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123-432: Kabul International Airport ( IATA : KBL , ICAO : OAKB ) is located in the northern part of Kabul , Afghanistan . It is one of the country's main international airports , capable of housing over a hundred military and civilian aircraft. It is currently operated by UAE -based GAAC Holding and Afghanistan's Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation . The airport was originally named as Khwaja Rawash Airport because it

246-560: A heart attack on 7 January 2011. According to the report, Pakistan's ISI rushed Omar to a hospital near Karachi where he was operated on, treated, and then released several days later. Pakistan's Ambassador to the US, stated that the report "had no basis whatsoever". On 23 May 2011, TOLO News in Afghanistan quoted unnamed sources as saying that Omar had been killed by ISI two days earlier. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid responded to

369-408: A compound to the southwest of Kandahar, with US commanders believing Omar was in one of the vehicles. Men disembarked from the vehicles and entered a large building in the compound. US military officers considered bombing the building, but were concerned that another building in the compound might be a mosque, which they wished to avoid hitting. Eventually it was decided to fire a Hellfire missile from

492-630: A defender of the faith, had deep pockets, and if he were to censure the Taliban, the movement would likely end. However, Omar did not want bin Laden spreading a message of jihad. Omar summoned bin Laden to meet him in 1996 after bin Laden's declaration of jihad against the United States the same year. He asked bin Laden to stop talking about the jihad, but as a matter of Pashtun tribal custom did not outright forbid him, as it would be deeply insulting to

615-469: A doctor and dying of illness on 23 April. Omari and two helpers buried him that night, with Omari videoing the burial as proof. Omari went to Quetta, returning with Omar's son Yaqoob and brother Abdul Manan Omari , who had not seen him since 2001. Yaqoob insisted that the grave be opened so that he could see his father. Omari went to Quetta and met with ten senior Taliban to describe the 12 years he spent with Omar. Obaidullah had died in 2010 and Akhtar Mansour

738-548: A dozen sedans and six semi-trucks. Four US Navy F-18 's from USS Kitty Hawk destroyed all the vehicles including the Suburban. The same day, 28 November 2001, the Taliban reported that Omar had supposedly survived an American air strike. On 5 December 2001, Omar held a meeting in Kandahar of top Taliban leaders and asked them what they wanted to do. Many were ready to stop fighting and willing to surrender. Omar handed over

861-505: A guest. Bin Laden chose to ignore Omar. The high stature of bin Laden and his importance in keeping the Taliban in power were further evidenced by Omar visiting bin Laden as a guest, a sign of deference and respect. After the 1998 United States embassy bombings , the US launched cruise missiles against al-Qaeda training camps and sought bin Laden. This inadvertently created more sympathy for bin Laden in Afghanistan. Omar did not hand bin Laden over, citing Pashtunwali tribal customs that require

984-475: A host to protect guests, and that bin Laden was a guest of Afghanistan. Privately, Omar felt that if he bowed to the US by turning over bin Laden, the US would try to further influence Afghanistan and attempt to meddle in its religious matters. He may have also feared retaliation or withdrawal of support from the Saudi or Pakistani governments should he turn over bin Laden. In 2000, Omar ordered bin Laden to not attack

1107-567: A new airport is built, replacing the old one, leaving the city's new "major" airport (or the only remaining airport) code to no longer correspond with the city's name. The original airport in Nashville, Tennessee, was built in 1936 as part of the Works Progress Administration and called Berry Field with the designation, BNA. A new facility known as Nashville International Airport was built in 1987 but still uses BNA. This

1230-620: A new group under Omar's leadership, based at Aday, in the Singesar area, then in the Panjwayi District and now in Zhari District, and became registered with Harakat-i-Inqilab-i-Islami as an affiliated group. Omar was wounded four times. Abdul Salam Zaeef has said he was present when exploding shrapnel destroyed Omar's right eye at Singesar during the 1987 Battle of Arghandab . Other sources place this event in 1986 or in

1353-489: A radio interview with the BBC, Omar stated: "All Taliban are moderate. There are two things: extremism ['ifraat', or doing something to excess] and conservatism ['tafreet', or doing something insufficiently]. So in that sense, we are all moderates – taking the middle path." During his tenure as Afghanistan's ruler, Omar seldom left the city of Kandahar , where he lived in a large house reportedly built for him by Osama bin Laden ,

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1476-595: A retired officer with ISI who had previously trained Omar, said that he was ready to break with his al-Qaida allies and make peace in Afghanistan: "The moment he gets control, the first target will be the al-Qaida people." In January 2011, The Washington Post , citing a report which was published by the Eclipse Group , a privately operated intelligence network that may be contracted by the CIA, stated that Omar had

1599-507: A senior analyst at International Crisis Group (ICG), Omar spent the rest of his life living in Zabul province. Dam said that her research relied on interviews with current and former members of the Afghan government, the Afghan intelligence agency National Directorate of Security , the Taliban, and Omar's bodyguard Jabbar Omari. She said that her findings, confirmed by Afghan officials as well as

1722-653: A third country". Part of the reluctance to hand bin Laden over stemmed from Omar's own miscalculations. Omar thought there was "less than a 10 percent" chance that the US would do anything beyond make threats. The Supreme Council of the Islamic Clergy, a council of around 1,000 clerics, convened in Kabul in late September 2001 and issued a decree against the United States and its threats of militarily invading Afghanistan. They also recommended that Osama bin Laden be asked to leave Afghanistan of his own free will to "avoid

1845-476: A warlord, hanging him from a tank gun barrel. Another instance arose when in 1994, a few months before the Taliban took control of Kandahar, two militia commanders confronted each other over a young boy whom they both wanted to sodomize . In the ensuing fight, Omar's group freed the boy; appeals soon flooded in for Omar to intercede in other disputes. His movement gained momentum through the year and he quickly gathered recruits from Islamic schools totaling 12,000 by

