Hekmatyar fled to Sarobi, leaving his Charasiab headquarters
in a disordered state. His ‘Radio Message of Freedom’ disap-
peared from the airwaves (BBC Summary of World Broadcasts
FE/2229/A/3, 16 February 1995). This triggered a number of fur-
ther significant developments. On 8 March, two days after
Massoud launched a full-scale offensive against Hezb-e Wahdat,
the Hezb-e Wahdatleadership allowed Taliban forces into their
frontlines in western Kabul, with a view to triggering conflict
between the stronger Taliban and Wahdat’s opponent Massoud.
There were indeed some clashes, but, against the Wahdatleader-
ship’s expectations, some of its own fighters defected to a splinter
faction of Wahdatled by the Qizilbash Sheikh Muhammad Akbari,
and attacked the Taliban. Government forces then struck hard on
11 March, taking over west Kabul and driving the Taliban from the
city. The Taliban, in the belief that they had been betrayed by
Wahdat, seized and killed Hezb-e Wahdatleader Mazari, together
with a number of other members of the WahdatCentral Committee
(Davis, 1998: 56–9). Dostam’s last forces headed north. This left
Massoud finally in control of Kabul, backed by Sayyaf’s Ittehad,
and for the moment, the Taliban advance was halted.
Rocket attacks and atrocities
The rocketing of Kabul reduced large tracts of the city to rubble,
but not the entire city. On the contrary, the north of the city was to
a considerable extent protected from ballistic projectiles by a large
hill, Koh-e Asmai, which bisected the city. But frontline areas such
as Jadi Maiwand avenue suffered awesome damage, as did the
southern suburbs, and the human toll was dreadful, not only in
terms of deaths but also injuries, population displacement, and psy-
chological trauma. The scale of mortality is difficult to calculate.
Drawing from a range of sources, Gille offers a figure of at least
9800 killed and 56,100 wounded for the period from April 1992 to
March 1995, but notes the variability of different sources (Gille,
1996: 4). A representative of the Afghan Red Crescent Society
reportedly concluded that 10,000 had been killed in 1993 alone
204 The Afghanistan Wars