Editing Taliban (section)

=== 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" />