Afghan Civil War (1989–1992)
The 1989–1992 Afghan Civil War, also known as the First Afghan Civil War, took place between the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan and the end of the Soviet–Afghan War on 15 February 1989 until 27 April 1992, ending the day after the proclamation of the Peshawar Accords proclaiming a new interim Afghan government which was supposed to start serving on 28 April 1992.
Mujahideen groups, some of them more or less united as part of the "Afghan Interim Government", in the years 1989–1992 proclaimed as their conviction that they were battling the hostile "puppet regime" of the Republic of Afghanistan in Kabul.[8] In March 1989, the "Afghan Interim Government" in cooperation with the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) attacked the city of Jalalabad but they were defeated by June in what is now known as the Battle of Jalalabad. Hekmatyar's Hezbi Islami would pull their support for the Afghan Interim Government following the loss in Jalalabad.
In March 1991, a mujahideen coalition quickly conquered the city of Khost. In March 1992, having lost the last remnants of Soviet support, President Mohammad Najibullah agreed to step aside and make way for a mujahideen coalition government. One mujahideen group, Hezb-e Islami Gulbuddin, refused to confer and discuss a coalition government under the Pakistani sponsored Peshawar Peace Accords and invaded Kabul with the help of Khalqist Generals. This triggered a civil war, starting on 25 April 1992, between initially three, but within weeks five or six mujahideen groups or armies.
Battle begins[edit]
Involved in the operation were forces of Hekmatyar's Hezb-e Islami Gulbuddin, Abdul Rasul Sayyaf's Ittehad-e Islami and Arab fighters, totalling 10,000 men. The attack began on 5 March 1989, and went well at first for the mujahideen, who captured the Jalalabad airfield before being counterattacked.[35]: 138 When government troops started to surrender, the attacking forces were soon blocked by the main Afghan army positions held by the 11th Division, that were protected by bunkers, barbed wire and minefields. The government troops could count on intensive air support, as the Afghan air force flew 20 sorties a day over the battlefield. An-12 transport aircraft, modified to carry bombs, flew at high altitude out of range of the Stinger missiles used by the mujahideen; cluster bombs were used intensively.[35]: 139
Three Scud firing batteries, deployed around Kabul, the 99th Missile Brigade fired more than 400 missiles in support of the Jalalabad garrison.[16][17] Despite their imprecision, these weapons had a severe effect on the morale of the mujahedeen, who could do nothing to prevent them.[36][19] The Battle of Jalalabad is considered to be the most concentrated ballistic missile campaign since the V2 Attacks on London in the Second World War.[16][17][19]
By the middle of May, they had made no headway against the defences of Jalalabad, and were running low on ammunition. In July, they were unable to prevent the Afghan Army from recapturing the army base Samarkhel, Jalalabad was still firmly in the hands of Najibullah's government. The mujahideen suffered an estimated 3,000 casualties during this battle, 300 of which were Arab fighters.[33] An estimated 12,000–15,000 civilians were killed, while 10,000 had fled the fighting.[13] The Afghan Army suffered around 1,500 casualties during the battle.[37]
Aftermath[edit]
Contrary to American and Pakistani expectations, this battle proved that the Afghan Army could fight without Soviet help, and greatly increased the confidence of government supporters. Conversely, the morale of the mujahideen involved in the attack slumped and many local commanders of Hekmatyar and Sayyaf concluded truces with the government.[38] The failure of the Battle can be attributed to the failure of Ahmad Shah Masoud's forces to close the Salang Pass allowing Kabul to supply their forces.[15] In the words of Brigadier-General Mohammed Yousaf, an officer of the ISI, "the jihad never recovered from Jalalabad".[36] In particular of course Pakistan's plans to promote Hekmatyar were also harmed. Both the Pakistani and the American governments were frustrated with the outcome. As a result of this failure, General Hamid Gul was immediately sacked by Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, and replaced with General Shamsur Rahman Kallu as the Director-General of the ISI. Kallu pursued a more classical policy of support to the Afghan guerillas.[36] In this respect he cut off the barrier that his predecessors, Akhtar Abdur Rahman and Gul had placed between the mujahideen and the American secret service, which for the first time had direct access to the mujahedeen. The former Pakistani spies, such as Gul, had argued that this gave the United States an opportunity to both undercut Pakistan's interests as well as to weave discord among the mujahideen (something which Pakistan's promotion of Hekmatyar had of course done as well).
