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Afghanistan

(Encyclopedia) CE5 Afghanistan ăfgănˈĭstănˌ, ăfgänˌĭstänˈ [key], officially Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, republic (2020 est. pop. 38,930,000), 249,999 sq mi (6...

Afghanistan War

(Encyclopedia)Afghanistan War, 1978–92, conflict between anti-Communist Muslim Afghan guerrillas (mujahidin) and Afghan government and Soviet forces. The conflict had its origins in the 1978 coup that overthrew A...

Hari Rud

(Encyclopedia)Hari Rud häˈrē ro͞od [key], river, c.700 mi (1,130 km) long, rising in the Kuh-e Baba range, central Afghanistan, and flowing west and then north into the steppes S of the Kara Kum desert in Turkm...

Gardez

(Encyclopedia)Gardez or Gardeyz both: gərdāzˈ [key], city (1979 pop. 9,550), capital of Paktia prov., E Afghanistan, on the Jilga River. It lies on the old trade routes between Afghanistan and the Peshawar regio...

Omar, Mohammad

(Encyclopedia)Omar, Mohammad, 1960?–2013?, Afghan religious and political leader popularly known as Mullah Omar. From a rural Pashtun family, he became a Muslim cleric. In the 1980s he joined the mujahidin fighti...

Mazar-i-Sharif

(Encyclopedia)Mazar-i-Sharif mäzärˈ-ē-shärēfˈ [key], city (1988 est. pop. 131,000), capital of Balkh prov., N Afghanistan, near the Uzbekistan border. It is held sacred as the alleged burial place of Ali, so...

Pathans

(Encyclopedia)Pathans pətänzˈ [key], group of seminomadic peoples consisting of more than 60 tribes, numbering more than 26 million in Pakistan and more than 11 million in Afghanistan, where they form the domina...

Taliban

(Encyclopedia)Taliban or Taleban tälēbänˈ, –lə– [key], Islamic fundamentalist militia of Afghanistan and later Pakistan, originally consisting mainly of Sunni Pashtun religious students from Afghanistan wh...

Baghlan

(Encyclopedia)Baghlan bägˈlän [key], city (1982 est. pop. 41,200), N Afghanistan, on the Kunduz River. It produces beet sugar, cotton, and fabrics. A recently constructed highway system links Baghlan with Kabul ...

Helmand

(Encyclopedia)Helmand or Helmund both: hĕlˈmənd [key], river, c.700 mi (1,130 km) long, rising in the Hindu Kush Mts., NE Afghanistan and flowing generally SW to the Sistan basin, SW Afghanistan, where it helps ...
 

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