Taliban insurgency

While the pre-2001 Taliban suppressed opium production, the current insurgency "relies on opium revenues to purchase weapons, train its members, and buy support." In 2001, Afghanistan produced only 11% of the world's opium. Today it produces over 80% of the global crop, and the drug trade accounts for half of Afghanistan's GDP.[77][78][79][80] However, later estimates show that drugs might not be the major source of income of the Taliban. Taxation and mineral sales under the group's shadow governments since 2001 have also been major sources.[81]

On 28 July 2009, Richard Holbrooke, the United States special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, said that money transfers from Western Europe and the Gulf States exceeded the drug trade earnings and that a new task force had been formed to shut down this source of funds.[82]

The United States Agency for International Development is investigating the possibility that kickbacks from its contracts are being funneled to the Taliban.[83]

A report by the London School of Economics (LSE) claimed to provide the most concrete evidence yet that the Pakistani intelligence agency ISI is providing funding, training and sanctuary to the Taliban on a scale much larger than previously thought. The report's author Matt Waldman spoke to nine Taliban field commanders in Afghanistan and concluded that Pakistan's relationship with the insurgents ran far deeper than previously realized. Some of those interviewed suggested that the organization even attended meetings of the Taliban's supreme council, the Quetta Shura.[84][85][86] A spokesman for the Pakistani military dismissed the report, describing it as "malicious".[87][88] Pakistan's armed forces and intelligence services, most notably the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate (ISI), play a significant role in bolstering the operational capabilities of the Taliban, resulting in their emergence as a formidable military entity.[89]

The Taliban's victory was facilitated in support from Pakistan. Although Pakistan was a major US ally before and after the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan, elements of the Pakistan government (including the military and intelligence services) have for decades maintained strong logistical and tactical ties with Taliban militants, and this support helped support the insurgency in Afghanistan.[90][91] For example, the Haqqani Network, a Taliban affiliate based in Pakistan, had strong support from Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), the Pakistan intelligence agency.[90] Taliban leaders found a safe haven in Pakistan, lived in the country, transacted business and earned funds there, and receiving medical treatment there.[90][91] Some elements of the Pakistani establishment sympathized with Taliban ideology, and many Pakistan officials considered the Taliban as an asset against India.[90][91] Bruce Riedel noted that "The Pakistani army believes Afghanistan provides strategic depth against India, which is their obsession."[91]

In 2007, Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf admitted Taliban getting cross-border aid and said that "There is no doubt Afghan militants are supported from Pakistan soil. The problem that you have in your region is because support is provided from our side."[92][93]

Pakistan's Interior minister Sheikh Rasheed Ahmad on 1 September 2021, said in an interview with Hum News that "All top Taliban leaders were born and brought up in Pakistan. This has been our 'service' that we trained them and many more might be studying."[94]

Dr. Antonio Giustozzi, a senior research fellow at Royal United Services Institute on terrorism and conflict, wrote, "Both the Russians and the Iranians helped the Taliban advance at a breakneck pace in May–August 2021. They contributed to funding and equipping them, but perhaps even more importantly they helped them by brokering deals with parties, groups and personalities close to either country, or even both. [...] The Revolutionary Guards helped the Taliban's advance in western Afghanistan, including by lobbying various strongmen and militia commanders linked to Iran not to resist the Taliban."[95]

