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Afghanistan
| Islamic Republic of Afghanistan National name: Jomhuri-ye Eslami-ye
Afghanestan President: Hamid Karzai
(2002)
Current government officials
Total area: 250,000 sq mi (647,500 sq
km) Population (2008 est.): 32,738,376
(growth rate: 2.6%); birth rate: 45.8/1000; infant mortality rate:
154.6/1000; life expectancy: 44.2; density per sq mi: 128
Capital and largest city (2003 est.):
Kabul, 2,206,300 Other large cities: Kandahar, 349,300;
Mazar-i-Sharif, 246,900; Charikar, 202,600; Herat, 171,500 Monetary unit: Afghani
Languages:
Dari Persian, Pashtu (both official), other
Turkic and minor languages
Ethnicity/race:
Pashtun 42%, Tajik 27%, Hazara 9%, Uzbek 9%,
Aimak 4%, Turkmen 3%, Baloch 2%, other 4%
Religion:
Sunni Muslim 80%, Shi'a Muslim 19%, other
1%
National Holiday:
Independence Day, August 19 Literacy rate: 28.1% (2000 est.) Economic summary: GDP/PPP (2007 est.):
$35 billion; per capita $800. Real growth rate: 7.5% (2007
est.). Inflation: 16.3% (2005 est.). Unemployment: 40%
(2005 est.). Arable land: 12.13%. Agriculture: opium,
wheat, fruits, nuts; wool, mutton, sheepskins, lambskins. Labor
force: 15 million; agriculture 80%, industry 10%, services 10%.
Natural resources: natural gas, petroleum, coal, copper,
chromite, talc, barites, sulfur, lead, zinc, iron ore, salt, precious
and semiprecious stones. Industries: small-scale production of
textiles, soap, furniture, shoes, fertilizer, cement; handwoven
carpets; natural gas, coal, copper. Exports: $274 million; note
- not including illicit exports or reexports (2006): opium, fruits and
nuts, handwoven carpets, wool, cotton, hides and pelts, precious and
semiprecious gems. Imports: $3.823 billion (2006): capital
goods, food, textiles, petroleum products. Major trading
partners: Pakistan, India, U.S., Germany (2006). Communications: Telephones: main lines
in use: 280,000 (2005); mobile cellular: 2.52 million (2006). Radio
broadcast stations: AM 21, FM 5, shortwave 1 (broadcasts in
Pashtu, Afghan Persian (Dari), Urdu, and English) (2006).
Television broadcast stations: at least 7 (1 government-run
central television station in Kabul and regional stations in 6 of the
34 provinces) (2006). Internet users: 535,000 (2006). Transportation: Highways: total:
34,782 km; paved: 8,229 km; unpaved: 26,553 km (2004).
Waterways: 1,200 km; chiefly Amu Darya, which handles vessels
up to about 500 DWT (2007). Ports and harbors: Kheyrabad, Shir
Khan. Airports: 46 (2007). International disputes: Pakistan, with UN and
other international assistance, repatriated 2.3 million Afghan
refugees with less than a million still remaining, many at their own
choosing; Pakistan has proposed and Afghanistan protests construction
of a fence and laying of mines along portions of their border;
Coalition and Pakistani forces continue to monitor remote tribal areas
to control the border with Afghanistan and stem terrorist and other
illegal activities.
Major sources and definitions
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Geography
Afghanistan, approximately the size of Texas, is bordered on the north
by Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan, on the extreme northeast by
China, on the east and south by Pakistan, and by Iran on the west. The
country is split east to west by the Hindu Kush mountain range, rising in
the east to heights of 24,000 ft (7,315 m). With the exception of the
southwest, most of the country is covered by high snow-capped mountains
and is traversed by deep valleys.
Government
In June 2002 a multiparty republic replaced an interim government that
had been established in Dec. 2001, following the fall of the Islamic
Taliban government.
History
Darius I and Alexander the Great were the first to use Afghanistan as
the gateway to India. Islamic conquerors arrived in the 7th century, and
Genghis Khan and Tamerlane followed in the 13th and 14th centuries.
In the 19th century, Afghanistan became a battleground in the rivalry
between imperial Britain and czarist Russia for control of Central Asia.
Three Anglo-Afghan wars (1839–1842, 1878–1880, and 1919) ended
inconclusively. In 1893 Britain established an unofficial border, the
Durand Line, separating Afghanistan from British India, and London granted
full independence in 1919. Emir Amanullah founded an Afghan monarchy in
1926.
