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United Islamic Front For The Salvation Of Afghanistan

United Islamic Front for the Salvation of Afghanistan

The Northern Alliance (who prefer the title United Front) were a group of factions who had the common goal of toppling the Taliban regime that was formerly in power in Afghanistan. They fought against the Taliban control that had expanded from Kandahar in 1994 to capture most of Afghanistan by September 2001. The Northern Alliance was headquartered in Mazar-i-Sharif.

Factions

The Northern Alliance was comprised of roughly five of the factions of mujahedin fighters. Iran and Turkey considered there to be seven factions in total, including the Taliban. These groups are:
- Islamic Party of Afghanistan - Jamiat-I Islami-yi Afghanistan - Made up of Persian-speaking Tajiks, led by Burhanuddin Rabbani. In later years Rabbani had little power and Ahmed Shah Massoud was the true leader.
- Islamic Unity Party of Afghanistan - Hizb-I Wahdat-I Islami-yi Afghanistan - Made up of Shia Hazaras, once led by the martyred Abdul Ali Mazari, supported by Iran
- National Islamic Movement of Afghanistan - Junbish-I Milli-yi Afghanistan - Made up of Uzbeks and former communists, led by Abdul Rashid Dostum, supported by Turkey
- Islamic Movement of Afghanistan - Harakat-i-Islami-yi Afghanistan - Shia, led by Ayatollah Muhammad Asif Muhsini
- Islamic Union for the Liberation of Afghanistan - Ittihad-I Islami Bara-yi Azadi - Led by Abdul Rasul Sayyaf Many members are ethnic Tajiks (which may be a factor in Tajikistan's willingness to help the United States in the conflict), Uzbeks and Hazaras - ethnic minorities in Afghanistan. The factions in the Alliance consist of members from the former mujahedin, others from different minority groups and remnants of the former Soviet-backed communist government. The Northern Alliance enjoyed support from India, while the Taliban were close to Pakistan until the September 11, 2001 attacks when Pakistan backed off due to pressure and the hope of debt relief.

United Islamic Front for the Salvation of Afghanistan

United Islamic Front for the Salvation of Afghanistan is another name for the Northern Alliance. The Northern Alliance was supported by Russian, Indian, Iranian, Tajik, Chinese and European governments. Their leader is Ahmed Shah Massoud, who largely operated from Tajikistan and Panjshir. Northern Alliance controls provinces like Badakshan, Kapisa, Takhar and parts of Parwan, Kunar, Nuristan, Laghmaan, Samangan, Qunduz, Ghor and Bamian. Almost all of these provinces are non Pushtun. The Northern Alliance fought the Taliban for several years before defeating them in November, 2001. Their victory was largely a result of a United States led bombing and special forces campaign in support of Northern Alliance ground troops. The Northern Alliance consists of former Mujahideen groups. Most famous commanders in Northern Alliance are Ahmed Shah Massoud, Barhanuddin Rabani, Abdul Rashid Dostum, Karim Khalili, Sayyaf, Ismael Khan, and a little bit by Engineer Gulbudin Hekmatyar. They currently do not have as much power as in the past because they have been partially disarmed. In may 2005 more than 60% of the militiamen from the Northern Alliance were disarmed by United Nations troops and the Afghan National Army. Hamid Kazai said he would disarm all militias and form a 70000 Strong Afghan Army by 2007. Hamid Karzai promised the people of Afghanistan that he would bring criminal commanders into justice. Hamid Karzai also announced in 2005 that now the Afghan Army is strong enough to defend their homeland from any kind of foreign involvement in Afghanistan's internal affairs.

History

The mujahedin predecessors of the Northern Alliance forces previously showed themselves unable to rule effectively, turning on each other after they took control in Kabul in 1992 from the Soviet-backed regime. This bloody feuding between forces loyal to President Burhanuddin Rabbani and rival factions ultimately cleared the way for the Taliban conquest in 1996. Three ethnic groups dominated the Northern Alliance, the Tajiks, who make up 27% of Afghanistan's population and are the second largest ethnic group, and the Hazara and the Uzbeks, who both make up about 9% of the population. From the Taliban conquest 1996 until November 2001 the Northern Alliance controlled roughly 30% of Afghanistan's population. The political leader of the alliance was Burhanuddin Rabbani, however he was little more than a figurehead for the military commmanders. Ahmed Shah Massoud served as the Northern Alliance's Minister of Defence and was by far its most visible and powerful figure. He personnally commanded around 10,000 of the Northern Alliance's estimated 40,000 troops. Massoud's troops were also the best trained and best equipped that the Northern Alliance had. Several other important military leaders controlled different factions within the alliance, including Abdul Rashid Dostum, General Mohammed Fahim, and Ismail Khan. On September 13 2001 it was confirmed that the Ahmed Shah Massoud had died, following an attack by Al-Qaeda assassins posing as journalists four days earlier on September 9. Mohammed Fahim, the second ranking Tajik commander succeeded Massoud a few days later. In November and December of 2001, the Northern Alliance was successful in advancing to control much of the country, including the capital Kabul. This was facilitated by extensive bombing of Taliban forces and military infrastructure by the United States during the U.S.-led attack on Afghanistan. The Northern Alliance's predecessors were responsible for brutal excesses during the factional civil strife that raged before the Taliban took over most of the country in 1996. The market area of Kabul had been devastated by two warlords in a dispute over a sex slave.

External links

- [http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2001/09/27/MN229057.DTL Unlikely U.S. allies in Afghanistan Anti-Taliban coalition is motley band with shady past, San Francisco Chronicle, 9/27/2001]
- [http://www.rawa.org/s-mazar.htm Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan images of Northern Alliance atrocities]
- [http://www.amirbutler.com/archives/2001/11/03/17 Amir Butler: Who are the Northern Alliance?] Category:Rebellion category:History of Afghanistan ja:北部同盟 (アフガニスタン)

Taliban

The Taliban (Persian and Pashto طالبان (plural), from the Arabic طالب (singular), meaning "seeker" or "student"), also transliterated as Taleban, is an Islamist and Pashtun nationalist movement which effectively ruled most of Afghanistan from 1996 until 2001, despite having diplomatic recognition from only three countries: the United Arab Emirates, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia. The most influential members, including Mullah Mohammed Omar, the leader of the movement, were simple village ulema (Islamic religious scholars). The Taliban movement derived mainly from Pashtuns of Afghanistan and North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) of Pakistan, but also included many non-Afghan volunteers from the Arab world, as well as Eurasia, South Asia, and Southeast Asia. In Winston Churchill's story of the Malakand Field Force (1897) the 'Taliwan', a warlike group of tribes on the North-West Frontier are mentioned.

