| Mujahideen in the Soviet-Afghan War 380 Meredith, Martin. Our Votes, Our Guns: Robert Mugabe and the Tragedy of Zimbabwe. New York: PublicAffairs, 2003. Smith, David. Mugabe. London: Sphere, 1981. Mujahideen in the Soviet-Afghan War Afghan resistance ighters who fought against the Soviet-backed Kabul govern- ment and Soviet troops during the Soviet-Afghan War (1980–1989). These ighters were collectively known as the mujahideen (for “struggles” or “people performing jihad”). They were an alliance of seven Sunni political factions and eight Shiite organizations as well as Muslim volunteers from various North African and Middle Eastern countries. Initially trained and funded by Pakistan’s intelligence service (the Inter-Services Intelligence) and then later by the United States, the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, Iran, the People’s Republic of China, and other Sunni Muslim nations, the mujahideen fought the Soviet Union to a bloody stalemate, forcing it to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan in 1989. The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan on December 27, 1979, and subsequent intervention in Afghan domestic politics in support of the People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) had the unintended consequence of galvanizing a disparate Islamic opposition into a grassroots resistance movement. Indeed, the Soviet invasion triggered a backlash among Afghans that crossed kinship, tribal, ethnic, and geographic lines. The invasion gave the conlict an ideological dimension by linking the Islamic insurgency with the goal of national liberation when mul- lahs issued declarations of jihad against the Soviet invaders. Islam and nationalism became interwoven as an Islamist ideology replaced tribal afiliations. At the onset of the Soviet-Afghan War, the mujahideen were divided along regional, ethnic, tribal, and sectarian lines. Mobilization was linked to allegiances of the tribal lashkar (ighting force), as the mujahideen were loosely organized tribal militias under the command of traditional leaders at the local level. Membership was luid, luctuating by the season and family commitments, with no coordinated central command structure. Mujahideen commanders owed their position to social standing, education, leadership ability, and commitment to Islam. With seven major Sunni mujahideen factions based in neighboring Peshawar, Pakistan came to dominate the political and military landscape. These were the Islamic Unity for the Liberation of Afghanistan, the Hezb-i-Islami Afghanistan, Jamiat-i-Islami, the Hezb-i-Islami, the Harakat-i-Inquilabi Islami, the Mahaz-ye Nijate Milli Afghanistan, and the Jabhe-ye Nijate Milli Afghanistan. In addition to the Sunni mujahideen factions, there were eight Shiite mujahideen organiza- tions as well. The main Shiite organizations were Shura, Nasser, Harlat-e-Islami, the Revolutionary Guards, and Hezbollah. The other organizations were either splinter factions or groups that joined larger movements. In March 1980, the (c) 2013 ABC-Clio. All Rights Reserved.