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, General Abdul Raziq Achakzai, Marshall Mohammad Qasim Fahim, Akmal Amir, Khair Mohammad Andarabi and many others.

(Ahmad Shah Massoud and his men during his guerrilla warfare against the Soviet Army in the 1980s)

Burhanuddin Rabbani (September 20, 1940 – September 20, 2011) was an Afghan Islamic scholar, politician, and former President of Afghanistan. As the leader of Jamiat-e Islami, he played a central role in the fight against the Soviet Union and later became one of the key figures opposing the Taliban.

After serving as President from 1992 to 1996, Rabbani remained the internationally recognized head of state even after the Taliban seized Kabul. During the Taliban era, he acted as the political leader of the resistance, working closely with military commanders such as Ahmad Shah Massoud.

During the presidency of Hamid Karzai, a Pashtun leader, Rabbani later chaired the High Peace Council, where he sought a negotiated settlement with the Taliban—despite growing tensions and political disagreements within the Afghan leadership. Karzai himself publicly stated that Rabbani had approached him several times in anger over his political decisions, reflecting the strained relationship between the two men.

(2001: Hamid Karzai (right) presents a doctorate to Burhanuddin Rabbani (left) at the Kabul interim government inauguration.)

He was assassinated in Kabul in 2011 by a suicide attacker posing as a Taliban envoy, who concealed explosives in his turban. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack. However, the circumstances of his killing raised serious questions. Some observers pointed to possible negligence or internal rivalries within the Afghan government.

As a powerful Tajik political figure in a country long dominated by Pashtun leadership, Rabbani had numerous rivals. His influence—both domestically and internationally—made him a key figure in shaping Afghanistan’s future, but also a target for enemies from multiple sides.

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.

Beyond his military achievements, Massoud was known for a distinctive leadership philosophy: he believed that true resistance was not only about territory or survival, but about preserving dignity, independence, and the political agency of the people. He repeatedly emphasized that material security alone—food, shelter, and safety—was meaningless without freedom and self-determination. This idea became central to his vision of Afghanistan.

(Ahmad Shah Massoud is teaching his men his guerrilla warfare skills against the Soviet Army in the 1980s.)

His military success was not accidental. Massoud combined deep knowledge of guerrilla warfare with strong local support networks, discipline among his fighters, and a long-term strategic mindset. He prioritized maintaining a firm internal base of support before seeking foreign backing, understanding that international alliances would only follow if his movement proved resilient and credible on the ground.

(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 a new proxy force of Pakistan—after Hekmatyar had failed—Massoud became the leader of the main resistance against them. Despite his many successes, Massoud faced numerous setbacks. He was aware that many powers plotted against him and Afghanistan, and he expressed deep frustration over the indifference of the international community towards Afghanistan following its victory over the Soviet Union.

At the same time, Massoud distinguished himself from many contemporaries through his personal conduct. He lived relatively modestly, stayed close to his fighters and the civilian population, and led from within Afghanistan rather than from exile. He believed that a leader’s physical presence among his people was essential to maintaining morale and legitimacy—especially in times of crisis.

(Ahmad Shah Massoud in his later years.)

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 attacks. 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.

Sayed Mustafa Kazemi (1963 – November 6, 2007) was an Afghan politician, former Minister of Commerce, and a member of parliament. A Sayed Shiite Muslim, he was associated with Shiite Mujahideen factions that had opposed both the Soviet occupation and later the Taliban regime.

(Sayed Mustafa Kazemi during a press conference.)

During the post-2001 political order under President Hamid Karzai, Kazemi became an influential political figure. He served as Minister of Commerce, where he was involved in economic reconstruction and development policy. In this role, he promoted trade and investment, supported the establishment of industrial zones, and encouraged major infrastructure initiatives, including transit and trade routes aimed at improving regional connectivity. Later, as a member of parliament, he remained active in national economic and legislative affairs and was widely regarded as a reform-minded and capable politician.