1968-509: Is GSN and its IATA code is SPN, and some coincide with IATA codes of non-U.S. airports. Canada's unusual codes—which bear little to no similarity with any conventional abbreviation to the city's name—such as YUL in Montréal , and YYZ in Toronto , originated from the two-letter codes used to identify weather reporting stations in the 1930s. The letters preceding the two-letter code follow

2091-554: Is available. However, many railway administrations have their own list of codes for their stations, such as the list of Amtrak station codes . Airport codes arose out of the convenience that the practice brought pilots for location identification in the 1930s. Initially, pilots in the United States used the two-letter code from the National Weather Service (NWS) for identifying cities. This system became unmanageable for cities and towns without an NWS identifier, and

2214-523: Is different from the name in English, yet the airport code represents only the English name. Examples include: Due to scarcity of codes, some airports are given codes with letters not found in their names: The use of 'X' as a filler letter is a practice to create three-letter identifiers when more straightforward options were unavailable: Some airports in the United States retained their NWS ( National Weather Service ) codes and simply appended an X at

2337-513: Is in conjunction to rules aimed to avoid confusion that seem to apply in the United States, which state that "the first and second letters or second and third letters of an identifier may not be duplicated with less than 200 nautical miles separation." Thus, Washington, D.C. area's three airports all have radically different codes: IAD for Washington–Dulles , DCA for Washington–Reagan (District of Columbia Airport), and BWI for Baltimore (Baltimore–Washington International, formerly BAL). Since HOU

2460-543: Is not followed outside the United States: In addition, since three letter codes starting with Q are widely used in radio communication, cities whose name begins with "Q" also had to find alternate codes, as in the case of: IATA codes should not be confused with the FAA identifiers of U.S. airports. Most FAA identifiers agree with the corresponding IATA codes, but some do not, such as Saipan , whose FAA identifier

2583-454: Is operative and that the airport's tower is operating again. A Qatar Airways flight evacuating 113 nationals of other countries from Afghanistan was allowed to land at and depart from the airport on 9 September due to cooperation between the United States and the Taliban, marking the first such flight since the Taliban had completely taken over the facility. Meanwhile, the Taliban renamed the airport to Kabul International Airport , eliminating

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2706-489: Is the extinction of America. And, God willing, it [America] will fall to the ground." Claiming that the Americans had circulated "propaganda" that Omar had gone into hiding, Foreign Minister Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil stated that he would like to "propose that Prime Minister Blair and President Bush take Kalashnikovs and come to a specified place where Omar will also appear to see who will run and who not". He stated that Omar

2829-728: Is the subject of conflicting reports. In April 2015, during the time when his death was being kept secret, the Taliban published a biography of Omar to mark his "19th year as their supreme leader," when in fact he had already died on 23 April 2013. After the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, Omar joined the mujahideen in Deh Rawood to fight the Soviets. In 1983 he moved with mujahideen friends to Maywand District in Kandahar Province and fought under Faizullah Akhundzada,

2952-416: Is used for William P. Hobby Airport , the new Houston–Intercontinental became IAH. The code BKK was originally assigned to Bangkok–Don Mueang and was later transferred to Suvarnabhumi Airport , while the former adopted DMK. The code ISK was originally assigned to Gandhinagar Airport (Nashik's old airport) and later on transferred to Ozar Airport (Nashik's current airport). Shanghai–Hongqiao retained

3075-571: The Canadian transcontinental railroads were built, each station was assigned its own two-letter Morse code : When the Canadian government established airports, it used the existing railway codes for them as well. If the airport had a weather station, authorities added a "Y" to the front of the code, meaning "Yes" to indicate it had a weather station or some other letter to indicate it did not. When international codes were created in cooperation with

3198-694: The Minister for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice . Omar explained why he ordered the statues to be destroyed in an interview: I did not want to destroy the Bamiyan Buddha. In fact, some foreigners came to me and said they would like to conduct the repair work of the Bamiyan Buddha that had been slightly damaged due to rains. This shocked me. I thought, these callous people have no regard for thousands of living human beings –

3321-520: The Saudi militant who was the founder of al-Qaeda . Omar had a complicated relationship with Osama bin Laden. According to Pakistani journalist Rahimullah Yusufzai , Omar stated in the late 1990s, "We have told Osama [Bin Laden] not to use Afghan soil to carry out political activities as it creates unnecessary confusion about Taliban objectives." Bin Laden was a challenge for Omar: he was widely seen as

3444-652: The Soviet–Afghan War and he was trained by Brigadier Sultan Amir Tarar aka Imam Tarar. He served as an important military general during several skirmishes, losing his right eye in an explosion. The Soviets eventually withdrew from the country in 1989 and Afghanistan's Soviet-backed Democratic Republic was toppled in 1992, triggering the Afghan Civil War of 1992–1996 . While initially remaining quiet and focused on continuing his studies, Omar became increasingly discontent with what he perceived as fasād in

3567-595: The United States in 2001, American president George W. Bush demanded that the Taliban extradite al-Qaeda's leader Osama bin Laden to the United States. When the Taliban refused, the United States began the Global War on Terrorism and led a multinational invasion of Afghanistan in October 2001, greatly bolstered by the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance. By December 2001, the Taliban government had been ousted by

3690-708: The United States Armed Forces and NATO 's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and later the Resolute Support Mission (RS). The Afghan Air Force also had a base at the airport, with the Afghan National Security Forces providing security inside the passenger terminals. Prior to the withdrawal of US-led forces in 2021, the airport provided scheduled flights to and from China, India, Iran, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkey, Uzbekistan, and

3813-539: The United States Armed Forces in October 2008. It houses the command facilities for the Afghan Air Force (AAF), and includes housing, administrative, operations, maintenance and recreation facilities. The project included two new hangar complexes, a new taxiway and ramps. It is the headquarters and main base (1st or 201st Wing) of the Afghan Air Force. The first hangar facility was turned over to

