2002 in Afghanistan

Incumbents

• President: Hamid Karzai
• Vice President: Hedayat Amin Arsala
• Vice President: Mohammed Fahim
• Vice President: Nematullah Shahrani
• Vice President: Karim Khalili
• Vice President: Abdul Qadir
• Chief Justice: Faisal Ahmad Shinwari

  January

February

• Making India his first foreign itinerary, Afghanistan's Uzbek strongman and Deputy Defense Minister Abdul Rashid Dostum flew to New Delhi to hold a lengthy meeting with Defense Minister George Fernandes.

• The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees estimated that 55,000 people at one Spinboldak camp were Kochi.
• Ten truckloads of weapons and ammunition were sent to re-arm the men of Hamid Karzai's recently appointed governor for Paktia, Bacha Khan. Forces loyal to warlord Padshah Khan did not want Bacha Khan as governor and were dismayed that U.S. forces operating in the area would not come to their rescue.
• The U.S. military finished construction of Camp X-Ray in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The completion of the camp raised its capacity from 158 to 320, and included three air-conditioned, wooden huts where military intelligence officers and representatives of other U.S. agencies interrogated prisoners, one at a time in shifts that typically lasted about an hour.

• A group of 75 Canadian soldiers, the first in an expected contingent of 750, arrived at the U.S.-commandeered airfield in Kandahar. The Canadian force will work alongside U.S. Army soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division guarding suspected Taliban and al-Qaeda prisoners at Kandahar, and could also engage in combat or humanitarian missions.

• Interim leader Afghan Hamid Karzai met with visiting British Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon. At their talks, Karzai requested that the British-led peacekeeping force expand beyond Kabul, but Hoon said he believed the current deployment level was adequate.

• The United States brought another 34 al-Qaeda and Taliban suspects to Camp X-Ray on Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

• Afghan interim Defense Minister Mohammad Qasim Fahim went to Moscow to seek Russia's support in creating an Afghan army to replace the current force of tribal and ethnic militias.
• In the presence of Afghan officials, Wakil Ahmad Mutawakil voluntarily surrendered at the U.S. airbase just outside Kandahar.
• Interim Afghan leader Hamid Karzai arrived at Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. Karzai was greeted by UAE army chief of staff Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Information Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed.

• The Afghan government in Kabul appointed Qari Baba as the governor of eastern Ghazni province.

• Two U.S. soldiers in Kandahar are wounded during a firefight with unknown forces. Afghan officials characterized it as a "mistake".

• Afghanistan's aviation and tourism minister, Abdul Rahman, was killed in what appeared to be a mob attack on his plane at Kabul's airport by pilgrims angry that they had been unable to travel to Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Witnesses and officials said pilgrims beat the minister to death and tossed his body to the tarmac. However, Prime Minister Hamid Karzai accused six senior government officials of the murder, saying that they were motivated by a long-standing feud. Three were arrested and the others were being sought in Saudi Arabia. Karzai said five ministers, including the head of the intelligence ministry, Gen. Abdullah Tawhedi; the technical deputy of the Ministry of Defense, Gen. Qalander Big, and a Supreme Court justice, Haji Halim—and 15 other suspects have been linked to the assassination.

• Afghan interim leader Hamid Karzai signed an accord with Iranian President Mohammad Khatami to fight terrorism and drug trafficking, and not to interfere in each other's affairs.
• Afghan interim leader Hamid Karzai met Iran's spiritual guide Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and parliament speaker Mehdi Karrubi. He also addressed the Iranian parliament. Later in the day, Karzai urged Tehran and Washington, D.C. to work together for Afghanistan's reconstruction.

March

April

• A U.S. soldier is shot in the face in Kandahar by an unknown assailant.

  May

• U.S. aircraft attacked a suspected rocket launch site after troops come under rocket attack near Lwara.

  June

• U.S. Special forces soldiers kill two gunmen who attacked them in Tarin Kowt. Elsewhere, U.S. Special forces soldiers accompanied by 40 Afghan soldiers called in close air support after coming under attack near Skhin.

July

August

• A U.S. soldier is shot by sniper near Lwara.

September

• Afghan President Hamid Karzai was the target of an assassination attempt, prompting him to replace his Afghan bodyguards with U.S. special forces.
• A U.S. Special forces soldier was slightly wounded by gunfire in the incident.

October

• Three New Zealand soldiers are injured when their vehicle hit a land mine near Farah.

