Taliban Timeline
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Zahir Shah crowned King of Afghanistan. His 40-year reign is ineffectual, but is largely well remembered because it was the last time the country will have peace.
1955:
Afghanistan approaches the United States for military ties, but Washington considers the country too far away to be important. Afghanistan develops ties with Moscow.
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April 17, 1973:
Amid unrest over a stagnant economy, Mohammed Daoud Khan, the king's nephew, seizes power while the king is away on vacation in Italy. The king stays in Italy.
July 17, 1973:
Afghanistan's Republican government is created with Khan as the first president of Afghanistan.
April 27, 1978:
Pro-Soviet leftists stage a new coup in Afghanistan. Nur Mohammad Taraki becomes prime minister, and Babrak Karmal and Hafizullah Amin become deputy prime ministers. They win almost immediate recognition from the Soviet Union.
Summer 1978:
The Taraki regime announces Marxist-Leninist reforms such as the elimination of usury, equal rights for women, land reforms and administrative decrees.
Summer 1978:
Violent protests erupt over the reforms, many of which challenge Afghan cultural patterns. Taraki's political repression antagonizes others.
March 28, 1979:
Hafizullah Amin becomes prime minister but Taraki retains other high political posts. Revolts in the countryside expand, and the Afghan Army collapses. The Amin regime asks for and receives Soviet military aid.
Sept. 14, 1979:
A confrontation between Taraki and Amin removes Taraki from power.
Oct. 10, 1979:
Taraki assassinated by Amin supporters.
Dec. 24, 1979:
Soviets begin their invasion of Afghanistan.
Dec. 27, 1979:
Amin and many of his followers are killed, most likely by Soviet troops flooding into Kabul. The Soviets throw their support behind Babrak Karmal.
1980:
Resistance to the Soviet occupation forms within Afghanistan, and across the border in Peshawar, Pakistan. The groups call themselves "mujahideen," from the Persian word meaning "warriors." The CIA begins supporting the rebels with arms supplied through Pakistan.
1984:
Covert military aid to the mujahideen increases under the Reagan administration.
Feb. 25, 1986:
Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev expresses pessimism about the future of the Afghan war, calling it "a bleeding wound" and declaring he would like to bring troops home "in the nearest future."
April 1986:
President Reagan decides to supply the Afghan resistance with heat-seeking Stinger antiaircraft missiles.
May 4, 1986:
The Kremlin removes Karmal in an attempt to find an internal political solution. He is replaced with Dr. Sayid Mohammad Najibullah, the former head of the secret police.
July 20, 1987:
In their first public meeting, Gorbachev tells Najibullah that Soviet troops will be out of Afghanistan in 12 months.
November 1987:
New Afghan constitution adopted. Najibullah is elected president but much of his support comes from the Soviets, and many Afghans revile him as a communist.
April 14, 1988:
The U.N.-sponsored accords on Soviet troop withdrawal are signed in Geneva by Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Soviet Union and the United States. Gorbachev announces the start of Soviet troop withdrawals.
Feb. 15, 1989:
Last Soviet soldiers leave Afghanistan.
April 15, 1992:
Mujahideen guerrillas and other Islamic rebels move in on Kabul. President Najibullah agrees to step down, but before he can leave, Afghan rebels with the assistance of Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum, leader of the government's secret police, seize the city and keep him there.
Dec. 30, 1992:
More than 1,300 delegates from around the country, comprising rebels, religious leaders, and intellectuals meet in Kabul to quickly form an Islamic republic. They elect Burhanuddin Rabbani as president. But the majority of the rebels boycott the meeting and the council falls apart in factional squabbling.
March 1993:
Rebel groups outside Kabul designate Gulbuddin Hekmatyar as their prime minister. Hekmatyar is the leader of the Hezb-i-Islami, the most favored of all the rebel factions nurtured by the CIA.
June 17, 1993:
Hekmatyar is formally sworn in.
