History of Northern alliance
The Northern Alliance is an alliance in Afghanistan made up from primarily Pashtun Islamic groups. These groups had took control of Kabul in 1992, but ended up disintegrating in 1993. Despite the separation of the group, they continued to reform in 1996 as their leaders left the Taliban. The Northern Alliance only controlled less than 10 per cent of Afghanistan territory throughout the years of 1999-2001 under the control of their main leader Ahmed Shah Massoud. Although the Northern Alliance was small compared to the Taliban, they were still the biggest threat and problem to the them.
Ahmed Shah massoud
Ahmed was born in 1953 in the Jangalak district of Panjsher. He played a really big role in the history of Afghanistan and to most people he is known as the "Lion of Panjsher" a name that was given to him for his successes as a military commander during the war against the Soviet occupation. After Massoud helped lead the defeat of the Russians his troops were the first Mujahideen group to enter Kabul and establish a Mujahideen government. He was president's Burhanuddin Rabbani's Defense Minister and was part of many battles to help protect the government. Later the government fell apart and the Taliban took over with the help from the Pakistanis. After this happened Massoud and his allies moved to the north where they worked on defending the north and the central regions of Afghanistan from being taken over by the Taliban. Massoud was later chosen to be the military leader of UNIFSA. This didn't last much after because he was later killed on September 9, 2001 before the terrorist attacks in the United States by an Al Qaeda suicide attack as the attackers posed as television journalists setting off a bomb inside their video camera.
northern alliance role in Afghanistan
The Northern Alliance in Afghanistan played a major role by mainly being the group that was against the Taliban. Since the leaders of the Northern Alliance were formerly part of the Taliban they had a tension in between the two groups that made them enemies. The Taliban had a lot of support from Pakistan and after the terrorist attacks happened in the U.S, the U.S became the main alliance of the Northern Alliance and also NATO. The Northern Alliance also included the Uzbek forces of General Dostum, the Tajik troops of former president Rabbani and the Shiite Hazaris. The Northern Alliance responded to the killing of their leader Massoud by an aerial attack on Kabul the night of September 11. The Northern Alliance played a big role in trying to gain the capital of the government and take over again from the Taliban. Since the attacks of 9/11 led to the U.S getting involved to fight terrorism against the Al-Qaeda and the Taliban, they worked together in helping the Northern Alliance take over the country of Afghanistan. When NATO became part of the war the Northern Alliance gained so much support that the Taliban focused on survival and on rebuilding its forces that eventually led them to move out towards the mountainous border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
