After the forced withdrawal of the demoralised Soviet forces in 1989, and the overthrow of the Mohammad Najibullah regime in 1992, Sayyaf's organization's human rights record became noticeably worse, underlined by their involvement in the infamous massacres and rampages in the Shia Hazara-majority Afshar district of Kabul in 1992-1993 during the Battle of Kabul. Sayyaf's faction was responsible for, "repeated human butchery", when his faction of Mujahideen turned on civilians and the Shia Hezb-i Wahdat group in west Kabul starting May 1992. Amnesty International reported that Sayyaf's forces rampaged through the neighborhood, slaughtering and raping inhabitants and burning homes. Sayyaf, who was allied with the "de jure" Kabul government of Burhanuddin Rabbani, did not deny the abductions of Hazara civilians, but merely accused the Hezb-i Wahdat militia of being an Iranian agent.