Afghanistan Timeline November 2003

November 29, 2003

• Afghan President Hamid Karzai met John Abizaid, the head of the U.S. Central Command, in Kabul. Their agenda included the prevention of militants infiltrating from Pakistan.
• Hassan Onal, Turkish road engineer kidnapped by the Taliban on October 28, was released to tribal elders in Zabul province, Afghanistan. A Taliban spokesman claimed Onal had been freed because the Afghan government had released two militants.
• Afghan President Hamid Karzai laid claims that fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar had been seen the previous day offering prayers in Quetta, Pakistan. Pakistan quickly rejected the claim.
• U.S. Central Command chief John Abizaid visited U.S. troops in eastern Afghanistan.
• A Gulbuddin Hekmatyar commander, Ghulam Sakhee, was killed in Kunar, Afghanistan.

November 28, 2003

• NATO agreed to take command of PRTs in five Afghan towns that were currently protected by Operation Enduring Freedom. However, NATO added that the change of command would only take place if military resources were available. Such a move would necessitate 3,000 more troops and bases in Tajikistan or Kyrgyzstan.
• The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy released a report that estimated the area in Afghanistan used to grow poppies had risen from 4,210 acres (17 km²) in 2001 to 76,900 acres (311 km²) in 2002 and to 152,000 acres (615 km²) in 2003. United Nations figures published a month earlier estimating 185,000 acres (749 km²) in 2002 and 200,000 acres (809 km²) in 2003.

November 27, 2003

• United States Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Jack Reed spent Thanksgiving in Afghanistan.
• The United Nations changed the curfew for its workers in Kabul, Afghanistan from midnight to 10 PM.

November 26, 2003

• During maneuvres of Operation Mountain Resolve, U.S.-led coalition forces in Afghanistan were attacked by rebel forces. One Afghan National Army soldier and two U.S. soldiers were wounded.
• Near Khost, Afghanistan, rebel forces fired on U.S.-led coalition and Afghan soldiers. In the ensuing exchange, one rebel was wounded and several others were captured.

November 25, 2003

• DHL halted its five-day-per-week delivery services to Afghanistan to carry out a security review. Service resumed November 28.

November 24, 2003

• In Kabul, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan defeated Afghanistan 2-0 in a Asian zone preliminary World Cup qualifier.
• At least four Afghans were wounded when soldiers opened fire on demonstrators outside the defence ministry in Kabul, Afghanistan. The protesters were ex-mujahideen fighters who had recently been dismissed by the ministry.
• Afghan authorities in Kabul arrested two men carrying explosives.

November 23, 2003

• Near the village of Shukhi in the Kapisa province, a U.S. MH-53 Pave Low helicopter crashed shortly after leaving Bagram Air Base, killing five U.S. soldiers. Eight soldiers also were wounded. The troops were part of the 16th Special Operations Wing and were participating in Operation Mountain Resolve. It was later determined that the cause of the accident was engine failure.
• Two U.S.-led coalition troops were wounded when their vehicle went over landmine near Shkin, Afghanistan.

November 22, 2003

• Armed men forced four or five U.N. staff and other patrons to hand over cash and valuables at the Shang Hai restaurant in Kabul, Afghanistan.
• Rockets exploded in a garden outside the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul, Afghanistan, but no casualties were reported.

November 21, 2003

• In Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, Turkmenistan defeated Afghanistan 11-0 in a Asian zone preliminary World Cup qualifier.
• As part of an amnesty linked to the end of Ramadan, more than 60 suspected Taliban members and sympathisers were from a prison in northern Afghanistan.

November 20, 2003

• Near Ghazni, Afghanistan, on the road connecting Kabul with Kandahar, gunmen kidnapped and later released an Afghan driver working with a U.N.-led de-mining operation, stealing his car, money and documents.
• At Camp Julien, Afghanistan, Canadian Defence Minister John McCallum spoke with troops before he traveled to meet with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Defence Minister General Fahim Khan.
• Completing a week-long sweep, Pakistani authorities arrested more than 500 illegal Afghan migrants.

November 19, 2003

• Two 107-millimetre rockets attached to a car battery were discovered by Canadian in a palace nearby Camp Julien, Afghanistan. The rockets were pointed toward Camp Julien, allegedly in anticipation of Canadian Defence Minister John McCallum's visit the following day.

November 18, 2003

• South Korea temporarily closed its embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan amid warnings that al Qaeda might launch a suicide bomb attack. Three South Korean diplomats were evacuated to Pakistan. South Korea had a total of 200 troops serving in Afghanistan.
• Canada delivered millions of voter registration kits to Afghanistan's electoral commission in Kabul. Nationwide elections were to take place mid-2004.

November 17, 2003

• The United Nations suspended operations in southern and eastern Afghanistan in response to the killing of one of their employees a day earlier.

November 16, 2003

• In Ghazni province, Afghanistan, two men on a motorcycle opened fire on a UNHCR vehicle, killing Bettina Goislard, a French woman who was a U.N. staff member, and injuring the driver. Local police fired at the motorcycle, injuring one of the two men and arresting both of them. The two men were beaten by an angry mob before they were arrested. Taliban officials claimed responsibility and stated Goislard was killed because she was Christian.
• Pakistani border security forces arrested 60 Afghans trying to cross over into Pakistan illegally.

November 15, 2003

• Six civilians died when a U.S. warplane dropped a bomb in the Barmal district of Paktika province, Afghanistan.

November 14, 2003

• Three U.N. employees in Paktia province, Afghanistan escaped injury after a remote-controlled bomb blew up near a vehicle they were travelling in.

