The 1992–1996 Afghan Civil War, also known as the Second Afghan Civil War, took place between 28 April 1992 — the date a new interim Afghan government was supposed to replace the Republic of Afghanistan of President Mohammad Najibullah—and the Taliban's occupation of Kabul establishing the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan on 27 September 1996.
The war immediately followed the 1989–1992 civil war with the Mujahideen victory and dissolution of the Republic of Afghanistan in April 1992. Hezb-e Islami Gulbuddin, led by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and supported by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), refused to form a coalition government and tried to seize Kabul with the help of Khalqists. On 25 April 1992 fighting broke out between three, and later five or six, mujahideen armies. Alliances between the combatants were transitory throughout the war.
The Taliban, a new militia created and supported by Pakistan and ISI, became dominant in 1995–96. It captured Kandahar in late-1994, Herat in 1995, Jalalabad in early-September 1996, and Kabul by late-September 1996. The Taliban fought the newly-formed Northern Alliance in the subsequent 1996–2001 civil war.
Kabul's population fell from 2,000,000 to 500,000 during the 1992–1996 war; 500,000 fled during the first four months. The war was a period of intense conflict and suffering for the people of Afghanistan. The collapse of the Soviet-backed government, ethnic and religious divisions, and external involvement all contributed to the conflict. The legacy of this period of Afghan history continues to shape the country's politics and society today.
Background
In 1978, Afghanistan's government was dissolved and replaced by a socialist one, the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan, which was backed by the socialist Soviet Union. In the Soviet–Afghan War (1979–1989), the mostly non-Muslim Soviets invaded Muslim-majority Afghanistan to protect the government. A multi-ethnic group of Afghan Muslims formed the Afghan mujahideen, and fought the Soviets as jihadists; those who engage in jihad, struggle in the name of Islam, are called mujahideen.
1989–1992 civil war
In 1989, the Soviets withdrew from Afghanistan, leaving the Democratic Republic, led by president Mohammad Najibullah, less protected in the face of the Afghan mujahideen. The mujahideen continued their resistance, and claimed Sibgatullah Mojaddedi, from Peshawar, Pakistan, as their head of their government-in-exile. This began a civil war that ended in 1992.
The Soviets still gave aid to Najibullah until 1991; as the Soviet Union collapsed, it decided to cease the aid. In March 1992, mujahideen forces—including a major force of Jamiet e-Islami (Jamiat) troops, commanded by Ahmad Shah Massoud— stormed Afghanistan's capital, Kabul. Najibullah agreed to resign. Various mujahideen groups were involved in negotiations to form a coalition government to replace the Democratic Republic.
Through the Afghan mujahideen's existence, the groups received aid from the United States, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI); one group that was not involved in the negotiations, Hezb-e Islami Gulbuddin, led by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, had been given a disproportionate amount. Soon after Najibullah's resignation, Hezb-e Islami Gulbuddin announced its intent to conquer Kabul alone. Hekmatyar moved his troops into Kabul, and was allowed into the town soon after 17 April 1992.
End of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan
Jamiat and another mujahideen group, Shura-e Nazar, entered Kabul on 24 April, to prevent Hekmatyar from taking over the city and the country. They fought to push Hezb-e Islami Gulbuddin out of the city over the next few days. Meanwhile, on the 26th, several mujahideen groups agreed to the Peshawar Accords, which proclaimed the establishment of the Islamic State of Afghanistan, a government mostly based on Islamic law. The Democratic Republic was officially dissolved. The accords decided that Mojaddedi would be the government's president for two months, until being succeeded by Burhanuddin Rabbani, leader of Jamiat. After Rabbani served four months, he would be succeeded by another leader, chosen at that point by a Shura. Massoud was made Afghanistan's Minister of Defense.
