Fighting between the Mujahideen jihadists and the Afghan Army backed by Soviet forces is less widespread as the government appears to be in better control of the insurgency problem in general. Karmal, whose position has been considered shaky, is also firmly in command as his Parcham faction of the ruling PDPA manages to eliminate most of the pro-Khalq elements from the government and the party. Diego Cordovez, UN special representative for Afghanistan, visits the capitals of Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iran to convince their leaders of the necessity to find a peaceful settlement. Clashes between insurgents and security forces are mainly centred on the Panjsher Valley, about 70km northeast of Kabul. Bitter fighting takes place in this region during June–August. The Afghan Army and the Soviets commit numerous ground troops supported by helicopter gunships and MiG jet fighters to dislodge rebels from the valley. Rebel sources in Pakistan admit that the rebels have to take refuge in nearby mountains but insist that they are preparing to fight back. As a result of large-scale operations by Soviet and Afghan forces, Kandahar, in the south, also seems more secure. Western news agency reports estimate casualties in fighting since the Soviet intervention at 20,000 Afghan and 10,000 Soviet troops. Little is known about rebel losses.
Karmal signs a trade protocol with the Soviet Union that thrusts Afghanistan further into the Soviet economic orbit. Most Afghan exports go to the U.S.S.R., allowing a credit of 10 million rubles to Afghanistan for essential imports.
March 1982
Karmal repeats that Afghanistan is ready to discuss proposals for a "flexible peace policy" with its neighbours but is thwarted by the hostile reaction of the U.S. and its allies. He also stresses his government's agreement with the U.S.S.R. on all policy matters.
March 21, 1982
The U.S., the UK, and other Western countries again condemn the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan on the start of the Afghan new year, which is proclaimed Afghanistan Day by Western nations. On the same day the U.S.S.R. declares its intention of staying in Afghanistan until the Kabul government is secure. The Soviet media criticizes the proclamation of Afghanistan Day as part of a "slanderous campaign" against the Soviet presence in Afghanistan.
June 1982
Afghan Foreign Minister Shah Mohammad Dost and his Pakistani counterpart, Sahabzada Yaqub Khan, meet in Geneva, while Iran backed out. Cordovez says that at the meeting he broadly outlined the principles of an agreement in separate talks with Khan and Dost and that he also kept Iran informed of progress. Both sides, Cordovez maintains, accepted the main agenda items: withdrawal of troops, resettlement of an estimated three million Afghan refugees, and international guarantees on noninterference in the internal affairs of Afghanistan. Khan comments that talks are "still at a preliminary stage" and reiterates Pakistan's refusal to hold direct talks with Kabul until Pakistan recognizes the Kabul government.
September 1982
Gen. Abdul Qadir is appointed minister of defense in place of Gen. Mohammad Rafi.
Early November 1982
An explosion in a mountain tunnel north of Kabul is reported to have killed hundreds of Soviet soldiers and Afghan civilians. According to accounts that reach the West, the lead truck of a Soviet military convoy collided with an oncoming fuel truck. The resulting blast and burning gasoline ignited other vehicles, and most of the deaths are believed to have been caused by asphyxiation from the smoke and fumes that filled the tunnel.
December 31, 1982
The Soviet news agency TASS declares that Soviet troops will remain in Afghanistan until long-standing Soviet conditions for their withdrawal (including an assurance of noninterference by Pakistan, Iran, and other nations in the internal affairs of Afghanistan) are met. Predictions of a change in Soviet policy toward Afghanistan had gained credence in some Western capitals after the death of Soviet Pres. Leonid Brezhnev in November 1982 and the appointment of Yuriy Andropov as his successor. Western analysts claimed that Andropov, in his previous post as head of the Soviet State Security Committee (KGB), had consistently opposed Soviet military intervention in Afghanistan.
Babrak Karmal was an Afghan communist revolutionary and politician who was the leader of Afghanistan, serving in the post of general secretary of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan from 1979 to 1986.
Hafizullah Amin was an Afghan communist head of state, who served in that position for a little over three months, from September 1979 until his assassination. He organized the Saur Revolution of 1978 and co-founded the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan (DRA), ruling Afghanistan as General Secretary of the People's Democratic Party.
Mohammad Najibullah Ahmadzai, commonly known as Dr. Najib, was an Afghan politician who served as the General Secretary of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan, the leader of the one-party ruling Republic of Afghanistan from 1986 to 1992 and as well as the President of Afghanistan from 1987 until his resignation in April 1992, shortly after which the mujahideen took over Kabul. After a failed attempt to flee to India, Najibullah remained in Kabul. He lived in the United Nations headquarters until his assassination during the Taliban's capture of Kabul.