Rise to power

After the fall of the Soviet-backed Democratic Republic of Afghanistan in 1992, Afghanistan was thrown into civil war between competing warlords. The Taliban eventually emerged as a force capable of bringing order to the country. The rise of the Taliban helped the economy by eliminating the payments that warlords demanded from business people; it brought political benefits by reducing factional fighting (although the Taliban fought aggressively against its enemies, its relative hegemony reduced the number of factions) and brought relative stability by imposing a set of norms on a chaotic society. Although the radical ideology of the Taliban would later alienate many, several observers initially considered its emergence as a positive development. warlord Taliban legend has it that in the spring of 1994, upon hearing of the abduction and rape of two girls at a mujahideen checkpoint in the village of Sang Hesar near Kandahar, local mullah Mohammed Omar, a veteran of the Harakat-i Inqilab-i Islami faction of the mujahideen, gathered thirty other taliban into a fighting force, rescued the girls and hanged the commander of the mujahideen. After this incident, Taliban legend goes, the services of these pious religious fighters were in much demand from villagers plagued by unruly mujahideen, and thus the Taliban were born. (Note: This is legend. The Taliban were already making international news in such papers as the Irish Times as early as first quarter 1990. The part about Omar's involvement may be true, but not about it causing the rise of the Taliban movement as a whole.) Following this incident, Omar fled to the neighboring Balochistan province of Pakistan, from where he emerged in the fall of 1994, reportedly with a well-armed and well-funded militia of 1,500 followers, who would provide protection for a Pakistani trade convoy carrying goods overland to Turkmenistan. However, many reports suggest that the convoy was in fact full of Pakistani fighters posing as Taliban, and that the Taliban had gained considerable arms, military training, and economic aid from the Pakistanis. Some claim that support also came from the U.S., which would have preferred a Pakistan-installed government over the Russian-backed Northern Alliance. After gaining power in and around Kandahar through a combination of military and diplomatic victories, the Taliban attacked, and eventually defeated, the forces of Ismail Khan in the west of the country, capturing Herat from him on September 5, 1995. That winter, the Taliban laid siege to the capital city Kabul, firing rockets into the city and blockading trade routes. In March, the Taliban's opponents, Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar ceased fighting one another and formed a new anti-Taliban alliance. But on September 26, 1996 they quit the city of Kabul and retreated north, allowing the Taliban to capture the seat of government and establish the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.

On May 20, 1997, brother Generals Abdul Malik Pehlawan and Mohammed Pehlawan mutinied from under Uzbek warlord Rashid Dostum's command and formed an alliance with the Taliban. Three days later, Dostum abandoned much of his army and fled from his base in Mazar-i-Sharif into Uzbekistan. On May 25, Taliban forces, along with those of the mutinous generals, entered the undefended Mazar-i-Sharif. That same day, Pakistan recognised the Taliban as the government of Afghanistan, followed by recognition from Saudi Arabia the following day. However, on May 27, fierce street battles broke out between the Taliban and Malik's forces. The Taliban, unused to urban warfare, were soundly defeated, with thousands losing their lives either in battle or in mass executions afterward. Nearly fifteen months passed before the Taliban re-captured Mazar-i-Sharif on August 8, 1998. On August 20, 1998, US President Bill Clinton ordered the United States Navy to fire cruise missiles on four sites in Afghanistan, all near Khost (and one in Sudan), which the U.S. claimed were terrorist training camps. This was known as Operation Infinite Reach. The sites included one run by Osama bin Laden, the leader of Al Qaeda, who allegedly directed the August 7 bombings of U.S. embassies in East Africa. Three other villages, whose legitimacy as targets was strongly disputed by many sources, were also struck. At its height, the Emirate was diplomatically recognised by Pakistan, by the United Arab Emirates and by Saudi Arabia. It then controlled all of Afghanistan, apart from small regions in the northeast which were held by the Northern Alliance. Most of the rest of the world, and the United Nations continued to recognize Rabbani as Afghanistan's legal Head of State, although it was generally understood that he had no real influence in the country. The Taliban received logistical and humanitarian support from Saudi Arabia and Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). An estimated $2 million came each year from Saudi Arabia's major charity, funding two universities and six health clinics and supporting 4,000 orphans. The Saudi King Fahd sent an annual shipment of dates as a gift. The relationship with Iran was considered poor due to the Taliban's strong anti-Shia policy.

Culture

In the languages spoken in Afghanistan and Northwestern Pakistan, (Persian and Pushtu), Taliban means those who study the book (referring to the Qur'an). It is derived from the Arabic word for seeker or student, talib. The Taliban belong to the Deobandi movement, a Sunni Islam movement which emphasizes piety, austerity, and the family obligations of men. They emerged from the ethnically Pashtun areas of Afghanistan. Many of Taliban grew up in refugee camps in Pakistan.

Life under Taliban rule

Islamic law

Once in power, the Taliban instituted a form of Sharia (Islamic law). The Taliban's reform of government was in part directed by scholars of Islamic law. Among the laws applied were criminal punishments, administered by a religious police force, including amputation of one or both hands for theft and stoning for adultery. The Taliban banned all forms of television, imagery, music and sports. In response to this ban the IOC suspended Afghanistan from participation in the 2000 Summer Olympics. Wearing white shoes - the color of the Taliban flag - was illegal and men were required to keep their beards at a specified length.

