As there was no formal declaration of war between the USA and Afghanistan, there are no official dates when the war started -better when the military intervention started- and when it finished. However, for convenience, we will assume that the war started the first day the American and British planes started bombing Afghanistan, that is October 7, 2001, and that it finished when Hamid Karzai was elected president in June 2002. In this document the post war will be assumed to have started on July 1, 2002.
5.2.1 The war
According to the US, the purpose of Operation Enduring Freedom was to capture
or kill Osama bin Laden, suspected of planning and funding the September
11, 2001 Terrorist Attack, and to destroy his terrorist network al-Qaida.
The Taliban government of Afghanistan, which allegedly provided support
to al-Qaida and gave them a safe haven, was to be removed. Many journalists
have reported that plans to attack al-Qaida and the Taliban existed as early
as the Clinton administration.
There were reports that even before October 7, 2001, US and British special-forces soldiers had covertly entered Afghanistan. These operations, if they really took place, started some time after September 11, presumably for reconnaissance purposes. It was also reported that the Taliban captured several of these troops. The US, British, and Afghan governments officially denied these reports.
At approximately 16:30 UTC (17:00 local time) on Sunday October 7, 2001, US and British (one plane) forces began an aerial bombing campaign targeting Taliban and al-Qaida forces. Approximately 50 Tomahawk cruise missiles, launched by British and US submarines and ships, 15 strike aircraft from carriers and 25 bombers -B-1 Lancer, B-2 Spirit, B-52 Stratofortress and F-16 Fighting Falcon- were involved in the first wave. In addition, two C-17 Globemaster transport jets were to deliver 37,500 daily rations by airdrop to refugees inside Afghanistan on the first day of the attack. The bombing strikes were obviously very effective, if not accurate, and they destroyed what remained of the already devastated cities. Strikes were reported in the capital, Kabul (where electricity supply was interrupted), at the airport, at the military nerve-centre of Kandahar (home of the Taliban's Supreme Leader Mullah Omar), and also in the city of Jalalabad (military/terrorist training camps). The US government justified these attacks as a response to the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attack and to the failure of the Taliban to meet the US demands. The Taliban condemned these attacks, and called them an 'attack on Islam.'
At 17:00 UTC, Bush confirmed the strikes on national television and UK Prime Minister Tony Blair too spoke on British television. Bush stated that at the same time Taliban military and terrorists' training grounds would be targeted, food, medicine, and supplies would be dropped to "the starving and suffering men and women and children of Afghanistan."
Planes operating at high altitudes -well out of range of anti-aircraft fire- began bombing al-Qaida training camps and Taliban air defences. The strikes initially focused on the area in and around the cities of Kabul, Jalalabad, and Kandahar. Within a few days, most al-Qaida training sites had been severely damaged, and the Taliban's air defences had been destroyed. The campaign then focused on communications and "command and control". The Taliban soon were unable to coordinate their activities, and their morale began to sink. But their forces facing the Northern Alliance held, and tangible battlefield successes were slow to come. Two weeks into the campaign, the Northern Alliance, not seeing any breakthrough, asked the Americans to bomb the front lines. Civilian casualties also began to increase, and even several Red Cross warehouses were bombed. Meanwhile, thousands of Pashtun militiamen from Pakistan poured into the country, joining the fight against the US led forces. Strange enough, US Army Special Forces rode on horseback in the early days of the operation.
Hornet bombers hit Taliban vehicles, while other US planes began dropping cluster bombs on Taliban defences. For the first time, Northern Alliance commanders began seeing results and US Special Forces launched an audacious raid deep into the Taliban's heartland of Kandahar. However, the campaign's progress remained very slow.
At this time, bombers began pounding the Taliban front lines with 15,000-pound bombs, inflicting heavy casualties. AC-130 gunships joined, striking enemy positions with their cannons firing thousands of rounds per minute. By November 2, the enemy frontal positions were decimated, and a Northern Alliance march on Kabul looked possible. The Afghan Taliban troops' morale was very low; they were regarded as untrustworthy and foreign fighters with al-Qaida took over security in the Afghan cities. Meanwhile, the Northern Alliance and their CIA/Special Forces advisors planned the offensive. Northern Alliance troops would seize Mazar-I-Sharif, cutting Taliban supply lines. This would enable the flow of equipment stored in the countries to the north to arrive in Afghanistan. An attack on Kabul itself would follow.
After about four weeks -and much destruction and many dead Afghans- the Taliban forces collapsed. One after the other the main cities fell to the Northern Alliance. The Americans did not do much beside firing missiles and bombing from 30,000 feet. They left all the dirty fighting work to the Northern Alliance, mainly because they did not want to risk the life of their soldiers. In other times they would have been described as cowards but now, they are the stronger so ...
It is true that there were some Special Forces units -CIA agents and British SAS troops- on, or just behind the battlefields, but they did not participate actively in the battles. They were there to find the targets, and to guide the bombers. Even so, three American soldiers were killed by so-called friendly fire. At the same time five Northern Alliance men died too, but this did not interest the American media, as they were not Americans. In the US their death was described as "collateral damage".
On November 9, 2001, the battle for Mazar-I-Sharif began. US planes carpet-bombed Taliban defenders. Northern Alliance forces then swept in from the south and west, seizing the city's main military base and airport. Within 4 hours, the battle was over and, by sunset, the remaining Taliban were retreating south and east and Mazar-I-Sharif was taken. The next day, Northern Alliance forces combed the city, shooting suspected Taliban supporters on the spot. Five hundred and twenty young Taliban, demoralized and defeated, many of them foreigners who crossed into Afghanistan from Pakistan, were massacred when they were discovered hiding in a school. Looting was rampant.
On November 10, Northern Alliance forces swept rapidly through five northern provinces without meeting strong resistance, as the fall of Mazar-I-Sharif had triggered a complete collapse of Taliban positions. Many local commanders switched sides renouncing fighting. The regime was beginning to unravel throughout the nord and, even in the south, their hold on power seemed tenuous at best. The religious police stopped their regular patrols. A complete implosion of the Taliban regime seemed imminent.
Finally, in the night of November 12, the Taliban forces fled from the city of Kabul under cover of darkness. By the time Northern Alliance forces arrived on November 13, they only found bomb craters, massive destructions, and the burnt-out shells of Taliban gun emplacements and positions.
