Afshar Operation
Encyclopedia
The Afshar Operation was a military operation by Burhanuddin Rabbani's Islamic State of Afghanistan
government forces against Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's Hezb-i Islami and Hezbe Wahdat
forces.
The Iran-controlled Hezb-i Wahdat together with the Pakistani-backed Hezb-i Islami of Hekmatyar were shelling densely populated areas in Kabul from their positions in Afshar. To counter these attack Islamic State forces attacked Afshar in order to capture the positions of Wahdat, capture Wahdat's leader Abdul Ali Mazari and to consolidate parts of the city controlled by the government.
The operation took place in a densely populated district of Kabul
, the Afshar district. Afshar district is situated on the slopes of Mount Afshar in west Kabul. The district is predominantly home to the Hazara ethnic group. The operation became an urban war zone when Abdul Rasul Sayyaf
's Ittihad (who took part in the operation) committed "repeated human butchery" turning against the Shi'ite Muslims. Reports emerged that Sayyaf's Wahhabist forces backed by Saudi Arabia rampaged through Afshar, murdering, raping and burning homes. At the time Ittihad was allied with the Rabbani government. A commission after the fighting was over was able to pay the ransoms of, approximately eighty to two hundred persons [who] were later released, and that ransoms were paid to Ittihad commanders holding them to secure their release, but that approximately 700-750 persons were never returned, and were presumably killed or died in captivity."
The same commission received information that many women were abducted during the operation, but said that few families would report it.
"The Islamic State of Afghanistan," an entity created in April 1992, after the fall of the Soviet-backed Najibullah
government through the Peshawar Accords. The legitimate representatives of the government were President Burhanuddin Rabbani
and minister of defense Ahmad Shah Massoud.
With the exception of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar
's Hezb-i Islami which to a very large extent was controlled by the regime in Pakistan, all parties were ostensibly unified under this government in 1993. Hekmatyar shelled Kabul with tens of thousands of rockets in 1992 to gain power for himself. Gulbuddin Hekmatyar
repeatedly was offered the position of prime minister but he did not want to share power.
After several at first successful but then failed attempts of mediation by Ahmad Shah Massoud
a brutal war broke out between the Saudi-backed Ittihad-i Islami of Abdul Rasul Sayyaf and the Iran-controlled Hezb-i Wahdat of Abdul Ali Mazari (which until then both had been unified under the Peshawar Accords), not least because of the influence of foreign powers. According to Human Rights Watch numerous Iranian agents were assisting Wahdat forces, as Iran was attempting to maximize Wahdat's military power and influence in the new government. Saudi agents of some sort, private or governmental, were trying to strengthen Sayyaf and his Ittihad faction to the same end. Rare ceasefires, usually negotiated by representatives of Massoud, Mujaddidi or Rabbani, or officials from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), commonly collapsed within days.
In December 1992 Abdul Ali Mazari and Wahdat broke the peace agreement (the Peshawar Accords) to create an alliance with Gulbuddin Hekmatyar
. With his newly created alliance with Abdul Ali Mazari and Hezb-i Wahdat, Hekmatyar increased his rockets and shell attacks on the city. Human Rights Watch concludes:
Thousands of civilians were killed by Wahdat's and Hekmatyar's rockets. Furthermore, Wahdat militiamen - like other militias - were committing horrendous crimes against the civilian population. Wahdat forces were primarily based in Afshar.
That is when Ahmad Shah Massoud as Afghanistan's minister of defense had to act against Wahdat forces.
The Afghanistan Justice Project gives the following objectives for the military operation:
Ahmad Shah Massoud did not want crimes to take place during the operation. A journalist from the Associated Press and the Economist who was present in Kabul and Afshar during that time reports:
government.
According to Afghanistan Justice Project although individual commanders cannot be identified, brigade and battalion leaders can be listed. For Jamiat, these include Qasim Fahim, Anwar Dangar, Mullah Ezat, Mohammad Ishaq Pashiri, Haji Bahlol Panshiri, Baba Jalandar, Khanjar Akhund Panshiri, Musdoq Lalai, and Baz Mohammad Ahmadi Badakhshani. From Ittihad these included Haji Shir Alam, Amir Anwar Oryakhail, Zulmai Tufan
, Dr. Abdullah, Jaglan Naeem, Mullah Taj Mohammad, Abdullah Shah
, Khinjar, Abdul Manan Diwana, Amanullah Kochi, Shirin
, Mushtaq Lalai, and Mullah Kachkol.