Opium trade

Although the Taliban reportedly banned opium poppy cultivation in late 1997, opium production in Afghanistan may have increased through the year 2000, accounting for 72% of the world's illicit opium supply, according to U.S. government sources. Most Afghan opium is sold in Europe and not the United States. On July 27, 2000, the Taliban again issued a decree banning opium poppy cultivation. The announcement of the ban caused prices to rise from $30 per kilogram to $500 per kilogram. There was comment from the international human rights community on the brutality of the Taliban's anti-drug interdictions, including violent punishment of offenders. The U.S. State Department noted in 2001 that "Neither the Taliban nor the Northern Alliance has taken any significant action to seize stored opium, precursor chemicals or arrest and prosecute narcotics traffickers. On the contrary, authorities were said to continue to tax the opium poppy crop at about ten percent, and allow it to be sold in open bazaars, traded and transported." However, the Taliban had succeeded in cutting annual poppy production from a CIA-estimated 4,042 tons per year to only 81.3 tons per year. In 2001 The United States provided $43 million worth of supplies (primarily wheat) to humanitarian relief organizations for distribution to the people of Afghanistan, while continuing to criticise the Taliban's activities. This was widely reported by critics of U. S. policy (such as Robert Scheer) to be a $43 million reward to the Taliban for reducing poppy production. The Taliban subsequently raided the shipments, but no evidence has been offered to indicate that this was the United States' intention. Poppy production increased with the fall of the Taliban government.

Women

Robert Scheer on September 26, 2001. Photograph taken from footage [http://www.rawa.us/movies/beating.mpg here] filmed by the Revolutionary Association of Women in Afghanistan (RAWA). [http://www.rawa.org] ]] The Taliban limited the right of women to work in public places. However, women had the right to work and set up their own business from their houses and work in certain medical positions. Women were permitted to work unless they had a baby in which then work was forbidden in order to stay home and treat their new born or children. The Taliban believed women should stay home in order that their children did not have to grow up in the care of another, and believed that work is the duty of the male in the house and to reject this duty was haraam. Taliban religion minister, Al-Haj Maulwi Qalamuddin, told the New York Times that "To a country on fire, the world wants to give a match. Why is there such concern about women? Bread costs too much. There is no work. Even boys are not going to school. And yet all I hear about are women. Where was the world when men here were violating any woman they wanted?" Although the Taliban claimed that the education of girls in rural Afghanistan was increasing, a UNESCO report alleged that there was "a whopping 65 per cent drop in their enrollment. In schools run by the Directorate of Education, only 1 per cent of the pupils are girls. The percentage of female teachers, too, has slid from 59.2 per cent in 1990 to 13.5 per cent in 1999." A Taliban spokesperson claimed that "Health facilities for women have increased 200% during Taliban administration. Prior to the Taliban Islamic Movement's taking control of Kabul, there were 350 beds in all hospitals in Kabul. Currently, there are more than 950 beds for women in exclusive women's hospitals." Supporters of the Taliban suggested that the depression and the other problems plaguing Afghani women were the result of dire poverty, years of war, the bad economy, and the fact that many were left war widows, and could no longer provide food for their families without some sort of international aid. Women were also obliged to wear the burqa when appearing in public, and failure to do so could attract a public beating [http://www.rawa.us/movies/beating.mpg] (video). The Taliban stated that women were obliged to wear the burqa due to Islamic teachings which state that women must cover up her body in front of non-mahram men, and that both men and women should dress modestly.

Buddhas of Bamiyan

In March 2001, the Taliban ordered the demolition of two statues of Buddha carved into cliffsides at Bamiyan, one 38 metres tall and about 1800 years old, the other 53 metres tall and about 1500 years old. The act was condemned by UNESCO and many countries around the world, including Iran. The intentions of the destruction remain unclear. Mullah Omar initially supported the preservation of Afghanistan's heritage, and Japan offered to pay for its preservation. After a few years a decree was issued claiming all idols must be destroyed. Locals claim that Pakistani engineers were onsite to help in its destruction and that Afghanistan's treasures were ferried across the border to be plundered by private collectors.

Relationship with Osama bin Laden

In 1996, Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden moved to Afghanistan upon the invitation of the Northern Alliance leader Abdur Rabb ur Rasool Sayyaf. When the Taliban came to power, bin Laden was able to forge an alliance between the Taliban and his Al-Qaeda organization. It is understood that al-Qaeda-trained fighters known as the 055 Brigade were integrated with the Taliban army between 1997 and 2001. The generally accepted view in the West is that the Taliban and bin Laden had very close connections.

U.S. invasion

On September 22, 2001, as the U.S. blamed Osama bin Laden and his hosts, the Taliban, for the September 11, 2001 attacks, the United Arab Emirates and later Saudi Arabia withdrew their recognition of the Taliban as the legal government of Afghanistan, leaving neighboring Pakistan as the only remaining country with diplomatic ties. When threatened with retributive attack by the U.S. for harboring al-Qaeda, the Taliban government offered to judge Osama bin Laden in an Islamic court, and later, to hand him over to a neutral country for a war crimes trial. These offers were rejected by the United States, which instead offered an ultimatum[http://archives.cnn.com/2001/US/09/20/gen.bush.transcript/] demanding, among other things, the handover of all al-Qaeda leaders and the closure and inspection of all "terrorist training camp[s]". Shortly afterward, the United States, aided by the United Kingdom and supported by a coalition of other countries including the NATO alliance, initiated military action against the Taliban. The stated intent was to remove the Taliban from power because of the Taliban's refusal to hand over Osama bin Laden for his involvement in the September 11 attacks, and in retaliation for the Taliban's aid to him. The ground war was mainly fought by the Northern Alliance, the remaining elements of the anti-Taliban forces which the Taliban had routed over the previous years. Mazar-i-Sharif fell to U.S.-Northern Alliance forces on November 9, leading to a cascade of provinces falling with minimal resistance, and many local forces switching loyalties from the Taliban to the Northern Alliance. On the night of November 12, the Taliban retreated south in an orderly fashion from Kabul. On November 15, they released eight Western aid workers after three months in captivity (see Attacks on humanitarian workers). The UN Security Council, on January 16, 2002, unanimously established an arms embargo and the freezing of identifiable assets belonging to bin Laden, al-Qaeda, and the remaining Taliban. The Taliban later retreated from Kandahar, and regrouped in the border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Most post-invasion Taliban fighters are new recruits, drawn again from that region's madrassahs (madrassah means "school" in Arabic). The more traditional Qur'anic schools are claimed by the U.S. to be the primary source of the new fighters.

