The following lists events that happened during

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

Incumbents

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

Ashraf Ghani Mohammad Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai (born 19 May 1949) is an Afghan politician, academic, and economist who served as the president of Afghanistan from September 2014 until August 2021, when his government was overthrown by the Taliban. Born in L ...

Chief Executive Officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

Abdullah Abdullah Abdullah Abdullah (Dari/ ps, عبدالله عبدالله, ; born as Abdullah on 5 September 1960) is an Afghan politician who led the High Council for National Reconciliation (HCNR) from May 2020 until August 2021, when the Afghan government wa ...

* Chief Justice:

Abdul Salam Azimi Abdul Salam Azimi (born 1936 in Farah Province) is an Afghan judge who was the Chief Justice of Afghanistan and, as such, the head of the Afghan Supreme Court from May 2006 to October 2014, when he resigned his position. A former professor at th ...

Events

January

* January 5 – A suicide car bomber hits the headquarters of the

European Union Police Mission in Afghanistan EUPOL Afghanistan (2007–2016) was a European Union mission supporting the reform efforts of the Afghan government in building a civilian police service in Afghanistan. Background EUPOL Afghanistan was part of the European Union's External Act ...

Kabul Kabul (; ps, , ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province; it is administratively divided into 22 municipal districts. Acco ...

killing one person and injuring five. The

Taliban The Taliban (; ps, طالبان, ṭālibān, lit=students or 'seekers'), which also refers to itself by its state (polity), state name, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a Deobandi Islamic fundamentalism, Islamic fundamentalist, m ...

have claimed responsibility. * January 14 – A U.S.

drone strike Drone warfare is a form of aerial warfare using unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAV) or weaponized commercial unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV). The United States, United Kingdom, Israel, China, South Korea, Iran, Italy, France, India, Pakista ...

killed at least two al-Qaeda militants and accidentally killed two hostages:

Warren Weinstein Warren Weinstein (July 3, 1941 – January 15, 2015) was an American contractor, and director in Pakistan for J.E. Austin Associates, a firm which increases business competitiveness and growth in developing economies. He was kidnapped by eight al-Q ...

and

Giovanni Lo Porto Giovanni Lo Porto (23 June 1977 – 15 January 2015) was an Italian aid worker. In January 2012, he was abducted by militants while working in the Pakistani city of Multan, along with a German colleague, Bernd Muehlenbeck. Muehlenbeck was later ...

. * January 15 – Afghan security officials arrest five men in Kabul in relation to their suspected involvement in the

2014 Peshawar school massacre On 16 December 2014, six gunmen affiliated with the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) conducted a terrorist attack on the Army Public School in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar. The militants, all of whom were foreign nationals, compri ...

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

. * January 29 –

Taliban insurgency {{Infobox military conflict , partof = the War in Afghanistan (2001–2021) and the Afghanistan conflict , image = 2021 Taliban Offensive.png , image_size = 300px , caption = Map of the 2021 Taliban o ...

** Taliban attacks across Afghanistan kill 17 people. ** Three American contractors are killed at

Hamid Karzai International Airport , nativename-r = , image = Flightline at Kabul International Airport.jpeg , caption = The flightline at Kabul International Airport in January 2012 , IATA = KBL , ICAO = OAKB , ...

February

* February 3/4 – Afghan, US and NATO troops carried out a mission in Nangarhar province that captured 6 Taliban militants who were wanted for the

. * February 9 - A US Air Force drone strike in Helmand Province killed Mullah Abdul Rauf Khadim, deputy commander of ISIL-K, 5 other militants were killed in the strike. * February 25 – At least 187 people are killed in avalanches in northeastern Afghanistan. * February 26 – A Taliban suicide bomb attack on a Turkish government vehicle in Kabul kills at least one person.

March

*March 24 - During a visit to the US by Ghani and Abdullah, the US president announced that the US forces will remain at a level of about 9800 troops through 2015 and will not be drawn down to 5000 as had been originally planned. *March 25 – The

Afghan National Army Afghan may refer to: *Something of or related to Afghanistan, a country in Southern-Central Asia * Afghans, people or citizens of Afghanistan, typically of any ethnicity **Afghan (ethnonym), the historic term applied strictly to people of the Pas ...

kills twenty-nine insurgents and injures twenty-one others in a series of operations in

Daikundi Daykundi ( prs, دایکندی) also spelled as Daikundi, Daykondi, Daikondi or Dai Kundi, is one of the thirty-four provinces of Afghanistan, located in the central part of the country. It has a population of about 516,504, and is a Hazara Pro ...

Ghazni Ghazni ( prs, غزنی, ps, غزني), historically known as Ghaznain () or Ghazna (), also transliterated as Ghuznee, and anciently known as Alexandria in Opiana ( gr, Αλεξάνδρεια Ωπιανή), is a city in southeastern Afghanistan ...

, and

Parwan province Parwan (Dari: ), also spelled Parvan, is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan. It has a population of about 751,000. The province is multi-ethnic and mostly rural society. The province is divided into ten districts. The town of Imam Abu Hanif ...

