Ahmad Shah Massoud

Ahmad Shah Massoud (Persian: احْمَدُ شَاهْ مَسْعُودٍ) was an Afghan military commander during the Soviet–Afghan War and later on in the civil war afterwards. He was an ethnic Tajik and a Sunni Muslim. During the civil war, he defended the capital from the Taliban, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, and Abdul Rashid Dostum.

After the Taliban came to power in 1996, Massoud began an armed rebellion against the Taliban government. Massoud rejected the Talibans radical interpretation of jihadist Deobandi Sunni Islam. He became the leader of the Northern Alliance which allied with NATO during the war against the Taliban.

 Death 
On September 9, 2001, Massoud was killed by suicide bombing by the two al-Qaeda assassins under orders by the al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden two days before the September 9/11 attacks in the US.

Category:Afghan generals
Category:Assassinated people
Category:2011 deaths
Category:Afghan politicians
Category:Deaths by suicide bomber
Category:Panjshir Province
Category:20th-century Afghan people