The Afghan mujahideen were a resistance movement that fought in Afghanistan during the different phases of the Civil war in Afghanistan and in particular during the Soviet war in Afghanistan. The term mujahideen was used for muslims who participated in the jihad, or holy war, against those who were perceived as the enemies of islam, in this case the communist regime of Afghanistan and the Soviet Union. Reflecting the strongly segmented society from which they were isssued, the mujahideen never managed to form a unified movement and remained divided between rival factions. Politically, the mujahideen espoused different outlooks, ranging from conservative traditionalism to radical islamism. After the Soviet withdrawal and the demise of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan, the different factions fought each other in an internecine conflict that destroyed much of the capital, Kabul.

The 1978 insurrection

Reactions to the communist reforms

General uprising

The first outbreaks of revolt took place in Nuristan in July 1978. A delegation of inhabitants visited the town of Manugi to enquire on the fate of several officials from Waygal who had disappeared. These officials, who had family ties to the former minister of the interior, had in fact been summarily executed by the government, though this was not widely known at the time. On July 20, a riot boke out, and the government post at Manugi was captured, while the Nuristani valleys of Waygal, Bashgal and Ramgal soon broke out in open rebellion. In October, the government posts of Kamdesh and Bargimatal also fell to the insurgents, who were joined by a certain number of islamist intellectuals. The governments response included the dispatch of a mechanised battalion, and the mobilisation of the tribal enemies of the Nuristani, the nomadic Gujar and the Shinwari and Meshwani Pashtun tribes. This coalition suceeded in retaking Kamdesh in November, but by February, the different Nuristani tribes had regrouped and retook the town, after having wiped out the army unit and made their peace with their traditional rivals. The government never set foot in Nuristan for the duration of the conflict.^[1]

In March 1979, an uprising engulfed the city of Herat, encouraged by the mutiny of the 17th Division of the Afghan army led by Captains Ismail Khan and Alauddin Khan, who belonged to the JIA. The governments' riposte included carpet bombing of the city that killed between 5,000 and 25,000 inhabitants. The rebels were forced to flee, but soon the whole of Herat Province broke into open revolt.^[2]

In April, revolts broke out in Hazarajat, in Wardak, and in Logar, followed by Faryab and Badghis. Through the spring of 1979, the literacy campaign ground to a halt, as the government lost control of the countryside. In July uprising too place in Panjshir, and Takhar folllowed suit in August, while riots broke out Kabul in the Shiite quarter, and an army unit mutinied at Bala Hissar, abetted by Maoist militants.

Apart from Wardak, Logar and Uruzgan, the first regions to enter into dissidence were the Persian-speaking areas. The provinces inhabited by Pashtuns were slower to revolt, especially in the tribal areas of Eastern and Southern Afghanistan. The DRA governement, that was composed exclusively of Pashtuns, many of which came from eastern Afghanistan, had been careful to not antagonize the powerful tribes who lived along the border with Pakistan. Neverthless, the Jadran tribe of Paktia, following the traditional pattern of tribal warfare, joined the insurgency in the autumn of 1979, after the harvest was over. Obsessed with the myth of the tribal power that had overthrown King Amanullah, Amin decided to launch a military offensive to quell the uprising. The operation ended in disaster as the DRA force was entirely wiped out, leaving the Gardez-Khost highway littered with destroyed armoured vehicles.^[3]

Certain ethnic groups such as the Uzbeks and the Baluch, and certain tribes of the eastern frontier (Mohmand, Jaji Waziri, Tani and Mangal) stayed away from the movement, as did ceratin urban social categories who stood to gain from the communist rule. In the south of the country, the Durrani aristocracy took a prudent stance, and the tribes remained quiet until the Soviet invasion.^[4]

In the beginning, the role of islamist activists was minimal, and foreign aid, mainly from Pakistan, was of negligible importance in provoking, or shaping the insurgency.^[5] Essentially, it began as popular revolt, based on the popular tradition of jihad and enthused by the values of self-sacrifice, portrayed in Pashto poetry and in the Persian epic poem Shahnameh. The Ulema preached, especially after the Soviet invasion, that in accordance with sunni jurisprudence, when a muslim land is attacked by infidels, the jihad changes from a collective duty (farz-i kifai) to be carried out by the ruler, and becomes the individual duty (farz-i'ain) of every muslim.^[6]

Rural revolts often unfolded according to the same model. The coercive and brutal intervention of pro-government militants sparked a mass uprising. After inflamed preaching, the insurgents attacked the local government outpost using every weapon at their disposal, even flintlock muskets. After severe bloodshed on both sides, the government forces usually surrendered, following which the insurgents executed communist officals, while releasing non-party members. The revolt would then spread over the territory occupied by communities linked by tribal kinship and local solidarity networks (ie the territory of a qawm). Resistance groups didn't venture out of the limits of their territory, and set about procuring weapons and oragnisisng to deal with any remaining government presence. The leaders of the uprisings were usually members of the local clergy, or village headmen, except in the areas where islamist movements were implanted (Panjshir, Herat, Mazari Sharif, Badakhshan, Nangrahar, and Laghman) where the leaders were mostly islamist intellectuals.^[7]