By February 1993, Massoud had conducted negotiations with dissident Wahdat commanders who signed secret protocols with Massoud in order to avoid a long fight promising to cooperate during the conflict and to capture Mazari and his cabinet.
A large contingent of both Ittihad and Jamiat forces advanced towards Afshar from the west. The closest point of the front line to the main target of the operation was the Kabul Polytechnic. A Jamiat force advanced along the main Afshar Road, from Kart-iParwan and the Intercontinental Hotel, towards the Social Science Institute, entering Afshar from the east. The ISA forces did not advance along other sections of the front line marking the west Kabul enclave, although they maintained an intense bombardment and had ample forces deployed to maintain a threat of advance.
According to this, by 13.00 the main defense line of Hizb-I Wahdat had failed and the forces, including Mazari and his top commanders, began to flee on foot. By 14.00 the Social Science Institute was captured and troops were in control of Khushal Mina and Afshar.
Mazari re-established a defense line near the Central Silo and Kart-iSakhi, at the edge of Khushhal Mina, keeping control over most of West Kabul. Following this many of the residence fled to Taimani, an Ismali area of the city.
The objectives of the military operation were largely attained during the operation. Wahdat's headquarters and many of their positions were captured so that they were not able to shell Kabul from those positions anymore.
Although some abuses have been attributed to Jamiat-i Islami (Islamic State forces), the vast majority of testimony regarding the Afshar operation suggests that the abuses were largely carried out by the Ittihad forces of Abdul Rasul Sayyaf
. Ittihad forces played a major role in the assault, working directly under Sayyaf and receiving pay from him. The Ittihad forces were not absorbed into the ministry of defense. Sayyaf acted as the de facto general commander of Ittihad forces during the operation and was directly in touch with senior commanders by radio.
According to reports, Wahdat soldiers as well as male Hazara citizens were being arrested and executed mostly by Ittihad forces. Unarmed civilians as well were being killed, with men in particular being targeted. Other men were abducted and taken to the base of Sayyaf's Ittihad in Paghman and made to dig trenches and bury the dead. Those who survived stated they saw on the bodies evidence of torture and mutilations. Furthermore, rape of women was also widely reported. Human Rights Watch suggests that 70-80 people were killed in the streets fighting, while 700-750 people disappeared. It states that between 80-200 people were later released after ransoms were paid to Sayyaf's Ittihad commanders.
of civilians. Although he did leave open the possibility that some captured Wahdat fighters were summarily executed rather than being treated as POWs by troops furious at Wahdat atrocities against Kabul civilians during the preceding months. Jennings recounts entering a nearby basement where Wahdat fighters had tied up non-Hazara hostages with wire, shot them and tried to burn the bodies, before fleeing the scene ahead of Massoud's advancing troops. Jennings also describes Ahmad Shah Massoud's followers rescuing a wounded Hazara civilian caught in the crosssfire during the height of the battle. Despite these written reference — and although Jennings is quoted as a reliable source on other topics in the Human Rights Watch reports — any account of what he personally witnessed during and after the Afshar battle was left out by Human Rights Watch editors.
took the long-offered position of prime minister in the Rabbani government.
The Islamabad Accord among other things stated:
Pulitzer Prize
-winning Roy Gutman
of the United States Institute of Peace
wrote in How We Missed the Story: Osama bin Laden, the Taliban, and the Hijacking of Afghanistan:
Hekmatyar turned out afraid to enter the city (he had shelled for one year) more than once to take up his post. He attented one cabinet meeting but by late March, unwilling to compromise with other cabinet members not belonging to his faction and while his aides were still in the prime minister's palace, Hekmatyar's Hezb-e Islami forces were again shelling Kabul.
Burhanuddin Rabbani
Professor Burhanuddin Rabbani was President of the Islamic State of Afghanistan from 1992 to 1996. After the Taliban government was toppled during Operation Enduring Freedom, Rabbani returned to Kabul and served as a temporary President from November to December 20, 2001, when Hamid Karzai was...
government forces against Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's Hezb-i Islami and Hezbe Wahdat
Hezbe Wahdat
Hizb-e Wahdat-e Islami Afghanistan has been an important political and military player in Afghanistan since its founding in 1989. Like most contemporary major political parties in Afghanistan, Hizb-e Wahdat is rooted in the turbulent period of the anti-Soviet resistance movements in Afghanistan in...
forces.
The Iran-controlled Hezb-i Wahdat together with the Pakistani-backed Hezb-i Islami of Hekmatyar were shelling densely populated areas in Kabul from their positions in Afshar. To counter these attack Islamic State forces attacked Afshar in order to capture the positions of Wahdat, capture Wahdat's leader Abdul Ali Mazari and to consolidate parts of the city controlled by the government.
