A look at the past: When the Taliban last ruled Afghanistan

Matin, a ten-year-old Afghan boy, looks through the fence at the garage where he works in Kabul, Afghanistan, Dec. 9, 2001.

Afghan refugees leave Khonabad, Kunduz province, the only province in northern Afghanistan under Taliban control, Nov. 21, 2001, as more than 10,000 Afghan Taliban troops and Pakistani, Arab and Chechen fighters loyal to Osama bin Laden are encircled in Kunduz, the group's last stronghold in the north.

Anti-Taliban Afghan fighters watch several explosions from U.S. bombings in the Tora Bora mountains in Afghanistan, Dec. 16, 2001.

An Afghan refugee flees to safety with his two children on a motorcycle towards Kabul, Afghanistan, Oct. 24, 2001.

An Afghan northern alliance mujahed looks at a plume of smoke rising from the Taliban village of Khanaqa in the Parwan province, from his position at the Mahmood Raqy frontline in the Kapisa province, 55 kilometers (30 miles) from the Afghan capital Kabul, after an aircraft released it's load of bombs as part of the U.S. attempt to help the northern alliance to advance toward the capital and other key areas, Nov. 7, 2001.

The 53-meter (175-foot) tall, 2000-year-old Buddha statue located in Bamyan, about 150 kilometers (90 miles) west of the Afghan capital Kabul, Nov. 28, 1997.

A busy street scene with women dressed in niqabs, and men wearing Afgan lungee turbans, with damaged buildings in the background, Afghanistan, 1996.

Afghan soldiers loyal to then-President Burhanuddin Rabbani enjoy the sunshine at the war-ruined former royal Darul Aman palace in Kabul on Jan. 29, 1996, with a tank dug in as artillery prepares to pound the rebel Taliban militia positions on the other side of the hill.

A Taliban fighter guards a newly built post near the Panjsher Valley, Afghanistan, Sept. 30, 1996.

Afghan women, some dressed in niqabs, others in hijabs, with one woman holding her hand out to be marked by a man holding a pen at an unspecified registration event in Afghanistan, 1996.

Afghan refugees walk along the road fleeing fighting north of Kabul, Afghanistan, Oct. 11, 1996.

Taliban fighters watch civil servants and residents marching through the Afghan capital of Kabul, Oct. 17, 1996, as a few thousand demonstrators protested against what the Taliban calls interference of Iran, Russia and India in Afghan affairs.

Afghan families flee from a village 18 km north of Kabul on Oct. 21, 1996, after Taliban fighters recaptured two hills from ousted Afghan defense chief Ahmed Shah Masood.

An Afghan Taliban fighter tries to retrieve a shoe with his Kalashnikov at a zoo in Kabul, Afghanistan, Oct. 13, 1996.

A Taliban fighter pulls the lanyard to fire a Soviet-built 122mm artillery piece about 20 km north of the Afghan capital, Nov. 24, 1996.

Afghan refugees continue to flee this area 20 km north of Kabul on Oct. 22, 1996, as Taliban fighters pour rockets into positions held by former government military chief Ahmad Shah Masood.

A group of Afghan boys recycles ammunition cases used during Afghanistan's civil war into water buckets as they pass by rebel tanks near the front line with Taliban government forces, Afghanistan, Aug. 5, 1997.

A Taliban fighter shoots a Soviet-made 152 mm canon towards former government forces, 20 km north of Kabul, Afghanistan, Oct. 25, 1996.

A Taliban soldier scans the sky as he holds a rocket launcher at the Torkham border crossing between Afghanistan and Pakistan, Oct. 15, 2001.

Displaced Afghan families wait at a temporary camp in Herat, Afghanistan, to be transferred to U.N.-sponsored camps May 1, 2001. More than 100,000 people who fled from drought and civil war took refuge at the camps.

Afghans watch cars burn in the compound of the U.S. Embassy in Kabul on Sept. 26, 2001. 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 then-ruling Taliban.

Afghan villagers sit atop a hill to have a better view of Northern Alliance troop movements in the outskirts of Gulbahal, some 70 km north of the Afghan capital Kabul, late Nov. 4, 2001.

Smoke rises over Bagram Airfield after U.S. jets bombed Taliban positions some 25 km north of the Afghan capital Kabul on Oct. 30, 2001.

Members of Afghanistan's ruling Taliban wearing traditional dress pass onlookers during a military parade as part of celebrations to mark the 72nd anniversary of the country's independence from Britain in Kabul, Afghanistan, Aug. 19, 2001.

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

Afghan opposition Northern Alliance troops wait for their President Rabbani in a training camp in the outskirts of Jabal Seraj, 60 km north of the Afghan capital Kabul, Nov. 5, 2001.

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

A Northern Alliance "GRAD" rocket launcher shoots on the frontline at the border of Kunduz province, the only province in northern Afghanistan still under Taliban control, Nov. 22, 2001.

Afghan children collect grain under a truck being unloaded with humanitarian aid in central Kabul, Afghanistan, Dec. 5, 2001.