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3936-559: The 1978 Saur Revolution , especially after the 1979 Soviet invasion . The airport was used by the Soviet Army during the Soviet–Afghan War from 1979 to 1989, and by the military forces of the former President of Afghanistan , Mohammad Najibullah . Control of the airport switched between different sides during the civil war after 1992. By November 1996, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan governed by Mullah Muhammad Omar

4059-452: The 1989 Battle of Jalalabad . Omar went to a hospital in Quetta , Pakistan, for treatment to his eye wound. According to former Taliban official Abdul Hai Mutmaen (or Mutma'in), this was the only time that Omar ever went to Pakistan, and that he returned after treatment. According to Dutch journalist Bette Dam , in research published in 2019, he went to Pakistan on one other occasion during

4182-568: The AAF in January 2008. The second hangar was completed later that year. In July 2021, the Taliban took over many areas in Afghanistan, including those near Kabul Airport. Turkey announced that it would provide security at the airport. U.S. and NATO forces were still deployed at the airport as well. A few weeks later, Kabul fell into the hands of the Taliban , prompting hundreds of people to flee to

4305-524: The Afghans who are dying of hunger, but they are so concerned about non-living objects like the Buddha. This was extremely deplorable. That is why I ordered its destruction. Had they come for humanitarian work, I would have never ordered the Buddha's destruction. Between 1996 and 1999, the Taliban controlled 96% of Afghanistan's poppy fields and made opium its largest source of taxation. Taxes on opium exports

4428-557: The American-led coalition; Omar fled Kandahar, went into hiding in Zabul Province , and delegated operational control of the Taliban to his deputies. Under his command, the Taliban launched an insurgency against the new Afghan government and the coalition. Although Omar was the subject of a decade-long international manhunt, he remained in hiding for the rest of his life. He died in 2013, reportedly due to tuberculosis, which

4551-530: The Americans the proposal of setting up a three-nation court under the supervision of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference as it was a "neutral organization" or having bin Laden tried by an Islamic council in Afghanistan. Muttawakil said "the US showed no interest in it." The Taliban Prime Minister Abdul Kabir stated that if evidence was provided, "we would be ready to hand him over to

4674-518: The Bamiyan Buddha statues. Because Afghanistan's Buddhist population no longer exists, so the statues are no longer worshiped, he added: "The government considers the Bamiyan statues as an example of a potential major source of income for Afghanistan from international visitors. The Taliban states that Bamiyan shall not be destroyed but protected." In early 2000, local Taliban authorities asked for UN assistance to rebuild drainage ditches around tops of

4797-581: The Buddhist statues against the tenets of Islam. "They came out with a consensus that the statues were against Islam," said Jamal. A statement issued by the Ministry of Religious Affairs of the Taliban regime justified the destruction as being in accordance with Islamic law. The then Taliban ambassador to Pakistan Abdul Salam Zaeef held that the destruction of the Buddhas was finally ordered by Abdul Wali,

4920-638: The Faithful ' ) on him, after he donned a cloak which was alleged to be that of Muhammad , locked in a series of chests and held inside the Shrine of the Cloak in the city of Kandahar. Legend decreed that whoever could retrieve the cloak from the chest would be the great Leader of the Muslims, or the " Amir al-Mu'minin " . In September 1996, Kabul fell to Omar and his followers. The civil war continued in

5043-644: The ISAF took over control, the airport began to be developed slowly over the years. A new radar system was installed in 2005, which was upgraded by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration in 2010. A new $ 35 million terminal for international flights was inaugurated in November 2008, built with aid from the Japan International Cooperation Agency . This terminal has two jetbridges .The then-Afghan President Hamid Karzai attended

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5166-464: The Levant - Khorasan (ISIS-K) claimed responsibility. The last American forces departed from the airport around midnight on 30 August, ending U.S. involvement in the 20-year war. The Taliban subsequently took control of the airport. Rough estimates by the Taliban calculated the damage to the airport at around $ 350 million. Abdul Hadi Hamadan, the Taliban head of the airport, later stated that the damage to

5289-673: The Persian Gulf region . The most frequently serviced destination from the airport has been Dubai in the UAE , with no fewer than four passenger airlines flying the route, and some with multiple daily flights. Other nearby major airports to Kabul are Bagram Air Base in neighboring Parwan Province to the north, Jalalabad Airport in Nangarhar Province to the east, Khost International Airport in Khost Province to

5412-596: The Predator at one of the vehicles, where armed guards kept gathering, in the hope that it would draw out anyone inside the possible mosque. The attack   —   the first missile launched by a drone in combat   —   appeared to cause two casualties. Dozens of men, some armed, emerged from the large building and other buildings in the compound, and some got into vehicles and departed. According to fellow Taliban fighters, Omar had secretly fled his residence in Kandahar for security purposes shortly after it

5535-563: The Taliban (Pashtun for 'students'). His recruits came from madrassas located in Afghanistan and the Afghan refugee camps which were located across the border in Pakistan. They fought against the rampant corruption which had emerged during the civil war period and were initially welcomed by Afghans who were weary of warlord rule. Apparently, Omar became sickened by the abusive raping of children by warlords and turned against their authority in

5658-412: The Taliban committed systematic massacres against civilians between 1996 and 2001 while trying to consolidate control over northern and western Afghanistan. The report said that such mass killings were ordered or approved by Omar himself and that bin Laden's 055 Brigade , made up of Arab fighters, was involved in these massacres. In July 1999, Mohammed Omar issued a decree in favor of the preservation of

5781-463: The Taliban from the end of 2001. He sent a cassette tape to the rest of the Taliban leadership in Quetta in 2003, reaffirming that Obaidullah was the supreme leader and naming who should be on the leadership shura (council). The shura sent a messenger every three to seven months, when they wanted his advice on some matter. He sent at least one other cassette tape, in 2007, but stopped that practice after

