Afghanistan timeline April 16-30, 2003

Table of contents

1 April 30, 2003 2 April 29, 2003 3 April 28, 2003 4 April 27, 2003 5 April 26, 2003 6 April 25, 2003 7 April 24, 2003 8 April 23, 2003 9 April 22, 2003 10 April 21, 2003 11 April 20, 2003 12 April 19, 2003 13 April 18, 2003 14 April 17, 2003 15 April 16, 2003

April 30, 2003

• Pakistani officials announced they had apprehended six al-Qaeda suspects in Karachi, Pakistan. One of the men, Waleed bin Attash (aka Khalid al-Attash, was a Yemeni national wanted in connection with the USS Cole bombing. The other five suspects were Pakistanis. The six suspects were allegedly planning to carry out a series of terrorist attacks in Karachi and other parts of Pakistan.
• Afghan Interior Minister Ali Ahmad Jalali inaugurated an Afghan Human Rights Department aimed at curbing abuses by Afghan police forces. As a branch of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission, the department opened offices across the country.
• Dr. Abdullah Shirzai, the policy director of the Afghan Health Ministry, said that the Afghan government would take steps to reduce maternal and child mortality in the country. To date, 16 women in every 1,000 pregnancies died, and one child in four died before the age of five. Such rates were said to be among the worst in human history. The ministry planned to employ more than 20,000 health workers, mostly women nurses and midwives, over the span of a year.

• Rebel forces attacked military posts, an ammunition depot, the district commissioner's office and other government installations in Spin Boldak, Afghanistan, killing three Afghan soldiers and injuring two.
• A Belgian court opened and immediately adjourned the trial of 12 suspects linked to the September 9, 2001 murder of Afghan rebel Ahmad Shah Masood. The presiding judge ruled that the trial would resume May 22. Also, Afghan President Hamid Karzai appointed a commission to track down those who ordered the murder. Interior Minister Ali Ahmad Jalali was named to lead the commission.
• U.S Maj. Gen. John Vines, commander of 82nd Airborne Division in Afghanistan, handed control of combat missions to Lt. Gen. Dan McNeill, the overall commander of coalition troops in Afghanistan. Vines stated "I think there are renegade elements in Iran who have an interest in controlling a portion of Afghanistan....I think there are elements in Pakistan — not the government — that have an interest in creating instability....In certain parts, the country is stable. In other parts, it's terribly dangerous....That has not changed and that probably won't change in the foreseeable future....If you had to design an area to support an anti-government movement, you might describe an area like this....Multiple borders, extreme distances, lack of road infrastructure, high mountains, weak central government, areas where there are religious or tribal (conflicts)....It applies absolutely right here."
• A tractor pulling a trailer carrying Afghan villagers along a road leading to the border with Uzbekistan hit a landmine, killing two.

• At least 15 rebel fighters and 15 Afghan soldiers were killed in battles in the Chopan district of Zabul province, Afghanistan.
• U.S special forces discovered 204 tons of explosives in 17 caves near Maimana, the capital of Faryab province, Afghanistan.
• Amnesty International condemned a United Kingdom decision to forcibly return a group of asylum-seekers to Afghanistan. An Amnesty International mission earlier in April concluded that conditions were still not conducive to the promotion of voluntary and forced returns.
• A three-day teleconference began between Afghan officials and the United States regarding markets for Afghan goods, the Generalized System of Preference, rules of origin requirements, and tariffs.
• Under a voluntary repatriation program facilitated by the U.N refugee agency, thirty-nine Afghan Turkmen families headed home from Attock, Pakistan.

• U.S Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld postponed a scheduled visit to Afghanistan, where he was to meet with Afghan leaders and coalition troops.
• In a statement released to the Afghan Islamic Press, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar said the U.S.-led war on Iraq triggered widespread Islamic hatred toward the U.S that will be hard to wipe out. He also said the U.S. victory in Iraq was the start of U.S. attempts to control the entire Middle East.
• Close air support was called in by U.S forces after men were spotted near the U.S. base at Shkin, Afghanistan. The men were apparently trying to retrieve a body of one of the opposing fighters killed a clash there on April 25. Pakistani forces across the nearby border were contacted and conducted an operation that led to the arrest of two people.
• The United Nations and the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission accused fighters in Badghis province, Afghanistan of violating human rights during clashes in March between rebel forces and soldiers loyal to the local governor, Gul Mohammed Khan. The human rights delegation confirmed that at least 38 civilians, including three women and 12 children, were killed as homes and shops were looted in Akazi. In the same area, local forces pursing Juma Khan, executed 26 prisoners, whose hand were tied behind their backs.

