Abdul Rashid Dostum is an Afghan politician, former Marshal in the Afghan National Army, founder and leader of the political party Junbish-e Milli. Dostum was a major army commander in the communist government during the Soviet–Afghan War, and in 2001 was the key indigenous ally to US Special Forces and the CIA during the campaign to topple the Taliban government. He is one of the most powerful and notorious warlords since the beginning of the Afghan wars, known for siding with winners during different wars.
A national unity government, government of national unity (GNU), or national union government is a broad coalition government consisting of all parties in the legislature, usually formed during a time of war or other national emergency.
The Islamic State of Afghanistan was the government of Afghanistan, established by the Peshawar Accords on 26 April 1992 by many, but not all, Afghan mujahideen parties, after the fall of the communist government. Its power was limited due to civil war. When the Taliban took power of Kabul in 1996, it transitioned to a government in exile and led the Northern Alliance against the partially recognized Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. In the aftermath of the 2001 United States-led invasion of Afghanistan and victory by the Northern Alliance, the Islamic State briefly regained control of the country. In 2002, it was formally succeeded by the Transitional Islamic State of Afghanistan.
Panjshir is one of the thirty-four provinces of Afghanistan, located in the northeastern part of the country containing the Panjshir Valley. The province is divided into seven districts and contains 512 villages. As of 2021, the population of Panjshir province was about 173,000. Bazarak serves as the provincial capital.
The Northern Alliance, officially known as the United Islamic National Front for the Salvation of Afghanistan, was a military alliance of groups that operated between late 1996 to 2001 after the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (Taliban) took over Kabul. The United Front was originally assembled by key leaders of the Islamic State of Afghanistan, particularly president Burhanuddin Rabbani and former Defense Minister Ahmad Shah Massoud. Initially it included mostly Tajiks but by 2000, leaders of other ethnic groups had joined the Northern Alliance. This included Karim Khalili, Abdul Rashid Dostum, Abdullah Abdullah, Mohammad Mohaqiq, Abdul Qadir, Asif Mohseni, Amrullah Saleh and others.
A united front is an alliance of groups against their common enemies.
The United National Front was a coalition of various political parties in Afghanistan. The group was a broad coalition of former and current strongmen, commanders from the anti-Soviet resistance, ex-Communist leaders, and various social and ethnic groups. Its leader was former President of Afghanistan Burhanuddin Rabbani. Many of its members were formerly part of the similarly named United Islamic Front.
Insurgencies have been ongoing in Myanmar since 1948, the year the country, then known as Burma, gained independence from the United Kingdom. The conflict has largely been ethnic-based, with several ethnic armed groups fighting Myanmar's armed forces, the Tatmadaw, for self-determination. Despite numerous ceasefires and the creation of autonomous self-administered zones in 2008, many armed groups continue to call for independence, increased autonomy, or the federalisation of the country. The conflict is the world's longest ongoing civil war, having spanned more than seven decades.
The Afghan mujahideen were various armed Islamist rebel groups that fought against the government of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan and the Soviet Union during the Soviet–Afghan War and the subsequent First Afghan Civil War. The term mujahideen is used in a religious context by Muslims to refer to those engaged in a struggle of any nature for the sake of Islam, commonly referred to as jihad (جهاد). The Afghan mujahideen consisted of numerous groups that differed from each other across ethnic and/or ideological lines, but were united by their anti-communist and pro-Islamic goals. The union was also widely referred to by their Western backers as the Afghan resistance, while Western press often referred to them as Muslim rebels, guerrillas, or "Mountain Men". They were popularly referred to by Soviet troops as dukhi as derivation from Dari word دشمان dushman, which turned into short dukh and also was suitable due to their guerrilla tactics; Afghan civilians often referred to them as the tanzim, while the Afghan government called them dushman, a term also employed by the Soviets.
Mujahideen, or Mujahidin, is the plural form of mujahid, an Arabic term that broadly refers to people who engage in jihad, interpreted in a jurisprudence of Islam as the fight on behalf of God, religion or the community (ummah).
Abdullah Abdullah is an Afghan politician who led the High Council for National Reconciliation (HCNR) from May 2020 until August 2021, when the Afghan government was overthrown by the Taliban. The council had been established to facilitate peace talks between the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and the Taliban insurgents. Abdullah served as the Chief Executive of Afghanistan from September 2014 to March 2020, and as Minister of Foreign Affairs from December 2001 to April 2005. Prior to that, he was a senior member of the Northern Alliance, working as an adviser to Ahmad Shah Massoud. He worked as an ophthalmologist and medical doctor in the 1980s.
