In Helmand province, Afghanistan, police officers opened fire on military vehicles with tinted windows that had refused to stop for a routine check. In the ensuing exchange of fire, three Afghan National Army soldiers and two policemen were killed.
Two Arabs and two Chechens in Khost province, Afghanistan, attempting to kidnapU.S. journalists, were thwarted when the car they stopped on the road between Gardez and Khost contained only a local driver. The driver was beaten, but not killed, because he spoke Arabic.
In a small hamlet near the village of Aranj in the Waygal district of Nuristan province, Afghanistan, six people of the same family were killed when a house was bombarded by U.S. warplanes. The house belonged to a former provincial governor, Ghulam Rabbani , who was in Kabul at the time. The raid was aimed at Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and Mullah Faqirullah , both of whom had left the area just hours before. The victims (three children, an adolescent, a young man and an old woman) were all relatives of Mullah Rabbani.
New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark arrived in Kabul for a two-day visit that would include talks with President Hamid Karzai and encounters with New Zealand forces serving there. At the time New Zealand had around 100 troops serving as part of a humanitarian reconstruction team in Bamiyan province, near the site of the ancient Buddha statues which were destroyed by the former Taliban rulers.
Thirty-five miles west of the Deh Rawood district in Uruzgan province, Afghanistan, rebels killed a U.S. special forces soldier and wounded an Afghan soldier.
In Zabul province, Afghanistan, rebels kidnapped four Afghan government officials, including the brother of Mullah Mohammad Zafar , commissioner of the Khak Afghan district .
In Kabul, a Canadian combat engineer was uninjured when his vehicle struck a landmine. He was clearing the same route where two Canadian soldiers were killed October 2.
In Orgun of Paktika province, Afghanistan, four U.S. special forces soldiers suffered minor wounds after their patrol was ambushed.
Hasan Onal , a Turkish engineer, and his Afghan driver were kidnapped at gunpoint while traveling in the Shah Joy district of Zabul province. The driver was freed a day later with the kidnappers' demands, which were the release of 18 Taliban prisoners by November 2. Onal was eventually released safely on November 29.
In attempts to prevent the movement of foreign terrorists into Pakistan, the Pakistan army established over 100 check-posts along the border with Afghanistan, and established a system of intelligence, patrols, and inspections in the tribal areas.
During a visit to Mazar-e-Sharif, Balkh province, Afghanistan, Afghan interior minister Ali Ahmad Jalali appointed a new provincial governor, deputy governor, mayor and police chief. The shake-up was an attempt to quell growing ethnic tensions in the area. In one of the more controversial appointments, the former police chief of Kandahar (Mohammed Akram , an ethnic Pashtun) was named the chief in Mazar-e-Sharif.
Afghan citizens, including Afghan Women's Affairs Minister Habiba Surabi expressed outrage at Miss Earth contestant Vida Samadzai for donning a red bikini on stage in Manila.
In the Gomal district of Paktika province, Afghanistan, U.S.-led coalition troops killed 18 rebel fighters in a six-hour firefight, calling in A-10 Thunderbolt airplanes and Apache helicopters to help combat the attackers. Two CIA agents, William Carlson and Christopher Mueller , were killed in a related ambush.
Afghan, Pakistani and U.S. diplomats and military officials participated in a joint visit to the Afghan-Pakistani border to ascertain where the disputed boundary should lie.
Germany's lower house of Bundestag voted to send German troops to Kunduz, Afghanistan. The deployment marked the first time that ISAF soldiers operated outside of Kabul.
Taliban members distributed pamphlets in Laghman province, Afghanistan, threatened death to Afghan women working for NGOs and to Afghan drivers carrying foreigners and their belongings on highways.
About 1,000 Afghan National Army soldiers, backed by more than a hundred U.S.-led coalition troops, tanks, and jets, swept through parts of Zabul province hunting for rebel forces. Sixteen suspected Taliban fighters were captured.
Rebels fired rockets at a pickup truck ferrying passengers to Haibak in Samangan province, Afghanistan, killing 10 people, including two children.
In Kabul, British minister for international trade Mike O'Brien and Afghan Commerce Minister Sayed Mustafa Kazimi signed a trade agreement to strengthen bilateral business ties and to improve the international market for Afghan products.
In the first three days of a demilitarization program in Kunduz, Afghanistan, more than 600 Afghan militiamen surrendered their weapons to the government.
The Afghan government confirmed that former Taliban Foreign Minister Wakil Ahmad Mutawakil had been released from U.S. custody at Bagram Air Base. Taliban leadership promptly denounced Mutawakil.