The fall of Kabul marked the beginning of the end of the collapse of Taliban strongholds. Within 24 hours, all of the Afghan provinces along the Iranian border, including the key city of Herat, had fallen. Local Pashtun commanders had taken over throughout northeastern Afghanistan, including the key city of Jalalabad. Taliban holdouts in the north, mainly Pakistani volunteers, fled to the northern city of Konduz to make a desperate stand. By November 16, the Taliban's last stronghold in northern Afghanistan was completely besieged by the Northern Alliance. Nearly 10,000 Taliban fighters, led by foreign elements, refused to surrender and continued to put up stubborn resistance. By then, the Taliban had retreated all the way back to their heartland in southeastern Afghanistan around Kandahar.
Al-Qaida's infrastructure around the country had been decimated by the bombing campaign and their backers, the Taliban, were being swept from power. However, by November 13, some al-Qaida fighters had regrouped in the Tora Bora cave complex, 30 miles southeast of Jalalabad, to prepare for a last stand against the anti-Taliban and American forces. Nearly 2000 al-Qaida fighters were in positions within bunkers and caves. By November 16, US bombers began bombing the mountain fortress. Around the same time, CIA and Special Forces operatives were already at work in the area, enlisting and paying local warlords to join the fight, and planning an attack on this al-Qaida base.
The bloody siege of Konduz that began on November 16 was continuing but after heavy fighting and heavy American bombardment, the Taliban fighters surrendered on November 25. The prisoners were transferred into the Qala-e-Jangi prison complex near Mazar-I-Sharif. A few foreign Taliban attacked the Northern Alliance guards, taking their weapons, and opening fire. This incident soon triggered a widespread revolt by 600 detained fighters who began grabbing AK-47s, machine guns, and grenades and attacking Northern Alliance troops. One American CIA operative who had been interviewing prisoners, Mike Spann, was killed; this was the first American combat death of the war. The fighters seized the southern half of the complex but the revolt was put down after three days with the help of US helicopters. Less than one hundred of the several hundred Taliban prisoners survived, and around fifty Northern Alliance soldiers were killed. The end of the revolt marked the end of the combat in northern Afghanistan, where local Northern Alliance warlords were now firmly in control.
It is not clear who killed Mike Spann, but it is believed that he was shot by the Northern Alliance. Another major surprise came as the firing stopped. Among the wounded prisoners still alive there was a twenty-year-old American called John Lindh Walker. Walker was born and brought up in San Francisco, California, in a well to-do family. He converted to Islam and went to Pakistan to improve his religious knowledge. From there he moved to Afghanistan well before September 11, 2001, to join the Taliban. The American authorities must now decide if he is a traitor, and as such he could be condemned to death, or a naïve young American who made a wrong choice, and was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
By the end of November, Kandahar, the movement's birthplace, was the last remaining Taliban stronghold but it was under increasing pressure. Nearly 3,000 tribal fighters, led by Hamid Karzai and Gul Agha, the governor of Kandahar before the Taliban seized power, put pressure on the Taliban forces from the east and cut off the northern Taliban supply lines to the city. Meanwhile, the first significant US combat troops had arrived. Chinook helicopters flew in nearly 1,000 Marines; they set up a forward operating base in the desert south of Kandahar on November 25. The air strikes continued to pound Taliban positions inside the city, where Mullah Omar was holed up. Omar, the Taliban leader, remained defiant despite the fact that his movement only controlled 4 out of the 30 Afghan provinces and called on his forces to fight to the death.
By December 6, Omar finally began to signal that he was ready to surrender Kandahar to tribal forces. Recognizing that he could not hold his town much longer, he signalled his willingness to negotiate the surrender of the city to the tribal leaders. The US government rejected any amnesty for Omar and all the Taliban leaders. On December 7, Mullah Mohammad Omar slipped out of Kandahar with a group of his hardcore loyalists and moved northwest into the mountains of the Uruzgan province. He was last seen driving off with a group of his fighters in a convoy of motorcycles. Other members of the Taliban leadership fled into Pakistan through the remote mountain passes of Paktia and Paktika provinces. Kandahar, the last Taliban controlled city, had fallen, and the majority of the remaining Taliban fighters had disbanded. The Afghan tribal forces under Gul Agha seized the city while the US Marines took control of the airport where they established a US base. The border town of Spin Boldak surrendered the same day, marking the end of Taliban control in Afghanistan.
The US increased the bombing of the Tora Bora cave complex. Local tribal militias, numbering over 2,000, paid, and organized by Special Forces and CIA paramilitaries, continued to assemble for an attack and heavy bombing continued on suspected al-Qaida positions. Between one and two hundred civilians were reported killed when 25 bombs were dropped on a village at the foot of the Tora Bora and White Mountains. On December 2, a group of twenty US commandos was brought in by helicopter to support the operation. On December 5, Afghan militia wrested control of the low ground below the mountain caves from the al-Qaida fighters and set up tank positions to blast enemy forces. The al-Qaida fighters, mostly Arabs, withdrew with their arms -mortars, rocket launchers, and assault rifles- to higher fortified positions, and dug in for the battle.
The foreign al-Qaida fighters were holding out in the mountains of Tora Bora but the anti-Taliban tribal militia continued a steady advance through the difficult terrain, backed by air strikes guided in by US Special Forces. Facing defeat and reluctant to fight fellow Muslims, the al-Qaida forces agreed to a truce to give them time to surrender their weapons. In retrospect many people believe that the truce was a ruse to allow important al-Qaida figures, including perhaps Osama bin Laden, to escape. On December 12, the fighting started again, probably initiated by a rear guard buying time to allow the main force to escape through the White Mountains into the tribal areas of Pakistan. Tribal forces backed by US special troops and air support pressed ahead against the fortified al-Qaida positions in caves and bunkers. By December 17, the last cave complex had been taken, and their defenders overrun. A search of the area by US forces continued into January, but no sign of bin Laden or the al-Qaida leadership emerged. It is believed that they had slipped away into the tribal areas of Pakistan to the south and east. It is estimated that around 200 of the foreign jihadi fighters were killed during the battle, along with an unknown number of anti-Taliban tribal fighters. No American death was reported.
Following the battle of Tora Bora, the US forces and their Afghan allies consolidated their position in the country. The number of US-led coalition troops operating in the country eventually grew to over 10,000.
At the end of 2001 Afghanistan was fully in the hands of the Northern Alliance. The US participation was still limited to bombing missions with, in addition, some behind the scene interventions by American and British Special Forces limited in number to about 200 each.