The Soviet intervention of December 1979 had the effect of causing an upsurge of nationalism that further fuelled the rebellion. Regions that had remained calm, such as Kandahar, broke out in open revolt, and severe rioting erupted in Kabul; alsting through 1980. The presence of Soviet troops also had a profoundly debilitating effect on Afghan institutions, and in particular the army, that included many nationalist officers. Many of them chose exile rather than collaboration, while many conscripts simply deserted.^[8]

Following the uprising, the rebels organised themselves into a guerrilla force.^{[citation needed]}

Tactical organisation

Local groups

Mobile groups

Bases

Large-scale organisations

Tribal groups

Regular armies

The "Massoud model"

Weapons

The arms pipeline

Individual weapons

Crew-served weapons

Anti-aircraft weapons

Tactics

Political organisation

Islamist parties

The islamist movement originated in 1958 in Kabul, among a group of theology teachers who had studied inthe government madrasa of Kabul and at Al-Azhar University, where they had come into contact with the muslim brothers. The teachers formed a group called Jamiat Islami (islamic society), among whose prominent members were Ghulam Niyazi and Burhanuddin Rabbani. A student movement that followed their teachings was created in the 1960's. Known as the sazwan-i jawanan-i musulman (organisation of muslim youth), it developed into a militant formation, organising many demonstrations, and its members went on to form the backbone of the islamist parties.^[9]

JIA

HIH

The Hizb-i Islami-yi Afghanistan(Islamic party of Afghanistan), more commonly known as Hizb-i islami Gulbuddin split from JIA in 1976, following the failure of the 1975 uprising.

HIK

IUA

Traditionalist parties

NIFA

ANLF

IRMA

Shiite parties

The Shiite parties were active among the Shiite minority which represents roughly 15 percent of the population of Afghanistan. A total of 37 different factions was recorded in 1979, but only a few emerged as significant forces. These groups fought each other in what amounted to a localised civil war. In 1987, the principal parties united under heavy Iranian pressure, formin g what became in 1989 the Hezbi Wahdat, led by Abdul Ali Mazari^[10]

Shura

The Shura-yi inqilabi-yi ittifaqh-i islami-yi Afghanistan (Revolutionary council of the Islamic Union of Afghanistan)was formed in September 1979, following a meeting of several hundred headmen, clerics and intellectuals in Waras. Sayyad Beheshti was elected leader, while Sayyad Muhammad Jaglan, a former army major (Jaglan), was appointed military commander.^[11]

Three tendencies existed within the Shura, each carried by separate social segments of the Hazara leadership. The traditional leaders, the mir, represented the secular tendency. The clergy and some young men who had worked in Iran during the 1970s were islamists, while the Sayyad(descendants of Muhammad) took a traditionalist-religious stance. The latter dominated the Shura, allying with the islamists to oust the mir. However, in 1982 the islamists within the Shura formed an alliance with the Nasr party, forcing the Sayyad to join the mir to repel them. From then on, the Shura became more of a Hazara nationalist formation.^[12]

Free from government interference, the Shura took over the state functions of the former regime, which included the levying of taxes and military conscription. The rule of the Shura became very unpopular among the population, due mainly to rampant corruption and heavy taxation. In 1984, its authority began to crumble, and it lost a a large part of its territory to the Nasr.^[13]

Nasr

The Sazman-i Nasr Islami-yi Afghanistan (Islamic Victory Organisation of Afghanistan) was a radical islamist movement supported by the Iranian Organisation of the Islamic Revolution, a hardline body led by Ayatollah Montazeri which aided Shia militants in foreign countries.^[14] Better organised than the Shura, Nasr undertook an offensive in 1983, and in 1984 managed to capture Waras, Behesti's capital, whilst taking control of two-thirds of the Hazarajat.^[15]^[14]

HI

Pasdaran

Role in the civil war

Internecine warfare

The advent of the Taliban

Footnotes

^ Roy, p.100
^ Roy, p.108
^ Roy, p.102
^ Roy, p.103-105
^ Rubin, p.180
^ Rubin, p.186
^ Roy, pp.106-107
^ Roy, pp.118-119
^ Roy, p.73
^ Ruttig, Thomas (Nov. 27, 2006). "Islamists, Leftists – and a Void in the Center.Afghanistan's Political Parties and where they come from (1902-2006)" (PDF). Konrad Adenauer Foundation. Retrieved 2010-01-09. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
^ Roy, p.141
^ Rubin, p.221
^ Roy, p.142
^ ^a ^b Rubin, p.223
^ Roy, p.144

References

Roy, Olivier (1992). Islam and resistance in Afghanistan. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-39700-6.
Rubin, Barnett (1995). The fragmentation of Afghanistan, state formation and collapse in the international system. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-05963-9.
Jalali, Ali Ahmad (2001). Afghan guerilla warfare: In the words of the mujahideen fighters. Saint Paul: MBI Publishing Company. ISBN 0-7603-1322-9. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)