5904-502: The Taliban leadership to his defence minister, Mullah Obaidullah , in writing. Two days later Omar left Kandahar and went into hiding in Zabul province in Afghanistan. In the following years, there was speculation about his location – with some believing that he went to Pakistan along with other Taliban leaders – and his circumstances and purported communications. But according to Bette Dam , in research published in 2019, and Borhan Osman,

6027-531: The Taliban were widely condemned for committing massacres against civilians; discrimination against religious and ethnic minorities; banning women from school and most employment ; and the destruction of cultural monuments, including the Buddhas of Bamiyan , which Omar personally ordered. After al-Qaeda , which had been given sanctuary in Afghanistan by the Taliban, carried out the September 11 attacks against

6150-658: The Talibans, depicted the US intelligence failure and cast even further doubt on US claims in the Afghan war. Omar was protected in hiding by Jabbar Omari, a former Taliban governor of Baghlan province , who was from Zabul province and belonged to the Hotak tribe, as Omar did. They spent four years living in the provincial capital Qalat at a private home owned by Abdul Samad Ustaz, Omari's former driver. Omar's wives moved to Pakistan and Omar declined when Omari offered to bring his son to visit. He had very little active involvement in

6273-694: The Tomzi clan of the Hotak tribe, which is part of the larger Ghilzai tribal confederation of the Pashtuns. His father, born in Khakrez District, was a poor, landless itinerant teacher who taught the Quran to village boys and received alms from their families. He died when Omar was three years old, according to Omar's own words, or five years old, according to the Taliban biography. Thereafter Omar

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6396-562: The U.S. For example, several airports in Alaska have scheduled commercial service, such as Stebbins and Nanwalek , which use FAA codes instead of ICAO codes. Thus, neither system completely includes all airports with scheduled service. Some airports are identified in colloquial speech by their IATA code. Examples include LAX and JFK . Mullah Muhammad Omar Mullah Muhammad Omar ( Pashto : محمد عمر , romanized:  Muḥammad ʿUmar ; 1960 – 23 April 2013)

6519-414: The US started building Forward Operating Base (FOB) Wolverine an hour's walk or about three miles away, but Omar stayed put. The FOB eventually housed about 1,000 United States troops, and sometimes other NATO troops. To avoid detection, he would occasionally hide in the underground irrigation tunnels connected to his hideout, as US planes flew over or if US or Afghan troops came to search the area. People in

6642-507: The US-led United States invasion of Afghanistan began, Omar's house in Kandahar was bombed just after he had left, fatally injuring his 10-year-old son. His stepfather, who was also his uncle, was initially reported killed, but later reports said he was injured and treated at a hospital. In another account of an attack that night, an MQ-1 Predator drone followed a three-vehicle convoy that left Omar's compound and drove to

6765-406: The United States for prosecution, even if bin Laden refused to leave the country. However, according to an interview with Pakistani journalist Rahimullah Yusufzai , Omar told him: I don't want to go down in history as someone who betrayed his guest. I am willing to give my life, my regime. Since we have given him refuge I cannot throw him out now. On the night of 7–8 October 2001, shortly after

6888-492: The United States through its contacts with Pakistan. The Taliban ambassador to Pakistan Abdul Salam Zaeef said at a news conference in Islamabad that "our position in this regard is that if the Americans have evidence, they should produce it." If they could prove their allegations, he said, "we are ready for a trial of Osama bin Laden." The Taliban foreign minister Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil also attempted to negotiate, offering

7011-483: The United States, after advisors warned him that bin Laden might be planning to do so. Omar suggested to the US that bin Laden be turned over to an international Islamic court, or simply exiled, but the US turned both suggestions down. Omar was also "Head of the Supreme Council of Afghanistan". The Supreme Council was initially established at Kandahar in 1994. According to a 2001 United Nations report,

7134-481: The United States, because "Y" was seldom used in the United States, Canada simply used the weather station codes for its airports, changing the "Y" to a "Z" if it conflicted with an airport code already in use. The result is that most major Canadian airport codes start with "Y" followed by two letters in the city's name (for example, YOW for O tta w a , YWG for W innipe g , YYC for C algar y , or YVR for V ancouve r ), whereas other Canadian airports append

7257-456: The airport after former Afghan President Hamid Karzai , a month after his tenure ended, in recognition of his services and contributions to the country's rebuilding. This decision was approved by the Cabinet of the new President Ashraf Ghani , which renamed the structure as Hamid Karzai International Airport . The North Side Cantonment – Kabul Airport facility was completed and turned over to

7380-505: The airport in an attempt to leave the country. Seven people were alleged to have died at the airport after the crowds consisting of hundreds of people tried to forcibly enter planes leaving the airport. US forces fired in the air to prevent the crowds running onto the tarmac and runways. On 16 August 2021, the US Deputy Security Advisor announced the deployment of more forces to secure the airport. The Pentagon confirmed

7503-479: The airport is surrounded by parts of the Hindu Kush mountains. It serves as a hub for Ariana Airlines and Kam Air . International companies such as Air Arabia , Flydubai and Turkish Airlines also provide passenger services. The airport has two separate terminals, one for international passengers and the other for domestic flights. It also has a number of empty military bases, which were previously used by

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7626-440: The airport itself instead of the city it serves, while another code is reserved which refers to the city itself which can be used to search for flights to any of its airports. For instance: Or using a code for the city in one of the major airports and then assigning another code to another airport: When different cities with the same name each have an airport, they need to be assigned different codes. Examples include: Sometimes,

7749-418: The airport's former name, such as Orlando International Airport 's MCO (for Mc C o y Air Force Base), or Chicago's O'Hare International Airport , which is coded ORD for its original name: Or char d Field. In rare cases, the code comes from the airport's unofficial name, such as Kahului Airport 's OGG (for local aviation pioneer Jimmy H ogg ). In large metropolitan areas, airport codes are often named after

