Assassination of Ahmad Shah Massoud

1973 Afghan coup d'état In July 1973, the last and longest-serving king of Afghanistan, Mohammad Zahir Shah, was deposed in a bloodless coup led by his cousin and prime minister, Mohammad Daoud Khan. With Zahir Shah exiled in Italy, Daoud Khan declared the end of Kingdom of Afghanistan, replaced by the Republic of Afghanistan, and announced that he would lead the country as president. Daoud, with a focus on Afghan nationalism, attempted the herculean tasks of administering the fiercely-independent Pashtun tribal areas, reuniting the two factions (Khalqis and Parchamists) of the Afghan communist party (PDPA), and reducing Soviet influence in Afghanistan in pursuit of Non-Aligned Movement ideals. 1978 Afghan coup d'état In April 1978, Daoud was replaced in a coup by left-wing (communist) military officers of the Khalq communist faction, led by Nur Mohammad Taraki. Soviet-Afghan War Threatened by the insurgency, in December 1978, Taraki and Deputy Prime Minister Hafizullah Amin signed a friendship treaty with Moscow to secure a promise of Soviet military intervention should the government fear toppling. In mid-1979, with the mujahideen uprising only growing, the Soviet Union sent a limited contingent troops to Bagram Air Base, north of the capital Kabul, also prompting the CIA to begin non-lethal support to the mujahedeen movement. the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in a last-ditch effort to save the faltering fledgling communist government. To counter the Soviet's December 1979 invasion of Afghanistan, often described as a reversal of the Soviet arming of the Viet Cong in the American war in Vietnam, the United States initiated Operation Cyclone (depicted in the book and film ''Charlie Wilson's War''), which armed the mujahideen movement against the Soviet Union and its communist government in Afghanistan. In the late 1980s, having failed to suppress the mujahideen insurgency, amounting staggering casualties, lacking territorial control outside urban areas and the ring road, and with the ultimate collapse of the Soviet Union only two years away, the Soviets withdrew in a substantial political defeat. The power vacuum created by the fall of the PDPA government transitioned Afghanistan into a second civil war between insurgent factions, largest among these being the Tajik-Pashtun Jamiat-e Islami led by Berhanuddin Rabbani and Hezb-e-Islami (Gulbuddin) led by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. These warlord-led insurgent factions ruthlessly shelled Afghan urban areas, none more than Kabul. Taliban conquest Losing confidence in Gulbuddin's group, and committed to opening Afghanistan's Central Asian land trade routes (once part of the Silk Road) the ISI turned to the infant but promising Taliban movement. Pashtun, conservative, Deobandi, and Islamist, the Taliban movement in Kandahar appealed greatly to the Pakistani ISI after demonstrating it could seize the Spin Boldak border crossing from a variety of mujahideen who had set up informal chain tolls along Afghan roads. As the route for Pakistani trucking opened, support from the ISI increased and replaced Gulbuddin's faction as Pakistan's most favored group to take power in Afghanistan. After Spin Boldak, the Taliban captured Kandahar Airport, Kandahar City in November 1994, and western Herat in 1995. With the rising Taliban threat to Kabul, Rabbani and Massoud's Jamiat-e Islami united with other mujahideen groups in Kabul and the north to form the United Islamic Front for Salvation of Afghanistan, better known as the United Front or (in the West) the Northern Alliance. Despite a number of tactical successes against the Taliban, Massoud was forced to withdraw his forces north from Kabul into the Panjshir, ceding the capital city to the Taliban in 1996. After the East African embassy bombings, the United States conducted Operation Infinite Reach, bombing al-Qaeda targets in Sudan (where bin Laden had stayed prior to 1996) and Afghanistan. In early 2001, prior to the September 11th attacks in America, the CIA, R&AW, IRGC, and SCNS routinely met with Ahmad Shah Massoud in Afghanistan to coordinate support to the Northern Alliance against the Taliban and al-Qaeda. == Speech in Strasbourg ==

