War in Afghanistan





Lasted over nine years, from December 1979 to February 1989. The mujahideen fought against the Soviet Army and the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan government, mostly in the country's rural countryside. The mujahideen groups were backed by the United States and Pakistan, making it a Cold War proxy war. Between 562,000 and 2,000,000 civilians were killed and millions of Afghans fled the country as refugees, mostly to Pakistan and Iran.Prior to the arrival of Soviet troops, the communist People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan took power after a 1978 coup, installing Nur Mohammad Taraki as president. The government vigorously suppressed any opposition and arrested thousands, executing as many as 27,000 political prisoners. Anti-government armed groups were formed, and by April 1979 large parts of the country were in open rebellion.
The government itself was highly unstable with in-party rivalry, and in September 1979 Taraki was killed under orders of his rival Hafizullah Amin, the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Arriving in the capital Kabul, they staged a coup, killing president Amin and installing Soviet loyalist Babrak Karmal from a rival faction.In January 1980, foreign ministers from 34 nations of the Islamic Conference adopted a resolution demanding "the immediate, urgent and unconditional withdrawal of Soviet troops" from Afghanistan, while the General Assembly assed a resolution protesting the Soviet intervention by a vote of 104–18.Afghan insurgents began to receive massive amounts of aid and military training in neighboring Pakistan and China. By mid-1987 the Soviet Union, now under reformist leader Mikhail Gorbachev, announced it would start withdrawing its forces. The final troop withdrawal started on May 15, 1988, and ended on February 15, 1989, leaving the government forces alone in its battle against the insurgents, which continued until 1992. Due to its length, it has sometimes been referred to as the "Soviet Union's Vietnam War" or the "Bear Trap" by the Western media, and is thought to be a contributing factor to the fall of the Soviet Union.



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