Afghanistan timeline November 2002
Nation-building in Afghanistan
- Iran called for the second time in less than two weeks for Kabul to respect a water-sharing accord on the Helmand river flowing from Afghanistan into Iran. Afghan President Hamid Karzai said he would "take care of this issue personally."
- Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai ordered the release of 20 female prisoners in a goodwill gesture one day after the start of the holy month of Ramadan. The women had all been detained for petty crimes. The women, held in a Kabul prison, would likely be released over the weekend.
- The Hague announced that the Netherlands will join Germany in taking over command of the U.N. security force in Afghanistan in mid-February 2003. To date, Turkey was in command of the 19-nation, 5,000-strong ISAF. Germany had 1,200 soldiers in the force, and the Dutch 240, but those figures would be boosted after the transfer of command. To date, Germany had a total of 10,000 troops serving abroad, second only to the United States.
- 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 Mazar-i-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 in Kabul. 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 ISAF 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 Badakshan province in northern Afghanistan, 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.
- A rocket or mortar was fired at a U.S. Army Special Forces base in Gardez, but caused no injuries.
- In a new report, 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 (ISAF) beyond Kabul. It also called for US to exert its influence and adopt a peacekeeping role in the regions.
- A rocket exploded 500 meters from a U.S. base in Deh Rahwod district in the central province of Uruzgan, Afghanistan.
- A delegation from the eastern province of Herat 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.
- 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 constitutional loya 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 the central province of Uruzgan fired an illumination round after "two unknown personnel were seen" about 300 yards 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.
- Tajik forces loyal to Ismail Khan, the governor of Herat province, launched the attack in the Zer-e-Koh district, killing two civilians and injuring 15 in a crowded market. Ismail Khan, a former governor, took back control of Herat after the fall of the Taliban. But local Pashtuns have complained his forces have looted and oppressed them.
- The U.S. base in Asadabad, Afghanistan in the eastern province of Kunar 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 yards 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 to bring unruly and corrupt provincial leaders into line. In eastern Nangarhar province (one of the major suppliers of Afghanistan's illicit opium exports) 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 Mazar-i-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.
- About 60 kilometers east of Khost, in Gardez, three rockets exploded just after midnight about one kilometer southwest of a compound housing U.S. special forces soldiers.
- 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 women could not be treated by male doctors.
- Pakistan turned over to U.S. forces 25 suspected al-Qaida 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 Mazar-e-Sharif and eight on a U.S. Navy ship in the Arabian Sea.