External links

- [http://www.globalpolitician.com/articles.asp?ID=228 The Role of U.S., Russia, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan in the Rise of Afghan Fundamentalism]
- [http://english.pravda.ru/columnists/2003/01/05/41643.html Endgame]
- [http://sydney.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=8468 Taliban's point of view]
- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4737657.stm An obituary of King Fahd.] Considers past and current financial supporters of mujahideen and the Taliban including the U.S. government, King Fahd and Osama bin Laden.
- [http://www.amirbutler.com/archives/2001/11/01/18 Amir Butler: Understanding the reasons for Taliban defiance]
- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/1669996.stm Interview with two foreign Taliban fighters.] November 22, 2001.
- [http://www.beautifulislam.com/audio/misc/ram/npr-03212001.ram Afghani Roving Embassador on NPR's Talk of the Nation March 21, 2001, about women's treatment, statue destruction and other propaganda lies hurled towards the Talibans]
- [http://www.beautifulislam.com/taliban/afghani_embassador_usc.htm Afghani Embassador Speech at USC]

Kandahar

:For the hamlet in Saskatchewan, Canada; see Kandahar, Saskatchewan. Kandahār (or Qandahār) is a city in southern Afghanistan, the capital of Kandahar province. The province has 567,000 people (based on 1979 data), while the city has about 200,000 (based on a 1989 estimate). It is the second-largest city in Afghanistan, a major trading centre, especially for agricultural produce. It has an international airport and extensive road links. Together with Peshawar, Kandahar is the main city of the Pashtun people. It is linked by road to Quetta in Pakistan.

Naming

There is speculation about the origin of the name of Kandahar. Some believe its name is derived from Gandhara, a nearby kingdom to the northeast. Others surmise that Kandahar is a localized transliteration of Alexandria.

History

The present city of Kandahar was founded in the 4th century BC by Alexander the Great, near the site of the ancient city of Mundigak (established around 3000 BC). The city has been a frequent target for conquest because of its strategic location in Central Asia. It was part of the Iranian Achaemenid empire and came under the influence of the Indian emperor Ashoka and the Kushan emperor Kanishka. It was also known as Alexandropolis, after its founder, Alexander. Kandahar was dominated early by various Iranian tribes, but the Pashtuns would remain the most prominent group during most of its history. Under the Abbasids and later Turkic invaders, Kandahar was conquered by Muslims who converted the local Pashtuns and the city came under the influence of the Khurasan region, while retaining its local Pashtun language and culture. It was conquered by Arabs (7th century), Turkic Ghaznavids (10th century), Genghis Khan (12th century), and Timur (1383). Babur, founder of the Mughal empire, annexed Kandahar in 16th century. His son, Humayun, lost Kandahar to the Shah of Persia. Humayun's son Akbar regained control of Kandahar and Kabul, but subsequent Mughal emperors lost the territory. It became part of an early Pashtun state in 1708 when conquered by Mir Waiz. He died in 1715 and from 1738-1747 the city was temporarily in the hands of the Turko-Iranian ruler Nadir Shah. Ahmad Shah Durrani, the founder of Afghanistan, gained control of the city in 1747 and made it the capital (1748) of his new Afghan (Pashtun) kingdom. The (now) old city was laid out by Ahmad Shah and is dominated by his mausoleum. In the 1780s, however, the capital was transferred to Kabul. Qandahar was sometimes a centre of jihad and mujahedin activity, but local Pashtun tribes tended to live by their pre-Islamic code of honour known as Pashtunwali. On 28th Muharram 1242 Hijri (2nd September 1826 C.E.) Syed Ahmad Shaheed's forces reached Qandahar en route to Peshawar. Their purpose was to wage a jihad against the Sikh kingdom of Ranjit Singh and aid their fellow Pashtuns of Peshawar, and within a few days more than 400 Qandaharis presented themselves for jihad, out of whom 270 were selected. Syed Deen Muhammad Qandahari was appointed their leader. British forces occupied the city during the First Anglo-Afghan War (1839-1842) and from 1879 to 1881. Kandahar became part of the modern state of Afghanistan nonetheless.

Recent History

During the Soviet occupation of 1979-1989, Kandahar was firmly under Soviet command. After the Soviet withdrawal it changed hands several times. It was toward the end of 1994 that the Taliban emerged from the city and set out to conquer the south, east, and centre of the country. Since the removal of the Taliban in 2001-02, smaller bands have spread throughout the nearby provinces, and Kandahar came under the control of Gul Agha Shirzai, a Pashtun warlord who had controlled the province and city before the rise of the Taliban, and who was credited with permitting the same corruption that first fueled the growth of the Taliban. The city remains under Shirzai's control. The Taliban remains popular amongst some of the local Pashtun inhabitants. Central Afghan control remains little more than symbolic at present.

Trivia

Since the American incursion, the pederasty of Kandahar has been popularized. The practice consists of an older man taking a young male lover. The city is famous throughout Afghanistan for this, and has given rise to the humorous proverb that when birds fly over Kandahar they flap one wing only, covering their behinds with the other. Category:Cities in Afghanistan Category:Hellenistic colonies ja:カンダハール

Mujahedin

Mujahideen (, also transliterated as mujāhidīn, mujahedeen, mujahedin, mujahidin, mujaheddin, etc.) is a plural form of mujahid (), which literally means "struggler", someone who engages in jihad, or "struggle", but is often translated in the West as "holy warrior". In the late twentieth century, the term "mujahideen" became popular in the Western media to describe various armed fighters who subscribe to Islamist ideologies, although there is no "holy" or "warrior" meaning within the word.

Etymology

Arabic words usually have a three-letter root. The root of mujahedeen is J-H-D (ج-ه-د), meaning "effort" in general; however, the particular verb stem of J-H-D from which both jihad and mujahid are derived means "to exert effort against" or "to struggle". Mujahid is originally, therefore, someone who struggles. The term has, even in Arabic, taken on meanings that are specifically religious, or specifically military or paramilitary, or both.

