When was ahmad shah massoud killed

In the weeks following the attack on America, Abu Iyad fought against the Northern Alliance before escaping to Pakistan and on to Turkey.

There, while the world was focused on the war against Taliban and al-Qaeda forces in Afghanistan, he and other operatives helped plan the deadly Casablanca bombings and the initial stages of the Madrid train bombings. Even after he was arrested in Turkey in March and extradited to Tunisia, he continued to build jihadist networks from his jail cell. This is why Washington and its allies must continue developing a deeper understanding of jihadist networks, individual groups, and plots, since identifying, tracking, and blunting key operatives like Abu Iyad can help hinder future attacks and foreign fighter flows.

Otherwise, individuals and networks that seemed ancillary in one decade could later become important local influencers who exacerbate conflicts in multiple countries. Al-Qaeda and affiliated groups will assuredly try to exploit Afghanistan just as they did twenty years ago.

Policy Analysis PolicyWatch Sep 9, Days after taking over the Panjshir Valley—the last province in Afghanistan not controlled by the Taliban—the group has reportedly desecrated the shrine of its most iconic figure, Ahmad Shah Massoud, on the 20 th anniversary of his assassination at their hands.

Videos and photos shared on social media show the marble shrine in a state of tatters, with broken glass over the tomb.

The visuals triggered outrage on social media, with some users pointing out that the Taliban had smashed glass with Quranic verses on it. The following verses were written on the glass on the stone of Ahmad Shah Massoud's tomb, which Taliban broke with disrespect: in the name of God And do not say, "Whoever kills in the way of God, the dead will not be resurrected, but they will not be warned.

He resides with all those fighting for liberation, justice and democracy — his values are eternal. NationalUprising pic. The desecration of his tomb comes at a time when the north-eastern Afghan province of Panjshir Valley, the last resistance holdout in Afghanistan, has fallen to the Taliban. Also read: Instead of Taliban talks, India must stand up for Afghan resistance despite Panjshir fall. A former engineering student in Kabul, he helped unite the resistance in Panjshir Valley and fought off the Soviet occupation between and When the Taliban took over and declared the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan in , he and his resistance — the Northern Alliance — put up a valiant effort against it.

Massoud and his forces had retained several strongholds and put up strong defences in the region. On the pretense of shooting a documentary, the terrorists met with Massoud. However, before he could answer a question, they detonated bombs which investigators later said had been disguised as camera equipment, notes a France 24 report. They might have indeed told them that, "Well, he is Cmdr. He's just saying things [so] that you'll pay attention. When we entered Kabul No one was paying any attention.

Your Canadian embassy was not there. The American embassy was not there. They did not listen to us. I was going back and forth to all these countries as a political officer and trying to tell them that: Look, don't, indeed, abandon a nation. Because we are now in Afghanistan, who were called a month before heroes. Don't call us zeros. That was the second reason that they did not listen. And the third one [was] that [this] was new for everyone.

Massoud didn't know himself also that it would happen there in New York. The day that was killed, a night before, he told me that more than 3, to 4, [al-Qaeda fighters] were around [Afghanistan]. Two months before, he told the world: Be careful. Two, he was a moderate person. He was a Muslim, a strong Muslim, but not Islamist.

But not fighting against other religions because he was born Muslim. Always, he was telling me that, "Oh, my goodness, when that comes, that we have peace, and I sit in my old garden, and we'll just read poetry. He, indeed, believed very much that he should be helped against those who are invading Afghanistan, or those who are coming into Afghanistan to bother other countries.

And so these things happened that people liked him, and this is why he was killed.