• June:
  • 6 June: A roadside bombing leaves 2 American soldiers killed, the attack took place in the province of Nangarhar. Also a separate suicide bombing in Khost leaves three US soldiers wounded.[111]
  • 15 June: A bus carrying workers to an American base explodes killing 10 and wounding 15. The explosives were placed on the bus.[112]
• July:
  • 1 July: 2 British soldiers are killed when their base came under small arms fire including rocket propelled grenades.[113]
• August:
  • 8 August: 4 Canadian NATO soldiers are killed in two separate attacks. And a suicide bomber targeting a NATO convoy detonated, killing 21 people.[114]
  • 20 August: 3 American soldiers are killed and another 3 are wounded in a battle with Taliban militants after a roadside bomb hit an American patrol.[115]
• September:
  • 8 September: A major suicide car bombing near the US embassy in Kabul kills 18 including 2 US soldiers.[116]
  • 10 September: The governor of Afghanistan's southeastern Paktia province is killed alongside his bodyguard and nephew when a suicide bomber detonates himself beside the governor's car.[117]
• October:
  • 14 October: A suicide attack in Kandahar city leaves 8 dead including one NATO soldier.[118]
  • 15 October: 2 Canadian soldiers were killed when Taliban militants attacked NATO troops using small arms fire and rocket propelled grenades.[118]
• December:
  • 6 December: A suicide bomber blew himself up outside a security contractor's office killing 7 including 2 Americans, the attack took place south of Afghanistan in Kandahar.[119]
  • 19 December: Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Osmani, reportedly number 4 in the Taliban shura, is killed by an American airstrike in southern Afghanistan.[120]

• January:
  • 23 January: A suicide bomber blew himself up outside a US base in eastern Afghanistan, killing 10 people who were waiting outside the base.[126]
• February:
  • 2 February: Taliban forces raided a southern Afghan town, destroying the government center and briefly holding some elders captive.[127]
  • 19 February: The Taliban briefly seized a small town in western Afghanistan after police fled the town, the Taliban forces moved in for 30 minutes and seized three vehicles.[128]
  • 20 February: A suicide bomber blew himself up during an opening hospital ceremony injuring 2 NATO soldiers and a hospital worker.[129]
  • 27 February: 23 people were killed when a suicide bomber attacked an American military base, Bagram Airfield (BAF), in Bagram District, Parwan Province. The attack took place while US vice president Dick Cheney was in the compound. Cheney was unhurt and was the intended target of the attack as claimed by the Taliban. The dead included an American soldier, a Korean soldier, and an American contractor.[130]
• March:
  • 4 March: A suicide bomber attacked an American convoy which left 16 civilians dead in the aftermath as the American convey begins to sporadically fire at civilian cars around them. In a separate incident, two British soldiers were killed when a Taliban rocket was fired on them during clashes in Southern Helmand Province.[131]
  • 17 March: A suicide bomber targeting a Canadian military convoy left one dead and three injured, including one NATO soldier. The attack took place in Kandahar.[132]
  • 19 March: A car bomb blew up near a three-vehicle US embassy convoy injuring many in the convoy.[133]
  • 27 March: Four police officers were killed in the southern Helmand Province after a suicide bomber blew himself up outside a police station.[134]
  • 29 March: A suicide bomber near Kabul detonated explosives close to a high-ranking Afghan intelligence official's car, killing 4 civilians.[135]
• April:
  • 6 April: Karzai said that he spoke to the Taliban to bring about peace in Afghanistan.[136] He noted that the Afghan Taliban are "always welcome" in Afghanistan, although foreign militants are not.[137]
  • 9 April: Six Canadian soldiers were killed in southern Afghanistan when they struck a roadside bomb. A separate roadside bombing, also in south Afghanistan, left another NATO soldier dead and one wounded. In another incident, a statement from the Taliban's spokesperson claimed that they had beheaded a translator for a kidnapped Italian journalist.[138]
  • 15 April: A suicide bomber struck a US-private security firm, killing four Afghans working for the company.[139]
  • 16 April: A suicide bomber ran onto a police training field and detonated his explosive device, killed 10 police officers and wounded dozens of others. The attack took place in the relatively quiet city of Kunduz. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.[139]
  • 20 April: Separate explosions in Southern Afghanistan leave two NATO soldiers dead.[140]
  • 22 April: A suicide bomber blew himself up in an eastern city of Afghanistan, killing six. A roadside bomb also hit an Afghan intelligence service vehicle, killing all four who were inside.[141]
  • 30 April: Hundreds of Afghans took to the streets in western Afghanistan, accusing US soldiers of killing scores of civilians in fighting which the coalition said killed 136 Taliban in a three-week operation.[142]
• May:
  • 13 May: Mullah Dadullah, the Taliban's top military commander in Afghanistan, was killed in fighting in the south.[120]
  • 23 May: The Taliban's newly named top field commander, Mullah Bakht Mohammed, brother and replacement of deceased field commander Mullah Dadullah, made his first public statement, saying the Taliban will "pursue holy war until the occupying countries leave."[143]
• July:
  • 19 July: The South Korean hostage crisis involved the hostage taking by the Taliban of twenty-three South Korean Christian aid workers in Ghazni Province. The Taliban killed two hostages later that month. The crisis ended on 30 August with the release of the remaining hostages as part of a deal with South Korean government diplomats.
• August:
  • 31 August: A suicide bomber detonated his explosive-laden vehicle after ramming three military vehicles at the military gate of Kabul International Airport. Two Afghan soldiers were killed and ten people were injured.
• September:
  • 29 September: In an effort to reach a compromise with the Taliban leaders, Karzai suggested quid quo pro by allowing militants to have a place in government if they stopped fighting. Taliban leaders replied by saying there would be no compromise unless intervening forces such as NATO and the US left.[144]
• November:
  • 2 November: Mawlawi Abdul Manan, an important Taliban figure, was killed by Afghan Security forces. His death was confirmed by the Taliban.[145]