On November 6, 2007, Kazemi was killed in a suicide bombing in Baghlan province while attending a public event as part of a parliamentary delegation visiting a sugar factory in Pul-e-Khumri. The attack targeted the gathering and resulted in dozens of fatalities, including several members of parliament. Many schoolchildren who had assembled to welcome the delegation were also among the dead, and nearly 100 people were injured. No group formally claimed responsibility for the attack, although it was widely attributed to insurgent elements active in the region at the time.

Kazemi was among several senior politicians killed in the bombing, alongside figures such as Abdul Matin, Sibghatullah Zaki, Haji Sahib Rahman Hemat, Nazik Mir Sarfaraz, and Mohammad Arif Zarif. Some believe this was also another attack against Afghanistan's non-Pashtun population and had less to do with the personality of Kazemi. He is remembered as part of Afghanistan’s post-2001 political leadership that focused on rebuilding state institutions and the national economy.

Marshal Mohammad Qasim Fahim (1957 – March 9, 2014), commonly known as Marshal Fahim, was an Afghan military commander and a leading figure of the Northern Alliance. Born in the Panjshir Valley, he was ethnically Tajik and part of Afghanistan’s Persian-speaking political and military leadership, which stood in contrast to the country’s predominantly Pashtun political elite.

A close associate of Ahmad Shah Massoud, Fahim became one of the most important commanders in the resistance against the Taliban during the 1990s.

(Marshal Fahim standing with Ahmad Shah Massoud.)

After Massoud’s assassination in September 2001, he emerged as the principal military leader of the Northern Alliance, coordinating its forces during the final phase of the Taliban regime. Following the US-led intervention after the September 11 attacks, Fahim worked closely with international coalition forces in military operations that contributed to the fall of the Taliban government.

(Marshal Fahim (center) standing next to former Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani and Russian President Vladimir Putin in October 2001.)

After the fall of the Taliban, Fahim served as Afghanistan’s Minister of Defense from 2001 to 2004. In 2009, he was appointed First Vice President of Afghanistan under President Hamid Karzai, a position he held until his death.

Fahim survived several assassination attempts, including a mine attack on his convoy in Jalalabad in 2002, an alleged explosives plot later that same year, a bomb discovered near his home in 2003, and a Taliban ambush on his convoy in Kunduz during the 2009 presidential campaign.

Fahim died on March 9, 2014, in Kabul at the age of 57. His death was officially attributed to natural causes, widely reported as a sudden heart attack, though it was also the subject of public speculation.

Beyond his military and political career, Fahim is also remembered for his sharp views on Afghanistan’s ethnic and political power struggles. In one of his speeches, he argued that Afghanistan’s crisis was not simply about one leader or one regime, but about a deeper political mindset that had long treated certain groups as naturally entitled to rule while dismissing others as poor, powerless, or unworthy of leadership.

He rejected that logic, saying that those who had been looked down upon had also defended the homeland when the country was tested, and therefore had every right to take part in Afghanistan’s political future. In his view, the same mindset appeared under different names and faces over time — whether through the Taliban, Ashraf Ghani, Dr. Najibullah, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, or others. The names changed, but the underlying objective remained the same.

One of Fahim’s sharpest arguments concerned the different treatment of governments depending on who held power. He argued that Karzai’s government was not stronger than Professor Burhanuddin Rabbani’s government had been, yet the Arg, the Presidential Palace, was not attacked in the same way because Hamid Karzai, a Pashtun, was inside. In his view, if the palace had been held by figures such as Fahim himself, Professor Rabbani, or Ahmad Shah Massoud, their opponents would not have remained silent even until the second night.

General Mohammad Daud Daud (1969 – May 28, 2011) was an Afghan military and police commander, best known as one of the important anti-Taliban figures in northern Afghanistan. Born in Takhar Province, he was ethnically Tajik and became closely associated with Ahmad Shah Massoud during the years of jihad and resistance. He served as an aide and bodyguard to Massoud and later fought with the Northern Alliance against the Taliban.

After the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001, General Daud continued to play a major role in Afghanistan’s security structure.

(Daud speaking with Canadian Ambassador to Afghanistan William Crosbie in January 2010.)

General Daud served in senior military and police positions and later became the police commander for northern Afghanistan. In this role, he was regarded as one of the most effective commanders against the Taliban, especially in the north and northeast of the country. He was also known for his strong opposition to both Taliban influence and criminal networks, including drug-linked power structures.