The operation took place in a densely populated district of Kabul
Kabul
Kabul , spelt Caubul in some classic literatures, is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. It is also the capital of the Kabul Province, located in the eastern section of Afghanistan...
, the Afshar district. Afshar district is situated on the slopes of Mount Afshar in west Kabul. The district is predominantly home to the Hazara ethnic group. The operation became an urban war zone when Abdul Rasul Sayyaf
Abdul Rasul Sayyaf
Ustad Abdul Rab Rasul Sayyaf is an Afghan Islamist politician. He took part in the war against the PDPA government in the 1980s, leading the Mujahedin faction Islamic Union for the Liberation of Afghanistan....
's Ittihad (who took part in the operation) committed "repeated human butchery" turning against the Shi'ite Muslims. Reports emerged that Sayyaf's Wahhabist forces backed by Saudi Arabia rampaged through Afshar, murdering, raping and burning homes. At the time Ittihad was allied with the Rabbani government. A commission after the fighting was over was able to pay the ransoms of, approximately eighty to two hundred persons [who] were later released, and that ransoms were paid to Ittihad commanders holding them to secure their release, but that approximately 700-750 persons were never returned, and were presumably killed or died in captivity."
The same commission received information that many women were abducted during the operation, but said that few families would report it.
Background and Objectives
On April 26, the mujahedin leaders announced a new peace and power-sharing agreement, the Peshawar Accords. During the period discussed in this article, the sovereignty of Afghanistan was vested formally in"The Islamic State of Afghanistan," an entity created in April 1992, after the fall of the Soviet-backed Najibullah
government through the Peshawar Accords. The legitimate representatives of the government were President Burhanuddin Rabbani
Burhanuddin Rabbani
Professor Burhanuddin Rabbani was President of the Islamic State of Afghanistan from 1992 to 1996. After the Taliban government was toppled during Operation Enduring Freedom, Rabbani returned to Kabul and served as a temporary President from November to December 20, 2001, when Hamid Karzai was...
and minister of defense Ahmad Shah Massoud.
With the exception of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar is an Afghan Mujahideen leader who is the founder and leader of the Hezb-e Islami political party and paramilitary group. Hekmatyar was a rebel military commander during the 1980s Soviet war in Afghanistan and was one of the key figures in the civil war that followed the...
's Hezb-i Islami which to a very large extent was controlled by the regime in Pakistan, all parties were ostensibly unified under this government in 1993. Hekmatyar shelled Kabul with tens of thousands of rockets in 1992 to gain power for himself. Gulbuddin Hekmatyar
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar is an Afghan Mujahideen leader who is the founder and leader of the Hezb-e Islami political party and paramilitary group. Hekmatyar was a rebel military commander during the 1980s Soviet war in Afghanistan and was one of the key figures in the civil war that followed the...
repeatedly was offered the position of prime minister but he did not want to share power.
After several at first successful but then failed attempts of mediation by Ahmad Shah Massoud
a brutal war broke out between the Saudi-backed Ittihad-i Islami of Abdul Rasul Sayyaf and the Iran-controlled Hezb-i Wahdat of Abdul Ali Mazari (which until then both had been unified under the Peshawar Accords), not least because of the influence of foreign powers. According to Human Rights Watch numerous Iranian agents were assisting Wahdat forces, as Iran was attempting to maximize Wahdat's military power and influence in the new government. Saudi agents of some sort, private or governmental, were trying to strengthen Sayyaf and his Ittihad faction to the same end. Rare ceasefires, usually negotiated by representatives of Massoud, Mujaddidi or Rabbani, or officials from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), commonly collapsed within days.
In December 1992 Abdul Ali Mazari and Wahdat broke the peace agreement (the Peshawar Accords) to create an alliance with Gulbuddin Hekmatyar
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar is an Afghan Mujahideen leader who is the founder and leader of the Hezb-e Islami political party and paramilitary group. Hekmatyar was a rebel military commander during the 1980s Soviet war in Afghanistan and was one of the key figures in the civil war that followed the...
. With his newly created alliance with Abdul Ali Mazari and Hezb-i Wahdat, Hekmatyar increased his rockets and shell attacks on the city. Human Rights Watch concludes:
Thousands of civilians were killed by Wahdat's and Hekmatyar's rockets. Furthermore, Wahdat militiamen - like other militias - were committing horrendous crimes against the civilian population. Wahdat forces were primarily based in Afshar.
That is when Ahmad Shah Massoud as Afghanistan's minister of defense had to act against Wahdat forces.
