Ahmad Shah Durrani unified the Pashtun tribes and founded Afghanistan in 1747. The country served as a buffer between the British and Russian empires until it won independence from notional British control in 1919. A brief experiment in democracy ended in a 1973 coup and a 1978 Communist counter-coup. The Soviet Union invaded in 1979 to support the tottering Afghan Communist regime, touching off a long and destructive war. The USSR withdrew in 1989 under relentless pressure by internationally supported anti-Communist mujahedin rebels. Subsequently, a series of civil wars saw Kabul finally fall in 1996 to the Taliban, a hardline Pakistani-sponsored movement that emerged in 1994 to end the country's civil war and anarchy. Following the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks, a US, Allied, and anti-Taliban Northern Alliance military action toppled the Taliban for sheltering Osama Bin Ladin. The UN-sponsored Bonn Conference in 2001 established a process for political reconstruction that included the adoption of a new constitution and a presidential election in 2004, and National Assembly elections in 2005. On 7 December 2004, Hamid Karzai became the first democratically elected president of Afghanistan. The National Assembly was inaugurated on 19 December 2005

• 3-Letter abbreviation: AFG
• 2-Letter abbreviation: AL
• Country common name: Afghanistan
• Country official name: Jamhuria Afghanistan
• Continent: Asia
• Capital: Kabul
• Other major cities: Kandahar, Herat, Mazar-i-Sharif, Jalalabad, Kunduz, Baghlan
• Currency: Afghani
• Official languages: Pushtu, Dari
• Motto: "Allah is great. Allah is the only God and Mohammed was his prophet."

• Surface area: 647,500  km²
• Highest point: Nowshak 7,485 m
• Neighbouring countries: Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, China, Pakistan
• Neighbouring seas and oceans: None

• Population (in millions): 28.72
• Gross domestic product (GDP) per inhabitant (in US dollars): 700
• Density (inhabitants per km²): 44.35
• Average age (in years): 18.9
• Life expectancy at birth (in years): 46.97

• Country international telephone code: + 93
• Internet code: .af
• Number of Internet users: 30,000 (2005)