Afshar Operation

The Afshar Operation was a military operation by Burhanuddin Rabbani's Islamic State of Afghanistan government forces and Abdul Rasul Sayyaf's Ittehad-i Islami forces against Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's Hezb-i Islami and Abdul Ali Mazari's Hezb-e Wahdat militias in the densely populated Afshar district in west Kabul. The Iran-backed Hezb-e Wahdat together with the Pakistani-backed Hezb-i Islami of Hekmatyar had been shelling densely populated areas in northern Kabul from their positions in Afshar, killing thousands. To counter the shelling, Islamic State forces attacked Afshar in order to capture the positions of Wahdat, capture Wahdat's leader Abdul Ali Mazari and to consolidate parts of the city controlled by the government. At the time the Ittihad-i Islami militia of Abdul Rasul Sayyaf was allied to the Rabbani government.

The operation became an urban war zone and escalated into the Afshar massacre when Abdul Rasul Sayyaf's Sunni Wahhabi Ittihad committed "repeated human butchery" turning against the Shi'ite Muslims. Reports emerged that Sayyaf's Wahhabist forces backed by Saudi Arabia rampaged through Afshar, murdering, raping and burning homes. Both the Hezb-e Wahdat and the Ittihad-i Islami had been involved in systematic abduction campaigns against civilians of the "opposite side", a pattern Ittihad continued in Afshar. Besides Ittihad commanders, two of the nine Islamic State commanders on the ground, Anwar Dangar (who later defected to the Taliban) and Mullah Izzat, were also named as leading troops that carried out abuses. Reports describe looting, arrests and indiscriminate shelling by some Islamic State forces. Islamic State forces mainly consisted of Jamiat-e Islami and Shura-e Nazar troops (an alliance of 130 regional commanders from different parts of Afghanistan). In one instance fleeing civilians in the streets were hit by fire from Jamiat soldiers. At the same time it was reported that in another incidence Jamiat troops carried a wounded Afshar civilian to safety and that some commanders on the ground tried to stop abuses from taking place.

The Islamic State's Defense Minister Ahmad Shah Massoud ordered an immediate halt to the crimes on the second day of the operation, but especially looting and the destruction of houses continued to take place for a second day. Massoud then appointed a Shi'ite commander to ensure the safety of the Shi'ite civilian population in Afshar. He also ordered the withdrawal of all offensive troops and persuaded Sayyaf to do the same. The Islamic State government in collaboration with the then enemy militia of Hezb-e Wahdat as well as in cooperation with Afshar civilians established a commission to investigate the crimes that had taken place in Afshar. The commission paid ransoms for approximately 80 to 200 people held by several Ittihad commanders. But 700-750 people abducted by Ittihad during the campaign were never returned, and were presumably killed or died in captivity." The same commission received information that many women were abducted during the operation, but said that few families would report it.

Ittihad leader Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, who has been enjoying complete immunity, is currently serving his second term as a member of Afghanistan's national parliament.