• In an operation launched April 24, U.S and Afghan forces arrested several Taliban suspects near Spin Boldak.

• At Shkin, in Paktika province, Afghanistan, near the Pakistani border, two U.S soldiers were killed and several other U.S. and Afghan soldiers were wounded in a clash with unknown attackers. The U.S. estimated that at least three of the attackers were killed. Two F-16 Fighting Falcons, two USAF A-10 Thunderbolt tankbusters and two AH-64 Apache attack helicopters responded. Two days later, two rebel corpses were discovered near the site. One of the U.S. soldiers killed was identified as Raymond Losano.
• In Kabul, Afghanistan, the Irish Club shut itself down after warnings that it could be the target of a terror attack. The nightclub had originally opened on March 17. It was frequented by aid workers, diplomats and journalists. Afghanis were not allowed to patronize the club because the sale of alcohol was against the law.

• A spokesman for the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization reported that they are investigating whether the unidentified illness killing off Afghanistan's sheep population was Foot and mouth disease, pasteurellosis or goat plague. The fatality rate of newborn lambs in the country was over 80%.
• Yunis Qanuni, the Afghan Minister of Education, appealed for donors to provide more funds for schools. To date, the ministry had received US$86 million in 2003, leaving the budget short US$114 million.

• After a meeting in Islamabad, between Afghan Foreign Minister Abdullah and Pakistani Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmud Kasuri, the two nations announced an agreement to hold political consultations twice a year in Islamabad and Kabul alternatively. The purpose of the meetings was to monitor progress in the promotion of bilateral cooperation and to take follow-up actions.
• During a joint meeting between Pakistani and Afghan Ministers at the finance ministry in Islamabad, Pakistan Finance minister Shaukat Aziz offered Afghanistan the chance to establish a free industrial zone near the Torkhum and Chaman border. Also during the meeting, Afghanistan identified over 3,000 projects and invited the private sector to invest in them.
• The U.S military reported that "a handful" of the Afghan war prisoners held at Camp X-Ray in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, had been identified as juveniles and were separated from the adult prisoners.
• Using rockets and automatic weapons, rebel fighters attacked a government office in Chapan in Zabul province, Afghanistan. Two Afghan soldiers and three assailants were killed in the four-hour shootout. Taliban forces seized the headquarters of the Deh-i-Chopan district of the province, capturing its officials, including Mohammad Nawab. Government forces then retook the district.
• Two Afghan soldiers were killed when their vehicle struck a land mine when they were traveling between Jalalabad and Tora Bora. A third soldier died April 23.
• Authorities seized four anti-aircraft missiles in a house in Dera Said Mian, 15 miles southeast of Jalalabad, Afghanistan.

• The highest ranking Afghan officials, including President Hamid Karzai arrived Islamabad, Pakistan to discuss border disputes, terrorism, trade, and exchanges of prisoners. Tensions between the two nations had recently flaired up along the ill-defined Durand line, each side accusing the other of intrusion. Many in the Afghan government still viewed Pakistan, which nurtured and supported the Taliban regime, with suspicion. Accusations had been made that Pakistan was harboring Taliban fugutives. Pakistan had concerns about Afghanistan's failure to fulfil promises in March to release up to 800 Pakistani prisoners. In the course of the day, Karzai met separately with Pakistani Prime Minister Zafarullah Jamali and President Pervez Musharraf.
• Eleven rockets were fired at the U.S base near Shkin, Afghanistan.
• An Afghan army post in Khost, Afghanistan was attacked, wounding one soldier.
• The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees reported that, to date, more than 19,000 Afghans had been processed through voluntary repatriation from Iran in 2003.
• Two deminers were shot and wounded on the road from Kabul, Afghanistan to Pakistan.

• The Rabia Balkhi Women's Hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan reopened after the completion of a six-month renovation project supported by the United States Department of Health and Human Services. U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services secretary Tommy Thompson took part in the dedication.
• A U.S Special Forces soldier was treated in Orgun, Afghanistan for a gunshot wound to the thigh.
• Afghan authorities announced that they had arrested five men on suspicion of murdering four foreign journalists at Tangi Abrishum on November 19, 2001.
• The Pakistan government announced that it had released 50 Afghan prisoners as a gesture of goodwill, a day before Afghan President Hamid Karzai was to arrive for meetings.
• The cabinet of Afghan President Hamid Karzai approved a law allowing cable television networks in Kabul to resume broadcasting programs. Cable broadcasts had been banned by the supreme court Chief Justice Mawlavi Fazl Hadi Shinwari earlier in the year for being obscene and un-Islamic.
• In a southern Afghan raid aimed at catching those responsible for the March 27 murder of Ricardo Munguia, U.S special forces killing one man and detained seven others. Weapons were also seized by the U.S. forces.
• A U.S soldier from the Charlie Company of the 27th Engineers Battalion lost part of his left foot and broke his right foot in several places after stepping on a land mine explosion near Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan.
• In Uruzgan province, Afghanistan, rebels fired rockets at an Afghan patrol, killing two. Afghan forces returned fire, killing three rebels and wounding three others.