Afghan Mujahideen

The most well-known and feared mujahideen were the various loosely-aligned opposition groups that fought against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan between 1979 and 1989, and then fought against each other in the following civil war. The mujahideen were provided some support before the Soviet invasion according to Zbigniew Brzezinski in order to '.. have the opportunity to give the Soviet Union its Vietnam'[http://www.institute-for-afghan-studies.org/Foreign%20Affairs/us-afghan/us_covert_0.htm]. After the Soviet invasion these mujahideen were significantly financed, armed, and trained by the United States (under the presidencies of Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan), Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and China.[http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/06/10/1425222] Reagan referred to these mujahideen as "freedom fighters ... defending principles of independence and freedom that form the basis of global security and stability." [http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/resource/speeches/1982/31082c.htm] In Western popular culture, the mujahideen were portrayed favourably in the popular actions films The Living Daylights and Rambo III. Following the Soviet retreat, many of the larger Mujahideen groups began to fight each other. After several years of this fighting, a village mullah organized religious students into an armed movement. This movement became known as the Taliban. With each success the Taliban had, their popularity and numbers grew. By 2001, the Taliban had defeated almost all of the militias and brought security to most of Afghanistan. The remaining militias were in the extreme north-east of the country. They allied themselves together and became known as the National Islamic United Front for the Salvation of Afghanistan -- or the United Front, or Northern Alliance. A wealthy Saudi named Osama bin Laden was a prominent mujahideen organizer and financier; his Maktab al-Khadamat (MAK) (Office of Services) funnelled money, arms, and Muslim fighters from around the world into Afghanistan, with the assistance and support of the American, Pakistani, and Saudi governments. In 1988, bin Laden broke away from the MAK. Afghanistan's resistance movement was born in chaos, spread and triumphed chaotically, and did not find a way to govern differently. Virtually all of its war was waged locally by regional warlords. As warfare became more sophisticated, outside support and regional coordination grew. Even so, the basic units of mujahideen organization and action continued to reflect the highly segmented nature of Afghan society. In the course of the guerrilla war, leadership came to be distinctively associated with the title, "commander". It applied to independent leaders, eschewing identification with elaborate military bureaucracy associated with such ranks as general. As the war produced leaders of reputation, "commander" was conferred on leaders of fighting units of all sizes, signifying pride in independence, self-sufficiency, and distinct ties to local community. The title epitomized Afghan pride in their struggle against an overwhelmingly-powerful foe. Segmentation of power and religious leadership were the two values evoked by nomenclature generated in the war. Neither had been favored in ideology of the former Afghan state. Olivier Roy estimates that after four years of war, there were at least 4,000 bases from which mujahideen units operated. Most of these were affiliated with the seven expatriate parties headquartered in Pakistan, which served as sources of supply and varying degrees of supervision. Significant commanders typically led 300 or more men, controlled several bases and dominated a district or a sub-division of a province. Hierarchies of organization above the bases were attempted. Their operations varied greatly in scope, the most ambitious being achieved by Ahmed Shah Massoud of the Panjshir valley north of Kabul. He led at least 10,000 trained troops at the end of the Soviet war and had expanded his political control of Tajik dominated areas to Afghanistan's northeastern provinces under the Supervisory Council of the North. Roy also describes regional, ethnic and sectarian variations in mujahideen organization. In the Pashtun areas of the east, south and southwest, tribal structure, with its many rival sub-divisions, provided the basis for military organization and leadership. Mobilization could be readily linked to traditional fighting allegiances of the tribal lashkar (fighting force). In favorable circumstances such formations could quickly reach more than 10,000, as happened when large Soviet assaults were launched in the eastern provinces, or when the mujahideen besieged towns, such as Khost in Paktia province. But in campaigns of the latter type the traditional explosions of manpower--customarily common immediately after the completion of harvest--proved obsolete when confronted by well dug-in defenders with modern weapons. Lashkar durability was notoriously short; few sieges succeeded. Mujahideen mobilization in non-Pashtun regions faced very different obstacles. Prior to the invasion, few non-Pashtuns possessed firearms. Early in the war they were most readily available from army troops or gendarmerie who defected or were ambushed. The international arms market and foreign military support tended to reach the minority areas last. In the northern regions, little military tradition had survived upon which to build an armed resistance. Mobilization mostly came from political leadership closely tied to Islam. Roy convincingly contrasts the social leadership of religious figures in the Persian and Turkish speaking regions of Afghanistan with that of the Pashtuns. Lacking a strong political representation in a state dominated by Pashtuns, minority communities commonly looked to pious learned or charismatically revered pirs (saints) for leadership. Extensive Sufi and maraboutic networks were spread through the minority communities, readily available as foundations for leadership, organization, communication and indoctrination. These networks also provided for political mobilization, which led to some of the most effective of the resistance operations during the war. Many Muslims from other countries volunteered to assist various mujahideen groups in Afghanistan, and gained significant experience in guerrilla warfare. Some groups of these veterans have been significant factors in more recent conflicts in and around the Muslim world (e.g. Bosnia). The mujahideen "won" when the Soviet Union pulled troops out of Afghanistan in 1989, followed by the fall of the Mohammad Najibullah regime in 1992. However, the Mujahideen did not establish a united government, and they were in turn ousted from power by a radical splinter group known as the Taliban in 1996. They regrouped as the Afghan Northern Alliance and in 2001 with U.S. and International military aid, they ousted the Taliban from power and formed a new government under Hamid Karzai.

Mujahideen in Bosnia

During the Yugoslav wars, Bosniak forces received financial and military aid from Islamic countries. This military aid was partially sent in the form of experienced mujajideen troops. Organized in special units (like El Mujahid), they were known for their brutality and war crimes against Serb soldiers. A certain number of these mujahideen fighters stayed in Bosnia when the war ended. They attained Bosnian citizenship, and are now living in several villages throughout Bosnia, where life is organized after the Islamic laws. It is known that those who remained are concentrated around the city of Zenica and in villages near Brcko.

Mujahideen in Iraq

The newly formed Mujahideen in Iraq consist of both shia and sunni Muslims who oppose the Coalition presence in Iraq. Their goal is to use sharia and set up a theocracy in order to oppose the U.S. backed "democratically elected" President.

