Kunar (also spelled Konar) is one of the thirty-four provinces of Afghanistan, located in the northeastern part of the country and on the border with Pakistan. Its capital is Asadabad. Pashtuns makes up the majority of the province.

Kunar has always been a place of conflict from which freedom fighters had been fighting the USSR's occupation. It is a rugged mountainous area. The first Afghan who fired the first bullet against the USSR occupation was Ghazi Yahya Khan Zamani. Yahya Khan Zamani is the grandson of Loee (great) Khan Mir Zaman Khan*: See the book Dree Ghazyaan written by Roshan Khadem (Rokhan Khadem) published in Peshawar, Pakistan, Khadem was an Afghan journalist, publisher, radio programmer and writer, who wrote many books. He is the son of the great Molana Qyamuddin Khadem, a well known Afghan journalist, writer, and senator, founder of the (ASDP) Afghan Social Democratic Party (AFGHAN MELLAT) who wrote and left behind more than 150 published and unpublished books. Engineer and terrorist Gulbuddin Hekmatyar had a lot of power in this province where more than 4000 Soviet Communists were killed in combat against the warriors of Mr. Hekmatyar.

Kunar is also a place where conflict still continues. On June 30 2005, 19 American Forces were killed when their CH-47 Chinook helicopter was shot down. Hekmatyar and the Taliban took responsibility.

U.S. officials said al-Qaida fighters also were in the region. Terrorist Osama bin Laden was not said to be there — though he is believed to be somewhere along the Afghanistan-Pakistan frontier.

The region’s wooded mountains are popular with militants because they are easy to infiltrate from neighboring Pakistan and have plenty of places to hide.

Districts

• Asadabad
• Marawara
• Bar Kunar
• Dangam
• Nari
• Ghaziabad
• Shaygal Wa Shiltan
• Wata Pur
• Chapa Dara
• Dara-I-Pech
• Narang
• Chawkay
• Nurgal
• Khas Kunar
• Sirkanay

Politics

As of 2005, Assadullah Wafa is the current governor of the province.