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Demo. Rep. of Afghanistan Formed
The Democratic Republic of Afghanistan was formed after the Saur Revolution on 27 April 1978. The government was one with a pro-poor, pro-farmer and socialistic agenda -
Down with Daoud
the Afghan army, which had been sympathetic to the PDPA cause, overthrew and executed Daoud along with members of his family.[25] Nur Muhammad Taraki, Secretary General of the PDPA, became President of the Revolutionary Council and Prime Minister of the newly established Democratic Republic of Afghanistan -
Islamic Revolution
Islamic Revolution ousted the American-backed Shah from Afghanistan's neighbor Iran and the United States Ambassador to Afghanistan was kidnapped by Setami Milli militants, and was later killed during an assault carried out by the Afghan police, assisted by Soviet advisers -
US Invovement
USA's President Jimmy Carter signed the first directive for secret aid to the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul.[18] The aim of USA was to drag the Soviet Union into the "Afghan trap" as US Secretary of State Zbigniew Brzezinski termed it -
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Operation Cyclone
Code name for the United States Central Intelligence Agency program to arm, train, and finance the Afghan mujahideen during the Soviet war in Afghanistan. The program leaned heavily towards supporting militant Islamic groups that were favored by neighboring Pakistan, rather than other Afghan resistance groups that had also been fighting the Marxist-oriented Democratic Republic of Afghanistan . Operation Cyclone was one of the longest and most expensive. -
Soviets Attack
The Soviet Prremier Leonid Brezhneb led the deployment of the 40th army into Afghanistan. -
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Panjshir Offensives
The Panjshir offensives were a series of battles between the Soviet Army and groups of Afghan Mujahideen under Ahmad Shah Massoud for the control of the strategic Panjshir Valley, during the Soviet war in Afghanistan in the period from 1980 to 1985. These battles saw some of the most violent fighting of the whole war, but despite nine attacks the Soviets and their Afghan communist allies were not able to subdue the Panjshir. -
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Panjshir I, II, III
The first three offensives were small-scale operations, involving only four battalions. The Mujahideen, who weren't strong enough to confront the Soviet army in the open, blended in with the local population and generally waited until the Soviets had left to resume their activities. -
Panjshir IV
Massoud had mustered enough men to openly resist the Soviet assault. During this offensive, to avoid losing vehicles to land mines, the Soviets sent their sapper units to clear the way in front of the main force. This tactic proved costly, and the attack force penetrated only 25 km into the valley before retiring, after having suffered 100 casualties -
Panjshir V
First major offensive was carried out by a force of 12,000 soldiers under the command of General N.G. Ter-Grigoryan. 4,200 troops were airlifted into the valley to capture strategic points, right up to the Pakistani border, in an effort to cut the Mujahideen supply lines paratroopers were saved only by the arrival of a motorised battalion led by Major Aushev, who forced his way through the Mujahideen defenses, and captured Rukha. For his actions, Aushev was hailed as Savior of the Soviet Union. -
Panjshir VI
consisted of a series of sweeps conducted by motorised units and by airborne Spetsnaz units, launched from their bases in the Panjshir, to find and destroy the Mujahideen hideouts. It was accompanied by a heavy aerial bombardment of villages suspected of harbouring rebels. carried out by Tu-16 bombers flying from inside the Soviet Union -
Panjshir VII
Konstantin Chernenko replaced Yuri Andropov as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. While Andropov had supported the ceasefire, Chernenko, believed that the guerillas should be rooted out through military action, an opinion shared with Babrak Karmal, president of the DRA. As a result a new offensive was planned, which, should be decisive and merciless some Soviets, who were supporters of Andropov, disagreed with this policy and warned the Massoud in advance. -
Panjshir VIII
The 8th offensive was a follow-up to the 7th, involving mostly airborne forces. -
Panjshir IX
carried out in reprisal for the destruction of the DRA garrison at Peshgur, during which Massoud's mobile groups took 500 prisoners including 126 officers and killed a brigadier of the Afghan ArmySoviet counter-attack installed a new garrison in Peshgur, and pursued the retreating Mujahideen. The group escorting the captured Afghan officers was caught in the open by Soviet helicopters, and in the ensuing fight most of the prisoners were killed, with both sides projecting on each other the respon -
Soviet Withdrawal
Under a new leader, Mikhail Gorbachev,the soviets began to pull their troops out. -
Final Withdrawal
the last of the Soviets withdrew from Afghanistan, still under Mikhail Gorbachev.