Afghan Conflict Timeline (1979-2021)

The crumple of the Afghan government and the Taliban’s recapture of Kabul came after a blitzkrieg by the combative group that stunned many Afghans and the world. It is the latest chapter in the country’s nearly 42 years of flux and harsh conflict. Afghans have survived through foreign incursions, civil war, insurgency, turmoil, unrest, atrocities and a previous period of oppressive Taliban rule. Here are some notable events and dates from the past four decades of the conflict.

The Soviet Invasion (1979-1989)

December 1979

Following disruption after a 1978 Afghan coup, the Soviet armed forces invades Afghanistan to hold up a pro-Soviet government.

1980

Soviet-backed Babrak Karmal was installed as Afghanistan’s head of state. Groups of guerrilla fighters known as mujahedeen or holy warriors, scale uprising and a jihad against Soviet forces. The subsequent war leaves about 1 million Afghan civilians and some 15,000 Soviet soldiers dead.

Millions of Afghans begin escaping to neighboring Pakistan as refugees. The U.S., which had previously been aiding Afghan mujahedeen groups, and Saudi Arabia secretly channelize arms to the mujahedeen via Pakistan through the 1980s.

1983

Ronald Reagan the US president receives Afghan fighters to the White House in 1983, and mujahedeen leader Yunus Khalis called at the Oval Office in 1987.

1986

Stinger antiaircraft missiles were supplied by the CIA to the mujahedeen, which allows mujahedeen to shoot down Soviet helicopter gunships.

1987

Mohammad Najibullah replaces Karmal as president, who was also groomed by the Soviets,

1988

Afghanistan, USSR, USA and Pakistan signed The Geneva peace accords to ensure the Soviet forces withdrawal.

Feb. 15, 1989

USSR’s last soldier left Afghanistan.

The 1990s to 2001: Civil war followed by Taliban rule

1992

After the withdrawal of Soviet forces and the collapse of the USSR in 1991, Najibullah’s pro-communist government collapsed. He was not allowed to leave Afghanistan and take refuge at the Kabul United Nations compound, where he remains for more than four years.

Mujahedeen chiefs entered the capital and triggered each other. Refugees continue to flee in masses to Pakistan and Iran.

Kabul, mainly spared during the Soviet war, comes under fierce attack by armed forces faithful to mujahedeen leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. Much of the city is left in wreckage. The national museum was rocketed and looted. Some 50,000 people were killed during the siege of Kabul.

1994

The Taliban, traditionalist Afghan student warriors arising out of mujahedeen gatherings and strict theological schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan, assume control over the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, promising to re-establish request and bring more prominent security. They rapidly force their brutal understanding of Islam on the domain they control.

May 1996

A Saudi-born al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden arrives in Afghanistan after being expelled from Sudan, and ultimately ingratiates himself with the one-eyed Taliban supreme leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar. Bin Laden had previously supported Afghan mujahedeen forces during the Soviet war years as one of many so-called “Afghan Arabs” who joined the fight against Soviets

 

Sept. 26, 1996

The Taliban captured Kabul. They got hold of Najibullah, the ex president, from the U.N. compound, murdered him and hang his body from a street light.

1997-1998

After getting control over most of the country, the Taliban implemented their rule, restricting most women from working, banned girls education and imposed punishments including beatings, amputations and public hangings. Only 3 countries officially recognized the Taliban regime: Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

In August 1998, the U.S. instigated cruise missile strikes on Khost, Afghanistan, in vengeance for al-Qaida assaults on U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

1999

The U.N. Security Council imposed terrorist sanctions on the Taliban and al-Qaida.

An Indian Airlines passenger jet, from Kathmandu to New Delhi, was hijacked to Kandahar in December. The Taliban served as intermediaries between the hijackers and Indian authorities, who decided to set free three terrorists from Indian detention centers and hand them over to the hijackers in swap for the passengers’ security.

March 2001

Refusing international appeals, the Taliban flattened two 1,500-year-old colossal Buddha sculptures imprinted into a mountainside in Bamiyan, saying the statues were “idols” forbidden under Islam.

August 2001

The Taliban put a group of Western aid workers on trial, critical them of advocating Christianity, a capital offense. Two American women were among the accused.

September 2001

Ahmad Shah Massoud, anti-Taliban Northern Alliance leader was gun downed on Sept. 9 by al-Qaida operatives posturing as TV journalists.

After al-Qaida’s Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington, the U.S. insisted Taliban to hand over bin Laden. They refused.

The U.S.-led invasion

 

Oct. 7, 2001

A U.S.-led coalition launches Operation durable Freedom, targeting the Taliban and al-Qaida with military strikes.