• February
  • 24 February: Poor military intelligence leads to conflicted reports of a possible Taliban spring offensive.[147][148]
• August
  • 19 August: Taliban forces kill 9 French troops (with a 10th death in an accident) near Kabul.[149]
• October
  • 6 October: CNN reported that, via Saudi intermediaries, the Taliban is negotiating to end the conflict in Afghanistan, and that the Taliban has split from Al Qaeda.[150]
• December:
  • 7 December: 200 Taliban armed with RPGs and automatic weapons attack two NATO supply depots outside of Peshawar destroying 100 vehicles packed with supplies intended to support the NATO effort in Afghanistan.[151][152]
  • 8 December: 200 Taliban armed with RPGs and automatic weapons attack a NATO supply depot outside of Peshawar destroying 53 container trucks packed with supplies intended to support the NATO effort in Afghanistan.[151][152]

• June:
  • 30 June: US Army Private First Class soldier Bowe R. Bergdahl is captured by the Taliban in Southern Afghanistan.
• July:
  • 18 July: The Taliban release a video showing Bergdahl being interviewed by one of his captors.[154]
• August:
  • 12 August: Taliban spokesmen threaten the public not to vote in the upcoming presidential elections.[155]
  • 15 August: 2009 NATO Afghanistan headquarters bombing:
    • A suicide car bomb explodes outside NATO headquarters in Kabul, killing at least seven and wounding almost 100. ISAF troops were reported among the wounded.[156]
  • 25 August: A massive car bomb shakes Kandahar, killing at least 30 and wounding dozens as buildings collapse in the city's center. The attack comes after the first results of the presidential elections were announced.[157] Four US soldiers die in an IED explosion in southern Afghanistan bringing ISAF losses to 295, eclipsing 2008's coalition death toll of 294.[158]
• September:
  • 4 September: US airstrike on two fuel tankers kill at least 70 people in Farah Province after it was hijacked by Taliban militants. Angry relatives of those killed claim civilians were collecting fuel from the tankers when the airstrike came.[159]
• December:
  • On 1 December, US President Barack Obama announced that he would send an additional 30,000 troops to help battle the Taliban insurgency. The Taliban reacted to the President's speech by saying they will step up their fight in Afghanistan. A Taliban commander told the BBC that if more US troops came, more would die.[160]
  • After his disputed re-election, President Hamid Karzai announced to move ahead with a plan for a Loya Jirga to discuss the Taliban insurgency. The Taliban would be invited to take part in this Jirga.[161]