Pakistani border security force arrested Afghan Commander Nizamuddin and two soldiers who had crossed into Pakistan illegally.
Pakistan began constructing a 40 kilometer wall along the Afghan border without seeking permission from the government of Hamid Karzai.
Outside a United Nations office in Kabul, hundreds of dismissed Afghan military personnel and army officers protested, demanding back jobs and income lost during reforms of the Defense Ministry. The reforms were aimed at making the ministry more ethnically balanced, to encourage opposition factions to lay down their arms to bring peace to the nation. To date, 20,000 of 50,000 scheduled had already been dismissed since the beginning of 2003.
Over forty Afghan children, mostly from Baghlan province, who were illegally trafficked to Saudi Arabia over recent years, were repatriated to Kabul. They would reside in an orphanage run by the Afghan Social Affairs Ministry until their families could be located.
In Kabul, the MMRD and the Embassy of Japan hosted a Ogata Initiative workshop to define goals for the next phase of the Initiative.
Near the U.S. base at Deh Rawud in Uruzgan province, Afghanistan, U.S. special forces soldiers in an operation with Afghan National Army soldiers captured Mullah Janan , a Taliban commander thought responsible for rocket attacks on a base in southern Afghanistan.
On a road linking Khost province with Gardez province , a group of 50 Taliban men whipped drivers without beards, confiscated music cassettes from vehicles and passengers, and distributed pamphlets warning of harsh penalties.
U.S. Commerce Secretary Don Evans visited some sites in Kabul. While visiting a girls' school he relayed a message to the schoolgirls from United States PresidentGeorge W. Bush that "We care about you and we love you." Evans then put his arm around a female teacher at the school, a faux pas in the conservative Muslim state.
In the Char Cheno district , Uruzgan province, U.S.-led coalition troops completed a two-day battle with suspected Taliban rebels. Two Afghan National Army soldiers and six rebels died in the fighting.
In the Bakwa district of Farah province, Afghanistan, unknown gunmen wearing uniforms of government security forces opened fire on travelers along a highway, killing seven people and injuring two others. The gunmen robbed the travelers.
In Kabul, several hundred former Afghan military personnel officers held their third demonstration in a month to protest their dismissal. They demanded reinstatement and lost pay.
In the Chaar Cheno district , Uruzgan province, Afghanistan, hundreds of Afghan troops backed by U.S. soldiers and helicopters attacked a suspected Taliban hideout, killing at least four rebels and capturing eight others. One Afghan National Army soldier was killed and five others were wounded.
In Zabul province, Afghanistan, gunmen ambushed a vehicle carrying two U.S. citizens, but no injuries were reported.
At a wedding ceremony in Shab Koh , Farah province, Afghanistan, three were killed and four injured because of an armed clash between two government security officers.
In Zabul province, Afghanistan, eight policemen were killed when around 100 suspected rebel fighters attacked government offices. District offices were torched and four vehicles destroyed.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai approved a law barring warlords and members of armed forces from forming political parties. Under the law, judges, prosecutors, armed forces leaders, officers, non-commissioned officers, other military personnel, police officers, and personnel of national security would not be allowed to be members of a political party during their tenure of office.
About 40 prisoners including members of the Taliban escaped through a tunnel at the jail in Kandahar, Afghanistan. The escape led to the suspension of the prison superintendent a few days later. It was alleged that the prisoners paid bribes of $80,000. It was not immediately known to where the earth was removed to create the 30 metre tunnel.
Near the Bagram Air Base north of Kabul, at least six people were killed and seven others injured in a massive explosion caused by people dismantling a cluster bomb.
In the Urgan district of Paktika province, Afghanistan, rebels ambushed two fuel trucks supplying the U.S.-led coalition and beheaded two people and kidnapping the remaining four.
In Dara-e-Noor , north Kandahar, Afghanistan, a pickup truck carrying Afghan National Army soldiers came under fire from over a dozen rebel fighters. Ten government soldiers and two children were killed.
In Kabul, two Canadian peacekeepers (Sgt. Robert Short and Cpl. Robbie Beerenfenger) were killed and three were injured in a landmine blast.
Afghan security forces arrested five suspected al-Qaeda operatives, four Afghan and one from Pakistan. It was alleged that the suspects came from Pakistan where they were trained at an al-Qaeda camp.
In the Nish area north of Kandahar, Afghanistan, ten Afghan National Army soldiers and two children were killed in their vehicles when they were ambushed by 16 rebels in two vehicles. In the same area, four rebels were when helicopter gunships from the U.S.-led force fired at their vehicle.
