The Most Important Afghan Military Men Against the Taliban

March 04, 2025

The Most Important Afghan Military Men Against the Taliban

This post is dedicated to the tens of thousands of Afghans who lost their lives during the two decades of leadership under Karzai and Ghani in Afghanistan (2001–2021). According to the Costs of War Project, the conflict claimed around 176,000 lives, including 46,319 Afghan civilians, 69,095 members of the Afghan military and police, and at least 52,893 Taliban fighters and members of allied groups. The true death toll is likely even higher, as many deaths caused by disease, displacement, and lack of access to essential resources were never reported.

Afghanistan has produced many formidable fighters, not only in its struggle against the former Soviet Union but also in its long fight against the Taliban. The war against the Soviets lasted ten years, while the conflict with the Taliban—backed by foreign powers—stretched across several decades, beginning as early as 1994. These soldiers were not only exceptionally brave but also possessed deep knowledge and political insight. Many sacrificed their lives in resistance to the Taliban and their foreign supporters. Among Afghanistan’s most renowned military leaders were:

Ahmad Shah Massoud and his men during his guerrilla warfare

against the Soviet Army in the 1980s

Ahmad Shah Massoud (September 1, 1953 – September 9, 2001) is remembered as one of the most legendary warriors in Afghanistan’s modern history. Known as the “Lion of Panjshir” and honored as the national hero of Afghanistan, he fought with unmatched courage, successfully resisting all nine Soviet offensives against him and even surviving the bombing of his own home.

Ahmad Shah Massoud is teaching his men his guerrilla warfare skills

against the Soviet Army in the 1980s

The Wall Street Journal referred to Massoud as “The Afghan Who Won the Cold War”:

He led the seizure of Kabul and fought against the Pakistani-backed Pashtun warlord Hekmatyar during the Afghan Civil War prior to the Taliban emergence (1992-1996). When the Taliban emerged in 1996, as the new proxy of Pakistan, because Hekmatyar had failed, Massoud became the leader of the main resistance force against them. Despite his many successes, Massoud faced numerous setbacks. He was aware that many powers plotted against him and Afghanistan, and he expressed his disappointment over the indifference of the international community towards Afghanistan following its victory over the Soviet Union.

Massoud’s life was tragically cut short when he was assassinated by al-Qaeda, an ally of the Taliban, just two days before September 11, 2001. He was only 48 years old, leaving behind a wife and several children.

However, some experts contend that al-Qaeda may not have acted alone, pointing to the possible involvement of powerful organizations such as Pakistan’s ISI and other foreign intelligence agencies and backers. They argue that Massoud posed a significant obstacle to a long-term plan to reshape Afghanistan’s political landscape. According to these experts, the ultimate goal was for the Taliban to gain full control of the country after 20 years of a U.S.-backed regime—a scenario that became reality when the Taliban seized all of Afghanistan for the first time in history on August 31, 2021.

General Abdul Raziq Achakzai (1979 – October 18, 2018), commonly known as General Raziq, served as the chief of police for Kandahar Province. According to official reports, he was killed on October 18, 2018, in an insider attack when a bodyguard of the provincial governor opened fire on him and other security officials following a meeting with U.S. Army General Scott Miller at the governor's compound in Kandahar.

Although General Raziq was of Pashtun origin, he was widely regarded as a national hero by both Pashtun and non-Pashtun Afghans. This stood in stark contrast to the often-criticized Pashtun presidents Hamid Karzai and Ashraf Ghani, who were seen by many Afghans as corrupt and incompetent U.S. puppets. The same perception of corruption also extended to many Pashtun Taliban leaders. Particularly among those opposing the oppressive and discriminatory Taliban, he was seen as a figure of justice and a defender of Afghan sovereignty. Many Afghans believe that the United States played a role in his assassination, with allegations that personnel under General Scott Miller disarmed him before the meeting. General Raziq also faced many powerful adversaries, including the Pakistani ISI.

In an interview, he openly identified Punjab—which in Afghanistan is often used as a synonym for Pakistan—as the enemy of Afghanistan:

In 2016 General Raziq banned the Pakistani currency rupee in his province Kandahar:

His hostility toward Pakistan was not baseless, as the country has supported and trained Taliban fighters against Afghans for decades, even maintaining special training facilities for militants within its borders, often referred to as Jihadi Madrasas.

General Abdul Raziq Achakzai in the centre of his police unit

CBC News shared the following footage on its YouTube channel, captured by RUPTLY, showing Raziq’s final meeting:

General Raziq (second from the left) sits facing U.S. General Scott Miller (right), with Raziq clearly looking unamused.

From a different camera angle, only U.S. General Scott Miller is visible,

while General Raziq remains out of frame.