7872-412: The airport's runway. Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid stated on 6 September that Turkey and Qatar were trying to restart all flights from the airport. On 8 September 2021, a NOTAM was issued by the airport's NOTAM office, indicating that the airport is operating between 03:30 and 13:30 Coordinated Universal Time . Additional NOTAMs issued that day indicate that the airports instrument landing system

7995-628: The airport's terminal alone due to the evacuation was $ 1 million. Several novels have been published following the dramatic US evacuation from the country. Those titles include: "Life and Death at Abbey Gate", "Saving Aziz", "Always Faithful", and "Kabul". Following the Taliban takeover, the airport was closed. Much of its infrastructure had been degraded or destroyed during the evacuation. According to Qatari Minister of Foreign Affairs Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani , Qatar

8118-605: The airport. A four-lane highway connects the airport to Kabul. IATA airport code The assignment of these codes is governed by IATA Resolution 763, and it is administered by the IATA's headquarters in Montreal , Canada. The codes are published semi-annually in the IATA Airline Coding Directory. IATA provides codes for airport handling entities, and for certain railway stations. Alphabetical lists of airports sorted by IATA code are available. A list of railway station codes , shared in agreements between airlines and rail lines such as Amtrak , SNCF , and Deutsche Bahn ,

8241-427: The airport. Meanwhile, the security of the airport was handed over to the Al-Fatah Brigade of the special forces of the group on 3 September. The airport reopened for Ariana Afghan Airlines ' domestic flights between Kabul and the cities of Herat , Mazar-i-Sharif and Kandahar , as well as for receiving aid from other countries, on 4 September, following work carried out by a technical team from Qatar, which repaired

8364-401: The alcoves where the Buddhas were set. In March 2001, the Bamiyan Buddha statues were destroyed by the Taliban under an edict issued from Omar, stating: "all the statues around Afghanistan must be destroyed." This prompted an international outcry. Information and Culture Minister Qadratullah Jamal told Associated Press of a decision by 400 religious clerics from across Afghanistan declaring

8487-423: The code SHA, while the newer Shanghai–Pudong adopted PVG. The opposite was true for Berlin : the airport Berlin–Tegel used the code TXL, while its smaller counterpart Berlin–Schönefeld used SXF; the Berlin Brandenburg Airport has the airport code BER, which is also part of its branding. The airports of Hamburg (HAM) and Hannover (HAJ) are less than 100 nautical miles (190 km) apart and therefore share

8610-422: The command of factions that were loyal to Nabi Mohammadi. These factions had helped spread madrasa , attended by many of the Kandahar Taliban, throughout the southern regions of Afghanistan. The practice of bacha bazi by warlords was one of the key factors in Omar mobilizing the Taliban. Reportedly, in early 1994, Omar led 30 men armed with 16 rifles to free two young girls who had been kidnapped and raped by

8733-463: The commander of a group affiliated with Harakat-i-Inqilab-i-Islami (Islamic and National Revolution Movement). Abdul Ghani Baradar was another from Deh Rawood who was in the group. Omar fought in the Maiwand, Zhari , Panjwai and Dand districts and was an expert in using rocket-propelled grenades against tanks . In the last years of the war, some mujahideen groups split up, and Omar and his friends left Faizullah Akhundzada's group. They formed

8856-540: The concealed room where Omar was hiding. After the US established Forward Operating Base Lagman a few hundred metres from the house in 2004, Omar relocated to a shack in a remote hamlet on the edge of a river, about 20 miles southeast of Qalat in Shinkay District , close to the Durand Line . His hideout was connected to underground irrigation channels that ran up into the hills. Soon after moving there,

8979-487: The country , ultimately prompting him to return to fighting in the Civil War. In 1994, Omar, along with religious students in Kandahar, formed the Taliban, which emerged victorious against other Afghan factions by 1996. Omar led the Taliban to form a Sunni Islamic theocracy headed by the Supreme Council , known as the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan , which strictly enforced sharia . While ruling between 1996 and 2001,

9102-422: The country. In an interview with Voice of America , Omar was asked if he would give up Osama bin Laden . Omar replied, "No. We cannot do that. If we did, it means we are not Muslims, that Islam is finished. If we were afraid of attack, we could have surrendered him the last time we were threatened." Omar explained his position to high-ranking Taliban officials: Islam says that when a Muslim asks for shelter, give

9225-432: The current tumult" and expressed sympathy and a conciliatory tone towards those who died in the 11 September attacks: "The ulema voice their sadness over American deaths and hope America does not attack Afghanistan." The Taliban Education Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi said that Omar had agreed to follow guidance offered by the clerics and would try to encourage bin Laden to leave Afghanistan without forcibly handing him over to

9348-886: The end. Examples include: A lot of minor airfields without scheduled passenger traffic have ICAO codes but not IATA codes, since the four letter codes allow more number of codes, and IATA codes are mainly used for passenger services such as tickets, and ICAO codes by pilots. In the US, such airfields use FAA codes instead of ICAO. There are airports with scheduled service for which there are ICAO codes but not IATA codes, such as Nkhotakota Airport/Tangole Airport in Malawi or Chōfu Airport in Tokyo, Japan. There are also several minor airports in Russia (e.g., Omsukchan Airport ) which lack IATA codes and instead use internal Russian codes for booking. Flights to these airports cannot be booked through

9471-557: The first three letters of the city in which it is located, for instance: The code may also be a combination of the letters in its name, such as: Sometimes the airport code reflects pronunciation, rather than spelling, namely: For many reasons, some airport codes do not fit the normal scheme described above. Some airports, for example, cross several municipalities or regions, and therefore, use codes derived from some of their letters, resulting in: Other airports—particularly those serving cities with multiple airports—have codes derived from

9594-478: The following format: Most large airports in Canada have codes that begin with the letter "Y", although not all "Y" codes are Canadian (for example, YUM for Yuma, Arizona , and YNT for Yantai , China), and not all Canadian airports start with the letter "Y" (for example, ZBF for Bathurst, New Brunswick ). Many Canadian airports have a code that starts with W, X or Z, but none of these are major airports. When

