1998 in Afghanistan

The following lists events that happened during 1998 in Afghanistan.

1998
in
Afghanistan

Decades:
  • 1970s
  • 1980s
  • 1990s
  • 2000s
  • 2010s
See also:Other events of 1998
List of years in Afghanistan

Incumbents

February 4, 1998

  • The 5.9 Mw Afghanistan earthquake shook the northeastern portion of the country with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VII (Very strong). This strike-slip shock left 2,323 dead and 818 injured in the Takhar Province. A 6.5 Mw earthquake affected the same region on May 30, claiming 4,000–4,500 lives.

April 1998

US ambassador to the UN Bill Richardston visited Afghanistan and asked the Taliban to surrender Bin Laden for trial, but the Taliban refused the request.

July 8, 1998

  • The Taliban movement gives Afghans 15 days to get rid of their television sets, video players, and satellite receivers. The Taliban has anyway put a stop to television broadcasts in the two-thirds of the country it controls. But Maulvi Qalamuddin, the Taliban deputy minister in charge of its Department for Prevention of Vice and Promotion of Virtue, said people continued to watch video tapes and foreign television channels received via satellite dishes. He said watching video tapes and satellite television broadcasts was inadmissible in Islam, damaging to morals, and caused mental disorders.

July 12, 1998

  • The Taliban capture the key opposition stronghold of Maimana, capital of Faryab province in the northwest.

July 21, 1998

  • 140 detainees were released in Afghanistan under the auspices of the International Committee of the Red Cross. Half of the detainees were being held by Taliban authorities in Kandahar and the other half by authorities of the Northern Alliance in Panshir.

August 2, 1998

  • The opposition alliance admits the loss of the key northern town of Sheberghan to the Taliban. The entire province of Sar-i-Pul falls on August 4.

August 7, 1998

August 8, 1998

  • The Taliban capture the northern opposition capital Mazar-i-Sharif. On August 11, they capture Taloqan, the Takhar provincial capital, the latest in a series of spectacular victories.

August 20, 1998

August 21, 1998

September 3, 1998

September 10, 1998

  • The Taliban movement says it has found the bodies of nine Iranian diplomats whose disappearance sparked tension with neighbouring Iran; two survivors return to Iran.

September 13, 1998

  • The Taliban militia says its fighters have captured the central Shi`ite town of Bamiyan, the last major opposition stronghold in Afghanistan. On September 14, Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warns the Taliban and Pakistan that their actions could provoke a major regional conflict.

September 21, 1998

  • Anti-Taliban forces shell Kabul with rockets for a second day, bringing the death toll to over 70 people.

September 19, 1998

October 8, 1998

  • Iran inflicts "heavy casualties" in a first armed clash with Afghan Taliban forces after weeks of tension between the hostile neighbours.

October 12, 1998

  • The last three bodies of Iranian diplomats killed by Afghan Taliban militiamen are flown back to Tehran.

October 23, 1998

  • The UN and the Taliban movement sign an agreement paving the way for the return of UN international staff to Afghanistan.

References

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