Afghanistan -- Background Information

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.

On Sept. 27, 1996, the ruling members of the Afghan government were displaced by members of the Islamic Taliban movement, who have declared themselves the legitimate government of Afghanistan. The UN has deferred a decision on the question of legitimacy. Mullah Mohammed Omar, known as the Emir al-Momineen (Leader of the Faithful), has served as the de facto leader since the Taliban came to power in 1996.

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 of imperial Britain and czarist Russia for control of Central Asia. Three Anglo-Afghan Wars (1839 – 42, 1878 – 80, 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.

During the cold war, King Mohammed Zahir Shah developed close ties with the Soviet Union, accepting extensive economic assistance from Moscow. He was overthrown in 1973 by his cousin Mohammed Daoud, who was himself ousted in a 1978 coup by Noor Taraki. Taraki and his successor, Babrak Karmal, attempted to create a Marxist state. However, the new leadership was criticized by armed insurgents who bitterly opposed communism and hoped to create an Islamic state in Afghanistan. Fearing his government was on the verge of collapse, Karmal called for Soviet troops. Moscow responded with a full-scale invasion of the country in Dec. 1979.

The Soviets were met with fierce resistance from groups already energized by opposition to the Karmal government. The guerrilla forces, calling themselves mujahedeen, pledged a jihad, or holy war, to expel the invaders. Initially armed with outdated weapons, the mujahedeen became a focus of U.S. cold war strategy against the Soviet Union, and with Pakistan's help, Washington began funneling sophisticated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 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.

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 in public from head to toe. By fall 1998 the Taliban controlled about 90% of the country.

On Aug. 20, 1998, U.S. cruise missiles struck a terrorism 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 they believed was involved in the bombing of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania on Aug. 7, 1998.

In 1999, the Taliban concentrated on defeating the forces of Ahmed Shah Masood, their last significant hurdle in gaining complete control of Afghanistan. The Taliban's scorched-earth tactics and human rights abuses have further isolated them from the international community. Only three governments – Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE – recognize the Taliban as Afghanistan's legitimate government. The country remains in dire poverty, with some 500,000 living in refugee camps.

In July 2000 Mullah Omar banned opium cultivation; Afghanistan had once been the world's largest supplier of the drug.

In March 2001, despite worldwide protests, the Taliban destroyed several enormous Buddhist statues, dating from the second and fifth centuries A.D. The Taliban said they were destroying "graven images," which were being worshiped in violation of Islam. In Sept. 2001, legendary guerrilla leader Ahmed Shah Masood was killed by Taliban suicide bombers, a seeming death knell for the anti-Taliban forces.

U.S. secretary of state Colin Powell named Osama bin Laden as the primary suspect in Sept. 2001's catastrophic bombing of New York's World Trade Center Towers and the Pentagon. Taliban supreme leader Mullah Omar denied bin Laden's involvement, saying that the Islamic radical did not have the communication resources to mastermind such an intricate plot.