• January:
  • 17 January: "Kabul's day of terror":
    • On this day, gunbattles near the presidential palace and other government buildings paralyzed the Afghan capital for hours.[167][168]
    • As President Karzai was swearing in his new cabinet ministers inside the presidential palace, militants performed attacks on multiple locations in Kabul, including shopping malls, a cinema and the central bank. A team of gunmen launched a spectacular assault in "commando style" with two men detonating suicide bombs and the rest fighting to the death near the gates of the presidential palace, an operation by insurgents to terrorize the Afghan capital, further demoralizing the population and lending to the impression that virtually no part of the country could be safe.[169][170][171][120][172][173][174] The Taliban said it had deployed 20 suicide bombers in explosive vests who were also armed with heavy and light weaponry[175][176]
    • A western security official estimated there is a security incident in Kabul, on average, every seven to 10 days.[177]
• February:
  • 26 February: Militants target hotels and guest houses in Kabul. Up to nine Indians, an Italian diplomat and a French film maker were among the dead in the worst assault on the Afghan capital for several months. A four-hour battle began with a car bombing and included suicide bombers and Taliban fighters throwing grenades. The attacks appeared to be aimed at Indian government officials and medical workers. Three Afghan police were killed, and six more officers were among the 38 people wounded in what was described as a well-planned and co-ordinated attack.[178]
• June:
  • 2–4 June:
    Main article: Afghan Peace Jirga 2010
  • The Karzai administration organized the Afghan Peace Jirga in Kabul that was announced after the 2009 presidential elections. The Taliban were not invited.
• July:
  • 20–29 July: International Conference on Afghanistan in Kabul
• August:
  • 6 August: killing of 10 members of a Christian charity's medical team in the mountains of Badakhshan.
    Main article: 2010 Badakhshan massacre
  • 10 August: Amnesty International states that the International Criminal Court should open a formal investigation into crimes committed by the Taliban and other insurgent groups in Afghanistan.[179][180][181][182][183]

The Taliban continued attacking and ambushing NATO and Afghan troops as well as the targeted assassination of government officials.

• January:
  • 29 January: The deputy governor of Kandahar was killed in a suicide attack. Three months later, on 15 April the Kandahar chief police, General Khan Mohammed Mujahid was killed.
• April:
  • It was reported that in 2011, the United States was spending 2 billion dollars per week fighting in Afghanistan against the Taliban. In a 2011 forecast the war in Afghanistan was estimated at 108 billion dollars for the year, while the Iraqi War was estimated at 50 billion.[184]
• May:
  • 28 May: The Taliban assassinated one of their main opponents, Mohammed Daud Daud, in a bomb attack. Six others were also killed. He was the chief of the police for the northern of Afghanistan.
• July:
  • 18 July: President Karzai's advisor, Jan Mohammad Khan, was assassinated in Kabul by the Taliban in an attack that also killed an Afghan deputy.[185]
  • As of 18 July, coalition forces started their plan of transition by handing power of several areas to the Afghan authority following their plan of future pull out of the country. A Taliban militant who had infiltrated the Afghan police force killed seven other policemen in Lashkar Gah.[186] The same day the police chief of Registaan district and three other policemen were killed in bomb attacks.[187]
  • As of 22 July 325 coalition fighters were killed, more than 55% of the deaths caused by IED's.[188]
  • 19 July: ISAF General Chief David Petraeus left his position with mixed results.[189][190] During his time as the head of ISAF, 3775 insurgents were killed or captured in 2832 raids[190] while 713 NATO soldiers were killed. Overall the level of violence in the country increased. He was replaced by General John Allen.
  • Between 20 and 22 July, NATO troops killed 50 Haqquani fighters in an attack on their camp.[191]
  • 24 July: A US military investigation discovered that a portion of the 2 billion dollars in funds given by the United States in contracts had fallen in the hands of the insurgency.[192]
  • 27 July: The mayor of Kandahar, Ghulam Haidar Hameedi, was killed in a suicide attack.[193]
  • 28 July: Suicide bombers and snipers attacked the police headquarters of Tarin Kowt in a large-scale attack which killed more than 21 people including Afghan reporter Ahmed Omed Khpulwak.[194] According to the Afghan interior minister, for the 2-year period between 19 March 2009 and 19 March 2011, 2770 Afghan policemen were killed and 4785 wounded while 1052 Afghan soldiers were killed and 2413 wounded.[195]
• 31 July: 10 Afghan policemen were killed in a suicide attack in Lashkar Gah where Afghan security forces had taken over from NATO a week before. The same day, 10 Afghan guards who were protecting a NATO supplies convoy were killed in the attack.[196] One day before, 5 Afghans soldiers and 2 NATO soldiers were killed in a bomb attack on their patrol.[197]
• August:
  • 6 August: 31 American Special Forces soldiers were killed in the crash of their helicopter probably shot down during a fight with the Taliban.[198] Seven Afghan soldiers were also killed. This was the biggest death toll for NATO troops in the whole war. Most of the American soldiers killed were Navy SEALs.[199]
  • 7 August: 4 NATO soldiers were killed, including two French Foreign Legion members, and 5 others were wounded.[200]

