Two U.S. troops were killed and three were wounded in a clash with rebel fighters in Paktia Province, Afghanistan. Four enemy fighters also were killed in the 90 minute firefight.
A large group of suspected Taliban fighters raided an Afghan government checkpoint along a highway to Kabul, killing four policemen and taking two captive.
In the Shajoi region of Zabul province, Indian and Afghan highway workers were attacked by armed men on motorcycles. Six of the sleeping guards were killed, several others were kidnapped and two vehicles were incinerated by rockets and gunfire.
Three Afghan government soldiers were killed and one Afghan commander, Haji Wali Shah, was kidnapped by rebels near the Spin Boldak. Four rebels were wounded, but escaped.
U.S.-led forces came under fire in the Dai Chopan district of Zabul province, Afghanistan. Eight suspected Taliban fighters were captured and at least twelve were killed. A U.S. special operations soldier died in an accidental fall during a nighttime assault.
An Afghan presidential palace vault was opened for the first time in an estimated 15 years revealing Afghanistan's 2,000 year old Tillya Tepe Bactrian gold treasures.
Pakistan detained 26 suspected Taliban members in a raid on an Islamic seminary near its border with Afghanistan.
Farooq Wardak, director of the Afghan Constitutional Commission, announced that they would postpone adopting a new constitution by two months, delaying the adoption until the end of December2003.
A group of rebel fighters attacked U.S.-led coalition forces near the village of Shkin, Afghanistan.
German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder's Security Cabinet approved sending a possible 250 troops to the Kunduz province of Afghan Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah visited Kiev, Russia. In a press conference he said that drug trafficking jeopardized the postwar construction of Afghanistan; he urged the international community to increase the resources needed to fight the flow of narcotics.
Alexander Mikhailov, deputy head of Russia's drug control committee, stated that heroin from Afghanistan was sweeping through Russia.
A two-day meeting in Kabul between among Pakistan and UNHCR authorities began to discuss the fate of the Afghan refugees. In the meetings it was agreed that four refugee camps near the border would close down, and repatriation of some 50,000 Afghans would take place. Two of the camps were in the Chaman area of Balochistan and two camps were in Shalman on the Khyber Pass.
Five Afghan government soldiers were killed in an ambush as they traveled through Zabul province. At least three rebel fighters were killed in the battle that followed.
Pakistan released forty-one men who had fought for the Taliban. Authorities had determined the men did not have ties to Afghan soldiers and four rebel fighters were killed in a clash involving a group of 250 to 300 suspected Taliban fighters in Uruzgan province. Nine suspected Taliban members were captured along with documents, assault rifles, shoulder-held rocket launchers and ammunition.
Over a two-day period in Kabul, Pakistan Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri met separately with Afghan Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah, President Hamid Karzai and Defense Minister Mohammed Fahim. Among other things, they agreed to increase number of flights between their nations. The Afghan government raised no objection with 640 Pakistani prisoners being released by Afghanistan, but U.S. authorities still had not investigated them for any links to terrorist groups.
In Afghanistan, a U.S. special operations service member died as a result of injuries received during operations in the vicinity of Orgun, Paktika Province.
A U.S. soldier was slightly wounded by a bomb while on patrol near the U.S. base at Shkin, Afghanistan.
At least three Afghan civilians were hurt when a U.S. military helicopter fired on their car, near Urgun district, Paktika province.
In Kandahar, Afghanistan, An explosion occurred in the house of Ahmed Wali Karzai, brother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai. The government said the explosion was caused accidentally when some weapons were being moved. One man was injured.
Over 200 insurgents crossed the border from Pakistan and overran the police station in Barmal district, Paktika province, Afghanistan, killing eight officers. Afghan security forces killed 15 of the attackers, who later fled the area.
A large group of insurgents set fire to a police station at Tarway, Paktika province, Afghanistan,. Four officers were captured by the attackers, who retreated to Pakistan.
In a ceremony at the governor's residence in Kandahar, Afghanistan, Gul Agha Sherzai handed gubernatorial power to Yusuf Pashtun. The change in power occurred in response to President Hamid Karzai's decree of August 13 that officials could no longer hold both military and civil posts. Sherzai became a federal minister of urban affairs.