April

*April 18 - A major suicide bomb attack in

Jalalabad Jalalabad (; Dari/ ps, جلال‌آباد, ) is the fifth-largest city of Afghanistan. It has a population of about 356,274, and serves as the capital of Nangarhar Province in the eastern part of the country, about from the capital Kabul. Jala ...

killed more than 30 people and injured over 100 persons. A spokesman for the

ISIL An Islamic state is a state that has a form of government based on Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a translation of the Arabic term ...

said it carried out the attack.First wave of IS attacks? Claim and denial over the Jalalabad bombs
- Kate Clark and Borhan Osman,

Afghanistan Analysts Network The Afghanistan Analysts Network (AAN) is an independent non-profit policy research and analysis organization. Founded in 2009, it is registered as an association in Germany and Afghanistan, funded in large part by Scandinavian countries, and has a ...

, 22 April 2015 *April 24 - The Battle of Kunduz begins.

May

* Suicide bombers attack the Park Palace guesthouse on 13 May 2015. Norwegian special forces from the ''

Marinejegerkommandoen ''Marinejegerkommandoen'' (MJK) ( en, Naval Special Operations Command) is the maritime/naval special warfare unit of the Norwegian Armed Forces and was established in 1953. The MJK is under the command of the Norwegian Special Operations Com ...

'' were central in saving 37 Australian hostages while they were in direct contact with the Australian ambassador in Kabul. * Late May - Secret talks were held in the Chinese city of Urumqi between Afghanistan's peace envoy and representatives of the

.Taliban and Afghan Peace Officials Have Secret Talks in China
- NY Times, By EDWARD WONG and MUJIB MASHALMAY 25, 2015 The meeting was reportedly facilitated by Pakistan's intelligence agency ISI.Afghan Peace Envoy Met Taliban in Secret China Talks
- Wall Street Journal, 24 May 2015

June

* 2015 Kabul Parliament attack - the Taliban use a car bomb, assault rifles and RPGs to attack the parliament, killing a woman and injuring 30 civilians.

July

*July 7 - The third senior group commander of ISIL in Afghanistan; Shahidullah Shahid, was killed along with five other terrorists in a U.S. drone strike in Nangarhar province. *July 13 - At least 33 people have been killed in a suicide car bomb attack near

Camp Chapman Forward Operating Base Chapman, also known as Camp Chapman, was a United States Armed Forces Forward Operating Base located at the site of a former Afghan Army installation and was situated in Khost province, Afghanistan, on an airstrip 2 miles ...

housing both Afghan and international troops in

Khost province Khost (Pashto/Dari: ) is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, located in the southeastern part of the country. Khost consists of thirteen districts and the city of Khost serves as the capital of the province. To the east, Khost Province is bord ...

. *July 20 - Eight Afghan soldiers were killed and five wounded by friendly fire from a U.S. Apache helicopter in

Logar province Logar (Pashto/Dari: ; meaning Greater Mountain ( لوې غر)) is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan located in the eastern section of the country. It is divided into 7 districts and contains hundreds of villages. Puli Alam is the capital of ...

, south of Kabul during a battle with insurgents.

August

*August 7 - A series of bombings in Kabul kill 50 and wound 500. The attacks were claimed by the Taliban. *August 10 - A Taliban suicide bomber attacked a checkpoint near the entrance to the international airport in Kabul, killing five people. *August 22 - A Suicide attack on a NATO convoy in Kabul kills 12 and injures 66. *August 26 - Two NATO soldiers were killed in an 'insider attack'in Helmand province.

October

*October 1 to 4 - U.S. aircraft launched 22 airstrikes over four days on Taliban targets in Kunduz. *October 2 - A U.S. C-130 aircraft crashed at Jalalabad airport in a non-hostile incident, killing 12. *October 3 - A USAF AC-130U gunship attacked the

Kunduz Trauma Centre The Kunduz Trauma Centre was a hospital operated by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in Kunduz, Afghanistan from 29 August 2011 until 3 October 2015 when it was Kunduz hospital airstrike, destroyed in an airstrike by a United States Air Force Lockh ...

operated by

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF; pronounced ), also known as Doctors Without Borders, is a humanitarian medical non-governmental organisation (NGO) or charity of French origin known for its projects in conflict zones and in countries affected by endemic diseases. M ...

(MSF) during the Battle of Kunduz, killing at least 30 people and injuring over 30. *October 10 - An RAF Puma Mk2 helicopter crashed as it was landing at NATO training and support mission HQ in Kabul, killing five NATO personnel. *October 7 to 11 - In Shorabak district,

Kandahar province Kandahār ( ps, ; Kandahār, prs, ; ''Qandahār'') is one of the thirty-four provinces of Afghanistan, located in the southern part of the country, sharing a border with Pakistan, to the south. It is surrounded by Helmand in the west, Uruzgan ...

, 200 U.S. and Afghan Special forces operators supported by 63 U.S. airstrikes destroyed 'probably the largest ever' AQIS training camp, killing Some 160 al-Qaeda terrorists. Also that day, the Taliban attacked a British military convoy in Kabul, there were no British casualties however seven Afghans were injured. *October 13 - A U.S. F-16 was struck by insurgent small arms fire whilst flying over

Paktia province Paktia (Pashto/Dari: – ''Paktyā'') is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, located in the east of the country. Forming part of the larger Loya Paktia region, Paktia Province is divided into 15 districts and has a population of roughly 6 ...