• August:
  • 27 August:
    • Taliban insurgents in the Taliban-controlled southern Helmand area killed 17 civilians – fifteen men and two women[201] – who were attending a party. A government official said that the victims were beheaded for celebrating with music and mixgender dancing[202] in the Musa Qala district of Helmand, which ran contrary to the Taliban's extreme brand of Islam. Later, however, a provincial government official said that the 17 people killed were due to a fight between two Taliban commanders over two women (who were also killed). The civilians were either beheaded or had their throats cut, but some showed signs of gunshot wounds or beatings.[201]
      • The attacks were condemned by Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai, who ordered an investigation into the attack,[202] the leader of the NATO coalition led by the United States, the United Nations, and the European Union. However, the Taliban has denied responsibility for the attack, saying that no Taliban members have ever killed civilians.
      • The attack occurred on the same day when two United States troops were killed by an Afghan soldier.[203]
    • 10 Afghan soldiers were killed by the Taliban, also in the Helmand province.[201]

• January 6 – Suicide bombers kill four in an attack in Spin Boldak.
• January 16 – The Afghan National Directorate of Security headquarters in Kabul are attacked by a team of suicide bombers, leaving a security guard dead and 17 others injured.
• January 26 – A suicide bombing at a market in Kunduz kills at least ten people and wounds up to twenty others.
• January 27 – At least twenty members of the Afghan National Police have been killed in bomb attacks over the past day with eight police officers killed in the latest attack in Kandahar.

• February 24
  • Two guards and an Afghan police officer are killed in coordinated suicide bombing attacks in Jalalabad and Logar Province in eastern Afghanistan, while a third such attack on the National Directorate of Security in Kabul is foiled.
• February 27 – Taliban insurgents kill 17 Afghan government-affiliated militia personnel in an overnight attack in Andar District of eastern Ghazni Province.

• March 11 – Two US and three Afghan soldiers are killed in Wardak Province in the latest insider attack against coalition forces. In a separate incident, two Afghan civilians are shot dead by American soldiers after failing to stop at a checkpoint near Kabul.
• March 13 – A suicide bomber kills 10 spectators, including the district police chief, during a local gaming event in Kunduz province of northern Afghanistan.
• March 26
  • A suicide attack on a police station in Jalalabad, kills five police officers while seven attackers die.
  • One British soldier is killed and nine are wounded by Taliban insurgents in an attack on a patrol base with a truck bomb and small arms fire in Helmand Province, Nad Ali District.

