Editing Taliban (section)

== Background ==
{{Main|Afghan conflict}}

{{further|History of Afghanistan (1978–1992)|History of Afghanistan (1992–present)}}

=== Soviet intervention in Afghanistan (1978–1992) ===
[[File:Reagan sitting with people from the Afghanistan-Pakistan region in February 1983.jpg|thumb|President [[Ronald Reagan]] meeting with [[Afghan Mujahideen]] leaders in the Oval Office in 1983]]
After the Soviet Union [[Afghan conflict#Soviet intervention|intervened and occupied Afghanistan]] in 1979, Islamic mujahideen fighters waged a war against Soviet forces. During the [[Soviet–Afghan War]], nearly all of the Taliban's original leaders had fought for either the [[Hezb-i Islami Khalis]] or the [[Harakat-i Inqilab-e Islami]] factions of the Mujahideen.<ref>{{Cite web |date=7 March 2013 |title=Afghanistan: Political Parties and Insurgent Groups 1978–2001 |url=https://www.ecoi.net/en/file/local/1154721/1226_1369733568_ppig1.pdf |access-date=17 August 2021 |website=ecoi.net |publisher=[[Refugee Review Tribunal|Australian Refugee Review Tribunal]] |pages=18–19 |quote=Most of the original Taliban leaders came from the same three southern [[Provinces of Afghanistan|provinces]]—[[Kandahar Province|Kandahar]], [[Uruzgan Province|Uruzgan]] and [[Helmand Province|Helmand]]—and nearly all of them fought for one of the two main clerical resistance parties during the war against the Soviets: Hezb-e Islami (Khales) and Mohammad Nabi Mohammadi's Harakat-I Ineqelab-ye Islami. The Taliban's fighting ranks were mostly filled with veterans of the war against Soviet forces.}}</ref>

Pakistan's President [[Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq]] feared that the Soviets were also planning to invade [[Balochistan, Pakistan|Balochistan]], Pakistan, so he sent [[Akhtar Abdur Rahman]] to Saudi Arabia to garner support for the Afghan resistance against Soviet occupation forces. A while later, the US [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] and the Saudi Arabian [[General Intelligence Directorate (Saudi Arabia)|General Intelligence Directorate]] (GID) funnelled funding and equipment through the Pakistani [[Inter-Services Intelligence|Inter-Service Intelligence Agency]] (ISI) to the Afghan mujahideen.<ref name="Price">{{Cite web |title=Pakistan: A Plethora of Problems |url=http://globalsecuritystudies.com/Price%20Pakistan.pdf |access-date=22 December 2012 |website=Global Security Studies, Winter 2012, Volume 3, Issue 1, by Colin Price, School of Graduate and Continuing Studies in Diplomacy |location=Norwich University, Northfield, VT.}}</ref> About 90,000 Afghans, including Mullah Omar, were trained by Pakistan's ISI during the 1980s.<ref name="Price" />

=== Afghan Civil War (1992–1996) ===
{{See also|Afghan Civil War (1992–1996)|Battle of Kabul (1992–1996)}}
In April 1992, after the fall of the [[Democratic Republic of Afghanistan|Soviet-backed régime]] of [[Mohammad Najibullah]], many Afghan political parties agreed on a peace and power-sharing agreement, the [[Peshawar Accord]], which created the [[Islamic State of Afghanistan]] and appointed an interim government for a transitional period. [[Gulbuddin Hekmatyar]]'s [[Hezb-e Islami Gulbuddin]], [[Hezbe Wahdat]], and [[Ittihad-i Islami]] did not participate. The state was paralysed from the start, due to rival groups contending for total power over [[Kabul]] and Afghanistan.<ref name="photius, peshawar">[https://photius.com/countries/afghanistan/government/afghanistan_government_the_peshawar_accord~72.html 'The Peshawar Accord, 25 April 1992']. Website photius.com. Text from 1997, purportedly sourced on The Library of Congress Country Studies (US) and CIA World Factbook. Retrieved 22 December 2017.</ref>{{better source needed|date=August 2021}}

Hekmatyar's Hezb-e Islami Gulbuddin party refused to recognise the interim government, and in April infiltrated Kabul to take power for itself, thus starting this civil war. In May, Hekmatyar started attacks against government forces and Kabul.<ref name="Human Rights Watch (4)" /> Hekmatyar received operational, financial and military support from Pakistan's ISI.<ref name="Neamatollah Nojumi">{{Cite book |first=Neamatollah |last=Nojumi |title=The Rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan: Mass Mobilization, Civil War, and the Future of the Region |publisher=Palgrave|location= New York |year=2002 }}{{ISBN?}}</ref> With that help, Hekmatyar's forces were able to destroy half of Kabul.<ref name="Amin Saikal" /> Iran assisted the Hezbe Wahdat forces of [[Abdul Ali Mazari|Abdul-Ali Mazari]]. Saudi Arabia supported the Ittihad-i Islami faction.<ref name="Human Rights Watch (4)">{{Cite web |title=Blood-Stained Hands, Past Atrocities in Kabul and Afghanistan's Legacy of Impunity |date=6 July 2005 |url=https://www.hrw.org/en/reports/2005/07/06/blood-stained-hands |publisher=[[Human Rights Watch]]}}</ref><ref name="Amin Saikal">{{Cite book |first=Amin |last=Saikal |title=Modern Afghanistan: A History of Struggle and Survival |publisher=I.B. Tauris & Co |year=2006 |isbn=978-1-85043-437-5 |edition= |location=London & New York |page=352 |author-link=Amin Saikal}}</ref><ref name="Roy Gutman">Gutman, Roy (2008): ''How We Missed the Story: Osama Bin Laden, the Taliban and the Hijacking of Afghanistan'', Endowment of the United States Institute of Peace, Washington DC.{{ISBN?}}{{page needed|date=July 2023}}</ref> The conflict between these militias also escalated into war.

Due to this sudden initiation of civil war, working government departments, police units or a system of justice and accountability for the newly created Islamic State of Afghanistan did not have time to form. Atrocities were committed by individuals inside different factions.<ref>[https://www.hrw.org/report/2005/07/06/blood-stained-hands/past-atrocities-kabul-and-afghanistans-legacy-impunity "Blood-Stained Hands, Past Atrocities in Kabul and Afghanistan's Legacy of Impunity"]. [[Human Rights Watch]]. 6 July 2005.</ref> Ceasefires, negotiated by representatives of the Islamic State's newly appointed Defense Minister [[Ahmad Shah Massoud]], President [[Sibghatullah Mojaddedi]] and later President [[Burhanuddin Rabbani]] (the interim government), or officials from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), commonly collapsed within days.<ref name="Human Rights Watch (4)" /> The countryside in northern Afghanistan, parts of which were under the control of Defense Minister Massoud, remained calm and some reconstruction took place. The city of Herat under the rule of Islamic State ally [[Ismail Khan]] also witnessed relative calm.{{citation needed|date=September 2019}} Meanwhile, southern Afghanistan was neither under the control of foreign-backed militias nor the government in Kabul, but was ruled by local leaders such as [[Gul Agha Sherzai]] and their militias.