, forcing it to return to base. *October 14 - U.S. and Afghan forces retake the city of Kunduz after the Taliban withdraws from the city. *October 15 - President Obama announces that he will be keeping 9,800 troops in Afghanistan through most of 2016 and 5,500 into 2017, rather than reducing the force to about 1,000 service members by the end of 2016. *October 20 - The Taliban seize Babaji in

Helmand province Helmand (Pashto/Dari: ; ), also known as Hillmand, in ancient times, as Hermand and Hethumand, is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan Afghanistan is divided into 34 provinces (, '' wilåyat''). The provinces of Afghanistan are the primar ...

. *October 26 - The

2015 Hindu Kush earthquake The October 2015 Hindu Kush earthquake was a magnitude 7.5 earthquake that struck South Asia on 26 October 2015, at 13:39 AFT (14:09 PKT; 14:39 IST; 09:09 UTC) with the epicenter 45 km north of Kuran wa Munjan, Afghanistan, at a depth ...

of 7.5 magnitude hits north-east Afghanistan, with tremors reported in India and Pakistan, with at least 260 killed.

November

*Unknown - The Taliban had surrounded police forces in the center of Marja District, threatening to take over that town and open the way for an assault on the provincial capital. But in a rescue mission by eight United States Special Operations soldiers leading a contingent of Afghan soldiers, kept the district in government control *Unknown - A company of US Army Rangers and Afghan counter-terrorism forces, destroyed an al-Qaeda training camp in a “fierce fight” that lasted for several days in southeastern Afghanistan. *November 25 - The Afghan army launched an operation to rescue hostages captured by the Taliban after their helicopter was shot down in Pashtun Kot district,

Faryab province Faryab (Dari: ) is one of the thirty-four provinces of Afghanistan, which is located in the north of the country bordering neighboring Turkmenistan. It has a population of about 1,109,223, which is multi-ethnic and mostly a tribal society. The pr ...

the previous day. Of the 21 people on board, three were killed the Taliban.

December

*Early December - NATO forces had carried out heavy airstrikes in several districts of Helmand, including Marja, Sangin and Babaji. In another joint operation, in Nawzad, NATO and Afghan forces conducted a rescue operation in which they freed 62 hostages of the Taliban, including police officers and civilians. *December 5 - Throughout the night, a group of

Rangers A Ranger is typically someone in a military/paramilitary or law enforcement role specializing in patrolling a given territory, called “ranging”. The term most often refers to: * Park ranger or forest ranger, a person charged with protecting and ...

engaged in a firefight with enemy troops near the Afghan-Pakistan border; after about 5 a.m. their commander called for an extraction after they learned of a larger enemy group approaching. A helicopter from the

160th SOAR The 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne), abbreviated as 160th SOAR (A), is a special operations force of the United States Army that provides helicopter aviation support for special operations forces. Its missions have include ...

arrived and began and received heavy fire from the enemy, an AH-64 Apache helicopter from the 1st Battalion

101st Aviation Regiment The 101st Aviation Regiment is an aviation regiment of the U.S. Army. Lineage Constituted 7 December 1950 in the Regular Army as the 4th Light Aviation Section Activated 19 December 1950 in Korea Inactivated 5 November 1954 in Korea Redesig ...

escorting the helicopter, put their Apache directly between the U.S. troops, the helicopter and the enemy forces to draw the fire. As a result, the extraction was a success. *December 8 - The Taliban attack Kandahar Airport, killing 37 people including nine Taliban insurgents and 35 people were injured as well as one insurgent *December 11 - Taliban militants attack the Spanish embassy in Kabul killing a total of nine people and perpetrators. *December 17 - Green Berets from A Company, 1st Battalion,

19th Special Forces Group The 19th Special Forces Group (Airborne) (19th SFG) (A) is one of two National Guard groups of the United States Army Special Forces. 19th Group—as it is sometimes called—is designed to deploy and execute nine doctrinal missions: unconventio ...

were accompanying a team of Afghan commandos in a clearing operation in Khan Neshin Valley in Helmand province; a firefight broke out whilst they were clearing several structures resulting in two Afghans killed and two Americans were wounded, at least five enemy combatants were killed, one green beret was awarded the

Silver star The Silver Star Medal (SSM) is the United States Armed Forces' third-highest military decoration for valor in combat. The Silver Star Medal is awarded primarily to members of the United States Armed Forces for gallantry in action against an e ...

for his actions in the engagement. *December 21 - The Taliban carried out a suicide attack on a joint NATO and Afghan patrol near the Kandahar air base killing six US airmen. *December 25 - Ashraf Ghani & Narendra Modi, inaugurate new Parliament building of Afghanistan And an earthquake hits Northern Afghanistan.

References

{{Years in Afghanistan

Years of the 21st century in Afghanistan 2010s in Afghanistan