X-Nico

14 unusual facts about Afghanistan


Afghanistan: The Great Game – A Personal View by Rory Stewart

Stewart tells the story of explorer and spy Alexander Burnes whose book when translated into French and read by Russia alerted them to believe Britain was expanding north and then Stewart relates the decision-making that led to the first British invasion of Afghanistan and the three Anglo-Afghan wars fought in this era.

Afghanistani

Coined recently, the word Afghanistani is a wide-range title that reflects all citizens of Afghanistan with different races and backgrounds, rather than only referring to Pashtun people.

College of Islamic and Arabic Studies

College of Islamic and Arabic Studies, Afghanistan, American intelligence analysts characterize this as a jihadist safe house

Hezbollah foreign relations

United States intelligence officials speculate there has been contact between Hezbollah and low-level al-Qaeda figures who fled Afghanistan for Lebanon.

Merv

Through or near this gap flow northwards in parallel courses the Tejen and Murgab rivers, until they lose themselves in the Karakum Desert.

Operation Headstrong

Operation Headstrong (2003–2004) involves the training of Afghan commandos by British special forces to seek out and destroy drug laboratories and to confiscate drug shipments.

Qala i Naw

Qala i Naw, Afghanistan, provincial capital of Badghis Province in northwest Afghanistan

Respecto Montalban

The group's popularity at the UCBT was a springboard to comedy careers for its members: Rob Riggle, a Marine who served in both Kosovo and Afghanistan, has been a cast member on Saturday Night Live and a correspondent on The Daily Show.

Strategy for Operation Herrick

It is the UK Governments position that the UK cannot disengage from Afghanistan and retains an active military presence (particularly Helmand province) because of the continued terrorist threat facing Britain and the world.

If the Taliban are allowed to undermine legitimate government in either Afghanistan or Pakistan, that would enable Al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups to have greater freedom and a sanctuary from which to train, plan and launch terrorist attacks across the world - and would have longer term implications for the credibility of NATO and the international community - and for the stability of both this crucial region and globally.

End State Objective: A secure Afghanistan in which the Afghan Government and civilian population are protected from sources of instability and violence.

Operation Herrick is the codename for the British part of the NATO International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) campaign in Afghanistan.

The US surge of additional troops, equipment and resources of 2009/10 into Southern Afghanistan, increased the ISAF presence within Helmand to 20,000 US Marines, with approx 8,000 UK forces.

Syed Ahmad Barelvi

Syed Ahmad was influenced by Shah Abdul Aziz, son of Shah Waliullah and toured Afghanistan and the areas occupied by the Sikhs raising the banner of jihad and rallying the Pashtun tribes to his banner.


1996 in Afghanistan

Taliban officials met with Pakistani Foreign Secretary Najmuddin ShaikhThe subject discussed as during Mr. Shaikh's meeting with Dostum and Dr. Abdullah in Mazar Sharif a day earlier was the working out of ceasefire arrangements between the contending factions in Afghanistan and suggesting talks with the Northern Alliance for the formation of a coalition government

Abba Yahiyya

Abba Yahiyya or Abu Yahiyya, was the leader of a sect of Afghani Alenzar (Nizariun Hagarenes) who followed an independent Ishmaili Sufi Herat tradition, introduced to the west by Omar Michael Burke in his 1976 book Among the Dervishes.

Abdul Hadi Arghandiwal

Abdul Hadi Arghandiwal (born 1952) is Afghanistan's Minister of Economy, and the Head of Hizb-i Islami Afghanistan.

Afghanistan–China relations

During the visit, the Chinese Premier and Vice Premier met with King Mohammad Zahir Shah of Afghanistan, and held respective talks with Prime Minister Mohammad Daud Khan, Vice Prime Minister Ali Mohammad and Vice Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mr. Mohammad Naim.

Afghanistan: The Great Game – A Personal View by Rory Stewart

Afghanistan became a safe haven for many terrorist groups and when the twin towers were attacked in New York the United States and its coalition allies entered Afghanistan in large numbers and as Rory Stewart points to the history of Afghanistan, it is an easy country to enter but a difficult one to leave.

Arron Perry

This record was, in its turn, broken when, using an Accuracy International L115A3, British Corporal Craig Harrison killed two Taliban with consecutive shots at a distance of 2.47 kilometres (8120 ft) in Helmand Province, Afghanistan in November 2009.

Aryana Sayeed

It wasn't long before Aryana Sayeed was signed on by one of the leading entertainment channels inside of Afghanistan, 1TV.