References

- - [http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/aftoc.html Afghanistan]
- Olivier Roy, Islam and Resistance in Afghanistan

Iran

Iran (Persian: ايران) is a Middle Eastern country located in Southwest Asia bordering Armenia, Azerbaijan including its Nakhichevan exclave and Turkmenistan to the north, Pakistan and Afghanistan to the east, Turkey and Iraq to the west. Until 1935 the country was referred to in the West as Persia. In 1959, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi announced that both terms could be used. In 1979, the Iranian revolution established a theocratic Islamic Republic, changing the country's official name to the Islamic Republic of Iran (جمهوری اسلامی ايران). Dispute exists as to the country's current official name.

History

Sometime around 1500 to 1000 BC, the Iranian nomads of Indo-European stock emigrated to the Iranian plateau possibly from Central Asia. In 8th century BC, the first Iranian government was established under the Median dynasty and under the following dynasty, the Achaemenids, Iranians built the first world empire. Their empire emerged in the 6th century BC under Cyrus the Great, the founder of the Persian Empire, who called himself "King of Iran and beyond". Indeed, the name Persia is derived from Persis, the ancient Greek name for the empire. The Achaemenid dynasty was followed by the Parthian and Sassanid dynasties as Persia's greatest pre-Islamic empires. Alexander the Great first conquered Persia in 331 BC, followed by Islam's Arab forces in the 7th century, and Genghis Khan, and lastly, Tamerlane who conquered a significant portion of Persia in the middle ages. middle ages The 9th century saw the rise of the Saffarids and then other lines of kings or shahs. During the 19th century Persia came under increasing pressure from both Russia and the United Kingdom, leading to a process of modernization that continued into the 20th century. By the 20th century Iranians were longing for a change and thus followed the Persian Constitutional Revolution of 1905/1911. In 1953 Iran's elected prime minister Mohammad Mosaddeq, was removed from power in a complex plot orchestrated by British and US intelligence agencies (dubbed "Operation Ajax"). Many scholars suspect that this ouster was motivated by British-US opposition to Mosaddeq's attempt to nationalize Iran's oil. Following Mosaddeq's fall, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (Iran's monarch) grew increasingly dictatorial. With strong support from the USA and the UK, the Shah further modernized Iranian industry but crushed civil liberties. His autocratic rule, including systematic torture and other human rights violations, led to the Iranian revolution and overthrow of his regime in 1979. After more than a year of political struggle between a variety of different groups, an Islamic republic was established under the Ayatollah Khomeini by a revolution. The new theocratic political system instituted some conservative Islamic reforms and engaged in an anti-Western course. In particular Iran distanced itself from the United States due to the American involvement in the 1953 coup, which supplanted an elected government with the Shah's repressive regime. It also declared its refusal to recognize the existence of Israel as a state. The new government inspired various groups considered by a large part of the Western World to be fundamentalist. As a consequence some countries, currently led by the USA, consider Iran to be a hostile power. In 1980 Iran was attacked by neighbouring Iraq and the destructive Iran-Iraq War continued until 1988. The struggle between reformists and conservatives over the future of the country continues today through electoral politics and was a central Western focus in the 2005 Elections where Conservative Mahmoud Ahmadinejad triumphed.

Politics

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Iran is a constitutional Islamic Republic, whose political system is laid out in the 1979 constitution. Iran's makeup has several intricately connected governing bodies, some of which are democratically elected and some of which are appointed by religious leaders. The concept of velayat-e faqih (guardianship of the jurist) plays an influential role in the governmental structure. The Supreme Leader of Iran is responsible for the delineation and supervision of "the general policies of the Islamic Republic of Iran." In the absence of a single leader, a council of religious leaders is appointed. The Supreme Leader is commander-in-chief of the armed forces; he alone can declare war. He has the power to appoint and dismiss the leaders of the judiciary, the state radio and television networks, and the supreme commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. He also appoints six of the twelve members of the Council of Guardians. He, or the council of religious leaders, are elected by the Assembly of Experts, on the basis of their qualifications and the high popular esteem in which they are held. Twelve jurists comprise the Council of Guardians, six of whom are appointed by the Supreme Leader. The head of the judiciary recommends the remaining six, which are officially appointed by Parliament. The Council of Guardians is vested with the authority to interpret the constitution and determines if the laws passed by Parliament are in line with sharia (Islamic law) and the Iranian constitution; if a law passed by Parliament is deemed incompatible, it is referred back to Parliament for revision. After the office of Leadership, the President of Iran is the highest official in the country. His is responsibile for implementing the Constitution and acting as the head of the executive, except in matters directly concerned with the Leadership. All presidential candidates must be approved by the Council of Guardians prior to running, and are elected to a 4-year term. After his election, the president appoints and supervises the 21-member Council of Ministers (who must then be confirmed by Parliament), coordinates government decisions, and selects government policies to be placed before the parliament. Eight vice presidents serve under the president. The unicameral Iranian parliament consists of 290 members elected to a 4-year term (approved by the Council of Guardians before running). It drafts legislation, ratifies international treaties, and approves the country's budget. All legislation from the assembly must be reviewed by the Council of Guardians. The Assembly of Experts, which meets for one week every year, consists of 86 "virtuous and learned" clerics elected by the public to eight-year terms. Like presidential and parliamentary elections, the Council of Guardians determines eligibility to run for a seat in this assembly. The head of the judiciary is appointed by the Supreme Leader, who in turn appoints the head of the Supreme Court and the chief public prosecutor. Public courts deal with civil and criminal cases. "Revolutionary" courts try certain categories of offenses, including crimes considered against national security or the republic and narcotics smuggling. Decisions rendered in these courts are final and cannot be appealed. The Special Clerical Court, which functions independently of the regular judicial framework and is accountable only to the Supreme Leader, handles crimes allegedly committed by clerics, although it has also taken on cases involving lay people.

Administrative divisions

Provinces

Iran consists of 30 provinces: Provinces are governed from a local center, mostly the largest local city. Provincial authority is headed by a governor (استاندار: ostāndār), who is installed by the Minister of Interior subject to approval of the cabinet. Until 2004 there were 28 provinces. A law passed that year split the province of Khorasan into three new provinces: North Khorasan, Razavi Khorasan, and South Khorasan.