Soviet Invasion
During the cold war, King Mohammed Zahir Shah developed close ties with
the Soviet Union, accepting extensive economic assistance from Moscow. He
was deposed in 1973 by his cousin Mohammed Daoud, who proclaimed a
republic. Daoud was killed in a 1978 coup, and Noor Taraki took power,
setting up a Marxist regime. He, in turn, was executed in Sept. 1979, and
Hafizullah Amin became president. Amin was killed in Dec. 1979, as the
Soviets launched a full-scale invasion of Afghanistan and installed Babrak
Karmal as president.
The Soviets, and the Soviet-backed Afghan government, were met with
fierce popular resistance. Guerrilla forces, calling themselves
mujahideen, pledged a jihad, or holy war, to expel the invaders.
Initially armed with outdated weapons, the mujahideen became a focus of
U.S. cold war strategy against the Soviet Union, and with Pakistan's help,
Washington began funneling sophisticated arms to the resistance. Moscow's
troops were soon bogged down in a no-win conflict with determined Afghan
fighters. In 1986 Karmal resigned, and was replaced by Mohammad
Najibullah. In April 1988 the USSR, U.S., Afghanistan, and Pakistan signed
accords calling for an end to outside aid to the warring factions. In
return, a Soviet withdrawal took place in Feb. 1989, but the pro-Soviet
government of President Najibullah was left in the capital, Kabul.
The Rise of the Taliban
By mid-April 1992 Najibullah was ousted as Islamic rebels advanced on
the capital. Almost immediately, the various rebel groups began fighting
one another for control. Amid the chaos of competing factions, a group
calling itself the Taliban—consisting of Islamic
students—seized control of Kabul in Sept. 1996. It imposed harsh
fundamentalist laws, including stoning for adultery and severing hands for
theft. Women were prohibited from work and school, and they were required
to cover themselves from head to foot in public. By fall 1998 the Taliban
controlled about 90% of the country and, with its scorched-earth tactics
and human rights abuses, had turned itself into an international pariah.
Only three countries—Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and the
UAR—recognized the Taliban as Afghanistan's legitimate
government.
On Aug. 20, 1998, U.S. cruise missiles struck a terrorist training
complex in Afghanistan believed to have been financed by Osama bin Laden,
a wealthy Islamic radical sheltered by the Taliban. The U.S. asked for the
deportation of Bin Laden, whom it believed was involved in the bombing of
the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania on Aug. 7, 1998. The UN also
demanded the Taliban hand over Bin Laden for trial.
In Sept. 2001, legendary guerrilla leader Ahmed Shah Masoud was killed
by suicide bombers, a seeming death knell for the anti-Taliban forces, a
loosely connected group referred to as the Northern Alliance. Days later,
terrorists attacked New York's World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon,
and Bin Laden emerged as the primary suspect in the tragedy.
The U.S. Responds to the September 11, 2001, Terrorist Attacks
On Oct. 7, after the Taliban repeatedly and defiantly refused to turn
over Bin Laden, the U.S. and its allies began daily air strikes against
Afghan military installations and terrorist training camps. Five weeks
later, with the help of U.S. air support, the Northern Alliance managed
with breathtaking speed to take the key cities of Mazar-i-Sharif and
Kabul, the capital. On Dec. 7, the Taliban regime collapsed entirely when
its troops fled their last stronghold, Kandahar. However, al-Qaeda members
and other mujahideen from various parts of the Islamic world who had
earlier fought alongside the Taliban persisted in pockets of fierce
resistance, forcing U.S. and allied troops to maintain a presence in
Afghanistan. Osama bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Muhammad Omar
remained at large.
In Dec. 2001, Hamid Karzai, a Pashtun (the dominant ethnic group in the
country) and the leader of the powerful 500,000-strong Populzai clan, was
named head of Afghanistan's interim government; in June 2002, he formally
became president. The U.S. maintained about 12,000 troops to combat the
remnants of the Taliban and al-Qaeda, and about 31 nations also
contributed NATO-led peacekeeping forces. In 2003, after the United States
shifted its military efforts to fighting the war in Iraq, attacks on
American-led forces intensified as the Taliban and al-Qaeda began to
regroup.
President Hamid Karzai's hold on power remained tenuous, as entrenched
warlords continued to exert regional control. Remarkably, however,
Afghanistan's first democratic presidential elections in Oct. 2004 were a
success. Ten million Afghans, more than a third of the country, registered
to vote, including more than 40% of eligible women. Karzai was declared
the winner in November, taking 55% of the vote, and was inaugurated in
December.
In May 2005, 17 people were killed during anti-American protests
prompted by a report in Newsweek that American guards at the prison
at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, had desecrated the Koran. In September
2005, Afghanistan held its first democratic parliamentary elections in
more than 25 years.
