TIMELINE: Violent road to Afghanistan election

(Reuters) - With Afghans voting on Thursday in the country's second presidential elections since the Taliban's ouster in 2001, the poll's outcome is hanging on the threat of violence and the clout of old warlords.

Here is a timeline of major Afghan developments since 2001.

October 7, 2001 - U.S. and British planes begin bombing to root out al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and his Taliban protectors.

November 13 - Anti-Taliban Northern Alliance forces enter Kabul.

December 5 - Afghan groups sign deal in Bonn on interim government headed by ethnic Pashtun tribal leader Hamid Karzai.

June 19, 2002 - Karzai sworn in as president for 18 months.

October 9, 2004 - Presidential election. Karzai declared winner and sworn in on December 7.

September 18, 2005 - Elections for lower house of parliament and provincial councils. Parliament sits for first time on December 19.

January 31, 2006 - Afghanistan receives pledges of $10.5 billion to help it fight poverty and the drug trade and improve security.

July 30 - NATO forces take control of security in the south, moving from Kabul and the safer north and west.

October 5 - NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) assumes responsibility for security in all of Afghanistan.

March 2, 2007 - Pakistani security forces capture Mullah Obaidullah Akhund, the Taliban's third most senior leader, in Quetta.

June 12, 2008 - Donors pledge about $20 billion in aid at a Paris conference, but say Kabul must do more to fight corruption.

July 7 - Suicide car bomb hits Indian embassy in Kabul, killing 41 people.

August 19 - Suspected Taliban insurgents kill 10 French troops and wound 21 in ambush east of the capital, the biggest single loss of foreign forces in combat in Afghanistan since 2001.

December 5 - Karzai and new Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari pledge to boost cooperation and agree a joint strategy to fight al Qaeda and other militants along their shared border.

January 27, 2009 - Thousands of U.S. troops move into two key provinces in east Afghanistan as part of strategy of outgoing U.S. President George W. Bush's administration.

February 17 - New U.S. President Barack Obama orders 17,000 more U.S. troops to tackle an intensifying insurgency.

March 27 - Obama announces plans to send a further 4,000 U.S. troops to train Afghan security forces, along with civilian personnel to improve delivery of basic services.

March 29 - Karzai announces he will stay in office after his term officially ends on May 21 until elections are held in August. He later says he'll run for re-election.

May 11 - Top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan General David McKiernan is fired by Obama. His exit signals a shift from a conventional strategy to a counter-insurgency plan, aimed at reducing civilian deaths.

June 15 - U.S. General Stanley McChrystal assumes command of international troops in Afghanistan.

July 2 - U.S. Marines launch assault in lower Helmand river valley in southern Afghanistan.

July 27 - Britain announces the end of the five-week Operation "Panther's Claw," the largest offensive by British forces since mid-2006, saying it had succeeded in driving militants out of population centers ahead of elections.

August 15 - The Taliban claims responsibility for a suicide car bomb that kills seven people and wounds about 100 outside the ISAF headquarters in Kabul, near the U.S. embassy.

August 20 - Presidential elections.