Ahmed Shah Massoud
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| Born: | 2 September 1953 Panjshir, Afghanistan |
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| Died: | 9 September 2001 Takhar, Afghanistan |
| Occupation: | Commander of Mujahidin and Minister of Defense after the Soviet-Afghan War |
| Website: | http://www.ahmadshahmassoud.com |
Ahmed Shah Massoud (احمد شاه مسعود) (c. September 2, 1953–September 9, 2001) (variant transliterations include Ahmad, Masood, etc.) was a Kabul University engineering student turned Afghan military leader who played a leading role in driving the Soviet army out of Afghanistan, earning him the nickname Lion of Panjshir.
Massoud was an ethnic Tajik who was charismatic and respected by a faction of the Afghan population. His supporters call him "National Hero". In the early 1990s he became Defence Minister under President Burhanuddin Rabbani's regime. Following the collapse of Rabbani's government and the rise of the Taliban regime, Massoud became the military leader of the United Islamic Front for the Salvation of Afghanistan. As the Taliban established control over most of Afghanistan, Massoud's forces were increasingly forced into the mountainous areas of the north, where they controlled some 10% of the country's territory and perhaps 30% of its population until 2001. Massoud was assassinated in September 2001. By the order of Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai, Ahmad Shah Massoud was named "National Hero" the following year in 2002.
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[edit] Early life
Ahmad Shah Massoud was born September 2, 1953 in Jangalak, Panjshir Valley, the son of police commander Dost Mohammad Khan. At the age of five, he started grammar school at Bazarak and stayed there until second grade. Since his father was promoted to be police chief of Herat, he attended 3rd and 4th grade at the Mowaffaq School in Herat. He also got religious education at the so-called "Masjed-e-Jame" mosque in Herat. Later his father was moved to Kabul so he attended intermediate and senior grades at the Isteqlaal School in Kabul. Since his childhood, he was considered exceedingly talented; from 10th grade on his school acknowledged his being a particularly gifted student. His native tongue was Persian (Dari), but he was also fluent in French [1], Pashto, and Urdu. Furthermore, he had a good working knowledge of the Arabic language. Massoud: "For me, North, South, Persian, Pashto is absolutely meaningless. In our home, we can talk in every language."[citation needed]
[edit] The Soviet War
Massoud went to Nooristan (Nuristan) and other areas where the war had just started. He wanted to find out about the Afghanis opinion regarding the war against the Soviet-backed Democratic Republic of Afghanistan. As soon as he was sure about their determination he departed with a group of 20 young men to Panjshir in 1979. Still not sufficiently armed Massoud and his troops marched on to Panjshir, Massoud’s home. Their enemy was a superpower and those who were weak or required help had to be protected; especially one’s own family.
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, prime minister of Pakistan, armed Massoud and many other Afghan leaders to fight against the Afghan government with support from the United States. Again, an armed insurrection in Panjsher took place, this time under Massoud's leadership. The fight lasted 40 days, during which the whole Panjshir, Salang, and Bola Ghain were in open revolt against Kabul. After these 40 days Massoud's leg was injured and the troops under his command had no more weapons and ammunition. Despite 600 relief fighters from Nooristan, the government troops finally defeated them.
Massoud went back to Panjshir. On pondering the outcome of the fight, Massoud decided to wage guerrilla war. Massoud is credited with having achieved control of terrain that was much more difficult to defend militarily and was under constant attack from the Soviet-Afghan Army. From that time on Massoud's name was inseparably connected with the Panjshir, he proved to be the resistance fighter in history against the Red Army. He became the Lion of Panjsher. Many people simply called him Amer Sahib (Commander) to express their affection as well as their respect.
In 1979, when his leg was severely wounded, Massoud’s resistance fighters were sieged by government troops, but he managed a narrow escape. In 1983 Soviet special troops had blocked the way out of the mountain tunnel near Malaspa in Panjshir. However, Massoud and his men managed a breakthrough and could slip away without attracting the Soviets attention.
In 1983 and 1984 there was a ceasefire between Massoud and the Red Army, but the Soviets tried to murder Massoud by employing two different tactics: First, they tried to lure him into one of their camps in Onaba - a part of Panjshir - with promises of talks and negotiations, and then have him arrested. A Tajik interpreter thwarted this try. The second strategy was to have him assassinated by his own men. The Russians had bribed a mujahid named Abdul-Qader Naachaar, who was in charge of the Muajhideen’s food. He was told to poison Massoud, but was apprehended before the plan could be carried out.