Reemergence of theTaliban
The Taliban continued to attack U.S. troops throughout 2005 and
2006—the latter becoming the deadliest year for U.S. troops since
the war ended in 2001. In 2004 and 2005, American troop levels in
Afghanistan gradually increased to nearly 18,000 from a low of 10,000.
Throughout the spring of 2006, Taliban militants—by then a force of
several thousand—infiltrated southern Afghanistan, terrorizing local
villagers and attacking Afghan and U.S. troops. In May and June, Operation
Mount Thrust was launched, deploying more than 10,000 Afghan and coalition
forces in the south. About 700 people, most of whom were Taliban, were
killed. In Aug. 2006, NATO troops took over military operations in
southern Afghanistan from the U.S.-led coalition. NATO's Afghanistan
mission is considered the most dangerous undertaken in its 57-year
history.
Attacks by the Taliban intensified and increased in late 2006 and into
2007, with militants crossing into eastern Afghanistan from Pakistan's
tribal areas. The Pakistani government denied that its intelligence agency
supported the Islamic militants, despite contradictory reports from
Western diplomats and the media.
An August 2007 report by the United Nations implicated the Taliban in
Afghanistan's opium production, which has doubled in two years. The report
further stated that the country supplies 93% of the world's heroin.
Southern Afghanistan, particularly Helmand Province, saw the largest
spike.
The Taliban continued to launch attacks and gain strength throughout
2007 and into 2008. In February 2008, U.S. Secretary of State Robert Gates
warned NATO members that the threat of an al-Qaeda attack on their soil is
real and that they must commit more troops to stabilize Afghanistan and
counter the growing power of both al-Qaeda and the Taliban.
Taliban Attacks Become More Deadly
A suicide bomber attacked at a crowded dogfight near Kandahar in February, killing about 80 people and injuring nearly 100. A local police chief Abdul Hakim Jan was among the dead. It was the worst suicide attack since 2001. President Karzai survived an assassination attempt in April, when suspected Taliban militants attacked a parade to celebrate Afghan national day. The insurgents penetrated the security detail surrounding Karzai, suggesting they had inside help in planning the attack. In June, however, the Afghan government said it had evidence that Pakistan's intelligence agency, ISI, had masterminded the attack.
The U.S. had 34,000 troops in Afghanistan during the summer of 2008,
the highest level since 2005, but that was not enough to stem growing
violence in the country or the resurgence of the Taliban and al-Qaeda.
Indeed, June 2008 was the deadliest month for U.S. and coalition troops
since the American-led invasion began in 2001. Forty-six soldiers were
killed; there were 31 U.S troop deaths in Iraq during the same period. In
addition, a Pentagon report indicated that the U.S. is facing two separate
insurgencies in Afghanistan: the Taliban in the south and a collection of
militant bands in the east, which borders Pakistan. These adversaries seek
the expulsion of "all foreign military forces from Afghanistan, the
elimination of external government influence in their respective areas,
and the imposition of a religiously conservative, Pashtun-led government."
Some U.S. officials began to question the effectiveness of President
Karzai and his ability to rein in the mounting insurgency. Those doubts
were further justified in June, when the Taliban brazenly orchestrated a
jailbreak in Kandahar, which freed about 900 prisoners, 350 of them were
Taliban.
In August, as many as 90 Afghan civilians, 60 of them children, were
killed in a U.S.-launched airstrike in the western village of Azizabad. It
was one of the deadliest airstrikes since the war began in 2001, and the
deadliest on civilians. The U.S. military refuted the figures, however,
which were confirmed by the UN, claiming that the airstrike, in response
to an attack by militants, killed less than 10 civilians and about 30
members of the Taliban. An investigation by the U.S. military, released in
October, found that more than 30 civilians and less than 20 militants were
killed in the raid.
The Pakistani military launched a three-week-long cross-border air
assault into Afghanistan's Bajaur region throughout August, which resulted
in more than 400 Taliban casualties. The continuous airstrikes forced many
al-Qaeda and Taliban militants to retreat from towns formally under their
control. However, the Pakistani government declared a cease-fire in the
Bajaur region for the month of September in observance of Ramadan, raising
fears that the Taliban will use the opportunity to regroup.
Allied deaths in Afghanistan reached 267 in 2008, the highest number
since the war began in 2003. U.S. president-elect Barack Obama said
defeating the Taliban would be a top priority of his administration. The
Pentagon, seeming to share Obama's sense of urgency, said it would comply
with a request by Gen. David McKiernan, the top commander in Afghanistan,
and send an additional 20,000 troops to Afghanistan in 2009.
See also Encyclopedia: Afghanistan.
U.S. State Dept. Country Notes:
Afghanistan
Afghanistan and the Taliban:
1979–Present
Information Please® Database, © 2007 Pearson
Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
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