Afghanistan timeline

Mid-February 2001

The Taliban admit that resistance forces have captured the strategically important town of Bamiyan after heavy fighting.

February 14, 2001

The headquarters of the UN Special Mission to Afghanistan (UNSMA) are closed by the Taliban authorities in retaliation for the U.S. government's closure of the Taliban offices in New York.

Mid-February 2001

The U.K.-based human rights group Amnesty International condemns the apparently summary execution of six men by the rebel Northern Alliance.

Mid-February 2001

The New York-based Human Rights Watch produces video evidence of the murder of around 170 men by Taliban forces in December 2000. The footage shows the execution of local men rounded up by Taliban forces reentering the town of Yakawlang, which had been briefly held by rebel forces late in 2000. It also depicts a mass grave at a nearby village.

Late February 2001

In response to allegations of atrocities the Taliban authorities accuse rebel forces of killing 120 civilians during their three-day occupation of Bamiyan earlier in the month.

Late February 2001

Taliban leader Mohammad Omar decrees that all statues in the country should be destroyed as they represent an insult to Islam and are being worshipped as false gods. The order leads to the destruction of priceless historic artifacts across the country including the world's tallest statue of an upright Buddha in Bamiyan.