Dr. Najibullah, later President and at that time chief of the Afghan government’s intelligence service, tried to murder Massoud with the help of a former classmate, Kamran. Najibullah knew Massoud since his youth in Kabul, he also knew how friendly, complacent Massoud was, and how unceremoniously he welcomed friends. Kamran then was captain of the Afghan national soccer team. He went to Panjshir and spent a few days together with Massoud. Kamran finally understood Massoud’s reason to fight and handed over the specially muffled weapon he was given by the Afghan government to carry out the planned assassination. Kamran then took refuge in Germany and asked for political asylum.
One of most notable of Massoud's military tactics in the Panjshir was his tendency to perform shocking manoeuvres against the Red Army. While the Red Army always outnumbered Massoud's men, they could never inflict enough damage on his forces or establish a prolonged presence because they would usually be forced by their respective governments to retreat.
Massoud's most notable military victory was during the 6th assault of Panjshir by the government in 1984. The Panjshir remained one of the few regions in Afghanistan that was never under complete government control.
[edit] The Fall of Kabul, April 1992
Kabul ultimately fell to the mujahidin because the factions in its government had finally pulled it apart. Until demoralized by the defections of its senior officers, the army had achieved a level of performance it had never reached under direct Soviet tutelage. It was a classic case of loss of morale. The regime collapsed while it still possessed material superiority. Its stockpiles of munitions and planes would provide the victorious mujahidin with the means of waging years of highly destructive war. Kabul was short of fuel and food at the end of winter in 1992, but its military units were supplied well enough to fight indefinitely. They did not fight because their leaders were reduced to scrambling for survival. Their aid had not only been cut off, the Marxist-Leninist ideology that had provided the government its rationale for existence been repudiated at its source.
A few days after it was clear that Najibullah had lost control, his army commanders and governors arranged to turn over authority to resistance commanders and local notables throughout the country. Joint councils or shuras were immediately established for local government in which civil and military officials of the former government were usually included. Reports indicate the process was generally amicable. In many cases prior arrangements for transferring regional and local authority had been made between foes.
Through mid-1995 these local arrangements have generally remained in place in most of Afghanistan. Disruptions have occurred where local political arrangements have been linked to been linked to the struggle that has developed between the mujahidin parties. At the national level a political vacuum was created and into it fell the expatriate parties in their rush to take control. The enmities, ambitions, conceits and dogmas which had paralyzed their shadow government proved to be even more disastrous in their struggle for power. The traits they brought with them had been accentuated in the struggle for preferment in Peshawar.
Collusions between military leaders quickly brought down the Kabul government. In mid-January 1992, within three weeks of demise of the Soviet Union, Ahmad Shah Massoud was aware of conflict within the government's northern command. General Abdul Momim, in charge of the Hairatan border crossing at the northern end of Kabul's supply highway, and other non-Pushtun generals based in Mazari-i-Sharif feared removal by Najibullah and replacement by Pushtun officers. The generals rebelled and the situation was taken over by Abdul Rashid Dostam, who held general rank as head of the Jozjani militia, also based in Mazar-i-Sharif. He and Massoud reached a political agreement, together with another major militia leader, Sayyid Mansor, of the Ismaili community based in Baghlan Province. These northern allies consolidated their position in Mazar-i-Sharif on March 21. Their coalition covered nine provinces in the north and northeast. As turmoil developed within the government in Kabul, there was no government force standing between the northern allies and the major air force base at Begram, some seventy kilometers north of Kabul. By mid-April the air force command at Begram had capitulated to Massoud. Kabul was defenseless, its army was no longer reliable.
Najibullah had lost internal control immediately after he announced his willingness on March 18 to resign in order to make way for a neutral interim government. As the government broke into several factions the issue had become how to carry out a transfer of power. Najibullah attempted to fly out of Kabul on April 17, but was stopped by Dostam's troops who controlled Kabul Airport under the command of Karmal's brother, Mahmud Baryalai. Vengeance between Parchami factions was reaped. Najibullah took sanctuary at the UN mission where he remained in 1995. A group of Parchami generals and officials declared themselves an interim government for the purpose of handing over power to the mujahidin.
For more than a week Massoud remained poised to move his forces into the capital. He was awaiting the arrival of political leadership from Peshawar. The parties suddenly had sovereign power in their grasp, but no plan for executing it. With his principal commander prepared to occupy Kabul, Rabbani was positioned to prevail by default. Meanwhile UN mediators tried to find a political solution that would assure a transfer of power acceptable to all sides.
