Editing Ahmad Shah Massoud (section)

====Escalating war over Kabul (1992)====
Although repeatedly offered the position of prime minister, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar refused to recognize the peace and power-sharing agreement. His [[Hezb-e Islami]] militia initiated a massive bombardment campaign against the Islamic State and the capital city Kabul. Gulbuddin Hekmatyar received operational, financial and military support from neighboring [[Pakistan]].<ref name="Neamatollah Nojumi">{{cite book|last=Neamatollah Nojumi|title=The Rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan: Mass Mobilization, Civil War, and the Future of the Region|edition=2002 1st|publisher=Palgrave, New York}}</ref><ref name="Amin Saikal"/> The Director of the Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies at the [[Australian National University]], [[Amin Saikal]], writes in ''Modern Afghanistan: A History of Struggle and Survival'' that without Pakistan's support, Hekmatyar "would not have been able to target and destroy half of Kabul."<ref name="Amin Saikal"/> Saikal states that Pakistan wanted to install a favorable regime under Hekmatyar in Kabul so that it could use Afghan territory for access to [[Central Asia]].<ref name="Amin Saikal"/>

Hekmatyar's rocket bombardments and the parallel escalation of violent conflict between two militias, Ittihad and Wahdat, which had entered some suburbs of Kabul, led to a breakdown in law and order. Shia [[Iran]] and Sunni Wahabbi [[Saudi Arabia]], as competitors for regional [[hegemony]], encouraged conflict between the Ittihad and Wahdat factions. On the one side was the Shia Hazara [[Hezb-i Wahdat]] of [[Abdul Ali Mazari]] and on the other side, the Sunni Pashtun [[Ittihad-i Islami]] of [[Abdul Rasul Sayyaf]].<ref name="Human Rights Watch (4)">{{cite web|date=July 6, 2005|url=https://www.hrw.org/en/reports/2005/07/06/blood-stained-hands|title=Blood-Stained Hands, Past Atrocities in Kabul and Afghanistan's Legacy of Impunity|publisher=[[Human Rights Watch]]|access-date=December 4, 2016|archive-date=January 13, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150113150933/http://www.hrw.org/en/reports/2005/07/06/blood-stained-hands}}</ref>

According to Human Rights Watch, Iran was strongly supporting the Hezb-i Wahdat forces, with Iranian intelligence officials providing direct orders, while Saudi Arabia supported Sayyaf and his Ittihad-i Islami faction to maximize Wahhabi influence.<ref name="Human Rights Watch (4)"/> Kabul descended into lawlessness and chaos, as described in reports by Human Rights Watch and the Afghanistan Justice Project.<ref name="Human Rights Watch (4)"/><ref name="Afghanistan Justice Project">{{cite web|year=2005|url=http://www.refworld.org/pdfid/46725c962.pdf|title=Casting Shadows: War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity: 1978–2001|publisher=Afghanistan Justice Project}}</ref> Massoud's Jamiat commanders, the interim government, and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) repeatedly tried to negotiate ceasefires, which broke down in only a few days.<ref name="Human Rights Watch (4)"/> Another militia, the [[Junbish-i Milli]] of former communist general [[Abdul Rashid Dostum]], was backed by [[Uzbekistan]].<ref name="Amin Saikal"/> Uzbek president [[Islam Karimov]] was keen to see Dostum controlling as much of Afghanistan as possible, especially in the north.<ref name="Amin Saikal"/> Dostum repeatedly changed allegiances.

The Afghanistan Justice Project (AJP) says, that "while [Hekmatyar's anti-government] Hizb-i Islami is frequently named as foremost among the factions responsible for the deaths and destruction in the bombardment of Kabul, it was not the only perpetrator of these violations."<ref name="Afghanistan Justice Project"/> According to the AJP, "the scale of the bombardment and kinds of weapons used represented disproportionate use of force" in a capital city with primarily residential areas by all the factions involved – including the government forces.<ref name="Afghanistan Justice Project"/> Crimes were committed by individuals within the different armed factions. Gulbuddin Hekmatyar released 10,000 dangerous criminals from the main prisons into the streets of Kabul to destabilize the city and cut off Kabul from water, food and energy supplies. The Iran-controlled Wahdat of [[Abdul Ali Mazari]], as well as the Ittihad of [[Abdul Rasul Sayyaf]] supported by Saudi Arabia, targeted civilians of the 'opposite side' in systematic atrocities. [[Abdul Rashid Dostum]] allowed crimes as a perceived payment for his troops.<ref name="Human Rights Watch (5)">{{cite web |year=1998 |url= https://www.hrw.org/legacy/reports98/afghan/Afrepor0-01.htm |title= II. Background |publisher= Human Rights Watch}}</ref>