individuals and entities associated with Al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden and/or the Taliban. Since the US Invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, the sanctions were applied to individuals and organizations in all parts of the world; also targeting former members of the Taliban government. On 27 January 2010, a United Nations sanctions committee removed five former senior Taliban officials from this list, in a move favoured by Afghan president Karzai. The decision means the five will no longer be subject to an international travel ban, assets freeze and arms embargo. The five men, all high-ranking members of the Taliban government: Wakil Ahmad Muttawakil, former foreign minister. Fazal Mohammad, former deputy minister of commerce. Shams-us-Safa Aminzai, former Taliban foreign affairs press officer. Mohammad Musa Hottak, former deputy minister of planning. Abdul Hakim Munib, former deputy minister of frontier affairs. All had been added to the list in January or February 2001. Bamiyan Buddhas controversy In 1999, the Taliban supreme leader Mullah Omar issued a decree protecting the Buddha statues at Bamiyan, two 6th-century monumental statues of standing buddhas carved into the side of a cliff in the Bamyan valley in the Hazarajat region of central Afghanistan. But in March 2001, the statues were destroyed by the Taliban following a decree issued by Mullah Omar. Mullah Omar explained why he ordered the statues to be destroyed in an interview: Then Taliban ambassador-at-large Sayed Rahmatullah Hashemi also said that the destruction of the statues was carried out by the Head Council of Scholars after a Swedish monuments expert proposed to restore the statues' heads. Hashimi is reported as saying: "When the Afghan head council asked them to provide the money to feed the children instead of fixing the statues, they refused and said, 'No, the money is just for the statues, not for the children'. Herein, they made the decision to destroy the statues". This prompted an international outcry from nations such as Japan, India, Sri Lanka, South Korea, Nepal, Iran, Qatar, and Russia. Even Saudi Arabia and the UAE, both of which were among only three nations to recognize the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, voiced their opposition. The Arab branch of UNESCO, a cultural and educational agency of the United Nations, labelled the destruction as "savage". Military The Taliban maintained 400 Soviet-built T-54/T-55 and T-62 tanks and more than 200 armoured personnel carriers. The Taliban began training its own army and commanders; some were