Battle of Mir Ali

The Battle of Mir Ali was a bloody military engagement occurred between 7 October and 10 October 2007 and involved Taliban militants and Pakistani soldiers around the town of Mir Ali, Pakistan (North Waziristan), the second biggest town in the semi-autonomous region on the border with Afghanistan.

Black Tulip

Black Tulip (plane), the Soviet military transport Antonov An-12 plane which was taking away corpses of the lost Soviet military personnel ("cargo 200") from the territory of Afghanistan during the Afghan—Soviet war (1979–1989)

Danfung Dennis

He photographed and directed his first feature length documentary on the war in Afghanistan, Hell and Back Again.

Dominic Waghorn

He worked there for almost five years, during which time he covered the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the aftermath of the War in Lebanon, and the Arab Spring.

Elbruz

Elbruz, garbling of Elburz, also called Alborz, primarily northern-Iranian mountain range neighboring Armenia, Afghanistan, and Pakistan

Fred Kaplan

In late 2012, Kaplan published The Insurgents: David Petraeus and the Plot to Change the American Way of War, a nonfiction work which examines how General David Petraeus attempted to implement new thinking in Afghanistan and Iraq regarding the traditional clear and hold counter-insurgency strategy, and the shortcomings of this strategy, its intellectual underpinnings, and the individuals who defined it.

Gender segregation and Islam

In 1998 activists from the National Organization for Women picketed Unocal's Sugar Land, Texas office, arguing that its proposed pipeline through Afghanistan was collaborating with "gender apartheid".

Glaciers of Bhutan

The study, conducted by the Universities of California and Potsdam and published in the journal Nature Geoscience, was based on 286 glaciers along the Himalaya and Hindu Kush from Bhutan to the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.

Greg Makowski

However, Makowski and his team mates were prevented from competing when President Carter boycotted the games after the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan.

Habis Abdulla al Saoub

According to the indictment, on October 17, 2001, Battle and al Saoub flew out of Portland International Airport en route to Afghanistan.

Hamdi

Yaser Esam Hamdi, former American citizen who was captured in Afghanistan in 2001

Hamidullah Khan

On 5 September 1925 at Peshawar, Nawab Hamidullah Khan married Maimoona Sultan Shah Banu Begum Sahiba (1900–1982), the great-great-granddaughter of Shah Shuja of Afghanistan.

Hedera nepalensis

Hedera nepalensis (Himalayan ivy, Himalaya-Efeu, chang chun teng) is a species of perennial Ivy (genus Hedera) native to Nepal and Bhutan, as well as Afghanistan, India, China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam, at altitudes of about 1000–3000 m.

Hill Pigeon

In Pakistan it occurs in northern Chitral particularly in the western part bordering Nuristan in Afghanistan, further east in valleys of Gilgit in Yasin and Hunza and Karakoram ranges in Baltistan from about 2000 meters in winter up to 5500 meters during summer months.

Hindu Kush

The passes of the Paropamisus in the west are relatively low, averaging around 600 meters; the most well-known of these is the Sabzak between the Herat and Badghis provinces, which links the western and northwestern parts of Afghanistan.

Invasions of Afghanistan

Afghanistan is a mountainous country in South Asia surrounded by several more powerful countries including Iran, Pakistan, China, and other "-stan" countries near Russia.

Jawbreaker: The attack on bin Laden and al-Qaeda

Jawbreaker: The Attack on Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda: A Personal Account by the CIA's Key Field Commander (2005) is an autobiographical book by CIA agent Gary Berntsen describing the time he spent in Afghanistan at the beginning of the American campaign against the Taliban, al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden after the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Kandahar, Saskatchewan

Kandahar is a small hamlet on Highway 16 near Wynyard, Saskatchewan, Canada, named by Canadian Pacific Railway executives in the late 19th century for a British military victory in Kandahar, Afghanistan.

Kharoti

The Nasher Clan of the Kharoti tribe is based in the Konduz Province in Northern Afghanistan, where they were exiled by the ruling Abdali/Durrani tribes.

Kunduz airstrike

In February 2010 German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle announced the Afghanistan deployment was being reclassified as an "armed conflict within the parameters of international law", which would allow German soldiers based in Afghanistan to act without the risk of being prosecuted under German law.

Kunduz Province

Between one hundred and two-hundred thousand Tajiks and Uzbeks fled the conquest of their homeland by Russian Red Army and settled in northern Afghanistan.