• An emergency meeting was held in Kabul, Afghanistan at the Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development with U.N agencies and NGOs for the coordination of relief efforts for the 200 families displaced by flooding on April 18.
• In Afghanistan, a two-day national military meeting, that brought together regional commanders, government leaders and commanders of U.S-led forces for the first time, came to a close.
• On a road near a U.S base in southern Kandahar province Afghanistan, a man blew himself up trying to plant a landmine.
• A man standing on the roof of a building in an Afghan army compound shot at a vehicle as it left Bagram Air Base; there were no injuries. Later, another man fired rounds near the base's south gate.
• A man blew himself up as he tried to plant a land mine on a road near a U.S. base in southern Kandahar, Afghanistan.

• The United Nations announced that it would not investigate two mass graves in Afghanistan containing hundreds of war victims unless international troops protect the operation. The graves are believed to contain Taliban prisoners killed in the Dasht-i-Leili massacre of 2001 and victims of the Jaghalkani-i-Takhta Pul massacres of 1998.

• Dana Rohrabacher, a senior member of the U.S. Congress foreign relations committee, met with rival faction leaders Abdul Rashid Dostum and Ustad Atta Mohammad in Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan. After the meeting, Rohrabacher told the media that, if bloody ethnic feuds were to be resolved in Afghanistan, regional autonomy was essential.
• At least 30 people died from powerful floods that washed away houses in the Sha Gho valley of Helmand province, Afghanistan. 25 others were missing.
• On the Shomali plain just north of Kabul, Afghanistan, three children were missing and 200 families were evacuated by helicopter due to flood waters.

• Afghan border forces clashed with alleged Pakistani militiamen who intruded into border village of Gulam Khan, south of the town of Khost. However, Pakistani officials denied that any of their militia had crossed the border, saying Afghan soldiers had merely traded fire with tribesmen living in the border region.
• A blast occurred on a highway that was being reconstructed by the Afghan government in Sabiqa, Timanee district, in Kabul, but did not cause any damage or casualties. A second bomb nearby was defused.
• Kabul Radio in Afghanistan said that Taliban Maulawi Mohammed Qalamuddin had been arrested by Afghan security agents and was being detained in Logar province.
• 107mm rockets were fired on the U.S base in Urgan-e in Paktika province. The closest rocked landed about 400 meters from the base. There were no casualties or damage.
• In Shkin, Afghanistan, on the border with Pakistan, U.S-led coalition forces detained two people trying to smuggle into Afghanistan mines concealed in three television sets.
• During Operation Carpathian Lightning, over two days, Romanian troops found three caches of weapons in two caves near the town of Qalat in Zabul province, Afghanistan. The caches included 3,000 107mm rockets, 250,000 rounds of 12.7mm machinegun ammunition, about 1,000,000 rounds of small arms ammunition and other ammunition and mines.

• NATO agreed to take command in August of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan. The decision came at the request of Germany and the Netherlands, the two nations leading ISAF at the time of the agreement. It was approved unanimously by all 19 NATO ambassadors. This marked first time in NATO's history that it took charge of a mission outside the north Atlantic area. Canada had originally been slated to take over ISAF in August.
• A blast damaged the UNICEF office in Jalalabad, but there were no casualties. The office was empty at the time. Security commander Haji Ajab Shah said the explosion appeared to have been caused by an improvised explosive device made from automatic rifle bullets.
• The U.S Task Force Devil found 271 rocket-propelled grenades, four RPG launchers, 40 mortar rounds and hundreds of cases of ammunition for heavy machine guns in the village of Khar Bolah in Ghazni province, Afghanistan, 50 miles south of Kabul.
• Over 100 Afghan and U.S soldiers crossed into Pakistan along the Durand Line allegedly without realizing it to conduct a survey to supply water to tribesmen. They had been invited by a local tribal leader, but were forced to leave the area after Pakistan forces challenged them. Coalition forces claimed that no direct firing took place, but machine gun firing took place. Hundreds of troops were then deployed by Pakistan and Afghanistan. Afghan forces moved tanks, heavy weaponry and reinforcements to the area.