When Kabul became a battlefield for proxies: the forgotten war of 1992–1996
In short: After the Soviet withdrawal and the collapse of the Najibullah regime, Kabul descended into a brutal, multi-factional struggle. Backed by competing foreign powers, local warlords turned the capital into a target for indiscriminate rocket fire, forcing hundreds of thousands to flee as the city’s infrastructure and population were decimated.
The Battle of Kabul began in April 1992 following the collapse of the Soviet-supported government. While the Peshawar Accord initially established the Islamic State of Afghanistan, the peace was fragile. Factions led by figures like Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, Ahmad Shah Massoud, and Abdul Rashid Dostum vied for control, fueled by military aid from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Uzbekistan. Hekmatyar, refusing to share power, initiated a campaign of relentless rocket bombardments that targeted civilian areas, effectively turning the city into a ruinous landscape of shifting frontlines.
The conflict was characterized by shifting alliances and extreme violence. By 1994, the war had intensified as Dostum joined forces with Hekmatyar, utilizing air power to strike government positions. The Afghanistan Justice Project reported that 25,000 people were killed between the start of the conflict and June 1994. The city’s population, which had reached 2 million during the Soviet era, plummeted to 500,000 as residents fled the constant shelling, lack of electricity, and food shortages caused by blockades.
The war also saw the emergence of new actors, most notably the Taliban in August 1994. Seeking to replace the warring factions with a unified Islamic society, the Taliban gained support from Pakistan, which viewed them as a means to secure trade routes and stabilize the region. By the time the battle concluded in 1996, the city had been devastated by years of factional fighting, indiscriminate rocket attacks, and the collapse of civil order, setting the stage for the next chapter of Afghanistan's turbulent history.
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- Summary by Intellect · source: Battle of Kabul (1992–1996)
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