Who trained the mujahideen?

Haqqani and his network played an important role in the formation and growth of al Qaeda, with Haqqani allowing bin Laden to train mujahideen volunteers in Haqqani territory and build extensive infrastructure there.

Who created Mujahideen?

The modern term of mujahideen referring to spiritual Muslim warriors originates in the 19th century, when the term became increasingly identified with the militant Islamic revivalist movement of Syed Ahmad Barelvi, whose self-styled mujāhidīn fought both Sikh expansion and Company rule in India.

Who was helping the Mujahideen and why?

Pakistan not only provided secure sanctuary for the Mujahideen, but actively supported the insurgency throughout the conflict. Other states such as the United States, China, Iran, Britain, France, Italy, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) funneled money and arms to the insurgents.

Who supplied weapons to the Mujahideen?

The Mujahideen obtained weapons from many sources, mostly supplied by foreign sources, such as the Central Intelligence Agency's Operation Cyclone, China, Egypt, Iran and the United Kingdom, and channeled through Pakistan.

Where did the Mujahideen come from?

But the vast majority of Afghans lived in rural areas, where authority came from tribal and ethnic groups, and life revolved around conservative practices of Islam. Rural Afghans formed militias called mujahideen and drove out the Soviets. But then they fell into a civil war with each other.

How The CIA Funded a Terrorist Organization

Did bin Laden lead the Mujahideen?

He studied at university in the country until 1979, when he joined Mujahideen forces in Pakistan fighting against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. He helped to fund the Mujahideen by funneling arms, money, and fighters from the Arab world into Afghanistan, and gained popularity among many Arabs.

Did the CIA help the Mujahideen?

Assistant Secretary of Defense Richard Armitage regularly met with mujahideen, particularly Burhanuddin Rabbani. CIA agents are also known to have given direct cash payments to Jalaluddin Haqqani. The U.S.-built Stinger antiaircraft missile, was supplied to the mujahideen in very large numbers beginning in 1986.

Why did China support the mujahideen?

The Afghan pro-Soviet communists supported China's then-enemy Vietnam and blamed China for supporting Afghan anticommunist militants. China responded to the Soviet war in Afghanistan by supporting the Afghan mujahideen and ramping up their military presence near Afghanistan in Xinjiang.

Why did Russia lose in Afghanistan?

Soviet soldiers in Afghanistan lacked the proper military tactics for guerrilla warfare in Afghanistan's rugged mountainous terrain and many of the Soviet troops were young conscripts untested in combat. Several Afghan groups continued to attack and fight with the Soviet troops.

Did the mujahideen commit war crimes?

It was alleged that Bosnian mujahideen participated in war crimes, including the killing, torture and beheading of Serbian and Croat civilians and soldiers.

Did the Afghan mujahideen become the Taliban?

How were the Taliban formed? The group was formed in the early 1990s by Afghan mujahideen, or Islamic guerrilla fighters, who had resisted the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan (1979–89) with the covert backing of the CIA and its Pakistani counterpart, the Inter-Services Intelligence directorate (ISI).

Why did the mujahideen fight off the Soviets?

The mujahidin employed guerrilla tactics against the Soviets. They would attack or raid quickly, then disappear into the mountains, causing great destruction without pitched battles. The fighters used whatever weapons they could grab from the Soviets or were given by the United States.

How did the Mujahideen come to power?

After Najibullah's government collapsed, the Mujahideen factions (apart from Hezb-i Islami Gulbuddin) signed a power sharing agreement (the Peshawar Accord) and captured Kabul on April 28, 1992, celebrating their "Victory Day".

What type of army was the Mujahideen?

The Mujahideen Army (MA) is a Sunni Iraqi militant organization that first gained international attention in late 2004. The group is vehemently anti-American and seeks to overthrow the Iraqi government, which it views as an American and Iranian puppet.

Why is Afghanistan so hard to conquer?

The difficulty in invading Afghanistan was attributed to the prevalence of fortress-like qalats, the deserts, the mountainous terrain of Afghanistan, its severe winter and its enduring clan loyalties, various empires fighting each other while attempting to conquer Afghanistan, and outside neighboring countries support ...

What was the religion of Afghanistan before Islam?

Before the arrival of Islam in the 7th century, there were a number of religions practiced in modern day Afghanistan, including Zoroastrianism, Ancient Iranian religions, Buddhism and Hinduism. The Kafiristan (present-day Nuristan) region, in the Hindu Kush mountain range, was not converted until the 19th century.

What was Afghanistan old name?

In the Middle Ages, up to the 18th century, the region was known as Khorāsān. Several important centers of Khorāsān are thus located in modern Afghanistan, such as Balkh, Herat, Ghazni and Kabul.

Was bin Laden Mujahideen?

During the 1980s, bin Laden fought alongside the mujahideen in Afghanistan against the Soviet Union. After the Soviets withdrew, he went home to Saudi Arabia, then moved to Sudan before being expelled and returning to Afghanistan in 1996 to live under Taliban protection.

Why did China not help Vietnam?

China militarily supported North Vietnam by fighting South Vietnam and the United States in the Vietnam War. However, with the failure of the North Vietnamese and Chinese negotiations in 1968, the PRC began to withdraw support for the sake of preparing for a clash with the Soviets.

How did the Mujahideen finally defeat the Soviets in Afghanistan?

The mujahideen were eventually able to neutralize Soviet air power through the use of shoulder-fired antiaircraft missiles supplied by the Soviet Union's Cold War adversary, the United States.

What did the Afghan Mujahideen do?

mujahideen, Arabic mujāhidūn, members of a number of guerrilla groups operating in Afghanistan during the Afghan War (1978–92) that opposed the invading Soviet forces and eventually toppled the Afghan communist government.

Did bin Laden ever come to the US?

Although some scholars believe that bin Laden took his new wife to visit the cities of Indianapolis and Los Angeles in 1978, all later suggestions of bin Laden entering the U.S. were typically treated by authorities with skepticism, but were followed up at least cursorily.

Who invited bin Laden to Afghanistan?

It is unclear precisely who had invited Bin Laden to Afghanistan. Most accounts agree that old allies of Bin Laden from the 1980s had invited him – political leaders and commanders who belonged to the four so-called fundamentalist mujahidin parties who had fought in the Afghan-Soviet war.