Afghanistan timeline June 2003

June 17, 2003

• The United Nations issued to all UN personnel in Afghanistan a warning of further suicide bombings in Kabul over the next few days.

June 16, 2003

• Women's Edge co-founder and executive director Ritu Sharma[?] arrived in Afghanistan for a week's visit. She will observe and monitor the conditions of women. Sharma will be accompanied by Sima Wali[?], the CEO of Refugee Women in Development[?].
• Leaflets[?] in Spin Boldak[?], Afghanistan allegedly written by Taliban fighters threatened to launch suicide attacks against U.S. and British troops.
• In Paris, France, a three-day Unesco conference began to discuss the future of the Kabul Museum[?] and the possibility of restoring the site at Bamiyan[?] where giant statues of the Buddha were destroyed.
• The UNHCR and the governments of Iran and Afghanistan signed an agreement to help repatriate Afghan refugees from Iran to Afghanistan.

June 15, 2003

• Seven Afghan governmental drug control officers were killed and three others wounded in Oruzgan province[?] when they were on a mission to eradicate opium poppy cultivation.
• Afghan President Hamid Karzai selected Vice President Amin Arsala[?] to head the Afghan Independent Reform of Civil Administrative Services Commission[?] to fight corruption, nepotism and bureacratic delays.

June 14, 2003

• Three rockets were fired at the U.S. base in Asadabad[?], Afghanistan. There was no damage and no casualties.

June 13, 2003

• In the yard of an aid agency in Lashkarga[?], Helmand province[?], Afghanistan, a car exploded.
• A grenade attack in the Gerishk district[?] of Helmand province[?], Afghanistan, wounded six local government soldiers.

June 12, 2003

• The International Crisis Group[?] (ICG) issued a report critiquing the consitutitional process in Afghanistan. The report suggests that the process is hurried and covert. Public consultations, which started June 7, were due to last just under two months. Culminating in Loya Jirga in October, the process was to end with a general election in mid-2004. However, the ICG claimed that ordinary Afghans would be denied freedom of speech by local leaders and that the United Nations was ignoring public education on the issues.
• ISAF personnel and Kabul police defused a remote-control bomb planted on a busy road.
• The Afghan government announced that security force of 700 men would be deployed along a 540-km highway construction route.
• A man on a motorcycle threw a hand grenade into the office of an Italian aid organization in Lashkar Gah[?], Afghanistan.

June 11, 2003

• South of Mazar-i-Sharif, in the Sholgara district[?], forces from the Jamiat-e-Islami party[?] of Ustad Atta Mohammad[?] clashed with those loyal to Uzbek warlord General Abdul Rashid Dostum, killing at least two civilians.
• North of Terin Kot[?] in Uruzgan province[?], at least nine Pashtun Sunni Muslims[?] were killed in an ambush.
• Six Afghans were killed and five injured when gunmen attacked a civilian bus that was en route from Nawmish[?] village to Sartighan[?] village in the Baghran district[?] of Helmand province[?].
• After completing an 8-day visit to Afghanistan, CARE secretary-general Denis Caillaux[?] met with U.N. leadership, including Deputy Secretary-General Louise Frechette[?]. Caillaux recommended that ISAF be increased to serve all Afghan provinces and that the U.N. increase efforts to enlarge and improve the Afghan National Army and Afghan police forces. To date, CARE had over 700 aid workers in Afghanistan, most of whom are Afghan nationals. CARE began work in Afghanistan in 1961.

June 10, 2003

• Hundreds of ISAF personnel gathered in Kabul, Afghanistan for a memorial service to honor the four German killed in the June 7 suicide bombing. The remains were then transported home to Germany.
• U.S.-led coalition troops in Afghanistan killed four fighters armed with rifles and rocket grenades near the U.S. base in Shkin[?], in Paktika province[?] near the border with Pakistan.

