Photos: When the Taliban last ruled Afghanistan

Taliban militia fire a jeep-mounted BM-12 rocket launcher towards a village north of Kabul, October 1996. The Taliban controlled most of Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, when it was ousted for harbouring al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden after the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.

Taliban Islamic militia fighters watch civil servants and residents marching through the Afghan capital of Kabul, October 1996.

A Taliban fighter points his rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) launcher towards the sky during a visit by foreign journalists to the outskirts of Kandahar, October 31, 2001.

Afghan children collect food grains under a truck being unloaded with humanitarian aid in central Kabul, December 5, 2001.

An Afghan Taliban fighter tries to retrieve a shoe with his Kalachnikov rifle at a zoo in Kabul, October 1996.

Displaced Afghan families wait at a temporary camp in Herat, Afghanistan, to be transferred to U.N.-sponsored camps, May 2001. More than 100,000 people who fled from drought and civil war took refuge at the centres.

A U.S. Air Force B-52 drops bombs on the frontlines of Taliban positions in Tutakhan hill, some 25 km northwest of the Afghan capital Kabul, October 31, 2001.

Afghans walk in Kabul amid concern about a possible military intervention in Afghanistan by the United States following the attacks on September 11, September 19, 2001.

Afghan refugees walk along the road fleeing fighting north of Kabul, October 1996.

Northern Alliance soldiers carry weapons on the front line near Zarkamar town in the north of Afghanistan, October 15, 2001.

A mob of pro-Taliban Afghan refugees run to attack members of the international press traveling in a convoy near Quetta, Pakistan, near the Afghan border, October 10, 2001.

Afghans watch cars burn in the compound of the U.S. embassy in Kabul after thousands of protestors stormed the embassy, and burned dilapidated cars and disused offices, as a sign of hatred against the U.S. for its threat of staging an attack on the ruling Taliban, September 2001.

Members of the Taliban pass onlookers during a military parade as part of celebrations to mark the 72nd anniversary of the country's independence from Britain in Kabul, August 2001.

An Afghan soldier loyal to President Burhanuddin Rabbani mans an anti-aircraft gun as he keeps watch over the skies of Kabul from atop a mountain overlooking the city, February 1996.

An Afghan boy looks at a pole strung with hundreds of destroyed video and music tapes beside a road in Kabul, July 2001. Since its ascension to power in 1996, the ruling Taliban banned music and cinema. Violators are jailed for several days if caught watching videos or listening to music, while their tapes are publicly destroyed.

An Afghan woman wearing her burkha walks past a shop selling newly made burkhas in the Afghan capital, October 1996. The Islamic Taliban, who took Kabul three weeks ago, require women to be fully veiled when leaving the house.

A young Afghan boy clutching a bag made from a U.S. food aid package looks up to the sky as U.S. fighter jets bomb Taliban positions near Deshitiqala, in northern Afghanistan.

Anti-Taliban Afghan fighters watch several explosions from U.S. bombings in the Tora Bora mountains in Afghanistan.

An Afghan Taliban fighter guards Kabul's sports stadium as tens of thousands of onlookers watch a soccer match, June 2001.

A Northern Alliance fighter points at Taliban positions bombed by U.S. Air Force B-52s in Moshin-Ab, some 35 km north of the Afghan capital Kabul, November 2, 2001.

U.S. Marines from Charlie 1/1 of the 15th MEU (Marine Expeditionary Unit) fill sand bags around their light mortar position on the front lines of southern Afghanistan, December 2001.

Pro-Taliban fighters, including foreigners, crouch behind iron bars to gain some space in an overcrowded prison near the northern Afghan city of Mazar-i Sharif, December 5, 2001. Some 3,350 pro-Taliban prisoners were locked in this prison after they were captured by the Northern Alliance.

Smoke billows from the top of a mountain after air strikes on a suspected enemy position by U.S. B-52 bombers, near the villages of Sherkhankheyl, Marzak and Bobelkiel, in Afghanistan. March 2002.

The giant statue of Buddha towering 175 ft hewn into a cliff about 1500 years ago in the central Afghanistan province of Bamiyan is seen after it was destroyed by the Taliban, March 2001. The Taliban announced the prior month they would destroy all statues in the country, despite international appeals to save Afghanistan's rich cultural past.

U.S. Marines march out from their forward camp in southern Afghanistan to take up positions along the perimeter of the base, November 29, 2001.

Northern Alliance fighters atop a Russian made T-62 tank arrive in the outskirts of Kabul, November 13, 2001