Footage of the October 18, 2018 meeting was also released on YouTube by the Associated Press (AP).
Below are screenshots from that meeting:

Meeting between U.S. Army General Scott Miller
and Afghan General Raziq in Kandahar

Miller smiles in that meeting before General Raziq's assassination

In this last meeting, General Raziq, seen on the left,

is completely unaware of the lethal scheme about to strike.

A spokesperson for the Taliban announced that General Scott Miller, the top US commander in the country, was the intended target of the attack, though he emerged unscathed. However, a senior US army official who was present at the meeting stated that Raziq was the actual target, not the US general. According to a NATO spokesperson, three Americans—a US service member, a coalition contractor, and an American civilian—sustained injuries but were in stable condition. In addition to Raziq, Kandahar's intelligence chief, Abdul Mohmin, was reportedly killed in the assault, as stated by the deputy provincial governor.

On October 19, 2018, one day after the shooting, the BBC reported:

"Afghan and international security officials said Gen Raziq was shot in the back as he left the meeting and walked towards an area where the helicopter taking the US group back to Kabul was coming in to land. "Provincial officials including the governor, the police chief and other officials were accompanying the foreign guests when the gunshots happened," said Jan Khakrezwal, head of the Kandahar provincial council."

In this scenario, the Afghan General experienced a literal betrayal as he was shot in the back. His assassination occurred at a pivotal moment when he was on the verge of defeating the terrorist Taliban, a fact that even Western media outlets such as the New York Times acknowledged:

Screenshot of the quickly published report by the NYT on 18 October 2018

The NYT article states: "One of the most devastating Taliban assassination strikes of the long Afghan war on Thursday killed a regional police chief with a larger-than-life reputation as one of the last stalwarts against the militants. The top American commander in Afghanistan narrowly escaped injury. (...) A fierce commander, he pacified Kandahar Province, once one of the most troubled spots of the war, and then held it secure for years even as the Taliban gained large swathes of territory all around it."

The last significant opponent of the Taliban was eliminated just before negotiations with the terrorist group could commence. In September 2020, General Scott Miller was seen in Qatar meeting with Taliban leaders:

From left to right: US General Scott Miller, US ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad,
US foreign secretary Mike Pompeo, Abdul Ghani Baradar (Taliban leader),
older Taliban official sitting, Suhail Shaheen (Taliban official)

After the Taliban took over Afghanistan they massacred many members of the Achakzai tribe, to which Raziq belonged. Many Western media channels, like the New York Times, published articles depicting him as a criminal or a mass murderer, which he clearly wasn't. The articles are to probably justify his murder and to criminalize those who were clearly anti-Taliban.

But inside Afghanistan there were many Afghans, who admire him and refer to him as Shaheed Raziq, Martyr Raziq. Afghan musicians composed numerous songs dedicated to him in both Pashto and Dari languages.

Some of the songs, which can be listened to on YouTube, are:

"Raziq tu Kojai (Raziq where are you)" in Dari by Zikrullah Walizada Badakhshi (a Tajik Afghan singer)

There are different versions of the first song, like this one:

"Razeq tu kojai"

Other songs are:

"Shaheed General Raziq (Martyr General Raziq)" in Dari by Obaid Tukhi (a Pashtun Afghan singer)

"General Raziq Khan Shaheed" in Pashto by Raziq Showqi (a Pashtun Afghan singer)

Muhammad Ayaz Niazi was an Afghan Sunni Islamic scholar, preacher and Imam. He was born in 1964 in Yemgan district of Badakhshan Province in Afghanistan. He studied Islam in various places, like the renowned Al-Azhar University Egypt, where he studied Islamic Economics. After completing his higher education from Egypt, he returned to Afghanistan and was a professor at the Faculty of Sharia at Kabul University for seven years. In addition to teaching at the university, he was the Khatib/preacher of the Wazir Akbar Khan Grand Mosque, the most important mosque in terms of religious and political status among the mosques of Afghanistan. As a Tajik Afghan he was liked by both Shia and Sunni Afghans. The main reason was that he strove for unity and the abolishment of sectarianism and discrimination of religious minorities. Furthermore, he was known for his advocacy against extremist movements and extremist groups. Ayaz Niazi was among the religious figures who criticized the attacks of ISIS and at the same time criticized the presence and attacks of foreign forces on civilian positions in his sermons. In the eyes of foreign intelligence and politicians who are hostile to Afghans, Ayaz Niazi was a main enemy and a target. Thus, Niazi was killed on June 2, 2020 with three others in a bomb blast at Wazir Akbar Khan Mosque. After Niazi's assassination, accusations were made that the government led by Pashtun president Ashraf Ghani and the Afghan National Directorate of Security (NDS) were involved in the organized killing of moderate scholars. A former NDS employee known as Haseeb Quwai Markaz claimed that the NDS was involved in targeted killings. He said that the NDS had given him a list of scholars and beneficiaries and offered him two million Afghanis in exchange for killing each of them. He named Hanif Atmar and several other prominent figures active in the national security field and accused them of assassinating Afghan scholars and beneficiaries. Soon, the Afghan Ministry of Interior announced that Haseeb Qoway Markaz was wanted, too.

