Unlike many other jihadist groups, Haq had no qualms about targeting innocent civilians, arranging the infamous September 1984 bombing at Kabul airport, which killed 28, and attacks on hotels.ĭespite this, in March 1986 he was welcomed to the UK as a guest of Thatcher. ![]() He was provided 600 'Blowpipe' anti-aircraft missiles missiles and maps of Soviet military positions by MI6, and introduced to the CIA. He trained as many as 8,000, continuing to live in the UK well into the 1990s, when he was regarded by the United Nations as the Taliban's key representative in Europe, by then the undisputed rulers of Afghanistan.Īnother key individual supported by the UK was Hadji Abdul Haq, of the Hizb-i-Islami group. A key trainer was Brigadier General Rahmatullah Safi, former senior officer in the royal Afghan army who, who'd lived in the UK since the 1970s. Mujahideen were also trained in the UK – snuck into the country as tourists, they spent three-weeks at a time in camps situated in Scotland and the North of England. The SAS also, in conjunction with US special forces, training Pakistan's Special Services Group (SSG), which led insurrectionary operations in Afghanistan, in the hope officers could impart their learned expertise directly to jihadists in Afghanistan. The files reveal while the US provided far more in financial and material terms to the Afghan jihad, the UK played a direct combat role, with covert British forces – in particular the SAS – practically supporting resistance groups.Ĭurrent and former SAS officers trained numerous jihadi forces at MI6 and CIA bases in Saudi Arabia and Oman, teaching them sabotage, reconnaissance, attack planning, arson, and how to use explosive devices, heavy artillery such as mortars, and attack aircraft, among other things. While the operation was carried out entirely in secret, Thatcher effectively acknowledged the policy – and its motivations – on January 28 the next year, during a parliamentary debate. The UK duly agreed to train the jihadist resistance in Afghanistan, and send military specialists to support their efforts. On December 17 1979, 10 days prior to the Soviet Army's entrance to the country, US Vice President Walter Mondale convened a meeting in the White House – officials agreed to discuss with Britain "the possibility of improving the financing, arming and communications of the rebel forces to make it as expensive as possible for the Soviets to continue their efforts." However, the files indicate the US was not alone – Britain likewise covertly supported the Afghan rebels before the Soviet invasion. Indeed, for almost 10 years, Moscow [carried[ on a war unsupportable by the government, a conflict that brought about the demoralization and finally the breakup of the Soviet empire," Brzezinski told Counterpunch in 1998. The day the Soviets crossed the border, I wrote to President Carter: we now have the opportunity of giving the USSR its Vietnam War. ![]() ![]() "That secret operation was an excellent idea. As Zbigniew Brzezinski, Carter's National Security Advisor, later explained, the aid was sent in the full knowledge it would prompt the government to request Soviet military assistance. On July 3 1979, US President Jimmy Carter signed a covert directive that provided secret aid to violent opposition fighters in Afghanistan.
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