Leader of the Northern Alliance, a prominent commander in the civil wars, fought against Soviet forces and later made numerous deals with them, a killer of thousands of innocent people during the civil war, a pioneer of proxy wars, and an exploiter of Afghanistan’s resident ethnic groups for war; these and other similar attributes are recorded in history and memory regarding Ahmad Shah Massoud, reflecting his enigmatic and ambiguous character.
When Afghanistan was occupied by Soviet forces, Massoud was both an openly active member of anti-Soviet organizations and simultaneously had secret and ambiguous connections with Soviet forces and intelligence agencies. For this reason, he managed to protect himself at that time and also greatly benefited from his own prominence and the acquisition of weapons. He obtained many weapons from the Soviets through both secret and open dealings, which he then buried in the Panjshir Valley and other provinces and areas where his infiltrated people were present.
When the Soviet forces were defeated in Afghanistan, a dangerous civil war broke out simultaneously. A key and main player in this war was Ahmad Shah Massoud, who had long been preparing for such a conflict and had stockpiled a large amount of weapons for it. Alongside these weapons, he also had many secret connections and dealings with the Soviet Union and its republics, the West, France, the United States, and England, through which he received aid in exchange for granting them control over the precious mines of Panjshir, Takhar, and Badakhshan.
Masoud was a prominent commander during the civil wars, controlling many areas of the capital, Kabul. He had established a military foundation called the Northern Alliance and played a significant role in the destruction of Kabul and the killing of its residents. Although he was the Minister of Defense during the Mujahideen’s interim government, his goal was to seize the entire government and bring other factions under his control, which is considered one of the main causes of the civil war due to the lust for power.
Masoud, who had stockpiled heavy Russian weapons, armored tanks, aircraft, and other equipment, had rained rockets on Kabul and killed thousands of people, the most infamous being the battle of Afshar. In this battle, Masoud killed thousands of Hazara Afghans in the Afshar area of Kabul, reducing their homes, markets, and entire settlements to rubble.
With the end of the internal wars and the rise of the Taliban movement to power, Massoud prepared for another war and took on a project from foreign countries, this time to fight against the Taliban. Massoud fought many battles with the Taliban, but these were his last battles in life, and he was eventually killed in the Khwaja Bahawaldin district of Takhar in 2001. After his death and when the U.S. invaded Afghanistan, Massoud’s family, and the entire Northern Alliance stood alongside the Americans and responded to their call for service.
During the American invasion of Afghanistan, Massoud’s family, his friends, and the members and commanders of the Northern Alliance were the closest allies of the Americans and the West. They took advantage of this opportunity to serve the Americans and the West excessively in every aspect, sacrificing their fellow Afghans for American interests. They were the pioneers of the Western cultural invasion, and in return for all these actions, they received hundreds of millions of dollars, militias, weapons, and power.
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