Muhammad Ayaz Niazi, before his death, and the bombed Wazir Akbar Khan Mosque in Kabul

Yama Siawash, a famous Afghan journalist, was born in 1984 in Kapisa Province. and was killed on 7 November 2020 in a car bomb attack. Like Ayaz Niazi, he too was from from Tajik ethnicity. After completing his primary and secondary education in Afghanistan, he earned his bachelor's degree in political science from the International University of Naveed, India.

He began his collaboration with Tolo News in early 2012 and served as anchor for TOLOnews Television of Afghanistan. After Yama Siawash interviewed Gulab Mangal, the then Minister of Borders, Ethnicities and Tribes, in September 2015 accusing the Afghan government of handing over the Dand Ghori region to the Taliban by members of the provincial council, Tolo TV faced a reduction in his activities and Siawash was finally dismissed on November 11, 2015.

Yama Siawash during his time with TOLO news

Yama Siawash then worked as a media advisor at the Central Bank of Afghanistan. Finally, Yama Siyawash was killed along with two other Central Bank employees in the Makroyan 4 area of Kabul on the morning of Saturday, November 7, 2020, by a mine planted in a Central Bank of Afghanistan vehicle. To many it seemed that his assassination was plotted by high levels of Afghanistan's government involving the intelligence service.

BBC's report on Yama Siawash's death - 7 November 2025

Rostam Beg, left, with Mawlawi Mehdi Mujahid, second from right

Mawlawi Mehdi Mujahid (1988 – August 17, 2022) was a dissident Shia Hazara commander who had previously allied with the Taliban. In early 2022, he briefly held the position of the Taliban's provincial chief of intelligence in Bamyan province, where they used him to bolster their influence among Hazaras and other Shia Muslims. However, he broke away from the Taliban leadership after delivering a speech that criticized the closure of girls' schools and voiced his ongoing calls for equality for Hazaras and other Shia Muslims. Following his dismissal from this role, Mujahid left the Taliban and refused to comply with them, aware that they would kill him due to his loss of favor. The Balkhab uprising in the Balkhab district of Sar-e Pol province, Afghanistan, was led by Mehdi Mujahid. The conflict began on June 23, 2022, when Mujahid's 200-man force captured the district. It concluded on August 17, 2022, when the Taliban encircled Mujahid's forces with approximately 12,000 special troops, including the 203 Mansoori Corps and Badri 313 Battalion. Mujahid's defeat appears to have been due in part to betrayal from within his ranks, despite his favorable strategic position for conducting guerrilla warfare against the Taliban. Reports indicate that the main resource of the Balkhab region is its coal mines, which mainly benefit Pakistan. There are claims that Pakistan provided reinforcements to the Taliban in order to secure control over these coal mines.

In August 2022, the Taliban reported Mehdi Mujahid's death, claiming that their border forces shot him during a firefight in Herat province as he attempted to escape to neighboring Iran.

Khair Muhammad Andarabi was an anti-Taliban commander within the NRF. On December 26, 2022, NRF forces in Andarab repelled attacks from Taliban in Taghanak, Khej and Bagh Dara villages, with unconfirmed reports of casualties on both sides, which included NRF commander Khair Mohammad Andrabi (also Khairkhwa). It is assumed that the Taliban located him in the mountains by intercepting his communication (geolocalization) with the help of foreign intelligence assisting the Taliban (i.e. Pakistan and/or China).

Khair Mohammad Andarabi/Khairkhwa while resisting in the Hindukush mountains against the Taliban

Soon after Khairkhwa's assassination by the Taliban, Qamaruddin Andrabi, a field commander of Ahmad Massoud’s National Resistance Front of Afghanistan, took command of the forces of Ahmad Massoud in Andrab Province in December 2022. Qamaruddin Andrabi was assassinated by his guard who was a Taliban infiltrator in the Khwaja Valley in the Beno district of Andarab County in Baghlan Province in September 2023.