June 9, 2003

• The United Nations urged the Afghan government to take drastic steps to make the Afghan National Army and the Afghan Defense Ministry[?] reflect better the nation's ethnic make-up.
• In Zabul province[?], Afghanistan, pamphlets[?] surfaced that called on the Afghan National Army and police to fight against President Hamid Karzai and U.S.-led forces. The rhetoric also warned that those who failed to join sides with the Taliban would be killed.
• The Swiss parliament agreed to send Swiss soldiers to Afghanistan to work with the ISAF.
• The Arman-e-Millie daily newspaper reported that, in the Panjwaye district[?] of Kandahar province[?], a bomb exploded in a vehicle, killing its three passengers. The report did not say when the explosion occurred.
• Pakistan summoned Afghan ambassador Naunguyalai Tarzi[?] to complain about the June 5 dumping of 22 corpses of suspected Taliban on its side of the border. Pakistani spokesman Masood Khan[?] termed the action "provocative."
• Four rocket grenades exploded near an Afghan military border checkpoint near the U.S. base in Shkin[?], in Paktika province[?]. There were no casualties.
• U.S. special forces found three Blowpipe surface-to-air portable missile systems near Asadabad[?], Afghanistan. The systems were still in their original containers.

June 8, 2003

• Bacha Khan Zadran, a regional Afghan warlord, said U.S. forces detained his son, Abdul Wali[?], in an operation in Paktia province[?] June 5 and called for his immediate release. Zadran said Wali had approached the U.S. forces to offer assistance. It was unclear why he was taken into custody.
• To prepare the ground for imports and exports of Iran-Afghan carpets, the first ever Iran-Afghanistan joint carpet exhibition began in Kabul.
• German police arrived in Kabul, Afghanistan to help with the investigation over the June 7 suicide bombing.

June 7, 2003

• In Kabul, Afghanistan, a taxi packed with explosives rammed a bus carrying German ISAF personnel, killing four soldiers and wounding 29 others; one Afghan bystander was killed and 10 Afghan bystanders were wounded. The 33 peacekeepers, after months on duty in Kabul, were en route to the Kabul International Airport[?] for their flight home to Germany.
• The Afghan Constitution Commission[?] set up offices in all 32 Afghan provinces to gather public comments and recommendations on a draft of the new constitution, which had been worked out by a special drafting committee. Similar offices were scheduled to also be set up in Iran and Pakistan to get opinions on the future constitution from Afghan refugees.

June 6, 2003

• Afghan President Hamid Karzai met with Queen Elizabeth II at Windsor Castle, where he was awarded an honorary knighthood by the Queen. Karzai later gave a lecture on reconstruction in Afghanistan at St Antony's College, Oxford.
• Taliban leader Hafiz Abdul Rahim[?] stated that only eight rebel fighters were killed in the June 4 battle north of Spin Boldak[?], not 40 as reported by the Afghan government. He said the others who died were civilians.
• In Tokyo, Japan, Frank Polman[?], a senior Asian Development Bank official, stated that contributions by international donors to the Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund[?] had fallen far short of the pledges made because international attention had shifted focused to Iraq. Although donors pledged $5.1 billion at a meeting in January 2002 to cover reconstruction efforts through June 2004, only a small proportion of their pledges had actually been committed.
• The World Bank approved a $US60 million grant to improve the health of Afghan women and children. A project to develop basic health services and ensure women and children access to them was to be implemented over three years by the Afghan Ministry of Health[?]. It was estimated that a quarter of Afghan children did not survive beyond their fifth birthday.

June 5, 2003

• Afghan President Hamid Karzai met with British Prime Minister Tony Blair to discuss reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan, then with British Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon. Hoon promised that Britain would not abandon Afghanistan.
• As part of Environment and Water Day, the United Nations Environment Program in Afghanistan announced that a majority of the nation was experiencing water scarcity[?]. It was estimated that only 20% of Afghans nationwide had access to safe drinking water in both cities and rural areas.
• Afghan authorities sent 21 corpses said to be Taliban killed while fighting Afghan government troops near Kandahar on June 3 and June 4, to the Killi Faizo Afghan refugee camp[?]. Pakistani authorities at Chaman handed back 14 bodies to the Afghan officials. The seven were identified as officials of former Taliban regime, including Commander Abdul Rahim[?], Commander Abdul Ghani[?], Talib Amir Muhammad[?], Gul Muhammad[?], Gullalai[?], Noorullah[?] and one man whose identity was unconfirmed.
• In Paktia province[?], Afghanistan, U.S. forces killed one guerrilla and captured another after seeing a group of them open fire on a crowd of civilians.