[edit] Civil War
Gulbadeen Hekmatyar placed Kabul under intensive rocket bombardment. Destruction went to the extent that daily up to 3,000 rockets were shot at Kabul, tens of thousands of civilians were murdered, and the city was nearly completely destroyed. After a series of negotiations in Kabul and in Peshawar, Afghanistan, arranged by the power players of the Afghan Civil War - Pakistan, Saudi Arab and Iran - the warring factions failed to come to peace.
In July 2005, Human Rights Watch documented some of crimes committed in these years in a document and it concludes: "Ahmad Shah Massoud is implicated in many of the abuses documented in this report, both those committed by Jamiat forces, and those committed by other militia forces under his command." [2]
[edit] The Taliban
As Taliban took control of around 90% of Afghanistan, the warring factions had no choice but to form an alliance called the 'United Front for Afghanistan Libration'. Because most factions were from the north of Afghanistan, the Western media called them the 'Northern Alliance'. The alliance consisted of warlords and tribal leaders like Haji Rahim, Commander Piram Qol, Haji Mohammad Mohaqeq, General Dostum, Qazi Kabir Marzban, Commander Ata Mohammad and General Malek. From the east were Haji Abdul Qadir, Commander Hazrat Ali, Commander Jaan Daad Khan and Abdullah Wahedi. From the northeast areas, Commander Qatrah and Commander Najmuddin participated. From the southern provinces, there were Commander Qari Baba, Noorzai, and Hotak. From the western and southwest provinces came General Ismail Khan, Doctor Ibrahim, and Fazlkarim Aimaq. From central Afghanistan Commander Anwari, Said Hussein Aalemi Balkhi, Said Mustafa Kazemi, Akbari, Mohammad Ali Jawed, Karim Khaili, Commander Sher Alam, and Abdur Rassul Sayyaf were members of this union. The alliance consisted of members from almost all regions of Afghanistan.
Like the Soviet Union before them, the Taliban failed to neutralize Massoud or enter the Panjshir Valley. From 1979 up until 2001 the Panjshir Valley was never conquered.
[edit] Death
Massoud was the victim of a suicide attack which occurred at Khvajeh Ba Odin on September 9, 2001, two days before the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack in the United States, a timing considered significant by some commentators who believe Osama bin Laden ordered the assassination to ensure he would have the Taliban's protection and cooperation in Afghanistan. The attackers were two Arabs who claimed to be Belgians originally from Morocco. However their passports turned out to be stolen. According to some accounts they were posing as journalists, perhaps intending to attack several Northern Alliance council members simultaneously.
They set off a bomb in either a video camera or a belt worn by one of the attackers. It appears that Massoud died within 30 minutes, although his death was denied until an official announcement that was made on September 13. The explosion also killed Mohammed Asim Suhail, a Northern Alliance official, while Mohammad Fahim Dashty and Massoud Khalili were injured. One of the attackers was killed by the explosion and the other was shot while trying to escape.
The French secret service revealed October 16, 2003 that the camera used by Massoud's assassins had been stolen in December 2000 in Grenoble, France from a photojournalist, Jean-Pierre Vincendet, who was then working on a story on that city's Christmas store window displays. By tracing the serial number that appeared in the camera, the FBI was able to determine Vincendet as the original owner. The French secret service and the FBI then began working on tracing the route that the camera took between the time it was taken from Vincendet and the Massoud assassination.
[edit] After death
In 2001, the Afghan Interim Government under president Hamid Karzai awarded him the title of "Hero of the Afghan Nation". Massoud is the subject of Ken Follett's Lie Down With Lions, a novel about the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Many documentaries, books and movies have been made about Ahmad Shah Massoud.
[edit] The Myth of a Lion
Massoud's nickname, the "Lion of Panjshir" is a rhyme and play on words in Persian, which alludes to the strength of his resistance against the Soviet Union, the mythological exaltation of the lion in Persian literature, and finally, the place name of the Panjshir Valley, where Massoud was born. The place name of "Panjshir" Valley in Persian means (Valley of the) Five Lions. Thus, the phrase "Lion of Panjshir" which in Persian is "Shir-e-Panjshir," is a rhyming play on words.
[edit] External links
- Ahmed Shah Massoud (Domain registered only as of 26 September 2006)
- Profile: ( Afghanistan's 'Lion Of Panjshir')
- THOUGHTS ON COMMANDER MASSOUD(Prof. Michael Barry)]