Hekmatyar had asked groups beside Hezb-e Islami Gulbuddin, such as Hezb-i Islami Khalis and Harakat-Inqilab-i-Islami, to join his group in entering Kabul; they declined his offer and instead backed the Peshawar Accords. Starting on the 24th, many officials of the then-Democratic Republic joined Jamiat and Shura-e Nazar's fight, including Deputy Defense Minister Mohammed Nabi Azimi, and the commander of Kabul's garrison, General Abdul Wahid Baba Jan. Hezb-e Islami Gulbuddin was pushed out of Kabul to the south by 27 April, with little damage to the city. Other mujahideen groups had joined the fight against them by then, including Junbish-i Milli (Junbish), Hezbe Wahdat, Ittehad-e Islami (Ittehad), and Harakat-i-Inqilab-i-Islami (Harakat) Former government soldiers and police either declared their allegiance to Massoud's government, these various groups, or went south to Hezb e-Islami. Some deserted. Peace in the city lasted for a short amount of time, as the mujahideen groups in it started being disunited, and Hekmatyar still wanted power.
Main participants
Islamic State of Afghanistan
Jamiat-e Islami
Jamiat was a political party of ethnic Tajiks, and included one of the strongest mujahideen militias in Afghanistan since 1979. Its military wing was commanded by Ahmad Shah Massoud. As a powerful mujahideen leader during the Soviet–Afghan War, he successfully resisted the Soviets from taking Panjshir Valley. In 1992 he signed the Peshawar Accord, a peace and power-sharing agreement, in the post-communist Islamic State of Afghanistan, and was so appointed as the Minister of Defense as well as the government's main military commander. His militia fought to defend the capital Kabul against militias led by Hekmatyar and other warlords who were bombing the city—and eventually the Taliban, who started to lay siege to the capital in January 1995 after the city had seen fierce fighting with at least 60,000 civilians killed.
Hezb-e Islami Khalis
Hezb-e Islami Khalis was an Afghan political movement under Mohammad Yunus Khalis, who separated from Hezb-e Islami Gulbuddin and formed his own resistance group in 1979. After the fall of the Communist regime in 1992, Khalis participated in the Islamic Interim Government. He was a member of the Leadership Council (Shura-ye Qiyaadi), but held no other official post. Instead of moving to Kabul, he chose to remain in Nangarhar. His party controlled major parts of this politically and strategically important province. The Taliban brought Nangarhar under their control in September 1996 and Khalis was supportive of the Taliban movement and had a close relationship with its commanders.
Ittehad-e Islami / Saudi Arabia
The Sunni Pashtun organization Ittehad-e Islami, led by Abdulrab Rasul Sayyaf, was supported by Sunni Wahabbi Saudi Arabia, to maximize Wahhabi influence.
After the forced withdrawal of the demoralised Soviet forces in 1989, and the overthrow of the Mohammad Najibullah regime in 1992, Ittehad-e-Islami's human rights record became noticeably worse, underlined by their involvement in the infamous massacres and rampages in the Hazara Kabul neighbourhood of Afshar in 1992–1993 during the Battle of Kabul. Sayyaf's faction was responsible for, "repeated human butchery", when his faction of Mujahideen turned on civilians and the Shia Hezb-i Wahdat group in west Kabul starting May 1992. Amnesty International reported that Sayyaf's forces rampaged through the mainly Shi'ite Qizilbash Afshar neighborhood of Kabul, slaughtering and raping inhabitants and burning homes. Sayyaf, who was allied with the de jure government of Rabbani, did not deny the abductions of Hazara civilians, but merely accused the Hezb-i Wahdat militia of being an agent of the theocratic Iranian government.
Harakat-i-Inqilab-i-Islami
Mohammad Nabi Mohammadi, leader of Harakat-i-Inqilab-i-Islami, became the Vice President of Afghanistan in the Islamic State of Afghanistan. However, when the mujahideen leaders opened their weapons at each other and the civil war in Afghanistan started, he resigned from his post and forbade the troops loyal to him from taking part in the war. He remained in Pakistan and tried his best to stop the war between Hekmatyar, Rabbani, and Sayyaf. In 1996, the Taliban took control of Afghanistan. Most of the Taliban leaders were the students of Molvi Mohammad Nabi Mohammadi. Mohammadi, however, maintained a good relationship with the Taliban.
