Editing Mazar-i-Sharif (section)

===Late 20th century===
During the 1980s [[Soviet–Afghan War]], Mazar-i-Sharif was a strategic base for the [[Soviet Army]] as they used its airport to launch air strikes on [[mujahideen]] rebels. Mazar-i-Sharif was also the main city that linked to Soviet territory in the north, especially the roads leading to the [[Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic]]. As a garrison for the Soviet-backed [[Afghan Army]], the city was under the command of General [[Abdul Rashid Dostum]]. Mujahideen militias [[Hezbe Wahdat]] and [[Jamiat-e Islami]] both attempted to contest the city but were repelled by the Army. Dostum mutinied against [[Mohammad Najibullah]]'s government on March 19, 1992, shortly before its collapse, and formed his new party and militia, [[Junbish-e Milli]]. The party took over the city the next day. Afterwards Mazar-i-Sharif became the ''[[de facto]]'' capital of a relatively stable and secular [[proto-state]] in northern Afghanistan under the rule of Dostum. The city remained peaceful and prosperous, whilst rest of the nation disintegrated and was slowly taken over by fundamentalist [[Taliban]] forces.<ref>''The Last Warlord: The Life and Legend of Dostum, the Afghan Warrior Who Led US Special Forces to Topple the Taliban Regime'' by Brian Glyn Williams, 2013</ref> The city was called at the time a "glittering jewel in Afghanistan's battered crown". Money rolled in from foreign donors [[Russia]], [[Turkey]], newly independent [[Uzbekistan]] and others, with whom Dostum had established close relations.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/oct/21/afghanistan.terrorism2|title=Fighters to repay Taliban cruelty|first=Chris Stephen in Dashti|last=Qala|date=20 October 2001|website=the Guardian|access-date=22 September 2018}}</ref> He printed his own currency for the region and established his own airline. The city remained relatively liberal as [[Kabul]] previously was, where activities such as coeducational schools and betting was legal as opposed to the Taliban dominated regions in the south of the country.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.rferl.org/a/1084846.html|title=Afghanistan: Taliban Tries To Consolidate Hold On Rebel Stronghold|newspaper=Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty|date=9 April 2008 |last1=Recknagel |first1=Charles }}</ref>

This peace was shattered in May 1997 when he was betrayed by one of his generals, warlord [[Abdul Malik Pahlawan]] who allied himself with the Taliban, forcing him to flee from Mazar-i-Sharif as the Taliban were getting ready to take the city through Pahlawan. Afterwards Pahlawan himself mutinied the Taliban on the deal and it was reported that between May and July 1997 that Pahlawan executed thousands of Taliban members, that he personally did many of the killings by slaughtering the prisoners as a revenge for the 1995 death of [[Abdul Ali Mazari]]. "He is widely believed to have been responsible for the brutal massacre of up to 3,000 Taliban prisoners after inviting them into Mazar-i-Sharif."<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/1615824.stm#pahlawan |title=Afghan powerbrokers: Who's who |work=BBC News |date=November 19, 2001|access-date=2011-04-01}}</ref> Several of the Taliban escaped the slaughtering and reported what had happened. Meanwhile, Dostum came back and took the city again from Pahlawan.

However the Taliban retaliated in 1998 [[Battles of Mazar-i-Sharif (1997–1998)|attacking the city]] and killing an estimated 8,000 [[non-combatant]]s. At 10 am on 8 August 1998, the Taliban entered the city and for the next two days drove their pickup trucks "up and down the narrow streets of Mazar-i-Sharif shooting to the left and right and killing everything that moved—shop owners, cart pullers, women and children shoppers and even goats and donkeys."<ref name=rashid-73>Rashid, ''Taliban'' (2000), p.73.</ref> More than 8000 noncombatants were reported killed in Mazar-i-Sharif and later in [[Bamiyan]].<ref>Goodson, ''Afghanistan's Endless War'', (2001), p.79.</ref> In addition, the Taliban were criticized for forbidding anyone from burying the corpses for the first six days (contrary to the injunctions of Islam, which demands immediate burial) while the remains rotted in the summer heat and were eaten by dogs.<ref>[https://www.hrw.org/reports98/afghan/Afrepor0-02.htm#P114_24041 THE MASSACRE IN MAZAR-I SHARIF, THE FIRST DAY OF THE TAKEOVER].</ref> The Taliban also reportedly sought out and massacred members of the [[Hazara people|Hazara]], while in control of Mazar.<ref name=rashid-73/>