Area: 250,000 sq. mi. (647,500 sq. km)

Population (2000 est.) : 25,888,797 (average annual rate of natural increase: 2.4%); birth rate: 41.8/1000; infant mortality rate: 149.3/1000; density per sq. mi.: 104 Capital (2000 est.): Kabul, 2,450,000 Largest cities (2000 est.): Mazare Sharif, 2,500,000; Kandahar, 225,500; Herat, 177,300 Monetary unit: Afghani

Languages : Pushtu, Dari Persian, other Turkic and minor languages Ethnicity/race: Pashtun 38%, Tajik 25%, Uzbek 6%, Hazara 19%, minor ethnic groups (Chahar Aimaks, Turkmen, Baloch, and others)

Literacy rate : 29% (1990) Economic summary: GDP/PPP (1998 est.): $20.0 billion; $800 per capita. Real growth rate: n.a. Inflation: 240% (1996 est.). Arable land: 12%. Products: wheat, fruit, nuts, karakul pelts, wool, mutton. Labor force: 7.1 million: agriculture and animal husbandry, 67.8%; industry, 10.2%; construction, 6.3%; commerce, 5%; services and other, 10.7% (1980 est.). Unemployment: 8% (1995 est.).

Industries : textiles, soap, furniture, shoes, fertilizer, cement, handwoven carpets, natural gas, oil, coal, copper. Agriculture: wheat, fruit, nuts, karakul pelts, wool, mutton.

Natural resources : natural gas, petroleum, coal, copper, talc, barites, sulfur, lead, zinc, iron ore, salt, precious and semiprecious stones. Exports: $80 million (1996 est.): fruit and nuts, handwoven carpets, wool, cotton, hides and pelts, precious and semiprecious gems.

Imports : $150 million (1996 est.): food and petroleum products, most consumer goods. Major trading partners: Former Soviet Union, Pakistan, Iran, Japan, Singapore, India, U.K., Belgium, Luxembourg, Czech Republic, South Korea, Germany.

Geography : Afghanistan approximately the size of Texas is bordered on the north by Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan, on the extreme northeast by China, on the east and south by Pakistan, and by Iran on the west. The country is split east to west by the Hindu Kush mountain range.

Governmen : On Sept. 27, 1996, the ruling members of the Afghan government were displaced by members of the Islamic Taliban movement. Mullah Mohammad Omar, known as the Emir al-Momineen (Leader of the Faithful), has served as the leader since the Taliban came to power in 1996.

History : Darius I and Alexander the Great were the first to use Afghanistan as the gateway to India. Islamic conquerors arrived in the 7th century, and Genghis Khan and Tamerlane followed in the 13th and 14th centuries. In the 19th century, Afghanistan became a battleground in the rivalry of imperial Britain and czarist Russia for control of Central Asia. Three Anglo-Afghan Wars (1839–42, 1878–80, and 1919) ended inconclusively. In 1893 Britain established an unofficial border, the Durand Line, separating Afghanistan from British India, and London granted full independence in 1919. Emir Amanullah founded an Afghan monarchy in 1926. During the cold war, King Mohammed Zahir Shah developed close ties with the Soviet Union, accepting extensive economic assistance from Moscow. He was overthrown in 1973 by his cousin Mohammed Daoud, who was himself ousted in a 1978 coup by Noor Taraki. Taraki and his successor, Babrak Karmal, attempted to create a Marxist state. However, the new leadership was criticized by armed insurgents who bitterly opposed communism and hoped to create an Islamic state in Afghanistan. Fearing his government was on the verge of collapse, Karmal called for Soviet troops. Moscow responded with a full-scale invasion of the country in Dec. 1979. The Soviets were met with fierce resistance from groups already energized by opposition to the Karmal government. The guerrilla forces, calling themselves mujahedeen, pledged a jihad, or holy war, to expel the invaders. Initially armed with outdated weapons, the mujahedeen became a focus of U.S. cold war strategy against the Soviet Union, and with Pakistan's help, Washington began funneling sophisticated arms to the resistance. Moscow's troops were soon bogged down in a no-win conflict with determined Afghan fighters. Soviet withdrawal took place in Feb. 1989.