Zerkoh Valley (alternately Zirko, Zer-e-koh, Zir Koh) runs for 30 miles through Shindand District, Herat Province, Afghanistan.
On 29 April 2007, a number of Afghan civilians in Zerkoh were killed in airstrikes conducted in support of US Special Operations Forces. Estimates of the number of dead vary, with the Afghan government claiming 42 killed, with no sign of Taliban forces. Initial Coalition media reports stated that 87 Taliban were killed with no reports of civilian casualties. Human Rights Watch reported the civilian dead as at least 25. [1]
The Dasht-i-Leili massacre occurred in December 2001 during the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan when 250 to 2,000 Taliban prisoners were shot and/or suffocated to death in metal shipping containers while being transferred by Junbish-i Milli soldiers under the supervision of forces loyal to General Rashid Dostum from Kunduz to Sheberghan prison in Afghanistan. The site of the graves is believed to be in the Dasht-e Leili desert just west of Sheberghan, in the Jowzjan Province.
The 1998 Mazar-i-Sharif massacre took place in Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan in 1998. At least 2,000 victims were murdered by the Taliban, with Human Rights Watch estimating that the actual number of victims may be much higher.
Human rights in Afghanistan are severely restricted, especially since Taliban's takeover of Kabul in August 2021. Women's rights and freedom are severely restricted as they are banned from most public spaces and employment. Afghanistan is the only country in the world to ban education for women over the age of eleven. Taliban's policies towards women are usually termed as gender apartheid. Minority groups such as Hazaras face persecution and eviction from their lands. Authorities have used physical violence, raids, arbitrary arrests and detention, torture, enforced disappearances of activists and political opponents.
During the War in Afghanistan, according to the Costs of War Project the war killed 176,000 people in Afghanistan: 46,319 civilians, 69,095 military and police and at least 52,893 opposition fighters. However, the death toll is possibly higher due to unaccounted deaths by "disease, loss of access to food, water, infrastructure, and/or other indirect consequences of the war." According to the Uppsala Conflict Data Program, the conflict killed 212,191 people. The Cost of War project estimated in 2015 that the number who have died through indirect causes related to the war may be as high as 360,000 additional people based on a ratio of indirect to direct deaths in contemporary conflicts.
The 1992–1996 Afghan Civil War, also known as the Second Afghan Civil War, took place between 28 April 1992—the date a new interim Afghan government was supposed to replace the Republic of Afghanistan of President Mohammad Najibullah—and the Taliban's occupation of Kabul establishing the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan on 27 September 1996.
The 1996–2001 Afghan Civil War, also known as the Third Afghan Civil War, took place between the Taliban's conquest of Kabul and their establishing of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan on 27 September 1996, and the US and UK invasion of Afghanistan on 7 October 2001: a period that was part of the Afghan Civil War that had started in 1989, and also part of the war in Afghanistan that had started in 1978.
Shahzada Akhund, known also by the title Mullah, was a Taliban militant commander who was held at Guantanamo Bay following the 2001 ouster of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. He used a false name, Mohammed Yusif Yaqub, and pretended to be an innocent civilian.
The Azizabad airstrike was carried out by the United States Air Force on Friday 22 August 2008 in the village of Azizabad in Shindand district, Herat Province, Afghanistan. The airstrike killed 92 civilians, mostly children, and a number of structures in the village including homes were damaged or destroyed, although there remains some dispute about the accuracy of these figures. A Taliban commander was the intended target of the airstrike.
Hyderabad airstrike refers to the killing of many Afghan civilians including women and children in the village of Hyderabad, Gerishk District, Helmand province, Afghanistan on June 28, 2007 by the United States Army.
The Hazaras have long been the subjects of persecution in Afghanistan. The Hazaras are mostly from Afghanistan, primarily from the central regions of Afghanistan, known as Hazarajat. Significant communities of Hazara people also live in Quetta, Pakistan and in Mashad, Iran, as part of the Hazara and Afghan diasporas.
The April 2012 Afghanistan attacks took place on Sunday, 15 April 2012, at around 13:00 local time when heavily armed Taliban insurgents and suicide bombers launched multiple coordinated attacks throughout Afghanistan. Insurgents launched the 2012 spring offensive on multiple locations, including government buildings, military bases, and embassies. Attacks occurred in four Afghan provinces, including Kabul and Paktia. Different reports attribute responsibility for the attacks to either Taliban or the Haqqani network although the Taliban have claimed responsibility.
The Afghan Local Police (ALP) was a US-UK sponsored local law enforcement agency, defence force and militia in Afghanistan as part of the Afghan Ministry of Interior Affairs. Formed primarily as a local defence force against Taliban insurgents, its members had no power of arrest and are only authorised to investigate crime if requested to do so by the Afghan National Police (ANP).
The following lists events that happened during 2016 in Afghanistan.
The Battle of Boz Qandahari occurred on 3 November 2016, in the village of Boz Qandahari, on the western outskirts of the Afghan city of Kunduz, between Afghan National Army Commandos alongside United States Army Special Forces against Taliban insurgents.
On 20 January 2018, a group of four or five gunmen attacked the Inter-Continental Hotel in Kabul, Afghanistan, sparking a 12-hour battle. The attack left 40 people dead including 14 foreigners, while 14 others were injured.
War crimes in Afghanistan covers the period of conflict from 1979 to the present. Starting with the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, 40 years of civil war in various forms has wracked Afghanistan. War crimes have been committed by all sides.
Protests in Afghanistan against the Taliban started on 17 August 2021 following the Fall of Kabul to the Taliban. These protests are held by Islamic democrats and feminists. Both groups are against the treatment of women by the Taliban government, considering it as discriminatory and misogynistic. Supported by the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan, the protesters also demand decentralization, multiculturalism, social justice, work, education, and food. There have been pro-Taliban counterprotests.
The 20-year-long War in Afghanistan had a number of significant impacts on Afghan society.