• United States paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division found three rockets pointing at the US base in Khost, but no arrests were made.
• Two U.S. soldiers were injured when their sports utility vehicle rolled over while traveling in a three-vehicle convoy from the central town of Bamiyan to the U.S. headquarters at Bagram. One of the soldiers lost consciousness and the other suffered cuts to a hand.
• A U.S. special forces soldier was shot in the leg when his unit came under fire on a road outside Jalalabad. The wound was not life-threatening.

  November

• Two 107 mm rockets exploded before dawn within 500 meters of Camp Salerno, near the city of Khost. Another exploded 10 minutes later near Chapman Airfield, a few kilometers away.
• A spokesman for the United Nations Population Fund reported that in Afghanistan 50 women were dying each day during labor. In some parts of the country, women could not be treated by male doctors.
• Pakistan turned over to U.S. forces 25 suspected al-Qaeda fighters. They were taken to the Kandahar base, bringing the total number of detainees there to 189. The U.S. also is holding 12 prisoners at Bagram air base north of Kabul, one in Mazari Sharif and eight on a U.S. Navy ship in the Arabian Sea.

• The U.S. base in Asadabad, Afghanistan in Kunar province came under rocket or mortar fire. No injuries were reported.
• Afghan security officials in Jalalabad found two bombs connected to timers set to go off in a busy market area. Authorities were unable to neutralize the bombs, but streets were blocked off around one before it detonated on its own. A second bomb found nearby was taken to a secure location at an intelligence ministry compound where it exploded. Neither blast caused casualties.
• Two rockets exploded near a U.S. base at Orgun, about 110 miles south of Kabul. One of the rockets landed about 500 metres from the base.
• An emergency cabinet meeting was called by Afghan President Hamid Karzai to decide the fate of some 15 local commanders. The moves were intended to bring unruly and corrupt provincial leaders into line. In Nangarhar province several officials were dismissed for their links with the drug trade. The directors of customs, agriculture and public works were also dismissed. Two security chiefs in the principal northern city of Mazari Sharif were fired, including Sayeed Kamal, a powerful commander once in charge of five provincial districts.
• Two people were killed when Ismail Khan's men shelled a busy market place in a Pashtun community in the south of the province.

• A delegation from Herat Province on made its second visit to Hamid Karzai to call for the removal of Ismail Khan, the Tajik governor and self-styled "Emir of Herat", after his troops attacked ethnic Pashtuns.
• The night curfew in Kabul was lifted for the first time in 23 years.
• Former Afghan King Mohammad Zaher Shah inaugurated a special committee set up to draft a new constitution for this war-ravaged nation. The nine-member committee, headed by Vice President Nayiamatullah Shahrani, took on the task of preparing a preliminary draft of the document and to later be reviewed by a constitutional commission. The final draft would be approved by a constitutionalloya jirga in 2003.
• Acting on tips 400 U.S. troops raided Naray and nearby Kot Kalay. They found one-hundred and fifteen 107 mm rockets, 14 rocket-propelled grenades, land mines, detonators and thousands of rounds of ammunition, some of it armor-piercing. An entire wedding party, decked in their best clothes, arriving at a mosque and were told to sit outside. They were told not to move. Everyone was frisked. Teams then moved through homes, pulling clothing from trunks, opening bins of flour and cutting plaster from walls to look for hidden compartments. A trunk of AK-47s and "toe-popper" landmines were found under a haystack; other weapons were discovered under beds or wrapped in rugs. Villagers were detained overnight. The villagers were then freed, except for five detainees, who were taken to helicopters with bags over their heads. The troops left the shotguns and long rifles they found, but kept the AK-47s. The troops then left in their Black Hawks. Troops found AK-47s in the second town, Kot Kalay, but little else.
• Three rocket-propelled grenade rounds were fired at a U.S. base in the southeastern town of Shkin in Paktika Province, about 150 miles south of Kabul.
• A U.S. base near Kandahar came under small-arms fire from a lone gunman. U.S. troops were deployed but failed to find the shooter.
• U.S. troops at a base in Deh Rawod in Uruzgan Province fired an illumination round after "two unknown personnel were seen" about 300 metres away. The two then fired five rounds at U.S. troops in a guard tower on the base and fled on foot.
• U.S. 82nd Airborne paratroopers ended a 24-hour operation northeast of Khost that netted 20 mines, 60 grenades, 20 rifles or shotguns, and thousands of artillery and automatic weapon rounds. Six people were also detained in the operation, and Taliban literature and documents were seized.

