8. The killing of Ahmad Massoud
By the end of 2000, resentment against the Taliban rule in Afghanistan became widespread, including in many of the areas peopled by the Pashtun. Dostum’s forces had been defeated and their leader had gone into exile. Only Ahmad Massoud remained of the larger militia forces opposing the Taliban. In the areas under his control, organized democratic organizations emerged, and women’s rights were protected. Upwards of 1 million Afghani refugees fled the areas under Taliban control, many of them seeking refuge with the United Front and Massoud. The militia leader requested international assistance for the people of Afghanistan, decried the Taliban’s distorted views of Islam, and claimed both would quickly collapse if aid from Pakistan and bin Laden was curtailed. During his visit to Europe to express his views, he warned of growing intelligence of a major terror attack on US soil.
In late summer, 2001, Massoud consented to an interview to be taped in the Afghani province of Takhar. On September 9, 2001, Massoud received two journalists to conduct the interview. They turned out to be suicide bombers, detonating a bomb hidden in a video camera. They may have been Taliban, but more likely they came from Al Qaeda. Massoud was rushed to medical care but he died in the helicopter before aid could be reached. Two days later hijacked airplanes were deliberately crashed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. A fourth airplane was diverted by its passengers into a Pennsylvania field. Up until that time few Americans had ever heard of the Taliban. In the response to the attacks, it became a household word in the United States.