November-December 2001

The U.S.-backed Northern coalition enters Kabul on Nov. 13. The Taliban escaped south and their regime came to an end. In December, Hamid Karzai was named interim president after Afghan groups sign the Bonn treaty for an interim government. Under that agreement, some warlords were appointed as provincial governors, military commanders, and cabinet ministers, as members of the Northern Alliance. The NATO-led coalition force was established under a U.N. directive.

2003

Donald Rumsfeld, the Defence Secretary of USA signals a end to “significant battle action” in Afghanistan, saying, “We obviously have moved from significant battle action to a time of steadiness and adjustment and remaking and exercises.”

2004

Hamid Karzai won presidential election held in Afghanistan.

 

2005

Afghanistan’s parliament resumed after voting brings in legislators including old warlords and faction leaders.

The Taliban re-emerge

2006

The Taliban re-captured the territory in southern Afghanistan. NATO’s ISAF coalition forces assume command from the U.S. in the south, something the NATO secretary general calls “one of the most demanding tasks NATO has ever taken on.”

2009

Karzai was re-elected as president of Afghanistan

The U.S. “surge” initiated after President Barack Obama ordered considerable troop increases in Afghanistan. Obama stated that U.S. forces will leave by 2011.

2012

NATO announced their withdrawal of foreign combat troops and transfer control of security operations to Afghan security forces by the end of 2014.

2013

NATO forces handed over the security operations to the Afghan army

The Obama government proclaimed road map to start official peace talks with the Taliban.

2014

Karzai was preceded by Ashraf Ghani as he was elected as Afghanistan’s president after the controversial presidential elections,. Ghani’s opponent, Abdullah Abdullah, was named as chief executive. By the end of the year, U.S. and NATO forces officially ends their warfare missions.

 

2015

NATO dispatches its Resolute Support mission to assist Afghan powers. Weighty viciousness go on as the Taliban move forward their assaults on Afghan and U.S. powers and regular folks, and assume control over a more area. Simultaneously, an Afghan ISIS branch likewise arises. Taliban groups members and Afghan representatives met unofficially in Qatar and agreed to carry on reconciliation talks.

The Taliban spread the word about freely that Mullah Omar, the group organizer, passed on years sooner. Mullah Akhtar Mansour was nominated as the new pioneer. He was killed in the next year in a U.S. drone assault in Pakistan.

2016

The Afghan government granted immunity to previous mujahedeen pioneer , referred to in the nationwide conflict a very long time as the “butcher of Kabul.”

 

2017

Battling goes on between government forces and the Taliban, and assaults ascribed to the Taliban and ISIS shook the country.

The U.S. Endgame

2018

Former US Ambassador to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad was appointed by President Donald Trump appoints as his special representative to negotiate with the Taliban.

 

2020

After one more controversial presidential election in 2019, Ghani was declared as president and Abdullah as head of the government’s peace negotiating team in early 2020.

 

Hostilities and tensions increases in Kabul. ISIS claimed responsibility for some terrorist attacks, while others were never claimed. Journalists and rights activists were murdered and assassinated.

The U.S. and the Taliban sign a peace deal in Doha, Qatar, on Feb. 29. The two sides of the deal were agreed on terms including for the U.S. departure of troops and the Taliban to stop attacks on American and its allied forces.

 

Direct Taliban-Afghan government arbitrations started in Doha in September, but promptly stalled and never resumed in a solemn way.

April 14, 2021

President Biden pronounced the withdrawal of remaining U.S. forces by Sept. 11.

May 2021

The Taliban began expanding terrain in the north.

July 2021

U.S. troops and forces left the Bagram Airfield, the focal point for the American war.

August 2021

The Taliban seized the management of key cities and provinces, typically without any fight or resistance among days, the sole major town not under their control was Kabul.

Ghani flees, the govt. collapsed and therefore the capital falls in to Taliban control on Aug. 15. Anarchy erupted at the Kabul flying field as frantic Afghans tried to left the country.

In a news conference on Aug. 17, Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Muhammedan ensured an inclusive government, safety for aid agencies and embassies including foreign missions and women’ rights to figure and move to areas they want to move — within his group’ understanding of Islamic Sharia law.

 

A suicide terrorist bombing took place on Aug. 26 outside Kabul’s international airport as the chaotic migration of tens of thousands of Afghans, Americans and others continues. The terrorist attack, claimed by the Islamic State’s Afghan connect, known as ISIS-K, killed nearly 200 Afghans and 13 U.S. service members.

On Aug. 29, the U.S. carried out its second drone strike attack on alleged ISIS-K suicide terrorist bombers since the airport attack. An Afghan family claimed 10 relatives, including children, were killed in the strike. The Pentagon ensured investigations.

On Aug. 30, U.S. Central Command Official General Frank McKenzie declared the last planes have departed, marking the end of the military withdrawal effort — and America’s war in Afghanistan.

 

The Taliban celebrated what they call “full independence.” And for many Afghans — specifically those desiring but helpless to leave the country — a new era of agonizing insecurity begins.