Qamaruddin Andarabi, successor to Khair Mohammad Andarabi,

was killed by the Taliban in September 2023

Akmal Amir (1987 - April 11, 2023): Akmal Amir, along with seven other members of the Freedom Front, was killed on 11 April 2023 in a fierce fight against the Taliban in the southern part of Salang district, Parwan province. He served in the command center of the defense ministry of Afghanistan and was later appointed as operation in charge of the Shaheen Corps. Later, he served as an attorney in the Kandahar Corps. Akmal Amir also served as head of the special operations unit of the Afghan army under the government of Ashraf Ghani. Also in his case, it is suspected that the Taliban found his whereabouts in the mountains by intercepting his communication (geolocalization) with the help of foreign intelligence assisting the Taliban (i.e. Pakistan and/or China). Amir is survived by his wife and his two children.

Akmal Amir during his time as a commander of the Afghan National Army (ANA)

General Sami Sadat (born 1985): Sayed Sami Sadat is a former Afghan General/Commander of the Afghan National Army and chairman of the Afghanistan United Front (AUF), a political organization that is leading an opposition against the Taliban. He lives in the USA and is fluent in Persian (Dari), English, Arabic, and Pashto. He published his book "The Last Commander: The Once and Future Battle for Afghanistan".

Hasib "Qoway Markaz", also known as Hasib Panjshiri, was born on January 28, 1992, in Abdara, Panjshir province, Afghanistan. Qoway Markaz is his nom de guerre, while he has a different last name. He is a prominent military commander and a senior figure in the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan (NRF), recognized for his anti-Taliban stance and his leadership under Ahmad Massoud. After completing higher military education in 2014, he joined the special units of Afghanistan's National Directorate of Security (NDS), leaving the organization in 2018.

In 2019, Hasib Qoway Markaz accused the NDS of attempting to coerce him into assassinating several prominent individuals, leading to a fallout that placed him at odds with the Afghan government; a warrant for his arrest was issued on charges of murder. Attempts to capture him in Panjshir province in March 2019 ended unsuccessfully after hours of conflict.

Hasib Qoway Markaz with his soldiers soon after the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban,

Screenshot of video from November 2021

Following the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan on August 15, 2021, Hasib Qoway Markaz organized armed resistance in Panjshir Valley, facing numerous Taliban attacks. Despite inflicting significant casualties on the Taliban, he struggled with ammunition shortages and eventually retreated. In 2022, during ongoing clashes in the region, he gained recognition for shooting down Taliban-operated Russian Mi-17 helicopters, capturing two pilots and a senior commander. Today, he commands the special forces of the NRF in Panjshir, continuing to lead efforts against the Taliban presence in Afghanistan.

as a former elite soldier of Afghanistan's NDS Hasib Qoway Markaz
knows how to survive in the Hindukush mountains during the winter

Khalid Amiri, 38 years old, is public enemy number one for the Taliban: it seems impossible to track him down. Khalid Amiri is on the front lines of the fight against the Taliban in Afghanistan. Khalid Amiri also comes from Panjshir, just like the commander Ahmad Shah Massoud, who was murdered in 2001 and subsequently declared an Afghan national hero.

Khalid Amiri, Taliban's public enemy number one

A commander in the National Resistance Front (NRF), Khalid is leading the charge against the Taliban in the Hindukush mountains of Afghanistan. He has a wife and children who motivate him to persevere in the fight against extremism, in hopes that one day his home country will be Taliban-free and peaceful. The TV channel Arte produced a documentary in German and French on Amiri's fight against the Taliban.

Khalid Amiri recording a speech in the Hindukush mountains

after Afghanistan's fall to the Taliban - Screenshot of video from August 2022

Notes

Guerrilla warfare is a type of unconventional combat where small, irregular military groups employ tactics like ambushes, sabotage, terrorism, raids, petty conflicts, and hit-and-run strategies. Afghans used guerrilla warfare tactics against the Soviet Army during the Soviet-Afghan War (1979 - 1989) and later against the Taliban (1996 - 2001, 2021 till now).

Anti-Taliban Opposition in Vienna

Ahmad Shah Massoud's views - part 1 - his interview on Afghanistan's history

Ahmad Shah Massoud's views - part 2 - historic speech against Taliban in mosque

Ahmad Shah Massoud's views - part 3 - his views on literature and philosophy

Last days of Afghanistan in 2021 Pt. 1 - General Sami Sadat

Last days of Afghanistan in 2021 Pt. 2 - Taliban's public enemy number one Commander Khalid Amiri - Part 1

Last days of Afghanistan in 2021 Pt. 3 - Taliban's public enemy number one Commander Khalid Amiri - Part 2

Ahmad Massoud's Views - Part 1 - his Interview with BBC

Ahmad Massoud's Views - Part 2 - his Interview with Afghanistan International

Ahmad Massoud: "Taliban have no legitimacy in Afghanistan"

Pashtun Taliban Commander: "Shoot NRF prisoners." (Sept. 2022)

Taliban and terrorist groups