Indeed, with direct American access to the mujahideen – in particular that of the envoy Peter Tomsen, whose attitude towards independent Afghans was arrogant and arguably hostile in that he deemed them dangerous extremists without direct US supervision – any segment of mujahideen unity crumbled. Traditionally independent mujahideen leaders, such as Yunus Khalis, Jalaluddin Haqqani, who had tried to unite the mujahideen rivals Massoud and Hekmatyar, now moved closer towards Pakistan because of their suspicion of the United States' intentions. (See also Haqqani network). Others, like Abdul Haq and Massoud, instead favoured the United States because of their tense relations with Pakistan. While Abdul Haq remained hostile towards the communist government and its militias, Massoud would go on to make controversial alliances with former communist figures. Massoud claimed that this was an attempt to unite Afghanistan, but his enemies such as Hekmatyar attacked him for this. Hekmatyar's push were also supported by Pakistan, so that by 1990 there was a definite (if loose) pair of competing axes – one promoted by Pakistan and including Hekmatyar, but also other mujahidin leaders such as Khalis, Jalaluddin Haqqani and other mujahideen leaders who were unsympathetic to Hekmatyar – and the other promoted by the United States and led by Massoud, but also including other leaders such as Abdul Haq who were unsympathetic to Massoud.
The government forces further proved their worth in April 1990, during an offensive against a fortified complex at Paghman. After a heavy bombardment and an assault that lasted until the end of June, the Afghan Army, spearheaded by Dostum's militia, was able to clear the mujahideen entrenchments.[33]
Domestic criticism[edit]
The Jalalabad operation was seen as a grave mistake by some mujahideen leaders such as Ahmad Shah Massoud and Abdul Haq, who did not believe the mujahideen had the capacity to capture a major city in conventional warfare.[39] Neither Massoud nor Haq claimed to have participated in the attack on Jalalabad. Massoud even said it was by BBC radio that he learned about the operation.[12] This is contradictory however as it has been stated Massoud was tasked with closing the Salang Pass, which he failed to do, thus leading to the failure to take Jalalabad.[40] Haq advocated the pursuit of coordinated guerilla warfare, that would gradually weaken the communist regime and cause its collapse through internal divisions. Abdul Haq was also quoted as asking: "How is that we Afghans, who never lost a war, must take military instructions from the Pakistanis, who never won one?"[13] Ahmad Shah Massoud criticized the go-it-alone attitude of Pakistan and their Afghan followers stating: "The damage caused by our (Mujahideen forces) lack of a unified command is obvious. There is a total lack of coordination, which means we are not launching simultaneous offensives on different fronts. As a result, the government can concentrate its resources and pick us off one by one. And that is what has happened at Jalalabad."[12]
Enmity Jamiat-e Islami vs Hezb-e Islami Gulbuddin[edit]
In June 1990, battles between Ahmad Shah Massoud's Jamiat-e Islami and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's Hezb-e Islami Gulbuddin in Logar and Parwan caused hundreds of casualties on each side.[41]
Najibullah waning, mujahideen pursue coalition (March 1992)[edit]
The Soviet Union having dissolved in late 1991 and Russia having decided to end fuel shipments to Afghanistan, by 1992 the Afghan regime of President Mohammad Najibullah began to collapse.[45]
On 18 March 1992, Najibullah announced his willingness to resign in order to make way for a neutral interim government. This step made him lose internal control; his government broke into several factions.[44]
General Abdul Rashid Dostum of the Afghan National Army defected the next day, allied with Hezb-i Wahdat and Jamiat-e Islami mujahideen forces, and took control of Mazar-i-Sharif.[46]
At some point, the UN and senior leaders of several Afghan mujahideen (= Islamic resistance) parties decided to meet in Peshawar, Pakistan, to try to form a new national Afghan coalition government.[47] Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, another mujahideen[46] warlord in Afghanistan, supported by the United States and Pakistan during the Soviet–Afghan War (1979–89) and presumably hired by Pakistan's ISI to conquer Afghanistan (see section Participants civil war 1989–92), soon opposed to such an endeavour,[48] planning to capture Kabul alone. In a recorded radio conversation, mujahideen leader Ahmad Shah Massoud invited Hekmatyar to come to the negotiations, but Hekmatyar replied: "We will march into Kabul with our naked sword. No one can stop us. ... Why should we meet the leaders?" [49][50]