The Democratic Republic of Afghanistan (DRA), renamed the Republic of Afghanistan in 1987, was the Afghan state during the one-party rule of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) from 1978 to 1992. It relied heavily on assistance from the Soviet Union for most of its existence, especially during the Soviet–Afghan War.
Mohammad Daoud Khan was an Afghan military officer and politician who served as prime minister of Afghanistan from 1953 to 1963 and, as leader of the 1973 Afghan coup d'état which overthrew the monarchy, served as the first president of Afghanistan from 1973 until his assassination in the Saur Revolution.
The Soviet–Afghan War was a protracted armed conflict fought in the Soviet-controlled Democratic Republic of Afghanistan (DRA) from 1979 to 1989. The war was a major conflict of the Cold War as it saw extensive fighting between Soviet Union, the DRA and allied paramilitary groups against the Afghan mujahideen and their allied foreign fighters. While the mujahideen were backed by various countries and organizations, the majority of their support came from Pakistan, the United States, the United Kingdom, China, Iran, and the Arab states of the Persian Gulf. The involvement of the foreign powers made the war a proxy war between the United States and the Soviet Union. Combat took place throughout the 1980s, mostly in the Afghan countryside. The war resulted in the deaths of approximately 3,000,000 Afghans, while millions more fled from the country as refugees; most externally displaced Afghans sought refuge in Pakistan and in Iran. Approximately 6.5% to 11.5% of Afghanistan's erstwhile population of 13.5 million people is estimated to have been killed over the course of the conflict. The Soviet–Afghan War caused grave destruction throughout Afghanistan and has also been cited by scholars as a significant factor that contributed to the dissolution of the Soviet Union, formally ending the Cold War. It is also commonly referred to as "the Soviet Union's Vietnam".
The People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) was a Marxist–Leninist political party in Afghanistan established on 1 January 1965. Four members of the party won seats in the 1965 Afghan parliamentary election, reduced to two seats in 1969, albeit both before the party was fully legal. For most of its existence, the party was split between the hardline Khalq and moderate Parcham factions, each of which claimed to represent the "true" PDPA.
The following lists events that happened during 1996 in Afghanistan.
The following lists events that happened during 1986 in Afghanistan.
The following lists events that happened during 1981 in Afghanistan.
Khalq was a faction of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA). Its historical de facto leaders were Nur Muhammad Taraki (1967–1979), Hafizullah Amin (1979) and Sayed Mohammad Gulabzoy (1979–1990). It was also the name of the leftist newspaper produced by the same movement. The Khalq wing was formed in 1967 after the split of the party due to bitter resentment with the rival Parcham faction which had a differing revolutionary strategy.
The following lists events that happened during 1979 in Afghanistan.
The following lists events that happened during 1980 in Afghanistan.
The following lists events that happened during 1983 in Afghanistan.
The following lists events that happened during 1984 in Afghanistan.
The following lists events that happened during 1985 in Afghanistan.
The following lists events that happened during 1987 in Afghanistan.
Pursuant to the Geneva Accords of 14 April 1988, the Soviet Union conducted a total military withdrawal from Afghanistan between 15 May 1988 and 15 February 1989. Headed by the Soviet military officer Boris Gromov, the retreat of the 40th Army into the Union Republics of Central Asia formally brought the Soviet–Afghan War to a close after nearly a decade of fighting. It marked a significant development in the Afghan conflict, having served as the precursor event to the First Afghan Civil War.
The Democratic Republic of Afghanistan was the government of Afghanistan between 1978 and 1992. It was recognised diplomatically by only eight countries which were allies of the Soviet Union. It was ideologically close to and economically and militarily dependent on the Soviet Union, and was a major belligerent of the Afghan Civil War.
The Afghan conflict refers to the series of events that have kept Afghanistan in a near-continuous state of armed conflict since the 1970s. Early instability followed the collapse of the Kingdom of Afghanistan in the largely non-violent 1973 coup d'état, which deposed Afghan monarch Mohammad Zahir Shah in absentia, ending his 40-year-long reign. With the concurrent establishment of the Republic of Afghanistan, headed by Mohammad Daoud Khan, the country's relatively peaceful and stable period in modern history came to an end. However, all-out fighting did not erupt until after 1978, when the Saur Revolution violently overthrew Khan's government and established the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan. Subsequent unrest over the radical reforms that were being pushed by the then-ruling People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) led to unprecedented violence, prompting a large-scale pro-PDPA military intervention by the Soviet Union in 1979. In the ensuing Soviet–Afghan War, the anti-Soviet Afghan mujahideen received extensive support from Pakistan, the United States, and Saudi Arabia in a joint covert effort that was dubbed Operation Cyclone.
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