• In a 51-page report titled All Our Hopes Are Crushed: Violence and Repression in Western Afghanistan, Human Rights Watch alleged that the governor of Herat, Ismail Khan, ordered politically motivated arrests and beatings throughout 2002. The report detailed lashings with thorny branches, sticks, cables and rifle butts. In the most serious cases, prisoners were hung upside down, whipped or tortured with electric shocks. The group also reported that there were no independent media in Herat and no public meetings allowed in Herat. Khan's Herat was described in the report as a closed society without room for dissent, independent opinion or personal freedoms. The report called for the expansion of the International Security Assistance Force beyondKabul. It also called for US to exert its influence and adopt a peacekeeping role in the regions.

• Near the town of Khost, U.S. special forces seized five 107 mm rockets aimed at a U.S. airfield in southeastern Afghanistan. The rockets were armed and had fuses, but they had not been timed to fire. A villager told special forces about the weapons.
• Rival factions in northern Afghanistan began turning in their weapons as part of a United Nations monitored program to curb violence. More than 120 assault rifles and some artillery pieces were seized from soldiers loyal to Abdul Rashid Dostum and fighters under Ustad Atta Mohammad in the Sholgara district, southwest of Mazari Sharif.
• A senior U.S. official said an Afghan government defense commission, made up of Afghan officials and warlords, agreed to build up the country's army to 70,000 troops over the next two years. To date, Afghanistan's national army had only 1,000 men.
• International peacekeepers destroyed six missiles that had been seized two days earlier in an abandoned storage facility inKabul. The missiles, three Scud-B warheads and three Frog-7 rockets, were believed to have been in Afghanistan since the Soviet era, and could not be fired. But each of the warheads was fitted with a detonator and each contained about 800 kilograms of TNT. About 4,800 peacekeepers of International Security Assistance Force regularly patrolled Kabul to bolster security. ISAF troops could frequently be scene patrolling the streets in jeeps and armored cars mounted with heavy guns.
• U.N. and U.S. researchers reported that women in Afghanistan were dying during childbirth at a staggeringly high rate. In rural Badakhshan Province, the maternity death rate was highest rate ever documented—6,500 maternal deaths for every 100,000 live births. High death rates for mothers have profound implications for the children.

• U.S. special forces shot and killed a gunman who fired on them near the central Afghan town of Deh Rawod. The forces were helping an Afghan policeman who had been fired on when two attackers in civilian clothing opened fire on the U.S. forces with AK-47 assault rifles. The soldiers returned fire, killing one man. The other escaped.
• Eight people fired on U.S. special forces 2 miles north of Khost, in eastern Afghanistan. AH-64 Apachehelicopters fired rockets and 30 mm rounds, before the eight fled over a nearby ridge.
• U.S. paratroopers swept through four areas in northeast of Khost, seizing weapons including 28 mines, 76 hand grenades, 147 rocket-launched grenades, 62 launchers, more than 500 round of 5.62 mm rounds. Five men were taken to Khost for questioning.

• A regional Afghan commander, Haji Mohammed Zaher, escaped unhurt from a shooting incident on the border with Pakistan. One of his bodyguards was killed and another wounded. Zaher had gone to the border to close an illegal checkpoint on the road from Torkham to Jalalabad, where militiamen were stopping motorists and demanding money.
• Unidentified attackers fired four rockets toward the U.S. airfield in Khost. There was no damage.
• It was revealed that the United Nations was using snapshots of eyes to build an iris recognition database of Afghan refugees. The database will enable the U.N. to prevent refugees from fraudulently claiming more than one U.N. aid package per person as they cross the border from Pakistan into Afghanistan.

• A dozen gaunt Pakistani men, some wrapped in ragged shawls against the cold, were released from a prison in Kabul, Afghanistan. They had been held since the collapse of the Taliban one year earlier.
• At least four students of Kabul University were killed and dozens injured, as over 500 students clashed with police in violent demonstrations in Kabul, Afghanistan. Students were protesting over a lack of food and electricity in their dormitory. Several policemen were also injured.
• Ismail Khan, Afghan provincial governor of Herat, reimposed a ban on wedding celebrations at restaurants, on the grounds that they encourage men and women to dance together. The ban was based on a decree from Herat's 60-man Council of Scholars and Clerics. The ban was first imposed by Khan four months ago after a young woman burned herself to death when her parents told her they could not afford to hold her wedding party at a restaurant. Khan later reversed this decision after complaints.

• A tape of Osama bin Laden was broadcast on by the Arabic-language al-Jazeera satellite television channel based in Qatar. On the tape, he warned U.S. allies that they would be targets of new attacks if they continued to back the United States. He also hailed attacks in Bali, Kuwait, Yemen and Jordan and the Moscow theatre siege a month earlier. The cassette was handed to an Al Jazeera television correspondent in Islamabad by an unidentified man who disappeared immediately.