Meanwhile, however, the Taliban and al-Qaida forces had not yet completely given up. The al-Qaida fighters began regrouping throughout January and February 2002 in the Shahi-Kot Mountains of the Paktia province. A Taliban fugitive, Mullah Saifur Rehman, began reconstituting some militia forces in Paktia province in support of the foreign fighters. They totalled over 1,000 by the beginning of March of 2002. Moreover, at the end of 2001 and, above all, at the beginning of 2002 some Taliban and al-Qaida fighters were also hiding west of Jalalabad and south east of Kabul; some were living in the sophisticated Tora Bora caves built at the time of the war against Russia and reoccupied after the battles with the coalition troops. Some others who escaped from Kandahar were believed to have found refuge in the mountains near Baghran, north west of Kandahar, in the Helmand province. Mullah Omar is supposed to be with them, while Osama bin Laden is believed to be hiding in the Tora Bora caves. These are suppositions as there was no evidence as to where they were hiding. Perhaps they had left Afghanistan.
A loya jirga, or grand council of major Afghan factions, tribal leaders, and former exiles, formed an interim Afghan government in Kabul under Hamid Karzai. After, in December 2001, but with more insistence at the beginning of January 2002, the Afghans authorities asked the US Government to stop, or at least reduce, their high altitude bombings that were still killing many civilians. The Americans did not always agree to stop these deadly attacks.
Since the beginning of their military actions, together with bombs, the US was dropping propaganda leaflets over Afghanistan, but without great results. They also threw some food packages -only about one million whereas the Afghan population exceed 20 millions- also for propaganda reason. Since Christmas 2001 these leaflets are saying that bin Laden and Mullah Omar are hiding in safe place, while their followers get killed. Of course, the American leaders, including President Bush, are on the front lines with the Northern Alliance soldiers. In fact the US troops kept out of the danger zones, happy with bombing from 30,000 feet!!
On January 5, 2002 the first US soldier died in battle near the town of Khost at the border with Pakistan, south of Kabul. He was a US Army Special Forces, Sergeant 1t Class Nathan Ross Chapman, 31 years old, from San Antonio, Texas. He was married and was the father of two young children. He was on his way back from a meeting with local Afghan tribal leaders when he was killed in an ambush. A CIA agent was badly hurt at the same time.
On January 28, 2002, a band of 80 fighters allied with the Taliban and Hezb-i-Islami were discovered and assaulted by US forces at the Adi Ghar cave complex 15 miles north of Spin Boldak. 18 rebels were reported killed but there were no US casualties. The site was suspected to be a base to funnel supplies and fighters from Pakistan.
A helicopter crashed in Afghanistan on Saturday January 19 due to mechanical failure. Two Marines were killed, and five others were wounded.
In the last days of January 2002, the US killed about 20 Northern Alliance soldiers in a bombing raid based on wrong intelligence. At first the US Government denied the news, but they soon had to admit their mistake. Their information came from a rival warlord, and they fell into the trap. A lot of money was paid to keep the story off the US media but, outside the US, the media was not so obedient, and the news was made public.
In Kandahar around February 15, 2002, some Taliban soldiers attacked the airport held by the Americans. A few Taliban were killed, but there were no American victim. This showed that there were still some pockets of Taliban resistance in the country. In addition the local warlords outside Kabul were fighting between themselves to regain their lost power. In Kabul, where the International Peace Force imposed a curfew, British soldiers killed an Afghan on February 16 when a few men tried to take a pregnant woman to the hospital in the middle of the night. She had the baby at home on her own later on. The soldiers said that they were shot at, but the family people were not armed. There will be an inquiry!
Around February 20, 2002, the US military authorities admitted that they were now bombing some tribes opposed to Interim Prime Minister Hamid Karzai who only control Kabul, and even that, up to a certain point. Now the US enemies are not only the Taliban and the al-Qaida fighters, but also those Afghans who oppose Hamid Karzai, some of them fought on the US side only a few weeks before. The US also admitted killing by mistake -wrong intelligence again- 15 anti-Taliban fighters. Each family received about $1,000 in compensation! This figure is to be compared with the more-than-one million dollars given to the families of the victims of the World Trade Centre in New York City. And these families complain that it is not enough!! This shows clearly the cost difference of an American life compared with that of foreigners, in this case, the poor Afghans.
On February 21, 2002, a patrol of British soldiers in Kabul came under fire. The soldiers were not hurt, but concern over security increased sharply. There were some indications that a civil war between rival warlords of different ethnic groups could start again in the near future. It was also reported that thousand of Pashtun living in northern Afghanistan are fleeing south under the pressure of Northern Alliance warlords. The western allies cannot agree on how to deal with the situation.
A huge military operation called Anaconda started on March 4, 2002. After heavy bombing, ground troops carried to the Paktia province by helicopters attacked the enemy. Something went wrong and two Chinook helicopters were shot down, probably by rocket-propelled grenades. Once on the ground, the crew came under heavy fire, seven US soldiers were killed and many (some reports said 40) were wounded. The troops had to withdraw from the mountains covered with heavy snow. In this operation a limited number of Australian, Canadian, Danish, French, German, and Norwegian soldiers participated in the fighting for the first time. In the last few days at least 8 Americans were killed, and more than 40 wounded.
On March 2, 2002, US and Afghan forces launched an offensive on the al-Qaida and Taliban forces entrenched in the mountains of Shahi-Kot southeast of Gardez. The rebel forces had small arms, rocket-propelled grenades, and mortars; they were entrenched into caves and bunkers in the hillsides at an altitude above 10,000 feet. They used "hit and run" tactics, opening fire on the US and Afghan forces, before retreating back into their caves and bunkers.
By March 6, eight Americans and seven Afghan soldiers had been killed. A so-called "friendly fire incident" killed one soldier and the downing of two helicopters by rocket-propelled grenades followed by small arms fire killed seven more soldiers. Ground fire from Afghan militia and American forces killed over 400 al-Qaida and Taliban rebels, according to US estimates. However, fewer than 50 bodies were found. It is clear that several hundred fighters somehow escaped and melted away, almost certainly by moving in small groups along mountain trails to the tribal areas across the border into Pakistan.
In the meantime, B52 and F-16 US bombers, as well as attack helicopters, were still hitting hard at the Taliban/al-Qaida strongholds in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan. Three Afghan soldiers working with the US forces were killed on March 7 after a fire broke out at an ammunition depot at the Kandahar airport. From March 7 to 9 the bombing stopped as the foggy weather prevented the planes to take off. One thousand more Afghan soldiers paid by the US and armed with heavy fighting equipment such as tanks (also supplied by the US) were brought in; the aim was to kill all the Taliban and al-Qaida fighters. These Tajik soldiers are not very popular in the Pashtun region of Gardez. Local commanders are complaining, but the Americans are able to impose what they want, having the power and the money on their side.