June 4, 2003

• Afghan President Hamid Karzai flew to London, England.
• In the Shahi Kot region of Afghanistan near the Pakistani border, U.S. and Italian troops in eastern Afghanistan arrested 21 al-Qaida and Taliban suspects.
• Russia offered to support NATO's peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan. It was unclear how Russia's support would manifest itself. NATO was due to take command of the 5,200-member U.N. International Security Assistance Force on August 11.
• Pakistani officials in Karachi authorized Port Qasim[?] and Karachi Port[?] to act as an entry point for transit trade to Afghanistan.
• A homemade bomb exploded near a U.S. special operations convoy about a half mile from the U.S. military base in Gardez, Afghanistan. No casualties were reported.
• A rebuilt girls' school in Maidan province[?] southwest of Kabul was burned down. It was the sixth girls' school in Afghanistan to be torched by arsonists since the fall of the Taliban.
• Afghan troops attacked suspected Taliban in Nimakai[?], Populzai[?] and Hassanzai[?] north of Spin Boldak[?]. The a fierce gunbattle left at least 49 rebel fighters and seven government soldiers dead. Afghan officials sent more than 20 corpses over the border to Pakistan, insisting they were not Afghans. But Pakistan refused to accept them, saying they were not Pakistanis and warning that the Afghan refusal to take back the bodies could spark tension in the border region.

June 3, 2003

• Afghan General Abdul Rashid Dostum backed out of a deal to move from his province to Kabul.
• A U.S. army AH-64 Apache helicopter crashed while supporting combat operations near Orgun-e[?] in Paktika province[?], Afghanistan, but there were no casualties.
• The Asian Development Bank approved a $150 million concessional loan to help Afghanistan restore damaged roads, power generation and natural gas infrastructures.
• Eight Pakistani public and private sector banks applied for licences to operate in Afghanistan.
• Following an Afghan government re-evaluation of the administrative structure of some ministries, the Women's Affairs Ministry fired 112 women because they were either completely unqualified or possessed mere vocational skills. Those with needlework, embroidery, and tailoring skills were dismissed because the ministry did not have the capacity to place them according to their professions. A spokeswoman stressed that the ministry was still employing over 1,300 women at its headquarters and its 27 provincial branches.

June 2, 2003

• Governor Ismail Khan of Herat province[?], handed $20 million of customs revenues to Afghan coffers, the largest contribution in 18 months. Khan's payment allowed the Afghan government to paid about 100,000 Afghan soldiers their full salaries.
• In Arghasan[?], a district of Kandahar province[?], Afghan troops killed four suspected Taliban fighters and captured five others in a gun battle. The dead included Mullah Abdullah.
• Near a U.S. military base at Spin Boldak[?], fighting occurred between the soldiers of Afghan commanders Abdul Raziq[?] and Gud Fahida[?]. One of the Afghan soldier's killed, Sakhi Dad, also was a part-time translator for the U.S. Army.
• One Afghan soldier died and 14 were wounded in a vehicle convoy accident near Kandahar.
• Five Afghan soldiers were injured in a road accident in Gardez.
• In Afghanistan, a convoy of four fuel trucks was ambushed en route to the U.S. base at Orgun-e[?] in Paktia province[?].
• In Tehran, representatives of Iran, Uzbekistan and Afghanistan signed a draft agreement establishing a road link from Iran to Central Asia via Afghanistan and Uzbekistan.

June 1, 2003

• In Kandahar, Afghanistan, attackers hurled a hand grenade at the office of the German Technical Cooperation[?], shattering three windows but causing no injuries.
• Several hundred ISAF peacekeepers in Kabul, Afghanistan held a memorial ceremony for a German soldier killed in a land mine blast on May 29.
• In Kabul, Afghan Minister of State Shirbaz Hakimi[?] welcomed the establishment of a Iran Khodro[?] representative office.
• In Kandahar, an explosion damaged the home of Ahmad Wali Karzai[?], a brother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, but there were no casualties.