• The FBI told authorities in Houston, Chicago, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. to be aware of threats against hospitals.

• Afghan President Hamid Karzai was awarded the International Rescue Committee's Freedom Award.
• The U.S. Congress passed legislation that calls for $2.3 billion over four years in reconstruction funds for Afghanistan, plus another $1 billion to expand the International Security Assistance Force.
• Nine 107 mm rockets were fired at the U.S. military base near Gardez, in eastern Afghanistan. The rockets landed near the base but did not cause any casualties. U.S. forces called in A-10 fighter planes, which dropped several bombs and fired about 2,000 rounds of ammunition. Special forces troops found a suspected enemy vehicle and destroyed a rocket that had not been fired.
• The U.S. base in Lwara came under rocket and mortar fire. At least one round exploded inside the compound. Soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division moved on the launch site, trading small arms and mortar fire with the suspected attackers. An A-10 plane fired rockets at the launch site and dropped a 500-pound bomb after three suspected enemy fighters were detected moving. Another aircraft dropped a 1,000 pound bomb shortly afterward.

• Two rockets were fired at the U.S. airfield near Khost, both falling about a mile from the base.

• On a visit to the People's Republic of China by Afghan Foreign Minister Dr. Abdullah, PRC Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan pledged to write off Afghanistan's multimillion-dollar debt, some of which dated back to the 1960s. To date, China had given Kabul $30 million in 2002 aid.
• U.S. boxer Muhammad Ali began a three-day visit to Kabul as a U.N. Messenger of Peace, visiting a boxing club, a girls' school, and President Hamid Karzai. Ali wanted to bring attention to the world regarding Afghanistan's huge humanitarian needs.
• A U.S. special forces soldier suffered head and hand injuries while rock climbing during a mission near Deh Rawood in centralUruzgan, Afghanistan. He was to be flown to Germany for an operation on his hand.
• U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill visited Kabul for the day to demonstrate the U.S. commitment to rebuildingAfghanistan. O'Neill toured a girls' school, new road construction sites, and some fledgling factories making shoes and metal products. O'Neill said that a five-star hotel was under consideration in Kabul, but did not name the possible owners. "Afghanistan will not be forgotten", he told a press conference, "the United States is committed to be here for the long term."

• U.S. boxer Muhammad Ali met former Afghan king, Mohammad Zaher Shah. The king's grandson Duran Zahergave Ali a tour of the palace remains.
• Denmark announced that a March 6 blast that killed two German and three Danish soldiers "could have been avoided if everyone had respected the safety procedures." The event occurred near the airport in Kabul, while the team was defusing Soviet-made SA-3 anti-aircraft missiles.
• In Kabul, two Afghan children were killed when they picked up an unexploded mortar in the eastern part of the city. In a separate incident, another child in Kabul picked up a butterfly mine which blew off his hand.
• While searching for weapons near Jalalabad, U.S. soldiers were fired on by AK-47 machine guns around 7 a.m. A search of one of the three buildings in the compound turned up equipment used to produce narcotics. Documents seized showed the lab was tied to Hezb-e-Islami, a group affiliated with the warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.
• Gunmen fired at the U.S. base near the central Afghan city of Terin Kot.
• Japan extended its logistics support for the U.S.-led anti-terrorism campaign in and around Afghanistan for another six months. Japan also added a transport ship to other Japanese vessels already taking part in the campaign. However, Japan chose not to send a state-of-the-art Aegis destroyer to the region. To date, Japan had dispatched two refueling ships and three escort ships, supplying fuel and food to U.S. and British military vessels deployed mainly in the Indian Ocean.
• The U.S. State Department strongly warns U.S. citizens against travel to Afghanistan. Items of concern included military operations, landmines, banditry, armed rivalry among political and tribal groups.
• Afghan forces loyal to Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum battled those of rival commander Gen. Atta Mohammed in Maqsood, Samangan Province. Two of Dostum's fighter's were killed and three were captured.

• Explosives disposal experts from the International Security Assistance Force concluded that an explosion in Kabul's Microryan neighborhood was caused by a pound of explosives. Afghan authorities, however, rejected that version and stuck by their initial assessment that a rocket was responsible.
• India announced it would send 124 more busses to Afghanistan in addition to the 50 that it had already sent.