Major cities

Iran's top four largest cities are: Image:Meydoon sadeghiyeh.jpg|Tehran: 8,601,473 (2005 pop.) Image:Nadershahtomb.jpg|Mashad: 2,307,177 (2005 pop.) Image:IMG 0414 resize.jpg|Isfahan: 1,547,164 (2005 pop.) Image:Poets tomb tabriz.jpg|Tabriz: 1,424,641 (2005 pop.) See also: List of cities in Iran.

Geography

List of cities in Iran Iran borders Azerbaijan (length of border: 432 km / 268 mi ) and Armenia (35 km / 22mi) to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan (992 km / 616 mi) to the northeast, Pakistan (909 km / 565 mi) and Afghanistan (936 km / 582 mi) to the east, Turkey (499 km / 310 mi) and Iraq (1,458 km / 906 mi) to the west, and finally the waters of the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman to the south. Iran's total land mass is 1,648,000 km² / ≈636,300 mi² (Land: 1,636,000 km² / ≈631,663 mi², Water: 12,000 km² / ≈4,633 mi²). Iran's landscape is dominated by rugged mountain ranges that separate various basins or plateaus from one another. The populous western part is the most mountainous, with ranges such as the Zagros and Alborz Mountains, the latter of which also contains Iran's highest point, the Damavand at 5,671 m (18,606 ft). The eastern half consists mostly of uninhabited desert basins with the occasional salt lake. The only large plains are found along the coast of the Caspian Sea and at the northern end of the Persian Gulf, where Iran borders on the mouth of the Arvand river (Shatt al-Arab). Smaller, discontinuous plains are found along the remaining coast of the Persian Gulf, the Strait of Hormuz and the Sea of Oman. The Iranian climate is mostly arid or semiarid, though subtropical along the Caspian coast. Iran is considered to be one of the fifteen states that comprise the so-called "Cradle of Humanity".

Climate

Iran's varied landscape produces several different climates. On the northern edge of the country (the Caspian coastal plain) the temperatures nearly fall below freezing and remain humid for the rest of the year. Summer temperatures rarely exceed 29°C (84°F). Annual precipitation is 680 mm (26 in) in the eastern part of the plain and more than 1700 mm (75 in) in the western side of the plain. At higher elevations to the west, settlements in the Zagros mountains basins experience lower temperatures. These areas have severe winters, with average daily temperatures below freezing and have heavy snowfall. The eastern and central basins are arid. They get less than 200 mm (8 in) of rain and have occasional desert. The average summer temperatures exceed 38°C (100°F). The coastal plains of the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman in southern Iran have mild winters and experience very humid and hot summers. The Annual precipitation ranges from 135 mm to 355 mm (6 to 14 in).

Economy

Gulf of Oman Iran's economy is a mixture of central planning, state ownership of oil and other large enterprises, village agriculture, and small-scale private trading and service ventures. The current administration has continued to follow the market reform plans of the previous one and has indicated that it will pursue diversification of Iran's oil-reliant economy. Iran is attempting to diversify by investing revenues in other areas, including petrochemicals. Iran is also hoping to attract billions of dollars worth of foreign investment by creating a more favorable investment climate (i.e., reduced restrictions and duties on imports, creation of free-trade zones). Iran is OPEC's second largest oil producer and holds 10% of the world's proven oil reserves. It also has the world's second largest natural gas reserves (after Russia). The strong oil market in 1996 helped ease financial pressures on Iran and allowed for Tehran's timely debt service payments. Iran's financial situation tightened in 1997 because of lower oil prices. The subsequent rise in oil prices in 1999/2000 afforded Iran fiscal breathing room. Iranian budget deficits have been a chronic problem, in part due to large-scale state subsidies–totaling some $7.25 billion per year–including foodstuffs and especially gasoline. gasoline district.]] On March 20, 2006, Iran plans to participate in a new International Oil Bourse, trading oil priced as Petroeuros, rather than Petrodollars, as oil is traded in all other markets (as of 2005). This attempt to rebalance trading relationships in the world economy may trigger a series of far reaching consequences. A few observers, especially among peak oil production theorists who believe that an oil crisis is imminent, argue that there is a potential for a resource war with the United States of America over the flow of both dollars and oil. Others, including military leaders and peak oil theorists who believe that a crisis is further off, argue that the results of war game scenarios cast doubt on the argument that a war is the most likely result of the Oil Bourse. The services sector has seen the greatest long-term growth in terms of its share of GDP, but the sector remains volatile. State investment has boosted agriculture, however, with the liberalization of production and the improvement of packaging and marketing helping to develop new export markets. Large-scale irrigation schemes, together with the wider production of export-based agricultural items such as dates, flowers and pistachios, produced the fastest economic growth of any sector in Iran over much of the 1990s, although successive years of severe drought in 1998, 1999, 2000, and 2001 have held back output growth substantially. Agriculture remains one of the largest employers, accounting for 22% of all jobs according to the 1991 census. According to the U.N. World Drug Report for 2005, Iran has the highest proportion of opiate addicts in the world–2.8 percent of the population over age 15. Only two other countries–Mauritius and Kyrgyzstan–pass the 2 percent mark. With a population of about 70 million and some government agencies putting the number of regular users close to 4 million, Iran has no real competition as world leader in per capita addiction to opiates, including heroin.

Demographics

heroin

Ethnic groups

The majority of Iran's population speak one of the Iranian languages, though only Persian is an official language. While the number, percentage, and definition of the different Iranian peoples is disputed, the major ethnic groups and minorities in Iran include the Persians (51%), Azeris (24%), Gilaki and Mazandarani (8%), Kurds (7%), Arabs (3%), Baluchi (2%), Lurs (2%), Turkmen people (2%), Qashqai, Armenians, Persian Jews, Assyrians and others.

Religion

Assyrians Most Iranians are Muslims; 89% belong to the Shi'a branch of Islam, the official state religion, and about 10% belong to the Sunni branch, which predominates in most Muslim countries. Non-Muslim religious minorities include the Bahá'í Faith, Zoroastrians, as well as Jews, Christians, and Mandeans. The latter three are officially recognised minority religions and have reserved seats in the Majlis (Parliament). Iran's population size increased dramatically during the latter half of the 20th century. Iran hosts more than one million foreign refugees, more than any other country on earth.