The Shura-e Nazar was created by Ahmad Shah Massoud in 1984 at the northern provinces of Takhar, Badakhshan, Balkh and Kunduz, during the Soviet-Afghan War. It comprised and united about 130 resistance commanders from 12 northern, eastern and central regions of Afghanistan. Though operating autonomously, Shura-e Nazar was technically an offshoot of Rabbani's Jamiat-e Islami and hence operated within the framework of the Peshawar Seven against the Soviet-supported Democratic Republic of Afghanistan.
The Afghanistan conflict is a series of events and wars that have kept Afghanistan in a continuous state of armed conflict since 1978.
The National Front of Afghanistan, or Jabh-e Melli, was established in late 2011 by Ahmad Zia Massoud, Haji Mohammad Mohaqiq and Abdul Rashid Dostum. It was generally regarded as a reformation of parts of the military wing which once existed of the United Front which with U.S. air support removed the Taliban from power in Afghanistan in late 2001. The National Front strongly opposed a return of the Taliban to power but failed to keep them in check. It retains only a small military apparatus today. The chairman of the National Front is Ahmad Zia Massoud, the younger brother of the Northern Alliance leader Ahmad Shah Massoud who was assassinated two days before the September 11 attacks in 2001. It is unclear if it is still in operation, as Afghanistan's Republican government has collapsed.
The term Axis of Resistance refers to an Anti-Western/anti-Israeli/anti-Saudi political and informal military alliance between Iran, Palestine, the Syrian Assad government and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. Pro-Syrian government militias, Iraqi Shia militias that are part of the Iraqi Government-sanctioned Popular Mobilization Forces and the Yemeni Houthi movement are also considered part of the alliance.
Ahmad Massoud is an Afghan politician who is the founder and Leader of the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan. He is the eldest son of anti-Soviet military leader Ahmad Shah Massoud. He was appointed as the CEO of Massoud Foundation in November 2016. On 5 September 2019, he was declared his father's successor at his mausoleum in the Panjshir Valley. After the Taliban seized control of Panjshir Valley on 6 September 2021, Massoud escaped into Tajikistan along with former Vice President Amrullah Saleh and currently lives there.
The Afghan peace process during the Afghanistan conflict that started in 1978 with the Saur Revolution refers to peace processes during several phases of the ongoing conflict.
The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan was a presidential republic that ruled Afghanistan from 2004 to 2021. The state was established to replace the Afghan interim (2001–2002) and transitional (2002–2004) administrations, which were formed after the 2001 United States invasion of Afghanistan that had toppled the partially recognized Taliban-ruled Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. However, on 15 August 2021, the country was recaptured by the Taliban, which marked the end of the 2001–2021 war, the longest war in US history. This led to the overthrow of the Islamic Republic, led by President Ashraf Ghani, and the reinstatement of the Islamic Emirate under the control of the Taliban. The United Nations still recognizes the Islamic Republic as the legitimate government of Afghanistan instead of the Islamic Emirate, the de facto ruling government. The US–Taliban deal, signed on 29 February 2020 in Qatar, was one of the critical events that caused the collapse of the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF). Following the deal, the US dramatically reduced the number of air attacks and deprived the ANSF of a critical edge in fighting the Taliban insurgency, leading to the Taliban takeover of Kabul. Soon after, former first vice president Amrullah Saleh declared himself the caretaker president of Afghanistan and announced the republican resistance against the Taliban.
The National Resistance Front of Afghanistan (NRF), also known as the Second Resistance, is a military alliance of former Northern Alliance members and other anti-Taliban fighters loyal to the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. The founder and president of NRF is Ahmad Massoud. When the Taliban captured Afghanistan on 15 August 2021, former first vice president Amrullah Saleh, citing provisions of the 2004 Constitution, declared himself the caretaker president of Afghanistan and announced the republican resistance against the Taliban. Saleh's claim to the presidency was endorsed by Ahmad Massoud, as well as by former Afghan Minister of Defence Bismillah Mohammadi, and the Afghan embassy in Tajikistan including its ambassador Mohammad Zahir Aghbar.