9717-597: The form of " YYZ ", a song by the rock band Rush , which utilizes the Morse code signal as a musical motif. Some airports have started using their IATA codes as brand names , such as Calgary International Airport (YYC) and Vancouver International Airport (YVR). Numerous New Zealand airports use codes that contain the letter Z, to distinguish them from similar airport names in other countries. Examples include HLZ for Hamilton , ZQN for Queenstown , and WSZ for Westport . Predominantly, airport codes are named after

9840-882: The head of U.S. Central Command , General Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr. , met Taliban leaders in Qatar . The Taliban officials agreed to terms set by McKenzie for refugees to flee using the Kabul International Airport. Following the fall of Kabul, the Afghan National Army and the Afghan National Police abandoned their posts. U.S. and allied forces subsequently took over the posts. On 16 August 2021, all commercial flights from Kabul Airport were cancelled indefinitely. On 26 August 2021, more than 100 people were killed in an explosion outside Kabul Airport. The Islamic State of Iraq and

9963-528: The inauguration ceremony. The new terminal was officially opened to international flights in June 2009. The existing terminal has been refurbished and used for domestic flights. Passenger movements reached 100,000 per year by 2010, or 300 per day. In early 2012, the radar system was upgraded to cover Afghanistan's entire air space. In October 2014, the National Assembly of Afghanistan proposed naming

10086-487: The international air booking systems or have international luggage transferred there, and thus, they are booked instead through the airline or a domestic booking system. Several heliports in Greenland have 3-letter codes used internally which might be IATA codes for airports in faraway countries. There are several airports with scheduled service that have not been assigned ICAO codes that do have IATA codes, especially in

10209-465: The interview, Omar claimed that Osama bin Laden was alive and well, and that his last contact with Bin Laden was months before the interview. Omar declared that the Taliban were "hunting Americans like pigs". In the years following the allied invasion, numerous statements were released that were identified as coming from Omar. In June 2006, a statement regarding the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in Iraq

10332-441: The messenger was briefly detained in Pakistan, and thereafter messages were just relayed person-to-person. Omar kept in touch with events in the world by listening to BBC Pashto radio. Bette Dam wrote, "Though Mullah Omar did not venture outside for fear of being caught, according to Jabbar Omari, in the four years they hid in that home, they felt relatively safe." The house was searched by the US military once, but they did not enter

10455-580: The more than one hundred suicide bomb attacks which occurred in Afghanistan in the last year had been carried out by bombers who acted on religious orders which they received from the Taliban – "the mujahedeen do not take any action without a fatwa ." In April 2007, Omar issued another statement through an intermediary in which he encouraged more suicide attacks. In November 2009, The Washington Times claimed that Omar, assisted by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), had moved back to Karachi in October. In January 2010, Brigadier Amir Sultan Tarar ,

10578-436: The mountainous country of Afghanistan from 1994 onwards. Two influential anti-Soviet political leaders who were connected with Peshawar during this era were Mohammad Yunus Khalis and Mohammad Nabi Mohammadi ; both exerted a considerable influence over the Taliban , particularly in the southern parts of the country, including Kandahar . Many of those who later formed the core of the Taliban, including Omar, fought under

10701-485: The mountains, noting, "defending the cities with front lines that can be targeted from the air will cause us terrible loss". In a November 2001 BBC Pashto interview, Omar said, "You (the BBC) and American puppet radios have created concern. But the current situation in Afghanistan is related to a bigger cause – that is the destruction of America. ... This is not a matter of weapons. We are hopeful for God's help. The real matter

10824-547: The mujahideen group Hezb-i Islami Khalis and fought under the command of Nek Mohammed against Mohammad Najibullah 's communist regime between 1989 and 1992. After Najibullah's government collapsed in 1992, Omar and a group of mujahideen turned their base near Haji Ibrahim Mosque in Gheshano village, in the Singesar area, into a madrassa. As well as teaching there, Omar resumed his own studies that had been interrupted by

10947-612: The name of the airport itself, for instance: This is also true with some cities with a single airport (even if there is more than one airport in the metropolitan area of said city), such as BDL for Hartford, Connecticut 's B ra dl ey International Airport or Baltimore's BWI, for B altimore/ W ashington I nternational Airport ; however, the latter also serves Washington, D.C. , alongside Dulles International Airport (IAD, for I nternational A irport D ulles) and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA, for D istrict of C olumbia A irport). The code also sometimes comes from

11070-511: The northeast corner of the country, near Tajikistan . In October 1997 the nation was named the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan and recognized by Pakistan , Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates . Described as a "reclusive, pious and frugal" leader, Omar rarely left his residence in the city of Kandahar , and he only visited Kabul twice between 1996 and 2001 during his tenure as ruler of Afghanistan. In November 2001, during

11193-416: The one they are located in: Other airport codes are of obscure origin, and each has its own peculiarities: In Asia, codes that do not correspond with their city's names include Niigata 's KIJ , Nanchang 's KHN and Pyongyang 's FNJ . EuroAirport Basel Mulhouse Freiburg , which serves three countries, has three airport codes: BSL, MLH, EAP. Some cities have a name in their respective language which

11316-406: The problems at the airport had been resolved and asked international airlines to resume their flights, promising full cooperation. The airport has two terminals: the original that opened in 1960 and a newer building that opened in 2008. The terminal that opened in 2008 is used for international flights; the original 1960 Soviet-constructed terminal is used for domestic flights. Several hangars along

11439-424: The reference to former Afghan President Hamid Karzai . A Pakistan International Airlines flight landed at the airport on 13 September, marking the first international commercial flight to land since the Taliban takeover. Mahan Air resumed flights to the airport on 15 September, marking resumption of commercial flights between Iran and Afghanistan. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on 26 September announced that