In March 2002 the US asked Great Britain for about 1,700 soldiers to participate in the war in the mountains. Apparently the American soldiers are not fit for fighting on this kind of terrain, and the risks are too high for their taste. Many British people, including some Members of the Parliament from Blair's own party, are not happy while the Conservative are all for it.
On March 5, 2002, five soldiers belonging to the Peace Force died in Kabul, two Germans and three Danes. They were destroying live ammunitions abandoned there after the previous wars and conflicts. The ammunitions exploded sooner that foreseen. Eight other soldiers were wounded, three very badly.
In March 2002, it looks like Turkey has agreed to replace Great Britain as leader of the peace force in Kabul starting sometime in April or May 2002. Of course, they accepted after receiving 160 million dollars from the US.
On March 28, 2002, a new offensive started in the mountains of the Paktia province, in the Neka district of Afghanistan, 30 miles south of Gardez where the operation Anaconda took place a few weeks ago. This is close to the border with Pakistan where hundred of Taliban are said to be regrouping. In the battle, about 50 Taliban/al-Qaida fighters were reported to have been killed; the allied side -that included Northern Alliance and western troops- reported no casualty.
On April 15 2002 we were told of three separate attacks by mortars, rockets, and gunfire against two coalition military bases and a patrol. In particular rockets were fired to the US controlled airfield outside the southeastern city of Khost. There was no victim, but this showed that the Taliban are still there and fighting. The Americans said that they killed several attackers but no proof was offered, and this looks like the usual propaganda. The Americans opened a new front in central Afghanistan, near the town of Ghazni. At the same time, Afghan Commanders working with the Americans said that al-Qaida fighters had infiltrated them.
Four Canadian soldiers were killed on April 17, 2002, and eight wounded -some badly- by so-called "friendly fire" of an US warplane. An F16 US bomber dropped one or two 500lb bombs near Kandahar on a group of Canadian soldiers during a night training exercise. Obviously the plane mistook them for Taliban or al-Qaida fighters. As this happened during the night, there was no possibility for the plane, flying at high altitude for the usual security reasons, to visually identify the nationality of the victims. President Bush offered his condolences to the families and to the Canadian people! On September 13, 2002, the two US F-16 pilots were charged with involuntary manslaughter for killing four Canadian soldiers and wounding eight when they mistook them for enemies. On April 15, four American soldiers were killed, and another one badly injured, while destroying unexploded bombs also near Kandahar.
On May 1, 2002, about one thousand British soldiers began operation Snipe against an al-Qaida base and some Taliban fighters in Southeast Afghanistan. It is the biggest British troops deployment since the Gulf War; Brigadier Roger Lane was leading them. Casualties were expected, but they hoped to remove the few hundred fighters loyal to Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar assumed to be hiding there, all al-Qaida and Taliban remaining forces in the region. The British will have the support of American planes and helicopters. In the first few days of the operation there was no fighting and no sighting of the enemy, all they found were some small-arms, ammunitions, and old defensive positions, but no terrorists. By early May 2002, the British forces had found some munitions in caves, but no fighters, the result of poor information, again.
American soldiers hunting al-Qaida and Taliban fighters in Pakistan came under rocket attack. It was the first time that we were told that American soldiers are operating in Pakistan.
On May 17, 2002, the British Marine were still involved in some kind of fighting in the Paktia province in southern Afghanistan; their help was required when some Australian SAS troops were attacked by unidentified local force. Like before, it seems that during this operation -called Condor- no opposition was met. Some reports even say that the fight was between two rival local chiefs.
Around June 20, 2002, we were told that 3,000 British soldiers would soon be going home and that only about 300 would stay in Afghanistan to be part of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). These 300 soldiers, from now on under Turkish leadership, would keep order in Kabul, and train the local police force. Officially the British soldiers have done a good job but, in fact, they were never engaged in combat, having failed to locate any Taliban or al-Qaida fighters. On the positive side, they found and blew-up large amount of ammunitions, although it is not clear who the owners were! The British soldiers were called in after the failure of the American-led Operation Anaconda in March 2002; the ill-prepared US soldiers were unable to fight efficiently on such a terrain.
Senior military officials in London said that the British SAS troops in Afghanistan killed scores of Taliban and al-Qaida fighters in search-and-destroy missions in the mountains of Afghanistan. Two SAS Squadrons -about 100 soldiers- operated on their own, without American minders. As usual the Ministry of Defence did not reveal the result of their actions. It is known, however, that four soldiers were wounded, one seriously; 18 enemies were killed in the action in the mountains near Kandahar in November 2001 and many more were killed in other operations.
At the end of June 2002, a munitions dump explosion at Spinboldak on the Pakistan border killed 19 Afghans, wounded at least 35 others, while 50 were missing. It looks like it was an accident, and that the Taliban or al-Qaida were not involved.
Following the battle at Shahi-Kot, it is believed that the al-Qaida fighters found sanctuaries among some friendly tribes in Pakistan. Guerrilla units, numbering between 5 and 25 men, still regularly cross the border from Pakistan to fire rockets at US bases, ambush American convoys and patrols, as well as Afghan National Army troops, militia forces, and non-governmental organizations. The area around the US base at Shkin in Paktika province has seen some of the heaviest such activities.
Taliban forces continued to hide in the four southern provinces of their former heartland, Kandahar, Zabul, Helmand, and Uruzgan. The few hundred remaining Taliban avoided combat with US forces and their Afghan allies during the summer of 2002, and melted away into the caves and tunnels of remote Afghan mountain ranges, or across the border into Pakistan. Locating small bands of 5-10 men in the rugged terrain that exist in southeastern Afghanistan and along the Pakistani border is an almost impossible task.
During the summer 2002 the attacks increased in frequency in the "Taliban heartland." Dozens of Afghan government soldiers, non-governmental organization and humanitarian workers, and several US soldiers died in the raids, ambushes, and rocket attacks. Taliban fighters began building up their forces in the district of Dai Chopan, the perfect area to make a stand against the Afghan government and the coalition forces.
