Hassan Onal , Turkish road engineer kidnapped by the Taliban on October 28, was released to tribal elders in Zabul province, Afghanistan. A Taliban spokesman claimed Onal had been freed because the Afghan government had released two militants.
NATO agreed to take command of PRTs in five Afghan towns that were currently protected by Operation Enduring Freedom. However, NATO added that the change of command would only take place if military resources were available. Such a move would necessitate 3,000 more troops and bases in Tajikistan or Kyrgyzstan.
The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy released a report that estimated the area in Afghanistan used to grow poppies had risen from 4,210 acres (17 km²) in 2001 to 76,900 acres (311 km²) in 2002 and to 152,000 acres (615 km²) in 2003. United Nations figures published a month earlier estimating 185,000 acres (749 km²) in 2002 and 200,000 acres (809 km²) in 2003.
Near Khost, Afghanistan, rebel forces fired on U.S.-led coalition and Afghan soldiers. In the ensuing exchange, one rebel was wounded and several others were captured.
At least four Afghans were wounded when soldiers opened fire on demonstrators outside the defence ministry in Kabul, Afghanistan. The protesters were ex-mujahideen fighters who had recently been dismissed by the ministry.
Afghan authorities in Kabul arrested two men carrying explosives.
Near the village of Shukhi in the Kapisa province, a U.S.MH-53 Pave Lowhelicopter crashed shortly after leaving Bagram Air Base, killing five U.S. soldiers. Eight soldiers also were wounded. The troops were part of the 16th Special Operations Wing and were participating in Operation Mountain Resolve. It was later determined that the cause of the accident was engine failure.
Two U.S.-led coalition troops were wounded when their vehicle went over landmine near Shkin , Afghanistan.
As part of an amnesty linked to the end of Ramadan, more than 60 suspected Taliban members and sympathisers were from a prison in northern Afghanistan.
Near Ghazni, Afghanistan, on the road connecting Kabul with Kandahar, gunmen kidnapped and later released an Afghan driver working with a U.N.-led de-mining operation, stealing his car, money and documents.
Two 107-millimetre rockets attached to a car battery were discovered by Canadian in a palace nearby Camp Julien, Afghanistan. The rockets were pointed toward Camp Julien, allegedly in anticipation of Canadian Defence Minister John McCallum's visit the following day.
South Korea temporarily closed its embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan amid warnings that al Qaeda might launch a suicide bomb attack. Three South Korean diplomats were evacuated to Pakistan. South Korea had a total of 200 troops serving in Afghanistan.
Canada delivered millions of voter registration kits to Afghanistan's electoral commission in Kabul. Nationwide elections were to take place mid-2004.
In Ghazni province, Afghanistan, two men on a motorcycle opened fire on a UNHCR vehicle, killing Bettina Goislard, a French woman who was a U.N. staff member, and injuring the driver. Local police fired at the motorcycle, injuring one of the two men and arresting both of them. The two men were beaten by an angry mob before they were arrested. Taliban officials claimed responsibility and stated Goislard was killed because she was Christian.
Pakistani border security forces arrested 60 Afghans trying to cross over into Pakistan illegally.
An explosion occurred outside the small U.S.-led coalition camp in Kandahar province, Afghanistan. Later, a rocket fired by unidentified attackers landed near the base.
A new television station, Aina ("Mirror"), started test broadcasts from Sheberghan , Afghanistan. On air for six hours a night and covering an area of 300 kilometers, the channel planned to broadcast cultural, social, entertainment, political and sports programs in the local Dari, Pashtu, Uzbek and Turkman languages.
In the Manogi district of Kunar province, a car was blown up by a remote-controlled bomb, killing at least three Afghans and injuring three.
In Kandahar, Afghanistan, a car bomb blew up outside a United Nations Assistance Mission to Afghanistan compound, injuring at least one person and damaging nearby buildings.
The Asian Development Bank approved a US$1 million technical assistance grant to carry out a preparatory study of redeveloping a road connecting Herat with Andkhoy , Turkmenistan.
Taliban forces used rockets and machineguns to attack Romanian armored personnel carriers returning to its base in Kandahar province, Afghanistan, killing at least one soldier and injuring at least one.
Outside Kandahar, Afghanistan, a U.N. de-mining vehicle belonging to an international relief agency hit an anti-tank mine, injuring two people.
U.S. soldiers killed one rebel in a clash in the Marzeh district of Nuristan province, Afghanistan. Two or three rebels also opened fire on other U.S. forces there, then fled the scene when close air support was called in.
In a signed statement sent to local media, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar dismissed the Afghan Transition Government as a puppet of the United States. The statement also said that efforts to adopt the Afghan Draft Constitution were meaningless.
A group of rebels fired rockets at U.S.-led coalition forces in Kunar province, Afghanistan. Coalition soldiers responded with small arms and aerial fire.
The Taliban militia leader holding Hasan Onal , a Turkish engineer, hostage in southwestern Afghanistan demanded the release of 250 Taliban fighters by the Afghan Government. Onal had been abducted October 28.
The Afghan government dispatched a 12-member defence ministry delegation led by deputy chief of army of staff, Ishaq Noori , to Mazar-i-Sharif with the two-weeks mission of merging the troops led by Ustad Atta Mohammad and the troops led by General Abdul Rashid Dostum.
At least eight people were killed when rebels attacked an administrative buildings in Zabul province, Afghanistan. The Taliban also kidnapped four relatives of the district chief and threatened to kill them unless the governor surrendered the district to them.
In Kabul, Afghanistan, unidentified gunmen murdered Shireen Agha Salangi , a former Northern Alliance commander who later switched sides to fight alongside the Taliban.
An Indian man was murdered by unknown gunmen in his home in the Taimani district of Kabul, Afghanistan. The man was an employee of a private Indian firm which was working on a Afghan mobile phone project.
