page_title: Ghazni Province
section_title: Recent history
hierarchical_section_title: Ghazni Province / History / Recent history
caption_attribution_description: English: U.S. paratroopers and Afghan soldiers move into a village during a combined patrol in Afghanistan's Ghazni province, April 28, 2012.
context_page_description: Ghazni is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, located in central Afghanistan, towards the east. The province contains 19 districts, encompassing over a thousand villages and roughly 1.3 million people, making it the 5th most populous province. The city of Ghazni serves as the capital. It lies on the important Kabul–Kandahar Highway, and has historically functioned as an important trade center. The Ghazni Airport is located next to the city of Ghazni and provides limited domestic flights to Afghanistan's capital, Kabul.
  Ghazni borders the provinces of Maidan Wardak, Logar, Paktia, Paktika, Zabul, Uruzgan, Daykundi and Bamyan.
context_section_description: Since the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in October 2001, there has been a Provincial reconstruction base and a NATO forces base. These western forces (mostly Polish Armed Forces) are hunting Taliban and al-Qaida militants, who are still active in the area.
  Like many southern Afghan provinces, Ghazni has a precarious security situation. The Taliban insurgents are found in the rural areas outside of the capital, and are involved in attacks on provincial schools and government infrastructure. The province has avoided the outright warfare seen in other provinces of Afghanistan such as Helmand and Kandahar, but that is due more to political expediency and the tactical plans of the NATO-led ISAF force than the existence of a stable security situation in the province. Ex-Governor Taj Mohammad was killed by insurgents in 2006 after being appointed police chief of the province with a mandate to quell the power of the Taliban. On the same day there was an unsuccessful attempt on the life of the governor at the time, Sher Alam Ibrahimi. There is a Polish and American Provincial Reconstruction Team base located in Ghazni.
  In late April 2007, news agencies reported that Taliban fighters had taken control of Giro District in the province.  The Taliban reportedly killed the district administrator, chief of police (who had been on the job for only one month) and three police officers.  The Taliban withdrew from the district center one day later.
  In July 2007, 23 South Korean volunteers were kidnapped in the province by the Taliban.
  On September 28, 2010, the Deputy Governor of Ghazni and five others were killed after a suicide bomber on a motorized rickshaw attacked their vehicle. Deputy Governor Mohammad Kazim Allahyar and several men travelling with him were killed instantly when the attacker detonated his explosives at the back of their car near the airport in Ghazni City. The bodies were so badly burnt that there was some confusion about the identity of the other victims. Provincial police chief Delawar Zahid reported Allahyar's son, nephew and driver died, along with two civilians passing by on a bicycle.
  As of 26 September 2014, there is ongoing fighting in key districts between the Taliban and Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF).
  After steady gains by the Taliban across the province in 2017 and early 2018 the Battle of Ghazni took place in August, 2018.
caption: U.S. paratroopers and Afghan soldiers move into a village during a combined patrol in 2012.
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