The
Arabs were the first to arrive in Uruzgan in the 7th century when they brought
Islam to the region followed by the
Saffarids who conquered the place in the 9th century. The region was part of ancient
Arachosia, and was ruled by the
Medes before it fell to the
Achaemenids. In 330 BC,
Alexander the Great occupied the area but left it to the
Seleucids to rule. It was later annexed and ruled by the
Mauryas under
Ashoka. By the 7th century, when the Arabs first arrived, it was under the control of the
Zunbils before being conquered in the name of
Islam by the
Saffarids in the 9th century. It fell to the
Ghaznavids followed by the
Ghurids before the
Mongol invasion in the 13th century. The area was ruled by
Arghun Khan of the
Ilkhanate, later by the
Timurids,
Mughals and
Safavids. During the 1980s
Soviet war in Afghanistan, Uruzgan witnessed fighting between pro-Soviet forces and the
Mujahideen. One of the most prominent local Mujahideen leaders was
Jan Mohammad Khan. In late 1994, Uruzgan was captured by the
Taliban. They were toppled by US-led forces in late 2001.
Hamid Karzai and his followers arrived in Uruzgan between October and November 2001 to take over control of the area.
Recent history (ANSF) stand by near the Chutu Bridge during a grand opening ceremony for the bridge in December 2008. In June 2002, a wedding party in Uruzgan was bombed by the
U.S. Air Force, which resulted in the death of 30 civilians. In 2004, the new
Daykundi Province was carved out of an area of northern Uruzgan. In August 2006, the NATO-led
International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) assumed authority for Uruzgan from the US-led coalition, as the
Netherlands took command of the
Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) from the US as
Task Force Uruzgan. There is also an
Australian element under the
Dutch command. 's Special Operations Task Group (SOTG) in December 2009. Because of security concerns and the
Taliban insurgency, only one international aid agency (
GIZ) has a permanent presence in Uruzgan. NATO's ISAF operates a PRT in Tarinkot. The 1,400 Dutch and 1,090 Australian troops in the area secured only the largest population centers in Uruzgan (Deh Rawood, Chora, and Tarinkot towns) under the Dutch "
inkspot policy". However, the force's area of responsibility included the entire province. Gizab district, which was then the most dangerous of Uruzgan's district, had no ISAF presence before. In August 2010, the 1,950 Dutch forces withdrew from Uruzgan province, after a political disagreement in the Dutch parliament, leaving the PRT to the US and Australia to continue the mission. . Uruzgan's opium poppy crop reached record levels in 2006 and 2007, according to the
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), as no significant eradication efforts were carried out by the Afghan administration or Dutch forces. Between 15 and 19 June 2007, Dutch, American, Australian and Afghan soldiers
defended the town of Chora against an assault by Taliban combatants. Reports in the Dutch, Australian and US press indicated that the battle was one of the largest Taliban offensives of the year. The fighting resulted in the deaths of a Dutch soldier, 1 Australian soldier, 1 American soldier, 16 Afghan policemen, an unknown number of civilians and a large number of Taliban. In September 2008,
Rozi Khan, the leader of Uruzgan's Pashtun
Barakzai tribe, and a longtime rival of Popalzai leader Jan Mohammed Khan, was killed in a firefight in
Chora District. Gizab District was temporarily cleared of the Taliban by ISAF forces in late April 2010 and this was attributed to the uprising of the townspeople who helped the ISAF forces. In February 2010, near Khod, over ten civilians in a three-vehicle convoy were killed by a combined force of a
Lockheed AC-130,
Bell OH-58 Kiowa helicopters and
General Atomics MQ-1 Predator drones, who misidentified them as Taliban. The air forces were attempting to protect ground troops fighting several km away. ==Geography==