin Rabbani is to remain as president. The Hezb-i-Islami faction of former prime minister Hekmatyar denounces the new cabinet without any Hezb representation and based in the northern town of Mazar-i-Sharif as designed to divide Afghanistan. In fact, this government is little more than a cover for the northern alliance's military effort to retake Kabul. The reinvigorated northern alliance of Malik's and Masood's forces plus Hazara Shi`ite militias push the Taliban back to within a few kilometres of Kabul.

August 21, 1997

Ghafoorzai dies in a plane crash. Abdul Ghafoor Rawan Farhadi later replaces him as prime minister.

September 9, 1997

Fighting rages outside Mazar-i-Sharif after the Taliban try again to take the city.

September 20, 1997

Over 70 aid workers and dependants evacuate Mazar-i-Sharif after their premises are ransacked and looted.

September 29, 1997

The Taliban arrest European Union Commissioner for Humanitarian Affairs Emma Bonino, EU delegates, and journalists for taking pictures in a women's hospital in Kabul. They are released the same day.

October 14, 1997

Dostum returns to Mazar-i-Sharif from exile in Turkey.

October 26, 1997

The Taliban change the name of the country to Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, underlining the importance of Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar, who is known as amir al-momineen (Leader of the Faithful), although his constitutional position remains unclear. Although controlling about two-thirds of the country, the Taliban have only been recognized by three countries - Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates - as the legitimate rulers of Afghanistan. Afghanistan's seat in the UN is occupied by representatives of the administration of Burhanuddin Rabbani that has been ousted from Kabul 13 months ago, while the Organization of the Islamic Conference declared Afghanistan's seat vacant.

November 2, 1997

Malik is routed by Dostum and forced to flee.

February 4, 1998

At least 4,500 people die when a severe earthquake measuring 6.1 on the Richter Scale strikes the opposition-ruled Rustaq district of Takhar province in northeastern Afghanistan. Another earthquake hits the same region on May 30 (magnitude 6.9), claiming another several thousand lives.

July 8, 1998

The Taliban movement gives Afghans 15 days to get rid of their television sets, video players, and satellite receivers. The Taliban has anyway put a stop to television broadcasts in the two-thirds of the country it controls. But Maulvi Qalamuddin, the Taliban deputy minister in charge of its Department for Prevention of Vice and Promotion of Virtue, said people continued to watch video tapes and foreign television channels received via satellite dishes. He said watching video tapes and satellite television broadcasts was inadmissible in Islam, damaging to morals, and caused mental disorders.

July 12, 1998

The Taliban capture the key opposition stronghold of Maimana, capital of Faryab province in the northwest.

July 21, 1998

140 detainees were released in Afghanistan under the auspices of the International Committee of the Red Cross. Half of the detainees were being held by Taliban authorities in Kandahar and the other half by authorities of the Northern Alliance in Panshir.

August 2, 1998

The opposition alliance admits the loss of the key northern town of Shiberghan to the Taliban. The entire province of Sar-i-Pul falls on August 4.

August 7, 1998

• United States embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were bombed. Some 250 people were killed in the blasts and thousands more wounded. Osama bin Laden was the primary suspect.

August 8, 1998

The Taliban capture the northern opposition capital of Mazar-i-Sharif. On August 11, they capture Taloqan, the Takhar provincial capital, the latest in a series of spectacular victories.

August 20, 1998

• The United States carried out preemptive missile attacks in eastern Afghanistan on suspected terrorist training camps allegedly run by Saudi dissident Osama Bin Laden.

August 21, 1998

• United States President Bill Clinton signed an executive order freezing the accounts of Osama bin Laden. Bin Laden was also placed on the FBI most wanted list, and a reward of US$5 million was offered for his capture.
• An Italian army officer working for the United Nations is shot dead in Kabul. All foreigners working for the UN in Afghanistan are evacuated.

September 3, 1998

Tensions between Afghanistan and Iran increase as 70,000 Iranian troops engage in war games on their border.

September 10, 1998

The Taliban movement says it has found the bodies of nine Iranian diplomats whose disappearance sparked tension with neighbouring Iran; two survivors return to Iran.

September 13, 1998

The Taliban militia says its fighters have captured the central Shi`ite town of Bamiyan, the last major opposition stronghold in Afghanistan. On September 14, Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warns the Taliban and Pakistan that their actions could provoke a major regional conflict.

September 21, 1998

Anti-Taliban forces shell Kabul with rockets for a second day, bringing the death toll to over 70 people.

October 8, 1998

Iran inflicts "heavy casualties" in a first armed clash with Afghan Taliban forces after weeks of tension between the hostile neighbours.

October 12, 1998

The last three bodies of Iranian diplomats killed by Afghan Taliban militiamen are flown back to Tehran.

October 23, 1998

The UN and the Taliban movement sign an agreement paving the way for the return of UN international staff to Afghanistan.

1999

Afghanistan produces 73% of the world's opium, according to the UN Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention.

February 13, 1999

America's public enemy number one, Osama Bin Laden, is reported missing by his Taliban hosts in Afghanistan.

May 9, 1999

The Taliban movement says that its forces have retaken the key central town of Bamiyan from the opposition alliance.

June 20, 1999

The Red Cross pulls non-essential foreign staff out of Afghanistan after 10 of its workers were beaten.

July 6, 1999

U.S. President Bill Clinton imposes financial and commercial sanctions on Afghanistan's ruling Taliban movement because of its support of Saudi terrorism suspect Osama Bin Laden.

July 28, 1999

Thousands of Taliban fighters launch an offensive to crush Ahmad Shah Masood, the last hurdle between the Islamic militia and control of the whole of Afghanistan.

August 1, 1999

Taliban fighters seize opposition leader Ahmad Shah Masood's key Bagram airbase in an offensive to establish total dominance of Afghanistan; anti-Taliban fighters recapture the airbase on August 5.

October 27, 1999

Mullah Wakil Ahmad Muttawakil is named foreign minister, replacing Mullah Mohammad Hassan. Mullah Abdul Razzaq is made interior minister, replacing Mullah Khairullah Khairkhwa, who is appointed as governor of the western province of Herat.

October 29, 1999

Saudi-born terrorism suspect Osama Bin Laden is reported to have sought safe passage from the Taliban's Afghanistan to an unknown country.

November 14, 1999

UN sanctions against Afghanistan go into force, imposed for not handing over Saudi dissident Osama Bin Laden.