• April 3 – more than 46 people are killed and more than 100 injured following an attack by Taliban militants armed with suicide vests on a courthouse in Farah.
• Taliban gunmen and bombers attacked Farah, killing 34 civilians and 10 members of the security forces. Nine attackers were killed.
• April 5 – An explosive-laden donkey is used in an attack on a police security post in the Alingar District of Laghman Province in eastern Afghanistan, killing a policeman and wounding three civilians.
• April 6 – A bombing in Qalat, capital of the southern Kabul Province, kills three U.S. soldiers and two U.S. civilians, along with an Afghan doctor. An American civilian dies in another attack in the east of the country.
• April 8
  • Taliban fighters are suspected of being responsible for a bus explosion that kills at least nine people and injures more than twenty others in Maidan Wardak Province.
• April 12 – Thirteen soldiers of the Afghan National Army are killed and one is injured in an ambush in the eastern Kunar Province.
• April 22–11 people are kidnapped in Afghanistan after the helicopter they were in was forced to land. The Taliban takes responsibility for the abductions.
• April 26 – Six police officers are poisoned and fatally shot in Kunduz Province while another one is missing.
• April 26 – At least 30 people die in southern Afghanistan after a bus crashes into the wreckage of a truck attacked by Taliban insurgents.
• April 29 – A Boeing 747 crashes near an American military base in Bagram, killing all seven American crew members on board.
• April 30 – A roadside bomb kills three members of NATO's ISAF force in Afghanistan.

• May 4 – Five US soldiers are killed when a bomb detonates in Kandahar. Additionally, three more are killed in separate incidents.
• May 6 – An Afghan border police guard is killed and two Pakistani troops are injured in border violence.
• May 13 – Three Georgian soldiers are killed and several wounded in a large-scale insurgent attack on an ISAF base in the Helmand Province.
• May 14 – The Taliban kills four US soldiers in Kandahar Province.
• May 16 – A suicide bomber killed 15 people including two US soldiers and four NATO employees in Kabul. The explosion also wounded 39 people.
• May 24 – Afghan security forces battle Taliban insurgents in central Kabul. An Afghan policeman, a Nepalese soldier, and numerous insurgents are killed.

• June 2 – Taliban insurgents attack two checkpoints in the Kamdesh District in eastern Afghanistan killing four Afghan police officers.
• June 3 – A suicide bombing in eastern Afghanistan kills at least 20 people, including 10 children.
• June 6 – Seven Georgian servicemen are killed and nine wounded in an insurgent attack with a truck bomb on the ISAF base in Shir Ghazay.
• June 8
  • In Afghanistan, a man wearing an Afghan military uniform attacks and kills three American soldiers, in what appears to be an insider attack on U.S. International Security Assistance Force soldiers, based in east Afghanistan's Paktika Province.
  • In a separate unrelated incident, an Italian soldier is killed and three are wounded when a child throws a grenade at a NATO convoy in west Afghanistan's Farah Province.
• June 10 – Seven heavily armed Taliban militants launch a coordinated attack near the main international airport of Kabul and seize a five-story building under construction nearby. Afghan security forces retake the building, killing all seven militants and sustaining no military or civilian casualties.
• June 11 – A bomb detonates near the Afghan Supreme Court killing eight people and wounding dozens.
• On 11 June in Kabul, a Taliban suicide car bomber killed 16 people.
• June 18
  • A bomb explodes in Kabul killing three people and wounding six.
  • Four United States troops are killed near Bagram Airfield.
• June 25 – Taliban forces attack near the Presidential Palace in Kabul.
• On 25 June, Gunmen and bombers killed three security guards. On the same day the Taliban attacked the presidential palace, about seven or eight explosions happened and eight attackers were killed.

• July 2 – Militants attack NATO headquarters in the north of Kabul resulting in at least two deaths.
• July 9 – Seventeen people are killed by a roadside bomb.
• July 23 – A bomb kills eight people in Awardak Province, including three United States Army soldiers, four Afghan National Army soldiers and an Afghan interpreter.