After managing to evade US forces throughout the summer of 2002, the remnants of the Taliban got ready to start a renewed "jihad," or holy war, against the Afghan government and the U.S-led coalition, a war that Mullah Muhammad Omar had promised during the Taliban's last days in power. During September, the Taliban also launched a recruitment drive in Pashtun areas of both Afghanistan and Pakistan. Small mobile training camps were established along the border with Pakistan by al-Qaida and Taliban fugitives to train new recruits in guerrilla warfare and terrorist tactics. Most of the new recruits were drawn from the religious schools of the tribal areas of Pakistan, from which the Taliban had originally arisen. Slipping across the border in small groups is a relatively simple task.
The Taliban continued the reorganization and reconstitution of their forces over the winter, preparing for a summer offensive. They established a new mode of operation: groups of around 50 fighters attacked isolated outposts and convoys of Afghan soldiers, police, or militia and then spread into small groups of 5-10 men to evade subsequent offensives. The US forces were not attacked directly but rocket would be fired on US bases and improvised mines planted in the roadside. However, al-Qaida forces in the east used a bolder strategy; they concentrated on the Americans, ambushing their convoys as often as possible.
American and British forces alone carried out the attacks on the first
day of the war. On the second day, only American forces were involved. Later
on, a small number of countries provided support of limited value, sometimes,
purely symbolic. The level of contribution were roughly:
- Albania
- Armenia
- Australia, about 300 SAS troops, air-to-air refuelling tankers, Navy frigates,
two Orion electronic intelligence gathering aircraft, and F/A-18 fighter
aircraft.
- Azerbaijan
- Bahrain: Naval vessels
- Belgium
- Bulgaria
- Canada: about 2,500 troops, six ships and six aircraft.
- Czech Republic
- Denmark, six F-16 fighters.
- Djibouti
- Egypt
- Eritrea
- Estonia
- Ethiopia
- Finland
- France.
- Germany: approximately 2,250 troops including Special Forces, naval vessels,
etc.
- Grand Britain
- Greece
- Hungary
- Italy
- Japan, in its first military deployment since World War II, contributed
naval support for non-combat reinforcement of the operation
- Jordan
- Kazakhstan
- Kenya
- Kuwait
- Kyrgyzstan
- Latvia
- Lithuania
- Macedonia
- Netherlands
- New Zealand: 50 Special Air Service soldiers, two C-130 Hercules
- Norway: six F-16 fighters, logistic teams, mine clearance teams, a commando
group and C-130 transports
- Romania: 25 military police and a C-130 transport aircraft.
Despite the reluctance of the Arab states towards any forms of retaliation against the al-Qaida network in Afghanistan, the Pakistani leader General Pervez Musharraf offered support although Pakistan has traditionally supported the Taliban. Pakistan and Iran agreed to open their borders to receive the expected increased migration of refugees. Uzbekistan allowed the US troops to cross their country as well as to use an airfield for humanitarian relief. Thirty-four nations participated in the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) for Afghanistan.
Afghan police killed four Taliban guerrillas Wednesday May 3, 2006, during heavy fighting in the south, while suspected Taliban gunmen shot dead a judge in the west. The governor of the eastern province of Nangarhar also escaped an apparent assassination attempt when a car bomb exploded outside his offices.
Ten US soldiers have been killed after their helicopter crashed in Afghanistan late on Friday May 5, 2006. The CH-47 Chinook came down in Kunar province near the provincial capital, Asadabad, close to Pakistan and near a "mountaintop landing zone" 240km east of Kabul. The soldiers were reportedly involved in operations against the Taliban, although military officials said the crash was not caused by enemy fire.
5.2.2 American and British view of the war
President Bush was unusually quiet during the initial phase of military
intervention in Afghanistan; when he talked, he was not very clear, and
even less convincing. He gave silly talks, more adapted to a bad western
that to a US President ("We want bin Laden dead or alive, at any cost".
"We will take the time necessary to get him anywhere he is!!").
However, the majority of the American people, and the media, were behind
him. His popularity was very high (about 80%), but this is probably normal
in the US where the president, once elected, is not put into discussion
anymore. This so-called war will increase his probability to be re-elected,
whereas before it was far less certain.
The men who appear to run the American show are the Defence Secretary, Donald H. Rumsfeld; the Vice-President Dick Cheney; the Secretary of State, Colin Powel; and the Army General Tommy Frank in charge of the operations. General Frank is based at Mac Dill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida.
Some politicians in Britain are afraid that the British soldiers will found themselves in the middle of a Vietnam-style civil war in Afghanistan with no end in view. It also looks as if the British soldiers are doing the fighting for America, becoming Bush's new proxy forces together with the Afghans of the Northern Alliance. Increasingly the British troops are doing the dangerous ground battles in this American war. This British presence is also justified by the poor performance on the ground of both the American and Afghan soldiers, especially in the Tora Bora Mountains in winter and in the attack on Shah-I-Kot. The Pentagon denies it, of course, because it would confirm that the American soldiers are not as good as claimed. In other words, Britain is taking a central role in a war it did not start, does not direct, and cannot finish. However, sooner or later, the British proxies could be the fall guys. And Blair will have to live with it!
General Franks, visiting London on April 26, 2002, said that the future operations in Afghanistan would not involve large-scale missions similar to Operation Anaconda (that was a failure, not a success). What will be needed, according to him, can be described as "rooting out, sweep, and clear" smaller pockets of resistance. He expected that the remaining al-Qaida fighters will try to regroup, but intelligence from the leaders of Afghan communities is better everyday, and should help limiting the damage. He also confirmed that British and US troops are operating on Pakistani soil in collaboration with Pakistan.
In April 2002, more and more people in Great Britain have doubt about the usefulness of the Royal Marine mission in Afghanistan. They were called in too late following the failure of the previous US military actions in the southeastern mountains near Tora Bora. The remaining of the Taliban and al-Qaida forces were supposed to be there, with or without bin Laden himself. The delay allowed these remaining enemies to escape to Pakistan from where they will probably come back, once the British soldiers have left, to try to destabilise Afghanistan once more. Up to now the British have found some ammunition, but no enemies.