November 13, 2003

• In Spin Boldak, Afghanistan, unidentified men on a motorbike handed Reuters an audio cassette of Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar. On it, Omar admonished commanders who have given up the jihad.
• An explosion occurred outside the small U.S.-led coalition camp in Kandahar province, Afghanistan. Later, a rocket fired by unidentified attackers landed near the base.

November 12, 2003

• A new television station, Aina ("Mirror"), started test broadcasts from Sheberghan, Afghanistan. On air for six hours a night and covering an area of 300 kilometers, the channel planned to broadcast cultural, social, entertainment, political and sports programs in the local Dari, Pashtu, Uzbek and Turkman languages.
• In the Manogi district of Kunar province, a car was blown up by a remote-controlled bomb, killing at least three Afghans and injuring three.

November 11, 2003

• Five Afghan civilians were injured in a mine blast close to the Bagram Air Base.
• In Kandahar, Afghanistan, a car bomb blew up outside a United Nations Assistance Mission to Afghanistan compound, injuring at least one person and damaging nearby buildings.
• The Asian Development Bank approved a US$1 million technical assistance grant to carry out a preparatory study of redeveloping a road connecting Herat with Andkhoy, Turkmenistan.
• Taliban forces used rockets and machineguns to attack Romanian armored personnel carriers returning to its base in Kandahar province, Afghanistan, killing at least one soldier and injuring at least one.
• Outside Kandahar, Afghanistan, a U.N. de-mining vehicle belonging to an international relief agency hit an anti-tank mine, injuring two people.

November 10, 2003

• U.S. soldiers killed one rebel in a clash in the Marzeh district of Nuristan province, Afghanistan. Two or three rebels also opened fire on other U.S. forces there, then fled the scene when close air support was called in.
• In a signed statement sent to local media, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar dismissed the Afghan Transition Government as a puppet of the United States. The statement also said that efforts to adopt the Afghan Draft Constitution were meaningless.

November 9, 2003

• Miss Afghanistan Vida Samadzai won the Miss Earth pageant's first "beauty for a cause" award.

November 8, 2003

• A group of rebels fired rockets at U.S.-led coalition forces in Kunar province, Afghanistan. Coalition soldiers responded with small arms and aerial fire.
• The Taliban militia leader holding Hasan Onal, a Turkish engineer, hostage in southwestern Afghanistan demanded the release of 250 Taliban fighters by the Afghan Government. Onal had been abducted October 28.
• The Afghan government dispatched a 12-member defence ministry delegation led by deputy chief of army of staff, Ishaq Noori, to Mazar-i-Sharif with the two-weeks mission of merging the troops led by Ustad Atta Mohammad and the troops led by General Abdul Rashid Dostum.

November 7, 2003

• The United Nations Security Council delegation that arrived in Afghanistan on November 2 returned to New York.
• The United States State Department advised U.S. journalists in Afghanistan to take immediate steps to increase their personal security, after sources indicated that Taliban rebels were planning kidnapings.
• In Zabul province, Afghanistan, rebel forces hijacked two U.N.-funded vehicles, capturing their drivers and communication equipment.
• At least eight people were killed when rebels attacked an administrative buildings in Zabul province, Afghanistan. The Taliban also kidnapped four relatives of the district chief and threatened to kill them unless the governor surrendered the district to them.
• Three rockets landed near U.S. troops operating near the Asadabad base in Afghanistan.
• Operation Mountain Resolve began in Nuristan province and Kunar province, Afghanistan. The objective was to destroy anti-coalition forces.

November 6, 2003

• In Kabul, Afghanistan, unidentified gunmen murdered Shireen Agha Salangi, a former Northern Alliance commander who later switched sides to fight alongside the Taliban.
• An Indian man was murdered by unknown gunmen in his home in the Taimani district of Kabul, Afghanistan. The man was an employee of a private Indian firm which was working on a Afghan mobile phone project.

November 5, 2003

• The United Nations Security Council delegation that arrived in Afghanistan on November 2 visited Mazar-e-Sharif and met with Tajik warlord Ustad Atta Mohammad and Uzbek warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum. The Afghan leaders pledged to end their feud.
• In Kabul, Afghanistan, a bomb exploded near the offices of Oxfam and Save the Children.
• Pakistan announced that it would exclude vegetable ghee, cigars, shampoo, RT silk fibre, razor blades, capacitors and video cassettes from the negative list under the Afghan Transit Trade, but rejected the removal of three electronic items - refrigerators, air conditioners and televisions.

November 3, 2003

• The United Nations Security Council delegation that arrived in Afghanistan on November 2 visited Herat but could not meet with governor Ismail Khan because he was out of town.
• The Proposed Afghan Constitution was presented to President Hamid Karzai at a ceremony in Kabul. A constitutional loya jirga was scheduled to formally adopt the draft in December.
• Rockets were fired by rebel forces at the U.S. bases in Kunar province and Nangarhar province, Afghanistan.
• Pakistani soldiers killed two al-Qaida suspects in a shootout near Zarray Lita, an Afghan border town.

November 2, 2003

• Beginning a week-long trip, a delegation of fifteen United Nations Security Council members arrived in Kabul from Islamabad on a German military plane equipped with anti-missile gear. The all-male delegation consisted of U.N. ambassadors from the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Bulgaria, Mexico and Spain, of deputy ambassadors from Russia and Pakistan, and of other diplomats from Angola, Cameroon, Chile, People's Republic of China, Guinea and Syria.

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