On 2 April 2001, President of the European Parliament Nicole Fontaine announced that she had invited Ahmad Shah Massoud, describing him as the "Vice-President of the Islamic State of Afghanistan", to Strasbourg, France to discuss human rights under the Taliban including the disenfranchisement of and violence against women and their destruction of the revered Bamiyan Buddhas, which had occurred one month prior. The 5 April 2001 visit, Massoud's first to Europe, comprised a meeting with Fontaine, Presidents of the French Senate (Christian Poncelete) and National Assembly (Raymond Forni), and later a press conference in the European Parliament during which he received a standing ovation. == Attack preparations ==

Assassins The operation's two attackers were Tunisian Arabs: 39-year-old Abd as-Sattar ( Abdessattar) Dahmane (; lit. 'servant-of-the-Veiler Dahmane') under the alias Karim Touzani and 31-year-old Rachid Bouari el-Ouaer () under the alias Kacem Bakkali. According to Waheed Muzda, the stolen camcorder, along with a load of office supplies, were picked up in Quetta, Pakistan and driven across the Spin Boldak–Chaman border crossing to al-Qaeda's cultural office in Kandahar, Afghanistan. Muzda, who had worked for the post-1996 Islamic Emirate's (Taliban) Foreign Ministry and frequently attended meetings between the Taliban government and Osama bin Laden, told Fiona Gall in an interview that Abu Hani al-Masri and the two journalist had carefully unpacked the camcorder with Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri, Abu Hafs Kabir, Saif al-Adl, and Mahfouz Ould al-Walid. Later in a Facebook post, Muzhda would explain that he could not understand either the seeming importance of the two journalists or why they were so careful in unpacking the camcorder until after Massoud's assassination. Vincendet later learned that the getaway car used was not reported stolen, but was owned by a resident of a town in Roussillon who "disappeared". == Assassins' travel ==

Darunta training camp Dahmane, at a low point, was recommended by a Tunisian friend and later founder of the Tunisian Combatant Group, Tarek Maaroufi, to travel to Afghanistan for jihad. With encouragement from his similarly-radicalized wife, Malika al-Aroud, Dahmane explained that he would travel first, and that she was to join him later. Another Tunisian Belgian, Adel Tebourski, who performed logistics for al-Qaeda, provided Dahmane and his wife with the necessary finances and travel tickets. Provided with Belgian passports stolen from the Belgian Consulate in Strasbourg and the Belgian embassy in The Hague, Dahmane and his fellow-operative Bouari el-Ouaer collected one-year, multiple-entry Pakistani visas supposedly issued by the Pakistani High Commission in London. Days later, the two boarded a flight at London Heathrow, landing at Islamabad International Airport, and drove through the Khyber Pass and Torkham border crossing into Afghanistan's Nangarhar Province. The two settled at al-Qaeda's Darunta training camp, only a few miles outside the provincial capital of Jalalabad, where al-Qaeda recruits trained with weapons, explosives, and conducted physical fitness training. Malika al-Aroud joined Dahmane at Darunta in January 2001 where the two were provided a house by al-Qaeda. In August 2001, the month prior to the assassination, Dahmane explained to his wife that he would be leaving soon and that he had been given a camera and was being dispatched as a journalist to report from within Massoud's camp, adding "Perhaps I will not return from the front." Panjshir Valley Dahmane and al-Ouaer departed the Darunta training camp on 12 August 2001, driving northwest through Taliban-controlled Afghanistan to the Northern Alliance-held Panjshir Valley. Following an alternate route from Surobi along the Tagab Valley, the Arabs' reached Gulbahar, an entrance to the Panjshir Valley, where their Taliban escort departed and the two were received by the Panjshiri mujahideen. With the interview already approved by Massoud following Zawahiri's forged letter to Abdul Rasul Sayyaf purporting to be from the London-based Islamic Observation Centre, the Northern Alliance commander responsible for that region, Bismillah Khan, had ordered a car prepared for the Arabs. From the initial checkpoint they were driven to a second checkpoint and brought into Sayyaf's office. According to Amrullah Saleh, the Arabs reportedly instructed the Panjshiri driver to drive carefully to avoid damaging their equipment. Shortly after, the Arabs stayed with commander Bismillah Khan in Charikar, Parwan, who made arrangements for the two to tour the Northern Alliance's front lines in Panjshir. Just