Two American pilots -Major William Umbach and Major Harry Schmidt- were charged with involuntary manslaughter for dropping a bomb on Canadian soldiers near Kandahar, killing four of them on April 17, 2002. Their lawyers said that they had been given amphetamines to keep them awake in the long mission, and that the drug caused them to make an error of judgment. They were not told that friendly troops were in this place, and they misunderstood these soldiers for Taliban or al-Qaida fighters. On January 14, 2003, they appeared before a military court that had to decide if they should be sent to a court martial. If found guilty, they could be condemned to 64 years in military prison. On January 22, 2003, the Air Force general who conducted the enquiry, Brigadier General Stephen T. Sareant, said to the Court, that the two accused did not follow the orders given them, nor the military procedures to use in cases like this. On January 23, 2003, they apologised to the victims' families while defending their actions. Two US military pilots who bombed Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan will not face a court martial or go to prison. They will instead be disciplined at an "administrative forum," Lt.-Gen. Bruce Carlson of the 8th Air Force in Barksdale, La., said Thursday June 19, 2003. The pilots were facing charges of involuntary manslaughter, aggravated assault and dereliction of duty for the April 2002. On June 26, 2003, Major Schmidt turned down an air force offer of lesser charges and will face a court martial. It is a high-stakes gamble since he could be exonerated of the charges he faces or end up with a prison term of up to 64 years. A military spokesperson confirmed the air force had accepted Schmidt's request, but had not set a date for the trial. The Court martial that was supposed to punish him reduced Schmidt's original charges of manslaughter and aggravated assault to a charge of dereliction of duty. Found guilty of this "charge", he was given a reprimand and a fine of a month's pay. He is no longer allowed to fly in the Air Force, but he can remain in the Illinois National Guard. In other words, he got off with a slap on the wrist.
On January 18, 2002, the US media reported that Saudi Arabia would probably ask the American military forces to leave the country as soon as the Afghanistan non-war is finally finished.
President George Bush claimed that God told him to invade Iraq and attack
Osama Bin Laden's stronghold in Afghanistan. His comments have been met
with a mixture of derision and outrage. Bush's claims were made in a meeting
with Palestinian leaders in June 2003. According to former Palestinian Foreign
Minister, Nabil Shaath, Bush said to the Palestinian delegation: "I'm
driven with a mission from God. God would tell me, 'George, go and fight
those terrorists in Afghanistan.' And I did, and then God would tell me,
'George go and end the tyranny in Iraq,' and I did." Perhaps one shouldn't
be surprised by the comments, given Bush's staunch religious beliefs. A
born again Christian, at the age of 40 he converted to evangelical Methodism.
Bush apparently made the comments as part of his wish to resolve the Middle
East conflict between Palestine and Israel. He told the Palestinians: "I
feel God's words coming to me: 'Go get the Palestinians their state and
the Israelis their security, and get peace in the Middle East.' And by God,
I'm going do it." It would therefore have been a setback to him that
he was banned from entering the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem, only a
few months earlier, in the light of the war against Iraq. Bush was prohibited
from entering along with his Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, British
Prime Minister, Tony Blair, and Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw. Church Parishioner,
Father Panaritus, said at the time: "They are war criminals and murderers
of children. Therefore the Church of Nativity decided to ban them access
into the holy shrine for ever."
Nine officers, including up to four generals, should be held accountable for missteps in the aftermath of the friendly fire death of Army Ranger Pat Tillman in Afghanistan, according to a March 24, 2007, Pentagon report. The Defence Department inspector general will cite a range of errors and inappropriate conduct as the military probed the former football star's death on the battlefront in 2004, said one defence official. Dozens of soldiers -those immediately around Tillman at the scene of the shooting, his immediate superiors and high-ranking officers at a command post nearby- knew within minutes or hours that his death was fratricide. Even so, the Army persisted in telling Tillman's family he was killed in a conventional ambush, including at his nationally televised memorial service 11 days later. It was five weeks before his family was told the truth, a delay the Army has blamed on procedural mistakes.
On March 26, 2007, US military investigators looking into the friendly fire death of former professional football star Pat Tillman found no criminal negligence but are recommending that nine officers, including a three-star general, be held accountable for missteps in the aftermath of the his shooting. The findings end twin inquiries into whether the soldiers who opened fire on Tillman committed criminal acts, and whether the government covered up the circumstances of the army ranger's death.
A California congressman, Mike Honda, called for hearings into the friendly-fire death of Army Ranger Pat Tillman on March 27, 2007. Honda said the latest reports on the matter "raise more questions than they answer." The family of the former NFL player has said it's not satisfied with the military reports. A central issue is why the Army waited several weeks after it suspected Tillman's death was due to friendly fire before telling his family. But the military found no criminal wrongdoing in the shooting itself.
A suicide car bomber blew himself up on Sunday April 1, 2007, near an Afghan army convoy in eastern Laghman province killing five civilians. Three men from the Southern province of Helmand were arrested and allegedly "confessed to their crime" of being spies for NATO and the Afghan Government. Two Taliban commanders were killed as a result of information from these three men.
Britain could be stuck in Afghanistan for 10 years and lose thousands of troops unless it alters its strategy in the lawless south of the country we were told on April 20, 2007. The high-intensity fighting they were engaged in was stoking antagonism among local people angry over the deaths of Afghan civilians and fearful for the opium industry, which provides their livelihood.
Britain's Prince Harry will, after all, go to war, on a secret Afghanistan mission, it has been reported on May 21, 2007. Harry will reportedly carry out 'low-risk' operations and could also join a NATO command unit. His deployment will only be revealed after he has returned safely to Britain. The Afghanistan posting is seen as a safer option because there are British troops placed all over the country and Harry could serve at several locations. The joke is going on!
After the fiasco over plans to send Prince Harry to Iraq, there is now -June 10, 2007- a move to deploy him in Afghanistan to give some respectability to his nascent military career. Army chiefs are planning to send him "quietly'' to join British troops in Afghanistan in an attempt to "deter him from quitting the army''. The Prince, a junior officer, had expressed disappointment when heavily-trailed plans to send him to Iraq were dropped last month over fears for his safety following threats from militant groups. He said at the time that he would rather quit the army than be treated differently from his army colleagues because of his status. Reports are sayings the Prince was training at a remote British army base in Alberta, Canada, from where he could be "flown to the war against the Taliban without attracting attention''.
The UK presence in Afghanistan will need to remain for decades to help
rebuild the country, British ambassador Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles said on
June 20, 2007. He added that the Afghan people wanted the UK presence to
help resist the Taliban and develop the country. Extra diplomatic staff
is being deployed to Afghanistan this year.
Canadian Pte. Robert Costall and an American soldier were shot from behind
by bursts from a machine-gun fired from a compound manned by US Special
Forces last year in Afghanistan during an insurgent attack, a US army report
said on July 2, 2007. The gunner shot at two friendly positions in quick
succession during the fierce battle early on March 29, 2006.
A senior British commander in Helmand province has asked the US military to withdraw its special forces from his area of operations because the level of civilian casualties is making it difficult to win the battle for hearts and minds. In particular, the British fault the US for its predilection for air strikes, and their potential for killing and injuring civilians. Mr Brown at his joint press conference with the US president, George Bush, last month, told reporters that Afghanistan was the frontline in the struggle against terrorism rather than Iraq.