• August 3 – Nine children die in a suicide bombing near the Indian consulate in Jalalabad.
• August 5 – A bomb explodes at a market in Kandahar, killing at least four people.
• August 8 – A bomb explodes at a cemetery in Nangarhar Province, killing at least 14 people.
• August 11 – Three U.S. soldiers are killed in an attack in Paktia province.
• August 17–10 people are killed in a camp by insurgents in western Afghanistan.
• August 23 – A routine joint patrol composed of British paratroopers, US Marines and Afghan soldiers targeted a village to search for illegal weapons in Helmand Province. After insertion by a Chinook helicopter, the patrol was ambushed by the Taliban, the resulting skirmish lasted approximately 45 minutes which killed 11 insurgents and wounded four more, a US Marine officer was also wounded, one soldier was awarded the Victoria Cross.

• September 8 – The Taliban kills four Afghan National Army troops in an attack on an intelligence office near Kabul.
• September 13 – Taliban insurgents attack the United States consulate in Herat, with two members of the Afghan National Police reported as killed and about 20 civilians injured.
• On 13 September, Taliban gunmen and bombers killed eight security guards and a policeman in Herat. All seven attackers were killed.

• October 15 – A bomb in a mosque in Logar Province kills the governor Arsala Jamal and results in other injuries.
• October 27 – A roadside bomb in eastern Afghanistan kills 18 people.

• November 16 – Suicide car bombing in Kabul kills six people and injures twenty.

• December 23 – Captain Richard Holloway of the Special Boat Service was killed by Taliban gunfire whilst on a joint SBS-Afghan forces raid (with air support) on Taliban insurgents in a valley east of Kabul, ahead of the Afghanistan elections.
• December 27 – A suicide bomber attacks a foreign military convoy on the eastern outskirts of Kabul, killing at least three foreign soldiers, police and the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force.

• January 6 – A suicide car bomber detonates at a police checkpoint in Ghazni Province, killing three police officers.
• January 8 – A book released by former U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates criticizes President Barack Obama for his handling of the War in Afghanistan.
• January 9 – The government of Afghanistan announces the release of 72 Taliban fighters from jails, despite American objections that they pose a security threat.
• January 11 – A four-year-old Afghan boy is killed by U.S. troops.
• January 17 – Twenty-one people are killed in a suicide bombing attack on a Kabul restaurant.
• January 26 – A suicide bomber attacks an army bus in Kabul, killing two soldiers and two civilians.

• February 10 – A car bomb detonates in Kabul, killing two contractors working with ISAF.
• February 18 – A suicide bombing attack in Kabul kills at least two people.
• February 24 – Senior Taliban commander Asmatullah Shaheen Bhittani is killed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

• March 11 – Gunmen in Kabul kill Swedish Radio foreign correspondent Nils Horner.
• March 12 – Three Taliban insurgents are killed by a team of Afghan police and private commandos after attacking a former National Directorate of Security headquarters in Kandahar. The Taliban claims they killed four commandos and five policemen, which police deny.
• March 18 – A suicide rickshaw bomber detonates in a marketplace in Maymana, killing 15 people and wounding dozens.
• March 20 –
  • Four suspected Taliban members attack the luxurious Kabul Serena Hotel, killing at least nine people, including four foreigners.
  • Suicide bombers attack a police station in the city of Jalalabad resulting in at least 11 deaths and 22 people being injured.

• April 2 – A suicide bomber wearing a military uniform strikes a voter registration office in Kabul, killing six police officers.
• April 4 – Two members of the Associated Press are shot by an Afghan wearing a police uniform in Khost. One of them, Pulitzer Prize winner and photojournalist Anja Niedringhaus, is killed. The other is seriously injured.

• May 8 – A roadside bomb near the Afghan border in North Waziristan, Pakistan, kills eight Pakistani soldiers.
• May 21 – The Taliban launch attacks in Badakhshan and Laghman provinces, killing 10 policemen and three civilians.
• May 23 – Gunmen attack the Indian consulate in Herat Province.

• June 9 – Five NATO International Security Assistance Force troops are killed in fighting the Taliban.