General Daud was killed on May 28, 2011, in Taloqan, Takhar Province, during an attack on a high-level security meeting at the provincial governor’s compound. The attack also killed several others, including two German soldiers, and wounded German General Markus Kneip, the commander of ISAF forces in northern Afghanistan. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the bombing, though the circumstances of the attack led to suspicion and debate among many Afghans.

Burhanuddin Rabbani, the former president, called on the government to conduct an immediate investigation into the recent killings. Before General Daud Daud, Khan Mohammad Mujahid, the police commander of Kandahar in southern Afghanistan, and Abdul Rahman Seyedkheli, the police commander of Kunduz in the northeast, had also been killed in suicide attacks. These assassinations created the impression that experienced anti-Taliban security commanders were being systematically eliminated at a time when the insurgency was expanding its reach across the country.

For many supporters of the anti-Taliban resistance, General Daud’s death was seen as part of a broader pattern in which powerful anti-Taliban commanders and political figures were gradually removed from the battlefield and from Afghanistan’s security structure. His killing came only a few months before the assassination of Burhanuddin Rabbani in September 2011, further weakening the old anti-Taliban political and military network in northern Afghanistan. He is remembered as one of the most significant Afghan security figures who continued the legacy of resistance after Ahmad Shah Massoud.

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)

(General Scott 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 October 18, 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 (c. 1968 – October 11, 2020) 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 , 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 assassination in the bombed Wazir Akbar Khan Mosque in Kabul, where he was Imam.)

Yama Siawash (c. 1983 – November 7, 2020), 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 - November 7, 2025)

Mohammad Fahim Dashty (c. 1973 – September 5, 2021) was an Afghan journalist, political figure, and spokesman for the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan. He was closely associated with Ahmad Shah Massoud and was present during the suicide attack that killed Massoud on September 9, 2001. Dashty survived that assassination attempt but was badly wounded, making him a living witness to one of the most decisive moments in Afghanistan’s modern history.

After 2001, he became known as a strong defender of press freedom and an important figure among Afghan journalists. He worked with journalist organizations and was regarded as a respected media leader who supported independent journalism in Afghanistan.

(Fahim Dashty (right) with Ahmad Massoud, the son of the late Ahmad Shah Massoud, in March 2012.)

Following the Taliban takeover in August 2021, Dashty joined the National Resistance Front in Panjshir and became one of its main public voices, communicating the resistance’s position while Taliban forces advanced on the valley.

On September 5, local journalists confirmed the Taliban’s control over Rukha and Paryan districts, and NRF spokesman Mohammad Fahim Dashty was killed during the Taliban offensive in Panjshir. According to many supporters of the resistance, his killing appeared unlikely to have been the result of ordinary direct combat alone. Since Dashty was a spokesman and media figure rather than a front-line combat commander, some believe he may have been located or targeted through intelligence, surveillance, or communication-tracking methods.

This raised suspicions that more advanced military or intelligence support may have been involved in the Taliban’s operations in Panjshir, potentially from countries such as Pakistan, China, or both. Fahim Dashty was not directly engaged in combat in the way field commanders were, but his role as the public voice of the NRF made him highly valuable as a target. His death at the beginning of the resistance in 2021 was therefore seen by many Afghans as an attempt to silence the movement’s political and media voice before it could gain wider support inside Afghanistan and abroad.

Fahim Dashty was killed alongside General Abdul Wadood Zara, another important resistance figure. His death was a major loss not only for the armed resistance in Panjshir, but also for Afghanistan’s journalistic and intellectual community. Many Afghans remember him as a man who exchanged the safety of silence for the dangerous duty of speaking for freedom, resistance, and the dignity of Afghanistan under Taliban rule.

Mawlawi Mehdi Mujahid (1988 – August 17, 2022) was a dissident Shia Hazara commander who had previously allied with the Taliban.

(Rostam Beg, left, with Mawlawi Mehdi Mujahid, second from right.)

In early 2022, Mehdi Mujahid 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 (born c. 1992), 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.

(Guerrilla fighter 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