In Afghanistan, General Baz Mohammed Ahmadi was appointed as the new corps commander for Herat. He had previously been commander of the Rushkhar military barracks in southern Kabul.
In Barmal, Paktika province, Afghanistan, fifteen militants and seven Afghan government soldiers were killed in a clash.
The United Nations announced that it and the Afghan government approved a $7.6 million project to register voters for national elections in 2004. A board of six Afghans and five international members was to oversee the registration of an estimated 10.5 million people over 18.
Southwest of Kabul, Afghanistan, two aid workers from the Afghan Red Crescent Society were killed and three others injured when five armed men on two motorcycles fired on their convoy.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai decreed that officials could no longer hold both military and civil posts. The move stripped Ismail Khan of his post as military commander of western Afghanistan.
In Uruzgan province, Afghanistan, at least 25 people died after fighting broke out between supporters of Amanullah, the former ruler of the remote district of Kajran, and his successor, Abdul Rahman Khan.
In western Kabul, Afghanistan, two men were killed when a bomb they were making went off, leaving twisted wreckage of two small cars strewn across their walled compound. A man who survived the explosion later told police they were constructing car bombs to attack "the slaves of the United Nations and the foreign invaders."
Eight suspected Taliban were killed after they attacked Afghan border forces in southeastern Khost province. Two others, who were not Afghans, were arrested.
A report issued by the United Nations stated that Afghanistan had re-emerged as the world's leading source for opium and heroin. The report estimated that 500,000 people were involved in Afghanistan's trafficking chain and estimated an annual income at $25 billion.
In Paktika province, Afghanistan, U.S. military planes, called in by U.S. ground troops patrolling the border, opened fire on what were believed to be attackers fleeing towards the border, two Pakistani guards and wounding a third.
Fifteen miles (24 km) north of Spin Boldak, in Kandahar province, Afghanistan, Taliban forces attacked with rockets a government vehicle, killing five Afghan government soldiers and wounding three.
The first civilian passenger Afghanistan landed in Kabul. The German airline LTU thus began a regular schedule by which an Airbus 330-200 would leave Düsseldorf each Tuesday evening and arrive in Kabul Wednesday morning after a 6½_hour flight.
A press coference in Islamabad, Pakistan held by Pakistani Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz and Afghan Finance Minister Dr. Ashraf Ghani marked the end of a three-day Joint Economic Commission between their countries. The ministers announced that Pakistan pledged to remove six more items from its negative list of exportable items, to reduce railway and port charges, and to simplify custom procedures. The two countries also agreed to enhance bilateral air-traffic, open bank branches of each others, and start railway traffic between Chamman and Kandahar.
The Bakhtar News Agency reported that Zabihullah Zahid, a deputy education minister for the former Taliban regime, had recently been arrested in Balkh province.
Thirteen Afghan militiamen were killed and twenty-one were injured when a truck loaded with 800 rifles, light machine guns, tank rounds and other ammunition exploded in Aqcha district, Jawzjan province.
The United Nations special envoy for Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi, met for the first time with the six-member Afghan electoral commission. Atop the goals of the commission is to register millions of potential voters. To date, free elections had never been held in Afghanistan.
In response to a July 29 rebel ambush that killed at least two Afghan soldiers, roughly 500 Afghan troops backed by U.S._led forces and helicopters entered the Tora Ghar district east of Sha Wali Khot, 10 km (6 miles) north of Kandahar. The operation against an estimated 100 rebels netted three Taliban commanders, Mullah Abdul Hakim, Mullah Abdul Hamid and Mullah Abdul Zahir.
Afghanistan's elections postponed to September, owing to insecurity and the UN's slow pace in registering voters.
Afghanistan's rival factions agree on a new constitution, overcoming weeks of discord to set the country on the path to free elections.
US-led forces in Afghanistan say they have driven back a large concentration of Taliban rebels in the south-east of the country after some of the fiercest fighting since the militia was overthrown almost two years ago.
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