Taliban Timeline

September

The Taliban fight back with renewed strength. Suicide bombings and roadside attacks become more frequent and more deadly; nearly 100 are reported to have died from such violence in August and September.

Pakistan is repeatedly blamed for supporting and allowing the infiltration of bombers and insurgents. Pakistani leadership denies supporting the Taliban, but admits that bombers are being trained in border regions.

October and November

NATO air attacks are blamed for the deaths of dozens of civilians. Tony Blair cautions that the fight against the Taliban and Al Qaeda could take decades.

Meanwhile, the opium harvest in Afghanistan reaches the highest levels ever recorded, the United Nations reports, as cultivation rises 59% during 2006. Most experts agree that the drug trade is a major source of funding for the Taliban (although there are conflicting opinions about whether or not Al Qaeda is similarly situated). Afghanistan currently produces 92% of the world’s opium.

January

Mullah Dadullah, a top Taliban commander, vows in a telephone conversation that his forces will not let up. Days later, in an email exchange between journalists and Mullah Muhammad Omar, the Taliban chief makes a similar promise, saying he will never negotiate with the U.S.-backed Karzai government, and that violence will continue until foreign troops withdraw from Afghanistan..

February

General Dan K McNeil takes over command of the 35,000 member NATO forces in Afghanistan. McNeil served as commander of the U.S-led coalition there from 2002 to 2003.

During Vice President Cheney’s visit, a suicide bomber attacks near the U.S. air base, killing 23 people.

Authorities in Pakistan arrest Mullah Obaidullah, a member of the Taliban’s inner circle. Despite the high-profile nature of the arrest, Pakistan continues to be criticized for failing to confront the Taliban.

March and April

Italy agrees to exchange an Italian journalist for 5 Taliban prisoners, provoking strong criticism from the U.S. and other nations. Nearly a month later a second hostage captured at the same time as the freed Italian is killed soon after Karzai announces an end to such prisoner exchanges. The body of the second hostage is dropped off at a hospital.

A note of hope is sounded when health officials report that infant mortality dropped by 18 percent in Afghanistan, a fact that is heralded as a sign of recovery and progress.

May

Afghan officials report that a U.S. airstrike that killed 130 Taliban also left 21 civilians dead. A few days later, when the estimate grows to 42 civilians, angry protestors sack and burn buildings and Karzai warns that the Afghan people will not tolerate a foreign military presence much longer

A key Taliban operational commander with ties to Al Qaeda, Mullah Dadullah, is killed by Afghan, American, and NATO forces. Following his death, the victim’s brother, Haji Mansour Dadullah, also a Taliban leader, claims to receive a letter of condolence from Osama bin Laden, urging him to follow in his brother’s footsteps.

June

A Taliban spokesman offers to trade 5 hostages, all Afghan health ministry officials held since March, for Mullah Dadullah’s remains, which have already been buried in an undisclosed location. When the remains are not turned over, one of the hostages is beheaded. The other four hostages are released when the remains are delivered.

75 Allied troops are reported to have been killed in the first five months of 2007, including 38 Americans.

July

The Taliban kills one of a group of 23 South Korean hostages after their demands for a prisoner exchange are not met with a positive response by the Afghan government. Both hostages were members of a Protestant church group who were on a relief mission when they were abducted from a public bus on the highway from Kabul to Kandahar. The Taliban threatens to kill more hostages if the government is not more cooperative.

In response to concern about mounting civilian casualties in Afghanistan, NATO announces plans to use more restrained tactics in fighting the Taliban. More than 330 civilians have been killed this year, according to Afghan officials and Western aid workers.

August

Two women from the group of South Korean hostages held since July 19 by the Taliban are released unharmed to Red Cross workers after days of negotiations. Nineteen hostages from the group remain held.

October

Eighty Taliban members die during a six-hour battle with U.S.-led coalition force outside a town in southern Afghanistan. Most of the deaths are a result of four bombs dropped in Taliban trenches.

November

Sixty Taliban militants fire on a town from a mountain overlook in the Day Kundi province pushing out the police and cutting off the main road. One militant dies and one policeman is wounded in fighting. Bakwal and Gulistan districts in Farrah province have also been overrun by the militants.

February

About 80 people are killed and nearly 100 injured when a suicide bomber attacks at a crowded dogfight near Kandahar. A local police chief Abdul Hakim Jan is among the dead. It is the worst suicide attack since 2001. The Taliban denies responsibility for the attack, but Afghan officials express skepticism about the claim.

April

Three people are killed and about a dozen are wounded when suspected Taliban militants attack President Hamid Karzai, who was taking part in a parade to celebrate Afghan national day.

May

A local Taliban group claims responsibility for a suicide attack that killed 11 people and injured 22 more outside a military base in Marden, Pakistan.

June

U.S. soldiers launch an air strike aimed at Taliban militants who had crossed the border from Pakistan into Afghanistan and fired on American-led troops. Eleven members of a Pakistani paramilitary force die, angering Pakistani officials and increasing tension between the U.S. and Pakistan.

Fighters attack guards outside a prison in Kandahar and then launch a rocket-propelled grenade at a fuel tanker parked outside the prison. The blast kills several guards and opens a hole in the prison wall. About 900 inmates escape, including 350 members of the Taliban.

July

According to the Pentagon and icasualties.org, June 2008 was the deadliest month for U.S. and coalition troops since the American-led invasion began in 2001. Forty-six troops were killed even though the number of coalition troops reached a high point.

More than 40 people are killed and about 130 wounded in a suicide bombing outside the Indian Embassy in Kabul. Two Indian diplomats died in the blast. It is the deadliest suicide bombing since the U.S.-led invasion began in 2001.

Nine U.S.soldiers and at least 15 NATO troops die when Taliban militants boldly attack an American base in Kunar Province, which borders Pakistan. It's the most deadly against U.S. troops in three years.

August

As many as 15 suicide bombers backed by about 30 militants attack a U.S. military base, Camp Salerno, in Bamiyan. Fighting between U.S. troops and members of the Taliban rages overnight. No U.S. troops are killed. In another brazen attack, 10 French paratroopers are killed and more than 20 are wounded in an ambush by about 100 militants about 30 miles east of Kabul.

More than 60 people are killed in a twin suicide bombing at the Pakistan' Ordnance Factories, a complex of 16 buildings in the town of Wah that employs 20,000. The Taliban says the attack is in retaliation for the military's recent campaign against militants in the region of Bajaur.

As many as 90 Afghan civilians, 60 of them children, die in an attack in the western village of Azizabad. It is one of the deadliest airstrikes since the war began in 2001, and the deadliest on civilians. The U.S. military refutes the figures, however, which were confirmed by the UN, claiming that the airstrike, in response to an attack by militants, killed five civilians and as many as 25 members of the Taliban.