over a week after the Arabs' arrival, they conducted interviews with the top leaders of the Northern Alliance, including Ahmad Shah Massoud, President Burhannudin Rabbani, Shia leader Sayed Mustafa Kazemi, and Pashtun leaders Haji Abdul Qadeer and Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, who had all gathered at Sayyaf's office for a meeting. According to Ahmad Jamshid, Massoud's personal secretary and cousin, "They [the Arabs] were always asking Sayyaf, 'We would like to interview Massoud, where is Massoud, when can we see him?'". The Arabs failed to meet with Ahmad Shah Massoud despite his attendance at the meeting. Several days later, the Arabs were driving north up the Panjshir Valley where they were housed at a VIP guest house used for significant visitors, including at times CIA officials. Helicopter to Takhar With Massoud's return to his Khwaja Bahauddin headquarters in the northern province of Takhar, Dahmane overheard British traveling writer Matthew Leeming speaking over a satellite phone and later approached him to ask if he knew of Ahmad Shah Massoud. When Leeming responded in the affirmative, Dahmane asked "We are doing a television documentary about Afghanistan, and we need to get on a helicopter to Khwaja Bahauddin. Do you have General Massoud's [phone] number?", to which Leeming offered an explanation for why Massoud likely did not openly share his number. At a high operational tempo, Massoud continued to fly back-and-forth between his northern (rear) headquarters in Khwaja Bahauddin, where he'd meet with CIA, RAW, Tajik officials, and other foreign backers, and the Panjshir Valley to meet with his operational commanders. Shortly before departing one of his stops in Panjshir, Massoud invited the Arabs to join him on the helicopter ride north to Takhar, but the Arabs were too slow arranging their luggage and missed the flight, a delay Amrullah Saleh believes to be caused by their attempts to set or modify the bomb. Having missed Massoud's original helicopter flight north, the Arabs joined a second helicopter trip north two days after, along with French journalists to include Françoise Causse, who managed to take a photograph of Bouari el-Ouaer, who attempted to cover his face with his right hand. Causse later recounted how she, suspicious of the two, interrogated Dahmane in French, who told her he represented an information agency of the Arab world based "in London — but independent of governments and states." When asked "Who finances you?", Dahmane answered "I don't know. I am a simple journalist. I don't have access to this type of information. Those things are kept secret." Another passenger onboard the aircraft, French-Afghan university professor Shoukria Haider, recalled the Panjshiri security guards angrily searching the Arabs' bags and clothing twice, but found nothing. In Khwaja Bahauddin The Arabs waited nine days in Khwaja Bahauddin, impatiently waiting for an opportunity to interview Massoud. Waiting on Massoud's invitation, they stayed with The Christian Science Monitor correspondent Edward Girardet who recalled his own suspicion towards the Arabs, including asking the Northern Alliance's intelligence officer, Asim Suhail, who they were and where they said they came from. Suhail showed Girardet the letter forged by Zawahiri. Girardet later wrote that he had never heard of the organization and that the Arabs had tried for weeks to conduct their interview with Massoud. While waiting, the Arabs went out to purportedly shoot footage around Khwaja Bahauddin, but when asked by Girardet how the recording was going, was always met by dejected and unenthusiastic responses. == Assassination ==

in Takhar Having stayed awake to read the poetry of the Persian poet Hafez until anywhere between 1:00 to 3:30 am (AFT) with his close friend Masoud Khalili, Ahmad Shah Massoud awakened later in the morning of 9 September 2001. Receiving reports the night before that Taliban forces had launched a number of attacks against the Northern Alliance on the Shomali Plain, Massoud had issued orders to have his helicopter ready by morning to fly southward to Charikar, on the western ridge of the plain, so that he could meet with his commander, Bismallah Khan, and review the operational progress. After waking, however, new reports conveyed that Taliban operations had eased, prompting Massoud to call off his previous plans and instead drive to review forces in Khwaja Bahauddin District of Takhar