Afghanistan timeline January 2004

From Wacklepedia - The Free Encyclopedia

Table of contents

1 January 16, 2004 2 January 14, 2004 3 January 13, 2004 4 January 12, 2004 5 January 11, 2004 6 January 10, 2004 7 January 9, 2004 8 January 8, 2004 9 January 7, 2004 10 January 6, 2004 11 January 5, 2004 12 January 4, 2004 13 January 3, 2004 14 January 2, 2004 15 January 1, 2004

January 16, 2004

• At the request of the United Nations, Chinese police officer Zhang Ming was sent to Afghanistan to help fight drug trafficking.

• About a dozen rockets were fired at the U.S base near the Khost airport in Afghanistan. There were no casualties.
• A ban on women singing or dancing on television in Afghanistan was re-established only days after the ban had been lifted. The Supreme Court of Afghanistan wrote to the Information and Culture Minister, Sayyid Makhdum Rahin, to protest January 12 airing. The court stated that women singing or dancing was in defiance of Islamic law.

• Afghanistan released 100 Pakistani prisoners to reciprocate a similar gesture by Pakistan only days earlier. The prisoners had been suspected of fighting for the Taliban.
• Tribal elders in South Waziriztan, Pakistani handed over to authorities three men wanted for sheltering Al Qaida and Taliban fugitives.

• The Afghan National Field Hockey Team arrived in Peshawar, Pakistan to play six matches over ten days.
• In Minroz province, Afganistan, dozens of men armed with assault rifles attacked a police checkpoint, killing four policemen.
• An agreement was signed by ISAF and the Afghan the Ministry of Defense to begin the demobilization of heavy weapons from Kabul.
• Pakistan prime minister Zafarullah Jamali met with interim Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Kabul to discuss economic links and terrorism.
• Three videos featuring women were shown on television in Kabul, Afghanistan. On of the clips included old footage of Salma (or Parasto) singing a ballad; another was a religious song in Urdu to honor the visit of Pakistani Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali.

• Five Afghan National Army soldiers died and three others were injured when they came under attack in Kandahar province, Afghanistan.
• In Helmand province, four men were killed as they planted a land mine on a road regularly used by military patrols.
• A rocket was fired at the Khost airport in Afghanistan, which was used by U.S troops, but it failed to explode.
• In Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan, a guard and an employee were injured when a bomb exploded in front of the office of the Agency for Technical Coooperation and Development.
• Pakistan freed about 150 Afghan prisoners being held for violating immigration laws.

• Interim Afghan president Hamid Karzai announced that he would be a candidate for the election to be held in June.
• A U.S soldier died from complications caused by a vehicle accident southwest of Kabul, Afghanistan a day earlier.

• A rocket hit an army camp in Wana, South Waziristan, Pakistan, killing four Pakistani soldiers.

• In Kandahar, Afghanistan, two Afghan National Army soldiers were wounded (one losing a leg) by a bomb that exploded on the roof of a building less than an eighth of a mile from the January 6 incident that killed over a dozen people.
• In Afghanistan, Kandahar police arrested six people in possession of documents that linked them to the Taliban. A confession also linked the men to the bomb planted the day before in the bus station.
• In Jalalabad, Afghan and U.S officials held a ceremony opening a new U.S Provincial Reconstruction Team.
• United Nations spokesman Manuel Almeida e Silva stated that, to date, only 274,000 (2.7%) of the 10 million Afghans eligible to vote have been registered.
• Pakistan launched a military operation utilizing helicopter gunships and ground troops against suspected al-Qaeda cells in the area of South Waziristan, which borders Afghanistan.
• Afghan authorities in Kabul arrested eleven people suspected of involvement with a December 28, 2003 suicide bombing near the airport.
• Protesting against the decision by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to reject their refugee claims, seven Afghan asylum-seekers (including three women) on Indonesia's Lombok island began a hunger strike by sewing up their mouths.
• In Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan, local police removed a bomb from a ditch near a United Nations office.

