Sheberghan
Sheberghan (also spelled
Shebirghan and
Shibarghan) is the
capital city of the northern
Jowzjan Province in
Afghanistan.
Sheberghan is located at along the
Safid River banks, about 130 km (80 miles) west of
Mazar-e Sharif on the national primary ring road
Herat-
Kandahar-
Kabul-
Mazar-e Sharif-
Sheberghan-
Mehmana-
Herat.
Sheberghan was once the capital of an independent
Uzbek khanate that was allotted to Afghanistan by the 1873 Anglo-Russian border agreement.
Sheberghan was the site of the
Dasht-i-Leili massacre in December
2001 during the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan where between 250 and 3,000 (depending on sources)
Taliban prisoners were shot and/or suffocated to death in metal truck containers, while being transferred by U.S. and Northern Alliance soldiers from
Kunduz to Sheberghan prison.
Sheberghan was the stronghold of Uzbek warlord General
Abdul Rashid Dostum, who had been vying with his
Tajik rival General
Mohammed Atta for control of northern Afghanistan.
Sheberghan is surrounded by irrigated agricultural land.
With Soviet assistance, exploition of Afghanistan's natural gas reserves began in
1967 at the Khowaja Gogerak field, 15 kilometers east of Sheberghan in Jowzjan Province. The field's reserves were thought to be 67 billion cubic meters. In
1967, the Soviets also completed a 100-kilometer gas pipeline linking
Keleft in the
Soviet Union with Sheberghan.
Sheberghan is important in the energy infrastructure of Afghanistan:
* The Zomrad Sai Oilfield is situated near Sheberghan
* The Sheberghan Topping Plant processes crude oil for consumption in heating boilers in
Kabul,
Mazar-i-Sharif and Sheberghan
* The Jorqaduk, Khowaja Gogerak, and Yatimtaq gas fields are all located within 20 miles of Sheberghan