Province. On his way to Khwaja Bahauddin, Massoud passed the guest house in which Khalili and the two Arabs were staying. The house, approximately 9 × 7 meters in size, was previously the home of one of Massoud's commanders who had provided it to Massoud for meetings with important guests. The exact location of the building remains publicly unknown. Shifting plans once more, Massoud decided to stop and conduct the interview and sent his bodyguards back to the group's headquarters. Entering the house between 11:00 and 11:30 am, Massoud found his intelligence chief, Engineer Arif, briefing Khalili. Massoud instructed Khalili that they would conduct the interview with the Arabs and then drive north to the Amu Darya (Oxus) River, which delineates Afghanistan's northern border with Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. Interview Massoud sat in the upstairs room with Khalili, his protocol officer Engineer Asim, intelligence chief Engineer Arif, and personal secretary Jamshid sitting shoulder-to-shoulder on his right. Mohammad Fahim Dashty, a close associate and later spokesman of the post-2021 National Resistance Front under Massoud' son, was also present in the room with a small camera. The two Arabs entered the room and, after Massoud apologized for the delay, Abd as-Sattar Dahmane (playing the role of interviewer), from Francophone Tunisia asked "My English is not good, can you speak French?" Told no, Dahmane instead spoke in slow, broken English through Khalili, who translated for Massoud in Dari. Khalili asked Dahmane what newspaper he represented, to which Dahmane responded that he did not belong to any paper, instead belonging to the Islamic Centre in London. Khalili warned Massoud "He is not a journalist," but Massoud encouraged him to continue. Prior to filming the supposed interview, Massoud asked the journalists about the areas under Taliban control, to which Dahmane responded "They criticize you and you criticize them... We belong to the Islamic Centre and we want to find the problem [sic] of the Muslim people in the world." Massoud asked for the list of questions to be asked, was handed a sheet of paper by Dahmane, and read all fifteen questions, eight or nine of which were about Osama bin Laden. Khalili later recalled in his statement to Scotland Yard the following questions: • "If you take Kabul, what do you do with Osama?" • "If you capture Osama, what do you do?" • "Why did you say Osama was a bad Muslim in France?" referring to Massoud's speech to the European Parliament • "Why do you say there is a difference between moderate and fundamentalist Islam?" • "Why don't you consider him [Osama] a leader?" Having quietly reviewed the questions, Massoud told Khalili in Dari that he was ready, and that the Arabs should begin filming. Khalili relayed the message in English and Bouari el-Ouaer (in the role of cameraman), "pulled the table away very harshly," prompting a laugh from Massoud. He setup the camera's tripod at its lowest level approximately half-a-meter (around 1.5 feet), in front of Massoud, which Khalili remembered as being far too close to properly film. Massoud, in likely his final words, instructed Khalili "Tell him to ask the question." Dahmane asked in English "What is the situation in Afghanistan?", and, as Khalili translated the first word to Massoud, Bouari el-Ouaer detonated the explosives-packed camera battery belt he wore. == Immediate aftermath ==

The explosion tore the two Arab assassins apart and its shrapnel prompted severe blood loss across Ahmad Shah Massoud's front and torso. Massoud and others wounded in the assassination were taken to the secret, Indian military-operated field clinic for treatment, landing in the garden. There, an Indian doctor pronounced him dead on arrival, suggesting Massoud had died only minutes after the explosion. == Concealing news of Massoud's death ==