The Afghanistan Justice Project gives the following objectives for the military operation:
Ahmad Shah Massoud did not want crimes to take place during the operation. A journalist from the Associated Press and the Economist who was present in Kabul and Afshar during that time reports:
Preparation
According to a Human Rights Watch report, "credible and consistent" accounts from several officials who worked in Shura-e-Nazar (the informal politico-military organization headed by Rabbani's defense minister, Ahmad Shah Massoud) and the Rabbani interim government reveal that a military campaign against Hizb-i Wahdat was planned and approved by officials at the "highest levels" of the RabbaniRabbani
Rabbani is a Malaysian nasyid group. Rabbani's members currently consist of Ahmad Shafie, Zulkiflee Azman, Mohd Loqman Abd. Aziz, Rithauddeen Yaakob, and Azadan Abd Aziz....
government.
According to Afghanistan Justice Project although individual commanders cannot be identified, brigade and battalion leaders can be listed. For Jamiat, these include Qasim Fahim, Anwar Dangar, Mullah Ezat, Mohammad Ishaq Pashiri, Haji Bahlol Panshiri, Baba Jalandar, Khanjar Akhund Panshiri, Musdoq Lalai, and Baz Mohammad Ahmadi Badakhshani. From Ittihad these included Haji Shir Alam, Amir Anwar Oryakhail, Zulmai Tufan
Zulmai Tufan
Zulmai Tufan was a major aligned with Ittihad-i Islami and Abdul Rasul Sayyaf and a major power in the area around Kabul, Afghanistan.In the lead up to the Afshar Operation Tufan, along with Shir Alam was reported to have been present as representatives of Abdul Sayyaf, at the major meeting with...
, Dr. Abdullah, Jaglan Naeem, Mullah Taj Mohammad, Abdullah Shah
Abdullah Shah
Abdullah Shah was an Afghan man found guilty in Kabul of killing more than 20 people, including his wife. His sanctioned execution was the first in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban in late 2001....
, Khinjar, Abdul Manan Diwana, Amanullah Kochi, Shirin
Shirin
Shirin was a wife of the Sassanid Persian Shahanshah , Khosrau II. In the revolution after the death of Khosrau's father Hormizd IV, the General Bahram Chobin took power over the Persian empire. Shirin fled with Khosrau to Syria where they lived under the protection of Byzantine emperor Maurice...
, Mushtaq Lalai, and Mullah Kachkol.
By February 1993, Massoud had conducted negotiations with dissident Wahdat commanders who signed secret protocols with Massoud in order to avoid a long fight promising to cooperate during the conflict and to capture Mazari and his cabinet.
The Operation
The men of Mohammad Fahim, who was in charge of special operations, contacted a number of the Shia commanders and obtained their co-operation. This allowed the artillery to be pre-positioned in advance of the battle, with a Z0 23 gun and 30 men being positioned on Aliabad hill, with the purpose of targeting the Central Silo, Afshar, Kart-iSeh, Kart-iChar and Kart-I Sakhi. The forces allied with the government began to bomb the area around Afshar before troops began to move in around 4.00 am on February 11. Troops moved from Badambagh to the top of Radar hill, which was part of the Afshar ridge. According to Afghanistan Justice Project:A large contingent of both Ittihad and Jamiat forces advanced towards Afshar from the west. The closest point of the front line to the main target of the operation was the Kabul Polytechnic. A Jamiat force advanced along the main Afshar Road, from Kart-iParwan and the Intercontinental Hotel, towards the Social Science Institute, entering Afshar from the east. The ISA forces did not advance along other sections of the front line marking the west Kabul enclave, although they maintained an intense bombardment and had ample forces deployed to maintain a threat of advance.
According to this, by 13.00 the main defense line of Hizb-I Wahdat had failed and the forces, including Mazari and his top commanders, began to flee on foot. By 14.00 the Social Science Institute was captured and troops were in control of Khushal Mina and Afshar.
Mazari re-established a defense line near the Central Silo and Kart-iSakhi, at the edge of Khushhal Mina, keeping control over most of West Kabul. Following this many of the residence fled to Taimani, an Ismali area of the city.
The objectives of the military operation were largely attained during the operation. Wahdat's headquarters and many of their positions were captured so that they were not able to shell Kabul from those positions anymore.