Mahmud Khan

Shah Mahmud Khan (1890–1959), Prime Minister of Afghanistan, 1946–1953

Margaret Heffernan

Examining examples of willful blindness in the Catholic Church, the SEC, Nazi Germany, Bernard Madoff’s investors, BP’s safety record, the military in Afghanistan and the dog-eat-dog world of subprime mortgage lenders, the book demonstrates how failing to see—or admit to ourselves or our colleagues—the issues and problems in plain sight can ruin private lives and bring down corporations.

Mohammed Akbar

Akbar Khan or Mohammed Akbar Khan - Emir of Afghanistan and son of Dost Mohammed Khan

Mohammed Alim Khan

After four days of fighting, the emir’s citadel (Arc) was destroyed, the red flag was raised from the top of Kalyan Minaret, and the Emir Alim Khan was forced to flee to his base at Dushanbe (in present-day Tajikistan), and finally to Kabul, Afghanistan, where he died in 1944.

Musa Qala

The situation created a crisis for the ISAF forces in Afghanistan, on the very day that the British commanding officer General David Richards handed over charge of the ISAF team to an American, General Dan K. McNeill; MacNeil suggested that "surgical and deliberate" force would be used to evict the fighters from Musa Qala.

Najibullah Lafraie

Organizations that Dr Lafaie has been a member of, such as Jamiat Islami, have been criticised by groups such as the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan and Support Association for the Women of Afghanistan, and as a consequence Lafaie has been targeted by several of these groups.

Project Thread

The men were initially asked to give Canadian interrogators the location of Osama bin Laden, despite the fact they protested that they had never had any contact with militants or been to Afghanistan.

Rahatullah Mohmand

He was invited to play for Afghanistan to strengthen their batting by their coach Kabir Khan, the former left-arm fast medium bowler who played four Tests for Pakistan.He included in the 15-member Afghanistan team named ahead of the 2009 ICC World Cup Qualifiers due to take place in South Africa.

Before playing for Afghanistan, he played cricket for various first-class teams like Habib Bank Limited, North West Frontier Province cricket team, North West Frontier Province Panthers, Peshawar, Peshawar Panthers, Redco Pakistan Ltd and Water and Power Development Authority.

Rob Furlong

Just days after Furlong's record-making shot, MCpl Arron Perry became the subject of a military police criminal investigation into inappropriate conduct during their deployment in Afghanistan.

Salma Sultan

Salma and Maimoona were great-great-granddaughter of Shah Shuja of Afghanistan.Salma did her schooling from Sultanpur, Madhya Pradesh.

Shamim Jawad

She serves on the Board of Trustees of the American University of Afghanistan (AUAF), a private, not-for-profit institution of higher education in Afghanistan, offering internationally supported degree programs and education.

Tactical Air Control Party

Prince Harry, the third in line to the British throne, served as a TACP commander in Afghanistan.

Tashkurgan Tajik Autonomous County

Tashkurgan County is located in the eastern part of the Pamir Plateau, where the Kunlun, Kara Kunlun, Hindukush and Tian Shan mountains come together, at the borders with Afghanistan (Wakhan Corridor), Tajikistan (Gorno-Badakhshan Province) and Pakistan (Gilgit-Baltistan).

Teaneck Kebab House

Aqbal Qurbanzada founded the establishment in 2002; he had fled Kabul, Afghanistan, in 1985, and traveled to the United States where he began work in the food industry in New York.

The Afghan Women

In January 2004, Mastrosimone presented a reading of the play to actors in Kabul which is the capital of Afghanistan.

The Last Man on Planet Earth

During a war with Afghanistan, an incurable biological weapon called the "Y-bomb", which targets only the male Y-chromosome, is used and results in the eventual deaths of 97% of the world's men.

The Patrol

The Patrol is a 2013 British action drama film set in Helmand Province, Afghanistan in 2006.

The Places in Between

Set at the same time as the American invasion and occupation of Afghanistan after the events set in motion by 9/11, Stewart made the walk in the middle of winter, adding additional hardship as he passed through the mountainous Ghor and Koh-i-Baba regions and its many snow-bound passes and villages.

Unsuri

He is said to have been born in Balkh, today located in Afghanistan, and he eventually became a poet of the royal court, and was given the title Malik-us Shu'ara (King of Poets').

Wadh

The Highway is 813 km long and stretches from Karachi-Lasbela-Khuzdar-Wadh-Kalat-Mastung-Quetta-Chaman and further onto Iran and Afghanistan.