, Tajikistan Massoud's body was moved north to Kulob as his colleagues quietly arranged for all those in Massoud's inner circle to rendezvous in Kulob and decide a way forward. Engineer Arif called General Fahim Khan, Massoud's top military commander, on a satellite phone stating "Something's happened to Khalid," using their codeword to describe Massoud, and instructions on how to get to the hospital in Kulob. Massoud's nephew also placed a call to Amrullah Saleh, providing him curt details to arrive at the hospital. Engineer Arif and other accompanying Panjshiri leaders decided that Massoud's death should, at least temporarily, be kept a secret. The leaders feared that if word got out to both the Taliban and Massoud's fighters in the Panjshir Valley, the Taliban would capitalize on Massoud's death and his Northern Alliance fighters would fall into a panicked retreat. The timing of the attack, two days before the September 11th attacks has garnered significant attention. The exact date of the attack was not dictated by the attackers who were on their ninth day in Northern Alliance guesthouses awaiting an invitation from Massoud or his associates to conduct the interview. The only major U.S. newspaper to publish news of the assassination prior to the September 11th attacks was The New York Times. On the fourteenth page of the International section on September 11th, written and printed before the attacks began, the Times published an article titled Reports Disagree on Fate of Anti-Taliban Rebel Chief. The article first provides the Northern Alliance statement, with assurances from Massoud's brother Ahmad Wali Massoud, that Ahmad Shah Massoud was lightly wounded but recovering in a hospital in Dushanbe where "doctors are very optimistic." The article then, indicative of White House and State Department leaks contrary to the express pleas by Amrullah Saleh in notifying the CIA of the truth, states: Confidence in reports of Massoud's death came on 14 September 2001, three days after the September 11th attacks, following a statement by French Foreign Minister Hubert Védrine to Agence France-Presse (AFP): "It appears to be confirmed that Ahmed Shah Massoud, the head of the Afghan opposition, has died." Védrine's statement was widely republished on 15 September, amplified by the fallout of the September 11th attacks. == Official investigations ==

Scotland Yard At the request of Massoud's brother and Afghan ambassador to London, Ahmad Wali Massoud, Scotland Yard initiated a formal investigation into the assassination. The service justified its jurisdiction citing Yasser al-Siri's residence in London. Al-Siri, granted political asylum in Britain 1994 after receiving an in-absentia death sentence for the attempted murder of the Egyptian prime minister, was well-known to British security services as a close friend of al-Qaeda co-founder Ayman al-Zawahiri. Residing in London, Zawahiri's fraudulent letter authenticating the operatives as members of the Islamic Observation Centre, bore al-Siri's signature as head of the center. Teams from Scotland Yard traveled to Kabul to begin interviews and photographing evidence. Though evidence had been collected and al-Siri arrested by the British, Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf quietly asked Britain to drop the case and it did. This request for intervention continues to spur suspicions of Pakistani involvement or complicity in the assassination. On 30 September 2003, a court in Brussels sentenced Tarek Maaroufi, who had urged Dahmane to travel to Afghanistan in pursuit of jihad, to six years on charges of aiding in the assassination of Massoud through his involvement in a fraudulent passport ring. In February 2005, Malika el-Aroud, the widow and of lead attacker Abd as-Sattar Dahmane who had encouraged her husband's plans to travel to Afghanistan and joined him at al-Qaeda's Darunta training camp near Jalalabad, was charged by Belgian police along with her second husband, Moez Garsalloui, for their ties to al-Qaeda. Despite al-Aroud's outspoken support for the group and a CNN interview in which she explained how she ran an online forum for al-Qaeda announcements and propaganda, el-Aroud was acquitted. In June 2007, however, Garsalloui was found guilty of inciting violence and support for criminal organizations while el-Aroud was found guilty for aiding and abetting him. Receiving only a suspended sentence, el-Aroud was detained once more in December 2008, and, in May 2010, was found guilty and convicted of "leading a terrorist group linked with al-Qaeda" which principally involved the recruitment of fighters in Belgium and France and facilitation of their travel to Afghanistan. France French police, using the serial number provided by French journalist Jean-Pierre Vincendet, identified the camera used in the assassination as the one stolen from Vincendet in December 2000. Facing a maximum of 10 years, the three men convicted were said to have operated a France-based al-Qaeda network training in the Forest of Fontainebleau (south of Paris), in the French