Crimes Against Civilians
Numerous abuses were reported and large information was collected through interviews by two separate reports – one by Afghanistan Justice Project and another by Human Rights Watch. The abuses largely took place after the military operation itself when forces started to establish posts and to search homes.Although some abuses have been attributed to Jamiat-i Islami (Islamic State forces), the vast majority of testimony regarding the Afshar operation suggests that the abuses were largely carried out by the Ittihad forces of Abdul Rasul Sayyaf
Abdul Rasul Sayyaf
Ustad Abdul Rab Rasul Sayyaf is an Afghan Islamist politician. He took part in the war against the PDPA government in the 1980s, leading the Mujahedin faction Islamic Union for the Liberation of Afghanistan....
. Ittihad forces played a major role in the assault, working directly under Sayyaf and receiving pay from him. The Ittihad forces were not absorbed into the ministry of defense. Sayyaf acted as the de facto general commander of Ittihad forces during the operation and was directly in touch with senior commanders by radio.
According to reports, Wahdat soldiers as well as male Hazara citizens were being arrested and executed mostly by Ittihad forces. Unarmed civilians as well were being killed, with men in particular being targeted. Other men were abducted and taken to the base of Sayyaf's Ittihad in Paghman and made to dig trenches and bury the dead. Those who survived stated they saw on the bodies evidence of torture and mutilations. Furthermore, rape of women was also widely reported. Human Rights Watch suggests that 70-80 people were killed in the streets fighting, while 700-750 people disappeared. It states that between 80-200 people were later released after ransoms were paid to Sayyaf's Ittihad commanders.
Controversy
John Jennings, a journalist with the AP personally present in Afshar during the operation around Massoud's troops, went into considerable detail to debunk allegations of a systematic massacreMassacre
A massacre is an event with a heavy death toll.Massacre may also refer to:-Entertainment:*Massacre , a DC Comics villain*Massacre , a 1932 drama film starring Richard Barthelmess*Massacre, a 1956 Western starring Dane Clark...
of civilians. Although he did leave open the possibility that some captured Wahdat fighters were summarily executed rather than being treated as POWs by troops furious at Wahdat atrocities against Kabul civilians during the preceding months. Jennings recounts entering a nearby basement where Wahdat fighters had tied up non-Hazara hostages with wire, shot them and tried to burn the bodies, before fleeing the scene ahead of Massoud's advancing troops. Jennings also describes Ahmad Shah Massoud's followers rescuing a wounded Hazara civilian caught in the crosssfire during the height of the battle. Despite these written reference — and although Jennings is quoted as a reliable source on other topics in the Human Rights Watch reports — any account of what he personally witnessed during and after the Afshar battle was left out by Human Rights Watch editors.
Massoud Convenes Meeting for the Security of Civilians
Reportedly cursing Sayyaf in private for the deadly escalation of the operation, Massoud on the second day of the operation convened a meeting in the Hotel Intercontinental to discuss arrangements for security in the newly captured areas. In the meeting he ordered an immediate halt to the abuse and looting. He withdrew most of the offensive troops, leaving a smaller force to garrison the new areas. Massoud also trusted Shia commander Hussain Anwari to make arrangements for the safety of the largely Shia civilian population.Islamabad Accord (March 1993)
The Afshar campaign and the surrounding violence were ended by the Islamabad Accord between the Islamic State and Hekmatyar's alliance (including Hezb-i Wahdat) fashioned in late February 1993 and signed on March 7, 1993. There were a few weeks of relative calm. Hezb-i Wahdat ally Gulbuddin HekmatyarGulbuddin Hekmatyar
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar is an Afghan Mujahideen leader who is the founder and leader of the Hezb-e Islami political party and paramilitary group. Hekmatyar was a rebel military commander during the 1980s Soviet war in Afghanistan and was one of the key figures in the civil war that followed the...
took the long-offered position of prime minister in the Rabbani government.
The Islamabad Accord among other things stated:
Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
-winning Roy Gutman
Roy Gutman
Roy Gutman is an American journalist and author.In 1966, Gutman graduated from Haverford College with a major in History. In 1968, Gutman graduated from the London School of Economics with a masters degree in International Relations.Roy Gutman joined Newsday in January 1982 and served for eight...
of the United States Institute of Peace
United States Institute of Peace
The United States Institute of Peace was created by Congress as a non-partisan, federal institution that works to prevent or end violent conflict around the world...
wrote in How We Missed the Story: Osama bin Laden, the Taliban, and the Hijacking of Afghanistan:
Hekmatyar turned out afraid to enter the city (he had shelled for one year) more than once to take up his post. He attented one cabinet meeting but by late March, unwilling to compromise with other cabinet members not belonging to his faction and while his aides were still in the prime minister's palace, Hekmatyar's Hezb-e Islami forces were again shelling Kabul.