2003 in Afghanistan – Sludge Pump EZG – Slurry Pump EMM
that they had granted political asylum to three former Taliban fighters. None of the fighters had engaged in direct combat with British or U.S. troops.
February 13: In Operation Eagle Fury, coalition warplanes dropped four 500 pound bombs and fired several hundred rounds of ammunition at the caves. Special forces patrols had collected abandoned ammunition casings and rocket-launchers. 15 fighters were captured by more than 100 US troops, while an estimated 30 rebels were believed to have suffered heavy injuries.
The United States Congress stepped in to find 5M in humanitarian and reconstruction funds for Afghanistan after the Bush administration failed to request any money in the latest budget. In its budget proposal for 2003, the White House did not ask for any money to aid humanitarian and reconstruction costs in Afghanistan. The chairman of the committee that distributes foreign aid, Jim Kolbe, said that when he asked administration officials why they had not requested any funds, he was given no satisfactory explanation. The 5M was not even close to the 5M promised in a bill signed by Bush in December 2002.
Another detainee attempted suicide at Camp X-Ray at Guantnamo Bay, Cuba. It was the 16th attempted suicide there since detentions began.
February 14: In Kabul, four armed robbers stormed into the office of a French charity (Solidarity, working to help farmers), tied up two Afghan employees and stole cash. Police chief General Basir Falangi said authorities were investigating and vowed to find the robbers.
Suspected Taliban remnants fired two rockets into the southern Afghan town of Spin Boldak, but there were no casualties. A third rocket landed near a Pakistani border post.
February 15: U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said that the Bush administration continued to hold the belief that Afghanistan still belonged to the Afghans. He said US forces were in Afghanistan to promote the goal of long-term stability and independence through the development of local institutions. In response to concerns over the U.S. shifting its focus onto Iraq, he said that whatever else happens in the world, the US would not abandon Afghanistan.
U.S. Lt. Gen. Dan McNeill met separately with President Karzai and village elders in Helmand Province to discuss a coalition assault a week earlier that allegedly left several civilians dead. Karzai expressed concerns for the safety of civilians in operations carried out by US-led military coalition hunting for Islamic militants. Local officials and villagers in Helmand Province have said that at least 17 civilians, mostly women and children, had been killed in coalition bombing raids in the mountainous region that week. The U.S. military said that only an eight-year-old boy was wounded in the operation, and added that coalition forces had the right to self-defense.
February 16: In Balochistan, Pakistan, strong winds and heavy rains caused a wall to collapse in a Latifabad refugee camp, killing a nine-year-old girl and injuring three of her family members. Some 50 Afghan families in a Mohammad Kheil camp also lost their homes and tents in the storms. Later in the week, UNHCR distributed tents, food, coal and blankets to the affected refugees, along with 150 tents and 900 quilts to storm-hit refugees in Chaghi refugee village in Baluchistan Dalbandin area.
United Nations officials in Kabul said that rains brought signs of recovery in southern Afghanistan, where reservoirs are filling up in drought ravaged Kandahar and Helmand Provinces.
Afghanistan and UNICEF announced a program to re-train thousands of teachers, particularly women forced out of work during the Taliban regime. About 70,000 teachers across 29 of the country’s 32 provinces will begin to receive the on-the-job training in the coming weeks. Teachers will be instructed on new ways to teach Dari and Pashtu. They will also be trained to teach awareness of the dangers of landmines.
The United Nations said that authorities were looking for new housing for 100 impoverished families who recently moved into cliff-side caves that surround the famed Buddha statues destroyed by the Taliban in central Afghanistan.
The United Nations World Food Program began to distribute to the Afghan people 10,000 mt of fortified high-energy biscuits recently donated by the Indian government. President Karzai inaugurated the program by distributing biscuits to schoolchildren of the Amani High School in Kabul.
Three children drowned when they were swept away by flood waters near Kandahar.
February 17: Afghan officials, workers, and citizens gathered at the Kabul museum for the opening of two newly renovated rooms. The purpose of the rooms was to begin repairing the collection of thousands of statues that were smashed in the Spring of 2001. The British Government, with the advice of the British Museum, paid for the renovation, and British