Sept. 27, 1993:
An interim constitution is approved with planned elections announced for 1994.
Sept. 19, 1994:
The Taliban emerges from the southern province of Kandahar, swiftly seizing power there. Over the next two years, they overrun southern, western and eastern Afghanistan.
November 1994:
Hekmatyar and his guerrillas move in on Kabul, seeking to oust Rabbani as president. In nearly daily fighting, the city is reduced to rubble. Meanwhile, Pakistan's ISI dumps Hekmatyar in favor of the Taliban.
March 1995:
The Taliban decimates Hekmatyar's army.
Fall 1995: Thousands flee Kabul amid fierce fighting between Taliban and Rabbani forces.
June 19, 1996:
Hekmatyar signs a peace pact with former enemy Rabbani becoming prime minister in Kabul.
Sept. 27, 1996:
The Taliban take Kabul, forcing Hekmatyar, Rabbani and his military chief Ahmad Shah Massoud, the man most credited with ousting the Soviets, to flee. They take Najibullah from his refuge in a U.N. compound, torture him to death, and hang his bloated body outside the presidential palace.
May 24, 1997:
Uzbek warlord Rashid Dostum, the former military commander under Najibullah and the Taliban's major opposition, suffers a major blow as his second in command defects to the Taliban.
May 25, 1997:
The Taliban takes control of Dostum's stronghold, the ancient northern city of Mazar-I-Sharif, marking the first time Afghanistan is largely united under one power since the Soviets left.
May 28, 1997:
Taliban forces retreat from Mazar-i-Sharif after losing 100 men in 18 hours of fighting. This marks the first retreat in the Taliban's history.
August 1998:
The Taliban tries to take Mazar-I-Sharif again. They succeed, but commit what has been called the worst slaughter of civilians in the Afghan civil war. Many of the victims are Shiite Muslims; the Taliban are Sunnis. The Taliban become the de facto rulers of Afghanistan, taking control of 90 percent of the country. They continue to face opposition from a loose union of rebels called the Northern Alliance.
Sept. 9, 2001:
Northern Alliance leader Ahmad Shah Masood is injured in a suicide bomb attack. He dies on Sept. 14.
Sept. 11, 2001:
Thousands are killed when hijackers commandeer four planes and crash them into the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon outside Washington, D.C. A fourth plane is apparently forced down by passengers in Pennsylvania, before it can reach its intended target. The United States quickly identifies Osama bin Laden, who is believed to be hiding in Afghanistan, under the protection of the Taliban, as the prime suspect in the attacks.
Sept. 18, 2001:
A delegation of Pakistani officials fails to persuade Taliban officials to hand over bin Laden.
Sept. 20, 2001:
Afghan clerics recommend that the Taliban invite bin Laden to leave the country. The United States dismisses the move as inadequate.
Sept. 22, 2001:
The United Arab Emirates severs ties with the Taliban after failing to persuade the regime to hand over bin Laden for what it calls a fair international trial.
Sept. 23, 2001:
The Taliban says bin Laden has gone missing and they could not ask him to leave the country.
Sept. 25, 2001:
Saudi Arabia cuts all relations with the Taliban for continuing to harbor "terrorists." Pakistan remains the only country to recognize the regime, but has temporarily withdrawn all staff from its embassy in the Afghan capital for security reasons.
Sept. 30, 2001:
Afghanistan's government says its agents know bin Laden's location and that he is under their control. The Taliban says it is willing to negotiate bin Laden's surrender, if U.S. officials present evidence of his involvement in the Sept. 11 attacks.
Oct. 1, 2001:
Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar says "Americans don't have the courage to come here," and repeatedly warns the United States to "think and think again before attacking Afghanistan."
Oct. 7, 2001:
The Taliban says it's ready to put bin Laden on trial for the Sept. 11 attacks. Washington rejects the statement, saying bin Laden must be handed over. Hours later, the U.S. and Britain launch air strikes on targets in Afghanistan.
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