2009
- January—Human rights organizations call on President Obama to call off a trial of a Guantánamo inmate who was only 15 when captured. More than two dozen civilians are reported dead in a U.S. attack on Taliban militants. U.S. president Barak Obama orders an attack against alleged militants in Pakistan. Springtime presidential elections in Afghanistan are postponed until August.
- February—A suicide bomber kills more than 20 police officers in southern Afghanistan. At least 20 people are killed in Taliban attacks on government buildings in Kabul. The UN reports that 2,118 civilians were killed in the war in Afghanistan; 829 of them (45%) were reportedly killed by coalition or Afghan forces. The Pakistani government authorizes the introduction of elements of sharia law to Taliban-dominated Swat Valley; the Taliban offers a cease-fire in the region in exchange. Obama announces the deployment of 17,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan.
- March—A roadside bomb kills three Canadian soldiers. An Afghan journalist is sentenced to 20 years in prison for publishing a Dari translation of the Qu‘ran without the original Arabic text alongside it. President Obama announces a new plan for defeating al-Qa‘ida in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Pakistani-based Taliban militants kill several people at a police academy in Lahore. A law reported to legalize rape within marriage and require married women to receive their husband’s permission before leaving the house is passed in Afghanistan.
- April—Twelve Pakistanis are killed in an attack widely assumed to have been carried out by U.S. drones. Hamid Karzai says the controversial law passed in March has been misinterpreted, but he will nonetheless ensure that it does not violate Afghanistan’s equal rights provisions. A suicide bomber kills five counter-narcotics police in Helmand province. Sitara Achakzai, a female Afghan politician who championed women’s rights, is shot dead in Kandahar by Taliban militants. The Taliban execute a young couple who tried to elope but were caught and turned over to the Taliban by their parents. Taliban militants order aid workers out and take over government buildings in Buner, a large district just 60 miles out of Islamabad.
- May—More than 100 Afghan civilians are killed in a U.S. air strike in western Afghanistan. The Pakistani military launches a major offensive into the Swat Valley region after an agreement with the Taliban breaks down. More than two million residents flee their homes, helping the Pakistani military target Taliban militants. General David McKiernan, top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, is replaced by Lieutenant General Stanley McChrystal, an expert in unconventional warfare. President Obama hosts President Karzai and Pakistani president Asif Ali Zardari at the White House. Dozens of Afghan school girls fall sick in what appears to be a poison gas attack.
- June—Estimates of the number of Swat Valley refugees rise to as many as three million. The U.S. military admits it made mistakes that led to the deaths of dozens of Afghan civilians in May. In a major speech in Cairo, President Obama calls U.S. military actions in Afghanistan a “war of necessity.” CIA director Leon Panetta says he believes Osama bin Laden is hiding in Pakistan. A U.S. missile strike reportedly kills six militants, including a Taliban commander. Later in the day, at the funeral of the Taliban commander, a second drone attack kills as many as 60 mourners. Qari Zainuddin, a Taliban leader who repeatedly spoke out against the targeting of civilians, is killed by a gunman with presumed loyalty to Baitullah Mehsud, a more ruthless and senior Taliban leader. General McChrystal announces stricter limitations on air strikes in Afghanistan.
- July—Bombs kill dozens, including several school children, in central Afghanistan. Detainees at the U.S. prison in Bagram, Afghanistan, protest their lack of rights. The Afghan government and the Taliban agree to a cease-fire in the northwestern Badhis province.
- August—A Taliban manual, written in Pashto, comes to light: it discourages suicide attacks for all but the most important targets and encourages better relations with different ethnic Afghan groups. A message on a Taliban web site calls on all Afghans to boycott the upcoming presidential election. A bomb kills 10 people in western Afghanistan. A suicide bomber kills five in the south. A series of missiles strike Kabul. A U.S. air strike misses its intended target, Baitullah Mehsud, and kills one of his wives. A second U.S. strike reportedly kills Mehsud and another of his wives. Violence increases in the run-up to the election. A law authorizing a man to withhold food from a wife who withholds sex goes into force. Dozens of Afghan civilians die at the hands of militants aiming to discourage them from voting. Hamid Karzai and his leading opponent, Abdullah Abdullah, both claim victory after the election. An election monitoring group reports that Taliban militants cut off the ink-stained fingers of two voters. Allegations of electoral fraud surface. General McChrystal releases a report in which he implies NATO is losing the fight in Afghanistan but says he believes success is still attainable; he states that protecting civilians is more important than killing militants.
- September—A suicide bomber kills one of Afghanistan’s top intelligence officials. NATO air strikes on fuel tankers seized by the Taliban cause a massive explosion in which dozens of militants, including a Taliban leader, and civilians die. More electoral fraud allegations prompt a partial recount. A suicide bomber kills six Italian soldiers and ten Afghan civilians. General McChrystal calls Afghanistan’s prisons a “sanctuary and base” for radicalization and planning.
- October—Two EU reports warn that a high death rate among Afghan police and poor training are hindering the force’s recruitment efforts.
|  | |
