In the meantime, the Taliban seized the western provinces of Nimroz and Farah. At Shindand, they encountered not only Ismail Khan’s forces but also Tajiks airlifted from Kabul by Massoud and Afghan government tactical aircraft. The Taliban lost 3,000 fighters there, and by the end of May, they had been driven back almost to their Kandahar stronghold. Then, from Pakistan, 25,000 new volunteers were sent forward. The Taliban counterattacked; Khan’s army disintegrated; and on 5 September 1995, the Taliban entered Herat. Ismail Khan fled to Iran.
Mullah Omar became head of the Taliban officially on 3 April 1996 when the Kandahar leaders proclaimed him “Commander of the Faithful.” The next day, Mullah Omar appeared in the city wearing Mohammad’s cloak. This act signified that Omar believed that he was not just the leader of the Taliban but of all Muslims as well.
By late spring 1996, the Taliban had regrouped and was showering rockets into Kabul. Massoud, Dostum, and Hekmatyar belatedly joined forces. The Taliban took Jalalabad on 5 September, captured Bagram shortly thereafter, and entered Kabul on 27 September 1996. Rabbani and the three warlords fled. Hekmatyar escaped to Iran. Taliban fighters took Najibullah from the UN compound and tortured and killed him. They hung his body from a light pole for all to see. As they had done in Kandahar and Herat, the Taliban forced women off the streets, eliminated them from the workplace, and imposed the wearing of the burqa. Particularly destructive was banning women from the educational and medical professions. Television, music, movies, games, and kites were prohibited. Men without beards were arrested. Theocratic totalitarianism, under the guise of Islam, was being imposed.
The Taliban pursued Dostum and Massoud as they withdrew. Dostum managed to thwart the Taliban by blocking the Salang Tunnel. On 18 October, Massoud retook Bagram, but by the end of January 1997, a Taliban counterattack recaptured the air base. Then the Taliban shifted focus, and major elements were launched north from Kabul and Herat. General Abdul Malik, one of Dostum’s commanders, defected to the Taliban with 4,000 men and marched toward Mazar-e-Sharif. As Dostum fled to Termez on the Uzbekistan border, Taliban forces took Mazar on 24 May 1997. That proved sufficient for Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates to recognize the Taliban as the government of Afghanistan.
The residents of Mazar-e-Sharif, however, did not recognize the Taliban, and on 28 May, they revolted. Six hundred Taliban were killed, another 1,000 were captured, and the 10 top leaders were killed or captured. Malik switched sides again and took control of four northern provinces, killing thousands more Taliban. Massoud, with Russian logistics backing, also counterattacked and, by the end of July 1997, had inflicted heavy losses—about 6,600 Taliban killed, wounded, or captured as well as 250 killed and 550 captured Pakistani fighters. In the aftermath of the success, Rabbani and others formed a United Islamic and National Front for the Salvation of Afghanistan, later to be called the Northern Alliance. Infighting severely limited its effectiveness.
Massoud’s counteroffensive recaptured Bagram. As they retreated toward Kabul, Taliban forces poisoned wells and destroyed crops. In September, the Taliban in Konduz attacked toward Mazar. Fighting erupted between Malik’s troops and those still loyal to Dostum. As Malik fled to Turkmenistan, Dostum returned from Turkey to drive back the Taliban threat. As Dostum forced the Taliban back toward Konduz, entire villages were destroyed, and their inhabitants were murdered as they withdrew. UN investigators examined the mass graves but in an atmosphere of mutual recriminations could not determine responsibility. The Taliban ordered the UN out of the country, directed the nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) doing humanitarian assistance to desist providing aid to women, and arrested journalists for taking photographs of women. This brought humanitarian assistance to the people in Afghanistan to a virtual standstill.
The official U.S. position on the civil war initially was neutral. Economically, a peace held promise for the American-built gas pipeline across Afghanistan to connect Turkmenistan to Pakistan. Despite its antipathy toward Iran, the U.S. government was reluctant to support the anti-Iranian Taliban. Increased evidence of Taliban atrocities led Secretary of State Madeleine Albright to declare in November 1997: “We are opposed to the Taliban because of the opposition to human rights and their despicable treatment of women and children and great lack of respect for human dignity.” U.S. Ambassador to the UN Bill Richardson traveled to Afghanistan in April 1998 to arrange a meeting between the Taliban and UN officials to discuss the plight of women. After Richardson left the country, Omar withdrew his pledge. Within months, diplomacy was shelved as internal fighting flared up again in Afghanistan, and the U.S. government redirected its attention on international terrorism in Africa.
Figure 8. Madeleine Albright.
Figure 9. Bill Richardson.
While Western diplomats argued over courses of action, the anti-Taliban Uzbeks and Hazaras battled each other. The Taliban monitored the progress while further tightening down their reign of oppression. Windows had to be blackened so that women could not be seen from outside. Newborn children could only have names from an approved list. Public executions and open amputations for criminal activity became commonplace. The Taliban closed all NGO offices on 28 July 1998. Then, with financial support from Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, the Taliban launched a major offensive north from Herat, capturing Mazar-e-Sharif in August and forcing Dostum to flee the country after 1,400 soldiers were killed. Afterward, the Taliban engaged in a “killing frenzy” resulting in at least 6,000 people dead. Thousands more were imprisoned in the Mazar-e-Sharif fortress and in Sheberghan. Prisoners were delivered to the two sites in packed overseas shipping containers. In the midst of the frenzy, Taliban soldiers also killed 13 Iranian diplomats, almost causing a war with Iran. On 13 September, Bamian fell to the Taliban. Five days later, Taliban gunners desecrated the 2,000-year-old Buddha statues carved in the nearby rock cliffs by using them for target practice. (In March 2001, the 36- and 53-meter-tall Buddhas would be totally destroyed to the distress of the world community.) In September 1998, Saudi Arabia withdrew its financial support after Mullah Omar insulted the king’s nephew with regard to Osama bin Laden. The UN Security Council castigated the Taliban on 8 December for their actions (Resolution 1214). Only Pakistan abstained on the resolution. In the meantime, Washington was responding to more terrorist attacks on U.S. government posts and its military serving overseas.
It had taken a string of terrorist bombings in 1998, 1999, and 2000 to promulgate a “fullcourt press” by U.S. intelligence agencies to uncover those responsible. The dust had long since settled on the truck bomb that exploded beneath the World Trade Center in New York City at midday, 26 February 1993, killing six and injuring another 1,000 at a cost of $300 million. Then, the U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, were destroyed by terrorist bombs on 7 August 1998. The following year, 19 military servicemen died when another explosive-filled truck was detonated alongside the Khobar Towers housing complex in Saudi Arabia. In December 1999, a plot to bomb Los Angeles International Airport was foiled. Less than a year later, on 12 October 2000, a bomb-laden terrorist speedboat attacked the USS Cole in Yemen’s harbor, killing 17 American sailors and wounding 39. Intelligence agencies linked Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda terrorist network to the incidents. In February 1998, before the Khobar Towers bombing, bin Laden had declared: “To kill the Americans and their allies—civilian and military—is an individual duty for every Muslim.” Few were familiar with Osama bin Laden at the time, and those who were tracking him did not realize at the time that his rhetoric had already been transformed into reality.
Bin Laden was born in 1955 or 1957 to a Yemeni father and Saudi Arabian mother. At King Abdul Aziz University in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, he pursued both business administration and Islamic studies. Having inherited