Hezb-i Wahdat
The Shia Hazara Hizb-e Wahdat-e Islami Afghanistan ('Islamic Unity Party of Afghanistan') of Abdul Ali Mazari was strongly supported by Shia Iran, according to Human Rights Watch, with Iran's Ministry of Intelligence and National Security officials providing direct orders.
Hezb-i Wahdat initially took part in the Islamic State of Afghanistan and held some posts in the government. Soon, however, conflict broke out between Hezb-i Wahdat and Ittehad-e Islami. The Islamic State's defense minister Ahmad Shah Massoud tried to mediate between the factions with some success, but the ceasefire remained only temporary. As of June 1992, the Hezb-i Wahdat and the Ittehad-e Islami engaged in violent street battles against each other. With the support of Saudi Arabia, Sayyaf's forces repeatedly attacked western suburbs of Kabul resulting in heavy civilian casualties. Likewise, Mazari's forces were also accused of attacking civilian targets in the west. Mazari acknowledged taking Pashtun civilians as prisoners, but defended the action by saying that Sayyaf's forces took Hazaras first. Mazari's group started cooperating with Hezb-e Islami Gulbuddin from January 1993.
Junbish-i Milli / Uzbekistan
The Junbish-i-Milli Islami Afghanistan ('National Islamic Movement of Afghanistan') militia of former communist and ethnic Uzbek general Abdul Rashid Dostum was backed by Uzbekistan. Uzbek President Islam Karimov was keen to see Dostum controlling as much of Afghanistan as possible, especially in the north along the Uzbek border. Dostum's men would become an important force in the fall of Kabul in 1992. In April 1992, the opposition forces began their march to Kabul against the government of Najibullah. Dostum had allied himself with the opposition commanders, Massoud and Sayed Jafar Naderi, the head of the Isma'ili community, and together they captured the capital city. He and Massoud fought in a coalition against Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. Massoud and Dostum's forces joined to defend Kabul against Hekmatyar. Some 4000-5000 of his troops, units of his Sheberghan-based 53rd Division and Balkh-based Guards Division, garrisoning Bala Hissar fort, Maranjan Hill, and Khwaja Rawash Airport, where they stopped Najibullah from entering to flee.
Dostum then left Kabul for his northern stronghold Mazar-i-Sharif, where he ruled, in effect, an independent region (or 'proto-state'), often referred as the Northern Autonomous Zone. He printed his own Afghan currency, ran a small airline named Balkh Air, and formed relations with countries including Uzbekistan. While the rest of the country was in chaos, his region remained prosperous and functional, and it won him the support from people of all ethnic groups. Many people fled to his territory to escape the violence and fundamentalism imposed by the Taliban later on. In 1994, Dostum allied himself with Gulbuddin Hekmatyar against the government of Rabbani and Massoud, but in 1995 sided with the government again.
Hezb-e Islami Gulbuddin / Pakistan's ISI
According to the U.S. Special Envoy to Afghanistan in 1989–1992, Peter Tomsen, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar was hired in 1990 by the Pakistani intelligence agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) planned to conquer and rule Afghanistan which was delayed until 1992 as a result of US pressure to cancel it. In April 1992, according to self-made Afghan historian Nojumi, the Inter-Services Intelligence helped Hekmatyar by sending hundreds of trucks loaded with weapons and fighters to the southern part of Kabul. In June 1992, Hezb-e Islami Gulbuddin started shelling Kabul. The Director of the Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies at the Australian National University, Amin Saikal, confirmed the Pakistani support in 1992 for Hekmatyar: "Pakistan was keen to gear up for a breakthrough in Central Asia...Islamabad could not possibly expect the new Islamic government leaders ... to subordinate their own nationalist objectives in order to help Pakistan realize its regional ambitions. ... Had it not been for the ISI's logistic support and supply of a large number of rockets, Hekmatyar's forces would not have been able to target and destroy half of Kabul."