Word: mujahedeen
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...leftist government of Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and began cultivating Islamist groups as a counterweight to the challenge from the left. The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 made General Zia the key U.S. ally in the region, providing a staging ground for efforts to assist the Afghan mujahedeen - a process that dramatically expanded the conservative Islamist infrastructure in Western Pakistan with massive Saudi funding...
...That was the question hanging over Thursday's agreement by the Taliban to cede Kandahar, its last stronghold, to opposition forces. By Friday, it was a moot point as many Taliban fighters simply headed for the hills rather than hand their weapons over to Mullah Naqibullah, a veteran mujahedeen commander of the anti-Soviet war who helped the Taliban to power but later fell out with its leaders. Opposition forces entering the city found no sign of the Taliban?s reclusive leader...
...real apportioning of power in t he post-Taliban Afghanistan may be occurring far away from the Koenigswinter talks. Rabbani pointedly stayed away, and so did most other contenders. But the former president, whose tenure is remembered as a time of vicious internecine fighting among the riv al mujahedeen commanders who had appointed him, remains an astute operator. He may have stayed away from Germany, but Rabbani is reported to be planning to visit Pakistan for talks with President Musharraf. Pakistan has traditionally been fiercely opposed to an Alliance backed by old foes such as Russia and India...
...General Rashid Dostum sit three delegations whose co mbined weight isn't even close to that of the Northern Alliance: A deputation sent by the exiled King Zahir Shah; another representing Pakistan-based Pashtun warlords loyal to the king; and a third representing exiled intellectuals and Iran-backed Pashtun mujahedeen commanders. Most notably absent, are not only the Taliban, but also representatives of the Pashtun tribal leaders and warlords who have filled the void left by the retreating zealots in much of southern Afghanistan. The Pashtun are Afghanistan's largest ethnic group, comprising almost 40 percent of the population...
...Afghanis themselves, the battle at Kunduz may be a critical moment shaping the post-Taliban order. The various factions of the Northern Alliance are due to meet Monday in Germany with the Pashtun mujahedeen commanders and others who have taken over much of the south, as part of a U.N. effort to broker agreement on a new government. A bloodbath at Kunduz, where some 30,000 mostly Pashtun civilians are reportedly trapped, may sour the atmosphere for Monday's talks. But if large numbers of Afghan Taliban surrender and ultimately find themselves joining with Alliance fighters in facing down...