11562-578: The region, including Jalaluddin Haqqani . According to sources, he lived somewhere in Karachi for a time, where he worked as a potato trader to escape detection; a city where he had lived in already and visited for many years before the groups emergence in the 1990's. The United States offered a reward of US$ 10 million for information leading to his capture. In April 2004, Omar was interviewed via phone by Pakistani journalist Mohammed Shehzad. During

11685-413: The report by stating, "He is in Afghanistan safe and sound." On 20 July 2011, phone text messages which were delivered from accounts which were used by Mujahid and fellow spokesman Qari Mohammed Yousuf announced Omar's death. However, Mujahid and Yousuf quickly denied sending the messages and they claimed that their mobile phones, websites, and e-mail accounts had all been hacked, and they swore revenge on

11808-501: The runway are for military aircraft. There are no hangars for civilian (or transient) aircraft. The airport has seven helicopter pads which are used mostly for military traffic. Fire fighting equipment is present. The firefighting equipment has a present capacity of up to 12,000 litres (2,600 imp gal; 3,200 US gal) of water and has the ability to reach 90 metres (300 ft) in height to manage fire outbreaks. Buses, taxi and private cars provide transportation to and from

11931-506: The same first and middle letters, indicating that this rule might be followed only in Germany. Many cities retain historical names in their airport codes, even after having undergone an official name/spelling/transliteration change: Some airport codes are based on previous names associated with a present airport, often with a military heritage. These include: Some airports are named for an administrative division or nearby city, rather than

12054-501: The shelter and never hand him over to enemy. And our Afghan tradition says that, even if your enemy asks for shelter, forgive him and give him shelter. Osama has helped the jihad in Afghanistan, he was with us in bad days and I am not going to give him to anyone. Omar was adamant that bin Laden was innocent of planning the 9/11 attacks despite the accusations directed against him. Nonetheless, high-ranking Taliban officials attempted to persuade Omar to hand bin Laden over and made offers to

12177-592: The southeast, and Bamyan Airport in Bamyan Province to the northwest. Kabul Airport was originally built during the Kingdom of Amanullah Khan in the 1920s, which housed aircraft of the Afghan Air Force and Afghan Post . It was modernized in 1960 by Soviet engineers. The airport was locally named Khwaja Rawash Airport because it was built in the area called Khwaja Rawash. Foreign tourists began visiting Afghanistan via Kabul Airport. This era ended after

12300-500: The station code of Malton, Mississauga , where it is located). YUL is used for Montréal–Trudeau (UL was the ID code for the beacon in the city of Kirkland , now the location of Montréal–Trudeau). While these codes make it difficult for the public to associate them with a particular Canadian city, some codes have become popular in usage despite their cryptic nature, particularly at the largest airports. Toronto's code has entered pop culture in

12423-601: The title "Mullah". Later in life he was given an honorary degree by the Jamia Uloom-ul-Islamia seminary in Karachi , Pakistan , but he never studied there, contrary to some reports. He was also given an honorary doctorate by Darul Uloom Haqqania in northwestern Pakistan, where numerous other senior Taliban leaders studied. Some sources have claimed that he studied there, but its leader Sami-ul-Haq said that he did not know of Omar until 1994. Much of Omar's early and personal life remains either secret or

12546-515: The two-letter code of the radio beacons that were the closest to the actual airport, such as YQX in Gander or YXS in Prince George . Four of the ten provincial capital airports in Canada have ended up with codes beginning with YY, including: Canada's largest airport is YYZ for Toronto Pearson (as YTZ was already allocated to Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport , the airport was given

12669-458: The upper echelons of the Taliban. Afghanistan and Pakistan analyst Michael Semple , for example, wrote in a December 2014 report that "Mullah Omar remains the Taliban supreme leader and the source of all authority in the movement." Some believed that Omar hid in the mountains of southern Afghanistan for over a year before he fled to neighboring Pakistan in late 2002. He continued to receive the allegiance of prominent pro-Taliban military leaders in

12792-529: The use of two letters allowed only a few hundred combinations; a three-letter system of airport codes was implemented. This system allowed for 17,576 permutations, assuming all letters can be used in conjunction with each other. Since the U.S. Navy reserved "N" codes, and to prevent confusion with Federal Communications Commission broadcast call signs , which begin with "W" or "K", the airports of certain U.S. cities whose name begins with one of these letters had to adopt "irregular" airport codes: This practice

12915-423: The village knew that Taliban personnel were living there and offered gifts of clothes and food to Omari and Omar. In 2019, the Taliban released a picture of the supposed hideout where Omar spent the last years of his life. The pictures show a modest mud house with a small garden in which Omar "used to sit in the sun", according to a Taliban spokesman. Jabbar Omari said that Omar grew ill in 2013, refusing to visit

13038-408: The war, to fetch weapons following a dispute within his mujahideen group. Mutmaen denies that Omar went there for weapons, but acknowledges that a few members of Omar's family claim he visited Pakistan four times during the war – once for the injury, then to register his group, and two visits to injured friends. The Soviets withdrew from Afghanistan in 1989. According to Ahmed Rashid , Omar joined

13161-487: The war. Unlike many Afghan mujaheddin, Omar spoke Arabic. He was devoted to the lectures of Sheikh Abdullah Azzam . After Najibullah's regime ended, the country fell into chaos as various mujahideen factions fought for control. According to one legend, Omar had a dream in 1994 in which a woman told him: "We need your help; you must rise. You must end the chaos. God will help you." Omar started his movement with less than 50 armed madrassah students who were simply known as

13284-496: The year's end with some Pakistani volunteers. By November 1994, Omar's movement managed to capture the whole of the Kandahar Province and then captured the Herat Province in September 1995. Some accounts estimated that by the spring of 1995 he had already taken 12 of the 31 provinces in Afghanistan. On 4 April 1996, supporters of Omar bestowed the title Amir al-Mu'minin (أمير المؤمنين, lit.   ' Commander of

