Ahmad Shah DURRANI unified the Pashtun tribes and founded Afghanistan in 1747. The country served as a buffer between the British and Russian empires until it won independence from notional British control in 1919. A brief experiment in democracy ended in a 1973 coup and a 1978 Communist counter-coup.

The Soviet Union invaded in 1979 to support the tottering Afghan Communist regime, touching off a long and destructive war. The USSR withdrew in 1989 under relentless pressure by internationally supported anti-Communist mujahedin rebels. Subsequently, a series of civil wars saw Kabul finally fall in 1996 to the Taliban, a hardline Pakistani-sponsored movement that emerged in 1994 to end the country's civil war and anarchy.

Following the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks in New York City, a US, Allied, and anti-Taliban Northern Alliance military action toppled the Taliban for sheltering Osama Bin Laden. The UN-sponsored Bonn Conference in 2001 established a process for political reconstruction that included the adoption of a new constitution and a presidential election in 2004, and National Assembly elections in 2005. On 7 December 2004, Hamid KARZAI became the first democratically elected president of Afghanistan. The National Assembly was inaugurated on 19 December 2005.

Capital: Kabul

Currency: afghani (AFA)

Afghanistan is located in Southern Asia, north and west of Pakistan and east of Iran. It lies south of the former Soviet Republics of Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan.

The country has a total area of 647,500 square kilometers -- slightly smaller than Texas.

The climate is arid to semiarid, with cold winters and hot summers.

Afghanistan has many natural resources including natural gas, petroleum, coal, copper, chromite, talc, barites, sulfur, lead, zinc, iron ore, salt, and precious and semiprecious stones.

Afghanistan is a landlocked country, with the Hindu Kush mountains that run northeast to southwest dividing the northern provinces from the rest of the country. The highest peaks are in the northern Vakhan (Wakhan Corridor) which borders Tajikistan and Pakistan.

Afghans are comprised of several ethnic groups:

• Pashtun 42%
• Tajik 27%
• Hazara 9%
• Uzbek 9%
• Aimak 4%
• Turkmen 3%
• Baloch 2%
• Other 4% 

99% of Afghans are Muslim (80% Sunni, 19% Shi'a).

Several languages are spoken in Afghanistan, where there is much bilingualism:

• Afghan Persian or Dari (official language) 50%
• Pashto (official language) 35%
• Turkic languages (primarily Uzbek and Turkmen) 11%
• 30 minor languages (primarily Balochi and Pashai) 4%

The Afghan flag has three equal vertical bands of black (hoist), red, and green, with a gold emblem centered on the red band.

The central emblem features a temple-like structure encircled by a wreath on the left and right and by a bold Islamic inscription above.