On August 13, 2007, Defense Secretary Des Browne defended Britain's continued
presence in Afghanistan despite a rising death toll among troops. Seventy
soldiers have died there since operations began in 2001. But Mr. Browne
said it was essential that troops remained to prevent Afghanistan from becoming
a training ground for terrorists.
5.2.3 Cost of the war
Forty US troops have been killed between the beginning of the operation
Enduring Freedom and April 2002. Eight were listed as killed by enemy fire
but most of the others died in accidents, including helicopter and plane
crashes, not to mention friendly fire that killed also many Afghans, soldiers
and civilians alike.
In February 2002, the British newspapers began to talk about civilian war
casualties. The estimations available at that time range from 2,000 to 8,000
civilians killed by the US bombing. This figure is credible, if one takes
into account four factors:
- The bombing accuracy from a height of 30,000 feet is not very good, as
other conflicts have shown.
- The so-called "US Intelligence" is not very good either, and
has led to many mistakes, killing probably more anti-Taliban fighters that
true enemies.
- The Americans relies on information received from local leaders who take
the opportunity to settle old scores with their own enemies.
- The special American forces on the ground do not take any risk. They order
to kill people first, and then check if they are Taliban or al-Qaida fighters.
However, the Global Exchange, a US Human Rights Organisation, made an analysis of how many civilian Afghans have been killed in the bombing of that country, mainly by US planes and arrived at a completely different figure. They have counted 812 deaths, but this figure includes only the victims who lived in the main cities (11 sites visited), their field workers have not been able to survey the small villages that have also been hit. The use of air strikes instead of ground troops has reduced the number of US deaths to a minimum, but it has increased the number of Afghan victims.
A reasonable count estimates that 3,000 to 3,4000 Afghan civilians were killed by the US bombings between October 7, 2001 and March 2002. It is not known how many died later on as a result of the continuing hostilities. The number of Afghan soldiers who died in the war is also unknown.
The families of the civilian victims of the US bombing are asking compensation
from the US. Their request -$10,000- is very modest; it shows that the cost
of a life depends on the nationality of the dead. By comparison the families
of the victims of the attack on New York City and Washington will receive
in excess of one million dollars each!
In mid-2002, as many of forty, if not more, British medical military personnel
at Bahran in Afghanistan were sick with an unknown type of virus. It could
be gastro-enteritis, or something similar. Five or six were very ill, one
has been sent to a military American Hospital in Germany, and the others
were sent back to Britain. More that 300 soldiers have been quarantined
until the nature and the causes of the illness are known.
On May 1, 2003, Defence Secretary Rumsfeld announced in Kabul that the US had "ended major combat activity" in Afghanistan, and a period of stability was coming. His faithful executor, Hamid Karzai, sat at his side with some prophetically sagging flowers between the pair. One year and some $40 billion later -in September 2004- an assessment can be made. Is all this caused by mere "remnants" of a defeated Taliban?
Summary of Deaths Caused by Conflict in Afghanistan, June 2003 - May 2004
Afghan/Pakistani civilian deaths 340-361
Afghan/Pakistani military deaths 596-703
US and Allied military deaths 54-55
Taliban and allies killed 365-481
Totals 1,355 - 1,600
The one striking "success" of the United States has been its ability to get the Afghans of the Northern Alliance to do the fighting for them. And be killed, of course. This year has been a difficult one for the Afghan soldiers serving the Karzai regime, much more deadly than being a Taliban or Al Qaida member. For every Euro-American soldier who died, 10 to 13 Afghan troops were killed.
The number of US soldiers dead in Afghanistan amounts to 180 (12 in 2002, 43 in 2002, 46 in 2003, 52 in 2004 and 27 until April 2005).
German Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung said Monday May 14, 2007, that he had complained to NATO about the increased number of civilian casualties during US-led military operations in Afghanistan. Some 20 Afghan villagers were killed last week in an operation by US-led coalition forces in southern Afghanistan. The coalition is smarting from claims of mounting civilian casualties after nearly 60 other people were said to have been killed in its operations late last month.
As of Friday, June 22, 2007, at least 337 members of the US military have
died in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan as a result of the invasion
of Afghanistan in late 2001. Of those, 216 were killed by hostile action.
Outside the Afghan region, 61 more soldiers died in support of Operation
Enduring Freedom. Of those, two were the result of hostile action. The military
lists these other locations as: Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba; Djibouti;
Eritrea; Jordan; Kenya; Kyrgyzstan; Philippines; Seychelles; Sudan; Tajikistan;
Turkey and Yemen. There were also four CIA officer deaths and one military
civilian death.
The figures for the other nations involved are:
Britain 60
Canada 56
Spain 21
Germany 21
Other nations 42
TOTAL: 598
Last year's fighting was the bloodiest in Afghanistan since US-led forces
overthrew the Taliban in 2001 and violence is increasing this year. Fifty
foreign soldiers have been killed in fighting so far this year.
More than 4,000 people were killed in fighting in 2006, a quarter of them
civilians and about 170 of them foreign soldiers killed in fighting or in
accidents while on patrol.
US-led coalition and NATO forces fighting insurgents in Afghanistan have killed at least 203 civilians so far this year until June 24, 2007. Insurgency attacks and military operations have surged in recent weeks, and in the past 10 days, more than 90 civilians have been killed by air strikes and artillery fire targeting Taliban insurgents, said President Hamid Karzai.
The United Nations estimated on July 2, 2007, that about 600 Afghan civilians
have been killed in insurgency-linked violence this year, just over half
of them by pro-government forces. The number of civilian killed in May was
the highest in months. Those killed by national and foreign forces supporting
the government appear to "largely exceed" those killed by rebels.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon delivered a "strong" appeal to
military commanders in Afghanistan to avoid civilian casualties. Ban met
the commander of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF)
in Kabul on June 29. Also, Afghanistan's Independent Human Rights Commission
said air strikes have recently killed more civilians than the Taliban. The
group urged US and NATO-led forces to cut back on air strikes and boost
the number of foot soldiers in Afghanistan.