13407-708: Was a 99% reduction in the area of opium poppy farming in Taliban-controlled areas, roughly three-quarters of the world's supply of heroin at the time. The ban was effective only briefly due to the deposition of the Taliban in 2001. Following the September 11 attacks on the United States carried out by al-Qaeda, the United States under the Bush administration issued an ultimatum to Afghanistan to hand over Osama bin Laden and other high ranking al-Qaeda officials and shut down all al-Qaeda training camps within

13530-631: Was a local religious leader, but the family was poor and had absolutely no political links in Kandahar or Kabul. They were essentially lower middle class Afghans and were definitely not members of the elite." Omar studied at a religious school or madrasa run by his uncle. According to Gopal and Strick van Linschoten, all of his religious education was in Afghan hujras, which are small religious schools annexed to village mosques. He completed his primary and secondary religious education, then began higher religious studies at 18. His studies were interrupted before he completed them and he did not properly earn

13653-620: Was an Afghan mujahideen commander, revolutionary , and the cleric who founded the Taliban . During the Third Afghan Civil War , the Taliban fought the Northern Alliance and took control of most of the country, establishing the First Islamic Emirate for which Omar began to serve as Supreme Leader in 1996. Shortly after al-Qaeda carried out the September 11 attacks , the Taliban government

13776-433: Was bombed and was last seen riding on the back of a motorcycle driven by his brother-in-law and right-hand man, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar . Senior and former Taliban officials have said that there had not been any confirmed sightings of their Amir-ul-Momineen (commander of the faithful) in Afghanistan since then. In November 2001, he was heard over a short-wave radio ordering all Taliban troops to abandon Kabul and take to

13899-482: Was born in 1960 into a poor and large Pashtun family in the village of Chah-i-Himmat in Khakrez of Kandahar , Kingdom of Afghanistan . He came from a line of Islamic scholars and teachers. At 1.98 m (6 ft 6 in) tall, he was the tallest boy in his family. His father was Mawlawi Ghulam Nabi, his grandfather Mawlawi Muhammad Rasool, and his great-grandfather Mawlawi Baz Muhammad. They were of

14022-524: Was built in the area named Khwaja Rawash. It was given the name Kabul Airport in 1960 after the Soviet Union built a terminal and a concrete runway. From 2014 to 2021, it was named Hamid Karzai International Airport in honor of former President Hamid Karzai . After the Taliban returned to power in 2021, the name was changed back to Kabul International Airport. Sitting at an altitude of approximately 1,791 m (5,876 ft) above sea level ,

14145-413: Was in possession of the airport, until late 2001 when they fled the city after the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan . Due to international sanctions during the Taliban government, the airport was closed in the late 1990s, with very limited international flights. Following the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan after the September 11 attacks , Kabul Airport was bombed by United States and coalition forces. After

14268-599: Was merely changing locations due to security reasons. During the Battle for Kandahar in late November 2001, US Special Operations teams known as Texas 12 and Texas 17 aligned with Hamid Karzai and with General Gul Agha Sherzai , respectively, surrounded Kandahar backed by US Marines outside Lashkar Gah . On 28 November 2001, while under attack by a Russian-made BM-21 multiple rocket launcher , Texas 17 observed Omar's black American-made Chevrolet Suburban passing Kandahar Airport and travelling down highway four surrounded by

14391-621: Was not revealed publicly until 2015. In 2021, the Taliban deposed the Afghan government and regained power following the Fall of Kabul . Omar remains a largely popular figure amongst the Taliban, who view him as a key freedom fighter who defended Afghanistan's Islamic principles — first against the Soviet empire and later against the Western world . Others have criticized him for his repressive government and his religious dogmatism. Muhammed Omar

14514-478: Was raised by his uncles. One of his father's brothers, Maulawi Muzafer, married Omar's widowed mother, as was often done in rural Afghanistan. The family moved to the village of Dehwanawark, several miles from the town of Deh Rawood , in the poor Deh Rawood District in Uruzgan Province , where the uncle was a religious teacher. According to former Afghan President Hamid Karzai , "Omar's father

14637-583: Was released by Omar and in it, he hailed al-Zarqawi as a martyr and he also claimed that the resistance movements in Afghanistan and Iraq "will not be weakened". Then, in December 2006, Omar reportedly issued a statement expressing confidence that foreign forces will be driven out of Afghanistan. In January 2007, it was reported that Omar made his "first exchange with a journalist since he went into hiding" in 2001 with Muhammad Hanif via email and courier. In it he promised "more Afghan War", and he also said that

14760-518: Was the operational leader of the Taliban. Four religious scholars at the meeting decided that Mansour should continue as leader, but that Omar's death and Mansour's succession should not be disclosed publicly yet, while the United States was preparing to withdraw from Afghanistan. Some at the meeting unsuccessfully argued for openness. Omar's death remained a secret for two years. The Taliban were extremely successful at keeping Omar's death hidden during these two years even from highly experienced experts on

14883-455: Was the primary source of income for the Taliban during its rule and subsequent insurgency after 2001. In July 2000, Taliban leader Mohammed Omar, in an effort to eradicate heroin production in Afghanistan, declared that growing poppies was un-Islamic, resulting in one of the world's most successful anti-drug campaigns. The Taliban enforced a ban on poppy farming via threats, forced eradication, and public punishment of transgressors. The result

15006-482: Was to send technical assistance to Afghanistan to help reopen the airport as soon as possible. Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu , the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkey , stated that the Taliban and other countries had requested Turkey for help in resuming operations at the airport. The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands , Sigrid Kaag , stated that her government was willing to support Turkey and Qatar in reopening

15129-454: Was toppled by an American invasion of Afghanistan , prompting Omar to go into hiding. He successfully evaded capture by the American-led coalition before dying in 2013 from tuberculosis . Born into a religious family in Kandahar , Omar was educated at local madrasas in Afghanistan. After Afghanistan was invaded by the Soviet Union in 1979, he joined the Afghan mujahideen to fight in

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