which it refused to take part. On 24 January 1993, Wahdatforces
attacked Massoud’s while they were occupied with combating
Hekmatyar’s Hezb-e Islami (Gille, 1993; Akram, 1996: 418);
Rubin states that during this month, Hekmatyar ‘signed a formal
alliance’ with Hezb-e Wahdat (Rubin, 1995a: 273). On 11
February, citing Wahdatpredations against the civilian population
(Dorronsoro, 2000: 267), Ittehadand Shura-i Nazarforces struck
massively against Hezb-e Wahdatsupporters. The operation did not
eliminate Wahdat: instead, Wahdat allied itself with Hekmatyar,
although in autumn 1993 it reached a short-lived rapprochement
with Massoud (Dorronsoro, 1995: 39).
The main damage to Kabul came from 1 January 1994. On that
day, a new alliance, the so-called Shura-i Hamahangi(‘Council of
Coordination’), consisting of Hekmatyar, Dostam, and Hezb-e
Wahdat, with Mojadiddi as a loose associate, launched a huge
rocket and artillery attack on the capital. While the expatriate staff
of the International Committee of the Red Cross remained at their
posts, UN international staff were evacuated on 8 January, an
abandonment which the government felt very keenly, since it
assisted the attackers’ strategy. For some government members
also, this was the moment to leave: the Foreign Minister, a Gailani
supporter who was abroad at the time, simply did not return to
Afghanistan, and faded into temporary insignificance. Dostam
feared Massoud’s rising power, which he realised would weaken
his own position, and therefore threw in his lot with Hekmatyar
and Wahdat. It did not save him: in a remarkable display of nerve,
Massoud and his forces survived the onslaught and ejected most of
Dostam’s forces from their positions in an operation in June 1994
(The New York Times, 27 June 1994).
The final chapter in this struggle for Kabul took place in
February–March 1995. By then, the Taliban movement had
emerged as a force, occupying Kandahar in November 1994.
Coming towards Kabul from the south, it seemed more immediate
a threat to Hekmatyar’s position in Charasiab, from which Kabul
had been rocketed, than it was to Shura-i Nazarforces in north
Kabul. And this was what it proved to be. On 13–14 February,
The Rise and Fall of the Rabbani Government, 1992–1996 203