• A U.S. special forces base near Gardez, Afghanistan, about 100 km south of Kabul, was fired on with small-arms fire. There were no casualties and none of the assailants were located.
• Iran's Ambassador to Kabul Mohammad-Ebrahim Taherian met Afghan President Hamid Karzai to discuss the latest regional developments, mutual ties, and ways to promote bilateral cooperation.
• General Hilmi Akin Zorlu, the Turkish commander of the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan said he feared that a war against Iraq could lead to terrorist attacks against his forces in Kabul. He also said that he believed the 4,800-strong ISAF needed to stay for at least another two or three years.

• A 107 mm rocket was fired at a U.S. base near Khost, Afghanistan. The rocket landed inside the base's outer perimeter. One of the two military trucks hit by the rocket at the Khost base was heavily damaged.
• Welcomed by Abdullah, Germany's Foreign Minister, Joschka Fischer, arrived in Kabul to visit German troops serving as international peacekeepers, to discuss security, and to discuss the transfer of International Security Assistance Force leadership. Fischer said Germany would send more troops to Afghanistan ahead of taking over command of international forces in Kabul. To date, there were more than 1,000 German soldiers in Kabul, together with hundreds of Dutch troops. Germany and the Netherlands were scheduled to take over command of the 5,000-strong international force, which to date comprised soldiers from 22 nations.

• A U.S. special forces soldier was airlifted from a U.S. base near Spinboldak, Afghanistan, after falling and breaking his collar bone.
• A rocket was fired at a U.S. base near Shkin, about 150 miles south of Kabul.
• A rocket-propelled grenade hit the south wall of the Spinboldak U.S. base.
• Lieutenant Commander Altug Akyuz of the International Security Assistance Force said there were a series of explosions near their base on the eastern outskirts of Kabul.

• Hamid Karzai met with Nicholas Stern, the World Bank's senior vice-president, at Golkhana Palace. Finance Minister Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai and Yahya Marufi, minister adviser for international affairs, were also present.

• Forces loyal to Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum clashed with those of Gen. Atta Mohammed in Faryab Province, Afghanistan.
• A rocket was launched from a truck near the town of Lwara into a U.S. base. At least three men were seen fleeing in the vehicle and were pursued by U.S. attack helicopters until the truck crossed the border into Pakistan. A total of 53 attacks were reported against U.S. forces in Afghanistan in November. The tally of incidents, which included mines, direct fire, mortar or rocket attacks on U.S. forces, was up from 49 in September and 51 in October.
• Afghan authorities released 87 Pakistani prisoners suspected of fighting alongside the formerTaliban government. The men were handed over to officials at Pakistan's embassy in Kabul and, in the presence of several delegates from the International Committee of the Red Cross, placed on a bus destined for the Pakistan border. To date, an estimated 600 Pakistanis were still jailed in Afghanistan.

• The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously to extend the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistanfor a year beyond December 20 with Germany and the Netherlands taking over its command for six months. To date, the force was 4,800 strong and operated only in Kabul. Separate from ISAF, about 9,000 U.S. troops were in Afghanistan to date as part of a U.S.-led international coalition involved in hunting for al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters.
• While riding in a convoy about 4 miles east of Gardez, Afghanistan, a sniper shot and wounded a U.S. Special Forces soldier in the leg.

• U.S. General Tommy Franks visited U.S. troops stationed at Bagram, Afghanistan.
• Two rockets were fired at the U.S. base near Khost, about 100 miles south of Kabul, Afghanistan.

December

• Unidentified attackers fired four rockets at a U.S.-controlled airport in the eastern city of Khost, Afghanistan.
• Japan's defense minister Shigeru Ishiba denied that its government had decided to send a high-tech Aegis destroyer to back up U.S. military action in Afghanistan.
• Afghan commander Amanullah Khan launched an attack on positions held by the governor of Herat Province, Ismail Khan, in the Zeer Koh area six miles from Shindand air base. Up to 13 people were feared dead and dozens wounded.

• Three people were killed and five wounded in a gun battle between police and fighters of a military commander in the southern city of Kandahar, Afghanistan.
• U.S. special forces based in Lwara, near Khost, called in AH-64 Apache attack helicopter support to help chase five people seen moving in the vicinity of the base. A small team of soldiers discovered five rockets in the area where the suspects had been seen and one person was detained for questioning. The five suspects fled into a building two miles away.
• U.S. special forces near Jalalabad came under fire from 10 people using automatic weapons who then fled for cover in nearby hills. A-10 gunships were called in to drop flares in the target area.

• A second U.S. soldier arrived at Landstuhl, Germany after being shot in the head the day before at Kandahar U.S. base, but not from hostile fire.