• July 2 – A suicide bomber attacks an Afghan National Army air force bus in Kabul killing at least five people.
• July 8 – The Taliban claims responsibility for an attack in central Afghanistan that claims the lives of 10 civilians, four Czech members of the International Security Assistance Force and two Afghan police officers.
• July 12 – A cross border attack by the Afghan Taliban kills three Pakistan Army soldiers in Bajaur Agency of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas.
• July 15 – A car bomb explodes at a market in the eastern Afghanistan province of Paktika, killing at least 89 people and injuring scores more in one of the deadliest attacks of the war.
• July 17 – Explosions and gunfire are reported near Kabul International Airport as militants temporarily capture a building under construction.
• July 22 – A Taliban suicide bomber blows himself up outside Kabul International Airport, killing three foreign advisers and an Afghan interpreter.
• July 24 – In Herat, two Finnish women working for a foreign aid organization are shot and killed.
• July 25 – Afghan insurgents killed 17 Shia civilians travelling from Kabul.
• July 26 – Insurgents stop minibuses in Ghōr Province and execute 14 Shiite Muslims.
• July 29 – A suicide bomber kills Hashmat Karzai, the cousin of the President of Afghanistan and a regional powerbroker, in the city of Kandahar.

• August 5 – A U.S. major general Harold J. Greene is killed, and a German brigadier general and several American troops are among the 15 wounded, in an attack by an Afghan soldier gunman – who was killed by Afghan soldiers – at Kabul's Marshal Fahim National Defense University.
• August 14 – A roadside bomb detonates next to a police car in Laghman Province, killing three police officers and injuring another four.
• August 30 – Taliban insurgents attack the National Directorate of Security building in Jalalabad resulting in at least six deaths.

• September 8 – A suicide bomb attack kills the police chief of southern Kandahar Province.
• September 16 – A large bomb explodes in Kabul resulting in the death of three international troops (including a U.S Army Major) and five injuries.
• September 30 – A double suicide attack killed seven people and wounded 21 others including Afghan soldiers in Kabul.

• October 1 – Taliban suicide bombers attack an Afghan National Army convoy in Kabul, killing at least seven people and injuring 19.
• October 8 – A suicide bomber kills at least four people and wounds 16 in Helmand province.
• October 13 – A Taliban attack killed 22 Afghan military in northern Afghanistan
• October 21 – A Kabul roadside bomb kills at least four Afghan National Security Force soldiers with six other soldiers and six civilians injured.

• 10 November – Ten policemen, including a commander, are killed by bomb blasts in Jalalabad and Logar Province.
• 13 December – Assassination of Atiqullah Raufi.[205]
• 18 November – A suicide bomber attacks in Kabul and kills at least two people.
• 27 November – A suicide attack in Kabul killed six people including a Briton.

• December 1 – A suicide bomb kills at least nine, including two policemen, at a funeral for a tribal elder in Baghlan Province.
• December 11 – A Taliban suicide bomber kills at least six Afghan National Army soldiers in Tangi Tarakhil on the outskirts of Kabul.
• December 13 – Killings
  • Gunmen assassinate Atiqullah Rawoofi, the head of the Secretariat of the Supreme Court of Afghanistan, in the outskirts of Kabul.
  • Twenty-one people die in attacks across Afghanistan including two American soldiers.

Beginning in April, the Taliban fought for the city of Kunduz in the northern Kunduz Province with them capturing the city by September. Afghan Armed Forces recaptured the city in October but local sources dispute this claim.[206] The quick fall of the city resulted in calls by some government officials for President Ashraf Ghani and CEO Abdullah Abdullah to resign.[207]

In December, the Taliban made more territorial gains by besieging Afghan forces in the cities of Lashkar Gah, Sangin and outlying towns in the Helmand Province in Southern Afghanistan.[208] By late December, most of Sangin was captured by the Taliban with local Afghan forces surrounded and forced to rely on airlifts for ammunition and food.[209]

The gains made by the Taliban have hampered peace talks between them and the government and made rifts appear in the Taliban over negotiations.[210] In response to the new offensives, it was reported that the United States would slow down their withdrawal of troops to help in counter-insurgency operations.[211]