Armies creep up to Kabul (1–14 April)[edit]
On 10 April 1992, the UN presented a plan to the mujahideen parties—of which they approved—to form a pre-interim council on 15 April to accept formal sovereignty from President Mohammad Najibullah.[46] The plan was for the UN to fly that pre-interim council of community and tribal leaders into Kabul on 15 April and then fly Najibullah out of Kabul and out of Afghanistan.[46] Throughout the process, mujahideen forces would remain outside Kabul.[46]
But on 14 April, Ahmad Shah Massoud with his Jamiat-e Islami forces had conquered parts of Parwan Province just north of Kabul and had approximately 20,000 troops stationed around Kabul.[45]
By mid-April, Massoud's forces (Jamiat)[46][44] along with forces of Abdul Rashid Dostum (Junbish-e Melli-ye Islami),[46] Harakat,[51] and some Ismaili troops led by Sayyid Mansor[51] took control of Bagram airbase, 70 km north of Kabul.[46][51]
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar with his Hezb-e Islami Gulbuddin troops moved up to the southern limits of Kabul.[46] Defecting government forces chose sides with those three mujahideen parties: Jamiat-e Islami, Junbish-e Melli-ye Islami and Hezb-e Islami Gulbuddin, offering them their support in case they'd decide to enter Kabul.[46]
Hezb-e Islami Gulbuddin invades Kabul (15–23 April)[edit]
On 15 April 1992, President Mohammad Najibullah was ready to fulfill his role in the plan of 10 April (see above), but the mujahideen parties weren't any longer: some of them now objected against that 10 April agreement.[46] The UN on 15 April did not, as scheduled, fly a pre-interim council into Kabul; apparently, negotiations in Pakistan over such a council were still dragging.[46]
On 16 April, Najibullah was toppled by a coalition of four ethnic Tajik generals, who invited mujahideen leader Ahmad Shah Massoud to enter Kabul to become the new head of state right away, a proposal which Massoud declined.[52][53] One of the putschists, Deputy Defense Minister Mohammad Nabi Azimi, appeared on Afghanistan National Television, saying: "I assure my countrymen that we will have peace in the very near future. There is no need for war anymore".[53][44] By 17 April 1992, troops of Abdul Rashid Dostum controlled Kabul International Airport.[44]
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar on 17 April had moved close to Kabul and threatened to attack the city "if the present administration fails to transfer power to the mujahideen".[53] Not much later, Pashtun government officials and generals from the Khalq faction including General Aslam Watanjar and General Mohammed Rafi started to allow Hekmatyar's Hezb-e Islami Gulbuddin forces into Kabul.[46][54]
Militias fight in Kabul (24–27 April)[edit]
By 24 April 1992, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, leader of Hezb-e Islami Gulbuddin, seemed on the verge of taking control of Kabul, which prompted Ahmad Shah Massoud's and Abdul Rashid Dostum's forces to also enter the town, to prevent the establishment of a Hekmatyar dictatorship.[46][55]
On 25 April, Hekmatyar with Khalqi allies attempted to overtake Kabul.[56] But Massoud's and Dostum's forces were stronger and forced Hekmatyar with hard fighting out of Kabul by 27 April.[56][45] Hastily now, the mujahideen parties discussing in Peshawar (Pakistan) -- which did not include Hekmatyar's Hezb-e Islami Gulbuddin—agreed[56] on their Peshawar Accords which they announced on 26 April,[46] proclaiming a leadership council assuring residual powers for the party leaders under an interim President Sibghatullah Mojaddedi or Mujaddidi (a religious leader) serving from 28 April to 28 June 1992.[56] Jamiat's leader Burhanuddin Rabbani would then succeed him as interim President until 28 October, and also in 1992 a national shura was to ratify a provisional constitution[56] and choose an interim government for eighteen months, followed by elections.[46] In these Peshawar Accords, Ahmad Shah Massoud was appointed as interim minister of defense for the Mujaddidi government.[46]
By 27 April 1992, Hekmatyar's Hezb-e Islami Gulbuddin forces had been pushed south outside Kabul, but new mujahideen groups entered Kabul (Ittehad-e Islami, Hezb-i Wahdat, Harakat), rivalling Jamiat and Junbish, all dividing among them the city which was still largely undamaged.[46] The interim Mujaddidi government was paralyzed right from the beginning which was 28 April 1992, due to rivalling groups contending for total power over Kabul and Afghanistan.[56]