1992

Afghanistan and its capital, Kabul, fall to the mujahedeen rebels as President Najibullah's government collapses. He hides in Kabul while the United Nations seeks his safe passage out of the country. Najibullah, installed by the Soviets in 1986, is replaced by a coalition of generals and what were believed to be moderate rebel guerrillas.


1994
The Taliban become a force in factional fighting inside Afghanistan. They take control of Kandahar and free a Pakistani convoy seized by warlords. The Taliban's leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, reputedly heads a successful attempt to rescue a kidnapped woman. The Taliban take control of two southern provinces.


1995

Afghanistan is battered by fighting among Islamic factions that turned on each other after overthrowing the country's communist rulers in 1992. In September, the Pakistani embassy in Kabul is reduced to rubble. Iran warns the Taliban not to cross into Iran.


September 1996

The Taliban enter Kabul after two days of heavy fighting. The Islamic guerrilla fighters hang Communist President Najibullah. The former president, who had been in hiding for four years, was seized from a U.N. compound and executed.


1996

Saudi militant Osama bin Laden enters Afghanistan. The Taliban allows bin Laden to live in Afghanistan after the government of Sudan pressured him to leave.


1998

U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania are bombed, and the United States asks Afghanistan to hand over bin Laden, who is linked to the attacks. The man accused of orchestrating the bombings is declared a free man after the Islamic Taliban closed their three-week inquiry into allegations that bin Laden is waging a war of terror against the United States.


1999

The United Nations, prodded by the United States and Russia, imposes sanctions on Afghanistan. The U.N. sanctions order all states to freeze the Taliban's overseas assets and ban flights by planes owned, leased or operated by the Taliban from taking off or landing. An exemption would be permitted for humanitarian flights or to allow the Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca.


2000

The U.N. sanctions are tightened. The ruling Taliban militia responds by pulling out of U.N.-mediated peace talks on ending Afghanistan's civil war and by refusing any handover of terrorism suspect bin Laden. The Taliban also ordered an immediate boycott of products from the United States and Russia, which sponsored the U.N. resolution to impose sanctions.


March 2001

The Taliban pulverize historic, towering Buddha statues that may have stood for 2,000 years, despite protests from around the world. The Taliban high command rules that they would be destroyed along with all other non-Islamic statues after clerics declared them to be idolatrous.


August 2001

The Taliban militia bans the use of the Internet and orders the hard-line religious police to punish users according to Islamic law.


September 2001

The World Trade Center and the Pentagon are attacked by terrorists, with some 6,000 people presumed dead. The United States, believing the attacks were masterminded by bin Laden, vows a war on terrorism and enlists the world to respond. The Taliban refuse again to turn over bin Laden.


7th October 2001

United States and British military forces make the first strikes on Taliban military targets and terrorists basis in Afghanistan.

9th November 2001

Taliban forces flee from Mazar-i-Sharif, a key town in the North of Afghanistan. This is the first major city to fall into anti-Taliban hands in the ground war.

13th November 2001

Northern Alliance Troops enter the Afghan Capital Kabul despite requests from the United States not to attack the city. The Taliban flee without a fee, and the liberating troops are welcome by a cheering population.

22nd December 2001

Hamid Karzai, the leader of the new interim Afghan government and his cabinet are sworn in during a ceremony in Kabul amid tight security from local and British troops. Top Taliban officials surrender and recognise the new Afghan administration.


to date

The search for the Taliban spiritual leader Mullah Mohammad Omar is still on despite reports of negotiations on his surrender to U.S. forces. There is still no sign of the whereabouts of Osama Bin Laden. Hundreds of al Qaeda and Taliban fighter are in custody and several cave complex in the Tora Bora mountainous region belonging to the terrorist groups have been destroyed.