page_title: Northern Alliance
section_title: Post 9/11
hierarchical_section_title: Northern Alliance / History / Post 9/11
caption_attribution_description: Northern Alliance troops line a runway at Bagram Air Base
context_page_description: The Afghan Northern Alliance, officially known as the United Islamic Front for the Salvation of Afghanistan, was a united military front that came to formation in late 1996 after the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan took over Kabul. The United Front was assembled by key leaders of the Islamic State of Afghanistan, particularly president Burhanuddin Rabbani and former Defense Minister Ahmad Shah Massoud. Initially it included mostly Tajiks but by 2000, leaders of other ethnic groups had joined the Northern Alliance. This included Abdul Rashid Dostum, Mohammad Mohaqiq, Abdul Qadir, Asif Mohseni and others.
  The Northern Alliance fought a defensive war against the Taliban government. They received support from Iran, Russia, Turkey, India, Tajikistan and others, while the Taliban were backed by Pakistan. By 2001 the Northern Alliance controlled less than 10% of the country, cornered in the north-east and based in Badakhshan province. The US invaded Afghanistan, providing support to Northern Alliance troops on the ground in a two-month war against the Taliban, which they won in December 2001.
context_section_description: After the September 11 attacks in the United States in 2001, the United Front succeeded in retaking Kabul from the Taliban with air support from US-led forces during Operation Enduring Freedom.* In 2019, U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Michael Mulroy remarked that the U.S. partnership with the Northern Alliance was a very successful model that was later followed in northern Iraq and Syria. Despite fears of a return to the chaos similar to that of the 1992–1996 civil war, all the Afghan leaders met in Germany to create a new government. Hamid Karzai was chosen to lead the country and most key positions were given to Tajik members of the Northern Alliance. This created a major international issue. While Pakistan has always favored Afghanistan's major ethnic group, the Pashtun, India saw an opportunity for increasing its regional power by jumping on board with the support of the Northern Alliance in the early days of the war. With both nations seeking to increase or maintain their regional power through opposing factions on the ground, the conflict in Afghanistan has increasingly been seen by observers as a proxy-war between these powers.
  From 2002 to 2004 Afghanistan witnessed relative calm. By 2006, however, with the support of Pakistan, a Taliban insurgency was increasingly gaining strength. In 2010, Afghan President Karzai decided that the only way to end the Taliban insurgency is to call for peace. This process became accepted and supported by all international partners of Afghanistan, except by several key figures of the Northern Alliance such as Abdullah Abdullah, Ahmad Zia Massoud, Mohammad Mohaqiq, and others. The opposition, by then splintered into several parties, warned that Karzai's appeasement policy could come at the cost of Afghanistan's political and economic development, and the progress made in areas such as education and women's rights. As the opposition leaders were excluded from secret talks with the Taliban by NATO and the Karzai administration and Karzai's political rhetoric was increasingly adjusted to Taliban demands, United Front leaders, in late 2011, regrouped to oppose a return of the Taliban to Afghanistan.
caption: United Front troops lined up next to the runway at Bagram Airfield in Parwan Province. (December 16, 2001)
exif: {}