Alps, and on the coast of Normandy. Two other suspects, Ibrahim Keita and Azdine Sayeh, were acquitted. In the investigation, which the presiding judge clarified was not the investigation into Massoud's assassination, Tebourski (41) admitted to investigators that he had helped finance Dahmane's travel to Afghanistan, but wasn't aware of their operational target (Massoud). Upon arrival in the capital Tunis, Tebourski was briefly questioned by border police and promptly released. Republic of Afghanistan In April 2003, Afghan President Hamid Karzai established a special commission, to be headed by then-Afghan interior minister Ali Ahmad Jalali, to investigate Massoud's assassination. It is not apparent the results of the commission or if it ever convened. United States A November 2001 Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) report partially declassified through a Freedom of Information Act request on Massoud's assassination analyzed the connection between the assassination of Ahmad Shah Massoud and the September 11th attacks days later. The report suggests Massoud's intelligence apparatus had collected information about an attack planned by Osama bin Laden, larger than the 1998 East Africa embassy bombings, but key details remain classified. == Allegations of Pakistani involvement ==

Though the validity remains publicly unknown, Pakistan's chief intelligence and covert action agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), faces allegations of involvement in or prior knowledge of the assassination of Ahmad Shah Massoud. Most of these sources cite a combination of factors to include ISI's post-1994 comprehensive support and loyalty to the Taliban against the Northern Alliance, (including al-Qaeda), Massoud's position as a vocal critic of Pakistani support to the Taliban and interference in Afghan affairs, Massoud's friendly relationship with rival India's intelligence services, and Pakistan's quiet request to have the British investigation of the assassination squashed in its infancy. as well as Afghanistan's first vice president and later longest-serving spy chief, Amrullah Saleh. Pakistani response In 2001, Pakistan's deputy high commissioner in London, Attiya Mahmood, stated that an investigation of their records showed the Pakistani visas used by the two operatives "must have been forged" and denied that they had been issued by Pakistani consulates in Britain. == Commemoration ==

Burial and tomb With news of Massoud's death widely-known, Massoud's body was flown by helicopter (presumably from Tajikistan) to the Panjshir Valley where he was buried in his home village of Bazarak on 16 September 2001, exactly one week after his death. Reports of Taliban desecration Shortly after the Taliban's recapture of Afghanistan following the complete withdrawal of NATO forces, videos emerged of the glass structure over Massoud's tomb shattered, days after the Taliban entered the Panjshir Valley. The Taliban also posted videos rummaging through Massoud's mausoleum. On 15 September 2021, Pakistani news channel Geo TV sent a reporter to Massoud's tomb who denied claims that damage had been done to the tomb. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid denied reports of the tomb's desecration. Typical annual celebrations of Massoud Day included parades through downtown Kabul, wreath laying ceremonies at Massoud's tomb attended by senior government officials, popular gatherings at Kabul's Massoud Square, and parties hosted in Massoud's native Panjshir Valley. In 2002, on the first anniversary of Massoud's assassination, Afghan President Hamid Karzai traveled to Massoud's tomb in Panjshir to pay his respects, stating "We are here to day because of what [Massoud] did before he lost his life for Afghanistan." In 2011, on the tenth anniversary, Afghanistan's first vice president, Mohammad Qasim Fahim, called Massoud "Afghanistan's national hero and a defender of his country" at an event hosted in a Kabul school. In 2015, on the fourteenth anniversary, Massoud's brothers Ahmad Wali and Ahmad Zia attended a wreath-laying ceremony in Kabul's Massoud Square. Ahmad Wali used the events to call for blood donations in support of Afghan security forces. On the 20th anniversary of Massoud's assassination (in 2021), Sandy Gall, a Scottish journalist and close friend of Massoud, published the principle biography of Massoud Afghan Napoleon, which includes a detailed account of the assassination. == See also ==