there had long been attempts internally to bring about a broad mujahideen coalition, but all efforts had failed. for the next four years, the country was torn apart by inter factional fighting. in kabul, thousands were killed in indiscriminate bombing.
and men ordered to grow beards. music and art were banned. thieves had their hands and feet amputated. adulterers were stoned to death. anyone drinking liquor faced the lash. 20 years after the communists had taken power in kabul in an armed coup, afghanistan was being run by a group of extreme islamists. just as the soviets had wanted to make afghanistan a bastion of world communism, now the taliban s most extreme arab supporters, al-qaeda, wanted to use the country as a base to launch their internationaljihad.
massoud and hekmatyar now fought for control in the streets of kabul. hekmatyar s men were forced out of the city and took up positions in the hills, and started shelling the capital. burhanuddin rabbani was the leader in waiting of the new islamic government.
on streaming and theaters at the same. when disney did that, scarlett johansson shocked hollywood for breach of contract showing the rules are rewritten every day. number 6, daring reporting from afghanistan, as the taliban approached on kabul, and the u.s. withdrawal became chaotic reporters became the eyes and ears of the world. just told me to stand aside because i m a woman. cnn s arwa damon earned praise from fellow journalists. behind the scenes, they worked to help endangered reporters and other afghans who worked with western media. the other reporters who remain there faced a hostile climate which brings me to number 5, the continuing crackdown on global press freedom. in hong kong, police raided a pro-democracy newspaper in june, arresting top editors. a month before
in 1991, a failed coup in moscow brought about the collapse of the soviet union, and the russians stopped funding their communist proxies in kabul. with the soviet union no more, america stopped supplying arms to the mujahideen. our goals had not been, really, to build a new afghanistan and our own internal debate over what s the future of the soviet union affected our strategy towards the afghan resistance. we decided to abandon the afghan resistance. and to focus, really, on recovering the stinger missiles and taking them out of the hands of possible future terrorist attacks. with the us and soviets gone, the field was left open for others to exert their influence.