• Speaking to the media via satellite telephone, senior Taliban commander Mullah Sabir Momin apologized for the bomb attack in Kandahar, Afghanistan the previous day that killed fifteen, including many children. Momin said the intended target was the U.S Provincial Reconstruction Team office in Kandahar.
• U.S and Afghan National Army forces launched an operation in Spin Boldak, Afghanistan with the goal of arresting Taliban leaders, particularly fugitive commander Mullah Akhter Mohammad.
• Fourteen tons of aid from Canadian donors was distributed by Canadian soldiers to widows and orphans in Kabul, Afghanistan. The donations included winter clothing, blankets, toys, chewing gum, school supplies and diapers. Care Canada also distributed to each family, through funding from the Canadian International Development Agency, enough to help feed seven people for up to a month.
• In Afghanistan, a bomb found hidden under straw near a downtown Kandahar bus station was defused.
• Gunfire was exchanged on the streets of Kandahar, Afghanistan, prompting U.S soldiers to move in.

• In Kandahar, Afghanistan, at least sixteen people were killed (six of which were children) and 58 people were wounded when a time bomb hidden in an apple cart exploded 100 yards away from an Afghan military base. The crowd had gathered to investigate another bomb which had gone off 15 minutes earlier and injured a small child. A suspect was caught trying to hide in a nearby home. The blasts occurred moments before a motorcade was about to pass.
• In Afhanistan, a minibus on its way from Uruzgan to Helmand was ambushed by gunmen, leaving twelve Hazaras passangers dead.
• In a report issued to the United Nations Security Council, United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan warned that violence in Afghanistan could disrupt the timing of elections scheduled for June and noted that south and south-east Afghanistan was mostly off-limits to the United Nations, NGOs and Afghan officials. He called for another political and donor conference to address these concerns.
• A grenade was thrown at the Core office in Kandahar, Afghanistan.

• North of Qalat, Zabul province, Afghanistan, men kidnapped an Afghan aid worker who was part of a caravan for Shelter for Life. Two local people were shot and injured when they tried to stop the militants. Taliban spokesman Mullah Abdul Hakim Latifi claimed responsibility.
• Gunmen threw grenades and opened fire on the United Nations High Commission for Refugees office Kandahar, Afghanistan.
• Lakhdar Brahimi, the United Nations envoy to Afghanistan stepped down as promised to do once the Constitution of Afghanistan was approved. Brahimi's position was filled on an iterim-basis by his deputy for political affairs, Jean Arnault.
• Three soldiers of the Afghan National Army died and two were wounded in a clashed with forces under the control of the Zabul province governor. Among the dead was the commander of the army division in Zabul, Shah Alam.

• The loya jirga adopted the proposed Afghan Constitution by way of consensus.

• A rocket exploded in Kabul, Afghanistan. There were no casualties.
• Near Deh Rawood, Uruzgan province, Afghanistan, men attacked a U.S military convoy that had arrested three relatives of Haji Ghulam Nabi. Two U.S. soldiers were injured.

• In Kabul, Afghan leaders met privately with U.S and U.N officials, including U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi and U.S. ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, to try to end the impasse over the Proposed Afghan Constitution.
• Canadian governor general Adrienne Clarkson left Kabul, Afghanistan, ending a four-day visit with aid workers and soldiers at Camp Julien and Camp Warehouse.
• About 60 miles northeast of Kunduz, Afghanistan, several people were detained by U.S and Afghan troops during a raid of a drug facility, which contained about two tons of drugs and equipment. Once the people were removed a U.S. A-10 Thunderbolt II was called in to destroy the laboratory.

• Close to half of the loya jirga boycotted a vote on five disputed articles concerning the Proposed Afghan Constitution, promoting Chairman Subghatullah Mujadidi to call for a two-day adjournment to for negotiations. Advisors from the United Nations and the United States were present to help mediate between the two sides. The primary controversy concerned whether to have a strong president or a strong parliament.