Big Story: Time-Line Of Afghanistan Under Taliban And The War Against Terrorism

Taliban Repressive Laws

The Taliban’s crushing of press freedom comes as the extremist group Reimposed many of the repressive laws and retrograde policies that defined its extremist 1996-2001 rule.

When it controlled Afghanistan, the Taliban forced women to cover themselves from head to toe, banned them from working outside the home, severely limited girls’ education, and required women to be accompanied by a male relative if they left their homes.

Meanwhile, men were banned from trimming or shaving their beards. They were also forced to pray five times a day. Listening to music and watching television was also outlawed.

Many of those policies have returned in areas now under Taliban control, say residents. That is despite repeated claims by the Taliban that it has changed and that it would not bring back its notorious, restrictive strictures. These repressive laws violated human rights of the Afghan people and got international community’s attention.

No doubt western influence in the region became a major challenge hence the push back leading to series of terror activities from these insurgent groups.

October 15, 1999: An Al-Qaeda and Taliban

The United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 1267, creating the so-called al-Qaeda and Taliban Sanctions Committee, which links the two groups as terrorist entities and imposes sanctions on their funding, travel, and arms shipments. The UN move follows a period of ascendancy for al-Qaeda and its leader, Osama bin Laden, who guided the terror group from Afghanistan and Peshawar, Pakistan, in the late 1980s, to Sudan in 1991, and back to Afghanistan in the mid-1990s. The Taliban, which rose from the ashes of Afghanistan’s post-Soviet civil war, provides al-Qaeda sanctuary for operations.

September 11, 2001, Terrorists Strike the United States

Al-Qaeda operatives hijack four commercial airliners, crashing them into the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, DC. A fourth plane crashes in a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Close to three thousand people die in the attacks. Although Afghanistan is the base for al-Qaeda, none of the nineteen hijackers are Afghan nationals.

September 18, 2001: A War Footing

U.S President George W. Bush signs into law a joint resolution authorizing the use of force against those responsible for attacking the United States on 9/11. This joint resolution will later be cited by the Bush administration as legal rationale for its decision to take sweeping measures to combat terrorism, from invading Afghanistan,

October 7, 2001,  The U.S. military, with British support, begins a bombing campaign against Taliban forces, officially launching Operation Enduring Freedom. Canada, Australia, Germany, and France pledge future support. The war’s early phase [PDF] mainly involves U.S. air strikes on al-Qaeda and Taliban forces that are assisted by a partnership of about one thousand U.S. special forces.

December 5, 2001: An Interim Government

After the fall of Kabul in November 2001, the United Nations invites major Afghan factions, most prominently the Northern Alliance and a group led by the former king (but not the Taliban), to a conference in Bonn, Germany. On December 5, 2001, the factions sign the Bonn Agreement, endorsed by UN Security Council Resolution 1383.

December 9, 2001: The Taliban Collapses

The end of the Taliban regime is generally tied to this date, when the Taliban surrendered

August 8, 2003: An International Mission

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) assumes control of international security forces (ISAF) in Afghanistan, expanding NATO/ISAF’s role across the country. It is NATO’s first operational commitment outside of Europe. Originally tasked with securing Kabul and its surrounding areas, NATO expands in September 2005, July 2006, and October 2006. The number of ISAF troops grows accordingly, from an initial five thousand to around sixty-five thousand troops from forty-two countries, including all twenty-eight NATO member states.

In Nov 2020: Permanent And Comprehensive Peace

A total of 66 nations and 32 international organizations attended the conference voicing “strong support” for a “permanent and comprehensive peace in Afghanistan.

The conference was held amid a complex situation in Afghanistan, 19 years after an international coalition led by the United States toppled the Taliban government that supported Al-Qaeda.

Taliban militants and the Afghan government got involved in peace talks in Qatar, and the administration of Then U.S. President Donald Trump announced that another 2,000 U.S. troops will exit Afghanistan by January 15 — less than a week before Joe Biden was set to take over as president — leaving just 2,500 behind.

Some $600 million out of the total was pledged by the United States for humanitarian aid to civilians in 2021, half of it conditional on the peace talks with the Taliban.

August 2021: Taliban Complete Recapture

Following the recent capture of Kabul by the Taliban militants, Prime Minister Boris Johnson intends to hold a virtual meeting of Group of Seven leaders at the earliest opportunity to discuss the situation in Afghanistan.

Western governments are discussing how to handle the situation in Kabul where thousands of civilians desperate to flee Afghanistan have descended on the airport after the Taliban seized the capital. The United Nations Security Council had an emergency meeting on Monday, where they called for the establishment of a new Afghan government.

More than 60 countries issued a joint statement saying Afghans and international citizens who want to leave Afghanistan must be allowed to depart and added airports and border crossings must remain open, the US State Department said late Sunday.

The US government and more than 60 other countries including Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Republic of Korea, Qatar and the United Kingdom said in a joint statement that “those in positions of power and authority across Afghanistan bear responsibility – and accountability – for the protection of human life and property, and for the immediate restoration of security and civil order.