Culture

earth and guardians of an ancient and sophisticated culture.]] Like all ancient civilizations, culture constitutes the focal point and heart of Iranian civilization. The art, music, architecture, poetry, philosophy, traditions, and ideology of Iran have made it a continuously important nation in the global community. In fact, many Iranians believe their culture to be the one and only reason why their civilization has continuously survived thousands of years of plethoric calamities.

Miscellaneous topics

Notes and references

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-
- Please note that the numbers are according to the 2004 edition of CIA's The World Factbook. Different claims include higher numbers for Persian-speaking groups and respectively lower numbers for Turkic-speaking groups or vice versa. Some people in the first group claim that the CIA statistics are based on guesses made around 1964, while the CIA claims that their numbers are based on information from January 2004.
-
- Additional references and bibliography can be found in the more detailed articles linked to in this article.

External links

Official Government Links

The following websites belong to the various branches of government, or are directly operated by the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
- [http://www.leader.ir Official site of the Supreme Leader], [http://www.wilayah.org/ (Qom office)]
- [http://www.president.ir Presidency of the Islamic Republic of Iran] - Official website.
- [http://www.irisn.com/ The Council of Guardians], Official website.
- [http://mellat.majlis.ir/ The Majlis], Iran's parliament. [http://www.majlis.ir/ (2)].
- [http://www.iranjudiciary.org/ The Judiciary of The Islamic Republic of Iran]
- [http://www.mfa.gov.ir Ministry of Foreign Affairs]
- [http://www.ershad.gov.ir/ Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance]
- [http://www.mod.ir/ Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces]
- [http://www.freezones.ir/ Secretariat of The High Council of Iran Free Trade Industrial Zones]
- [http://www.iranculture.org Secretariat of The High Council of The Cultural Revolution]
- [http://www.spk-gov.ir/ Official Spokesman of the Islamic Republic of Iran]
- [http://www.aeoi.org.ir/ Islamic Republic of Iran Atomic Energy Organization]
- [http://www.iranmiras.ir/ Islamic Republic of Iran Cultural Heritage Organization]
- [http://www.rcs.ir/en Islamic Republic of Iran Red Crescent Society]
- [http://www.irib.com Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting], official website.
- [http://www.shahid.ir/ Bonyad e Shahid Foundation]
- [http://www.iran-bonyad.com/ Bonyad e Mostazafeen Foundation]

Taliban

Rise to power

Culture

Life under Taliban rule

Islamic law

Opium trade

Women

Buddhas of Bamiyan

Relationship with Osama bin Laden

U.S. invasion

External links

Persian language

Persian (فارسی = Fârsi ... پارسی = Pârsi), (local name in Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan: ‘Fârsi’), ‘Pârsi’ (older local name, but still used by some speakers), Tajik (a Central Asian dialect) or Dari (another local name in Tajikistan and Afghanistan), is a language spoken in Iran, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Bahrain, and elsewhere. Prior to British colonization, Persian was also widely used as a second language in the Indian subcontinent; it took prominence as the language of culture and education in several Muslim courts in the subcontinent throughout the Middle Ages and became the official court language under the Mughal emperors. Evidence of its former rank in the region can still be seen by the extent of its influence on Hindi or Urdu, as well as the popularity that Persian literature still enjoys in the region. Persian or its dialects have official-language status in the countries of Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan. There are 61-71 million native speakers [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_family.asp?subid=90035]. It belongs to the Indo-European language family, and is of the Subject Object Verb type.

History

Persian is a member of the Indo-European family of languages, and within that family it belongs to the Indo-Iranian (Aryan) branch. Scholars believe the Iranian sub-branch consists of the following chronological linguistic path: Old Persian (Avestan and Achaemenid Persian) → Middle Persian (Pahlavi, Parthian, and Sassanids Persian) → Modern Persian (Dari, c. 900 to present Persian). Old Persian, the main language of the Achaemenid inscriptions, should not be confused with the non-Indo-European Elamite language (see Behistun inscription). Over this period, the morphology of the language was simplified from the complex conjugation and declension system of Old Persian to the almost completely regularized morphology and rigid syntax of Modern Persian, in a manner often described as paralleling the development of English. Additionally, many words were introduced from neighboring languages, including Aramaic and Greek in earlier times, and later Arabic and to a lesser extent Turkish. In more recent times, some Western European words have entered the language (notably from French and English). The language itself has greatly developed during the centuries. Due to technological developments, new words and idioms are created and enter into Persian like any other language. In Tehran the Academy of Persian Language and Literature is a center that evaluates the new words in order to initiate and advise their Persian equivalents. In Afghanistan, the Academy of Sciences of Afghanistan does the same for Afghan Persian (among other languages).

Nomenclature

Persian, the more widely used name of the language in English, is an Anglicized form derived from Latin
- Persianus, < Latin Persia, < Greek Persis, a hellenized form of Old Persian Parsa. Farsi is the Arabicized form of Parsi, due to a lack of the /p/ phoneme in Standard Arabic. Its use in the English language is very recent (since the 1970s). Native Persian speakers typically call it "Fârsi" in modern usage. ISO, the Academy of Persian Language and Literature, and many other sources call the language Persian. The government of Afghanistan uses both "Dari" and "Persian" in English communications. The Academy of Persian Language and Literature as well as many lexicographers have announced that "Farsi" is not the appropriate term to use for the Persian language in English

United Islamic Front for the Salvation of Afghanistan

Factions

United Islamic Front for the Salvation of Afghanistan

History

External links

Taliban

Rise to power

Culture

Life under Taliban rule

Islamic law

Opium trade

Women

Buddhas of Bamiyan

Relationship with Osama bin Laden

U.S. invasion

See also

External links

Further reading

Kandahar

Naming

History

Recent History

Trivia

Mujahedin

Etymology

Afghan Mujahideen

Mujahideen in Bosnia

Mujahideen in Iraq

References

See also

Iran

History

Politics

Administrative divisions

Provinces

Major cities

Geography

Climate

Economy

Demographics

Ethnic groups

Religion

Culture

Miscellaneous topics

Notes and references

External links

Official Government Links

Other links

Taliban

Rise to power

Culture

Life under Taliban rule

Islamic law

Opium trade

Women

Buddhas of Bamiyan

Relationship with Osama bin Laden

U.S. invasion

See also

External links

Further reading

Persian language

History

Nomenclature