5.2.4 New Afghan administration
The Northern Alliance was ready and willing to run Afghanistan but, under
American pressure, they had to accept a power-sharing government. Representatives
of the Northern Alliance, the followers of the old king (he was thrown out
of power about 25 years ago, and has been living in Rome since), the Afghans
who went into exile in Pakistan, Iran, and the western world, met in a castle
near Bonn, Germany, in December 2001. After setting aside their old and
bitter divisions, they decided to form a government of thirty members -including
two women- led by Hamid Karzai who was imposed by the Americans. Karzai
is a Pashtun who lived in the USA -where he became a CIA agent- and, consequently,
he speaks English and is trusted by the Americans who tell him what to do.
This government took formal power on December 28, 2001, to run the country
for six months. During this period the old king will call a council of tribal
leaders - loya jirga- to write a constitution, and choose the next government
that should remain in power for another two years. It is hoped that by then
the country would be stabilised, and that democratic elections could take
place.
An international "peace force" of 4 to 5,000 soldiers led by Britain was decided in Bonn to guarantee the security of the new government and of the capital, Kabul, for an initial period of six months. Already at the beginning of 2002, some difficult negotiations went on to agree on its size, the length of its presence in Afghanistan, and which regions they should control. The old Afghan structure, based on local war chiefs and tribal leaders, wanted to regain control and defends its interests.
In January 2002, at an international donor's conference in Tokyo, Hamid Karzai managed to persuade the participants to pledge more than $4bn to help rebuild Afghanistan.
January 15, 2002, the last President of Afghanistan (from 1992 to 1996), and formal head of the Northern Alliance, the Tajik Rabbani, announced that he wanted to come back to power. In Bonn he had to bow down to Hamid Karzai, chosen by the USA and the United Nations. But in June, a "loya jirga" presided by the ex-king Zahir Shah would choose new leaders and Rabbani will be a candidate for the top job. He has quite a lot of support at home, but less than Karzai's Pashtun who are the majority in that country. He believes that it is time to let the Afghans run their own country as they see fit. And many Afghan people agree with him, especially the pro-Iran fundamentalists and the former Taliban who do not like the pro-western politics of the new government, as well as those who do not like, by principle, to see foreign troops on their soil.
The Wall Street Journal of January 16, 2002, wrote openly of a disappointing US policy in Afghanistan and said that a more direct intervention is necessary. More and more warlords are beginning to play their old tricks and Afghanistan's neighbours Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Russia, ...) are interfering again in the running of the country. The warlords have acted as proxy for the US ground force against the Taliban and it is their men, and not the Americans, who have suffered huge casualties. Now they want something in exchange and, not only do they refuse to disarm, they want to go on running their part of the country.
President Bush invited the Afghan leader, Hamil Karzai, to Washington for talks, and to be present when he delivered his message on the "State of the Union" to the US Congress on January 29, 2002. Karzai then went to London to talk to Mr Blair. He gave a good impression in both countries. His main requests were for the participation of the US to the peace force, and for an increase in the British participation. Both the US and Britain said NO
At the beginning of 2002 there were tensions between the different fractions, clans, tribes, and warlords inside Afghanistan. This was shown very clearly by the fact that the authority of the provisional government of Hamid Karzai was limited to Kabul. Karzai asked the UN to send more peacekeepers to Afghanistan, the only way to extend the power of the central government, but the main countries -US, Britain, France, Germany- refused. Afghanistan could be heading for another civil war of the type that disrupted the country after the end of the Russian invasion of the 1980's.
Around February 15, 2002, the minister of Transport and Tourism of the Provisory Government of Hamid Karzai was killed at Kabul Airport. First we were told that would-be pilgrims had killed him. They were there to fly to Mecca and were fed up for having been waiting for a plane for two days although they had already paid about $1,750 for the round trip. They believed that the minister had commandeered their plane to go to New Delhi, India. However, a few days later, Hamid Karzai told the international media that some security agents of his old fraction had killed the minister. The same day the British Foreign Minister, Mr Straw, visited Kabul where he saw Hamid Karzai and the British troops. Mr Karzai asked Britain to send more troops to insure security, not only in Kabul but also in other cities, and to stay longer than the four months agreed that will end in April. Mr Straw, in agreement with the US, refused.
In February 2002, a football match took place between an Afghan team and soldiers of the International Peaceful Force. The stadium was soon filled to its maximum capacity and still many people wanted to enter. A riot followed and quite a few people were hurt, if not killed.
A big earthquake hit the northeastern provinces of Afghanistan killing more than 2,000 people, wounding ten thousand, and destroying thousand of houses, or what was left of them after more than 20 years of war. These people were already suffering from hunger due to the war and lack of rain for a few years. Most people in this region were already living from international aid and this did not help them at all. This region was already difficult to reach before the earthquake, and the destruction of the remaining infrastructure complicated the work of the Aid organisations.
At the beginning of April 2002, President Musharraf of Pakistan flew to Kabul for a few hours visit to meet the Afghan's interim leader, Hamid Karzai. This was mainly to try to make the new Afghan leadership forget that Pakistan was backing the Taliban until September 11, 2001. It is well known that the new leadership has strong doubt about Pakistan.
In April 2002, the Pashtun in northern Afghanistan complained that they were brutally treated by ethnic Hazara and Uzbeck soldiers. There were reports of murder, looting, and rapes and that thousand of Pashtun near the city of Mazar-I-Sharif were leaving their homes. But the central government had no power outside Kabul, and even in Kabul things are not too good either. The provisory government claimed these days to have arrested hundred of people preparing a coup to throw out the present authority. True or not, we do not know but it is certain that everything was not going well. Even the old ex-king of Afghanistan had to delay his return to Kabul where he was supposed to help prepare the way to the second phase of the political life of Afghanistan.
Finally the old King of Afghanistan, Mohammed Zahir Shah, 87 years old, went back to Afghanistan in April 2002 after 29 years of exile in Italy. He will convene a traditional assembly of warlords known as a "loya jirga" in June that should select a new government in advance of democratic elections 18 months later. Once again the Americans chose old discredited leaders to run a country where they overthrew the legal government.
In the meantime normal life is resuming in Kabul, but not in all Afghanistan. The number of cars has increased, and traffic jam is frequent. More and more restaurant, bars, and cinemas are opening everyday, and street vendors are doing good business. One can even see some women around without their traditional "burga". Unfortunately the new prosperity has brought crime with it. Theft is part of every day's life and it is barely under control in spite of the presence of the ISAF peacekeeping force patrolling the streets in armoured cars. Rents are high and beginning to be out of reach for the normal Afghans, and especially to the refugees coming home to find their houses destroyed by the US bombing. Outside Kabul, however, life is not so good; local warlords are fighting to get their share of the cake, with the result that the population suffers, as bombing and fighting are quite frequent.