February 4, 1998

• At least 4,500 people died when a severe earthquake
  February 4, 1998 Afghanistan earthquake
  February 4, 1998 Afghanistan earthquake occurred in northern Afghanistan in the Afghanistan-Tajikistan border region. The epicenter of the earthquake was located at Rostaq in the Takhar Province near Afghan-Tajikistan border. The magnitude of the quake was 6.1 on the Richter scale and it lasted...
  
   measuring 6.1 on the Richter Scale strikes the opposition-ruled Rustaq district of Takhar province in northeastern Afghanistan. Another earthquake hits the same region on May 30 (magnitude 6.9), claiming another several thousand lives.

July 8, 1998

• The Taliban movement gives Afghans 15 days to get rid of their television sets, video players, and satellite receivers. The Taliban has anyway put a stop to television broadcasts in the two-thirds of the country it controls. But Maulvi Qalamuddin, the Taliban deputy minister in charge of its Department for Prevention of Vice and Promotion of Virtue, said people continued to watch video tapes and foreign television channels received via satellite dishes. He said watching video tapes and satellite television broadcasts was inadmissible in Islam, damaging to morals, and caused mental disorders.

July 12, 1998

• The Taliban capture the key opposition stronghold of Maimana, capital of Faryab province in the northwest.

July 21, 1998

• 140 detainees were released in Afghanistan under the auspices of the International Committee of the Red Cross
  International Committee of the Red Cross
  The International Committee of the Red Cross is a private humanitarian institution based in Geneva, Switzerland. States parties to the four Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their Additional Protocols of 1977 and 2005, have given the ICRC a mandate to protect the victims of international and...
  
  . Half of the detainees were being held by Taliban authorities in Kandahar and the other half by authorities of the Northern Alliance in Panshir.

August 2, 1998

• The opposition alliance admits the loss of the key northern town of Shiberghan to the Taliban. The entire province of Sar-i-Pul falls on August 4.

August 7, 1998

• United States
  United States
  The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
  
   embassies in Kenya
  Kenya
  Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...
  
   and Tanzania
  Tanzania
  The United Republic of Tanzania is a country in East Africa bordered by Kenya and Uganda to the north, Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west, and Zambia, Malawi, and Mozambique to the south. The country's eastern borders lie on the Indian Ocean.Tanzania is a state...
  
   were bombed. Some 250 people were killed in the blasts and thousands more wounded. Osama bin Laden
  Osama bin Laden
  Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was the founder of the militant Islamist organization Al-Qaeda, the jihadist organization responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets...
  
   was the primary suspect.

August 8, 1998

• The Taliban capture the northern opposition capital of Mazari Sharif. On August 11, they capture Taloqan, the Takhar provincial capital, the latest in a series of spectacular victories.

August 20, 1998

• The United States
  United States
  The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
  
   carried out preemptive missile attacks in eastern Afghanistan
  Afghanistan
  Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
  
   on suspected terrorist training camps allegedly run by Saudi
  Saudi Arabia
  The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...
  
   dissident Osama bin Laden
  Osama bin Laden
  Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was the founder of the militant Islamist organization Al-Qaeda, the jihadist organization responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets...
  
  .

August 21, 1998

• United States President
  President of the United States
  The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
  
   Bill Clinton
  Bill Clinton
  William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
  
   signed an executive order freezing the accounts of Osama bin Laden
  Osama bin Laden
  Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was the founder of the militant Islamist organization Al-Qaeda, the jihadist organization responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets...
  
  . Bin Laden was also placed on the FBI most wanted list
  FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives
  The FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list arose from a conversation held in late 1949 between J. Edgar Hoover, Director of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation, and William Kinsey Hutchinson, International News Service Editor-in-Chief, who were discussing ways to promote capture of the...
  
  , and a reward of US$5 million was offered for his capture. An Italian army officer working for the United Nations is shot dead in Kabul. All foreigners working for the UN in Afghanistan are evacuated.

September 3, 1998

• 70,000 Iran
  Iran
  Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
  
  ian troops engaged in war games near the border of Afghanistan
  Afghanistan
  Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
  
  .
• In Taloqan
  Taloqan
  Tāloqān is the capital of Takhar Province, in northern Afghanistan. It is located in the Taluqan District. The population was estimated as 196,400 in 2006.-History:The old city to the west on the riverside was described by Marco Polo in 1275 CE as:...
  
  , Afghanistan
  Afghanistan
  Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
  
  , Taliban aircraft dropped several cluster bombs on a market, killing nine people, including a foreign journalist.

September 10, 1998

• The Taliban movement says it has found the bodies of nine Iranian diplomats whose disappearance sparked tension with neighbouring Iran; two survivors return to Iran.

September 13, 1998

• The Taliban militia says its fighters have captured the central Shi`ite town of Bamiyan, the last major opposition stronghold in Afghanistan. On September 14, Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warns the Taliban and Pakistan that their actions could provoke a major regional conflict.

September 21, 1998

• Anti-Taliban forces shell Kabul with rockets for a second day, bringing the death toll to over 70 people.

September 19, 1998

• A senior U.S.
  United States
  The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
  
   diplomat told a top Taliban official in Islamabad
  Islamabad
  Islamabad is the capital of Pakistan and the tenth largest city in the country. Located within the Islamabad Capital Territory , the population of the city has grown from 100,000 in 1951 to 1.7 million in 2011...
  
  , Pakistan
  Pakistan
  Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
  
   that the militia would be held responsible for any new terror strikes by Osama bin Laden
  Osama bin Laden
  Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was the founder of the militant Islamist organization Al-Qaeda, the jihadist organization responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets...
  
  .

October 8, 1998

• Iran inflicts "heavy casualties" in a first armed clash with Afghan Taliban forces after weeks of tension between the hostile neighbours.

October 12, 1998

• The last three bodies of Iranian diplomats killed by Afghan Taliban militiamen are flown back to Tehran.

October 23, 1998

• The UN and the Taliban movement sign an agreement paving the way for the return of UN international staff to Afghanistan.