SUMMARY

Politics in Afghanistan have often been characterized by violent power struggles between different leaders and groups. Although often labeled ethnic or tribal, the conflicts have been fought along more intricate patterns, often motivated by personal grudges, blood feud, regional power dynamics and/or the control of territory. The Islamist groups fighting the Soviet-backed Afghan government in the 1980s, commonly referred to as the Mujahideen, were often involved in bloody clashes against each other, although they also tried to cooperate and unite in alliances. When the Soviet forces left the country in 1989, violence escalated as the groups tried to get as much influence and resources for themselves as possible.

By 1994, Afghanistan was divided among numerous warlords and Mujahideen factions. In Kabul, Jam’iyyat-i Islami-yi Afghanistan controlled the government. Hekmatyar’s Hizb-i Islami-yi Afghanistan controlled some of the south-eastern provinces and heavy battles took place as Hizb-i Islami strived to take control of the capital.

During the fall of 1994, reports started to appear about a new religious group called Taleban, which set out to drive the guerrillas from Kandahar in southern Afghanistan. Hizb-i Islami had for a long time manned checkpoints along the main road between the border city of Spin Boldak and Helmand province, an important trade route for goods from Pakistan. The guerrillas used the checkpoints to extract money from the traders. The Taleban wanted to open up the roads and gained significant support for their campaign to secure the highway and prevent robbery. They took control of Spin Boldak in mid-October and moved on to Kandahar city in November. In spite of being a militarily strong organization with a highly centralized command, Hizb-i Islami-yi Afghanistan lost control of the region to the Taleban. By the end of the year they had forced Hizb-i Islami to retreat to its bases in the eastern parts of Afghanistan.

At first, the government in Kabul welcomed this new group as their common enemy Hizb-i Islami-yi Afghanistan was severely weakened by fighting the Taleban. However, by 1995, the Taleban had taken control of almost all of southern and eastern Afghanistan and threatened Kabul.

In February 1995, Taleban entered Maydan Wardag province and Hizb-i Islami’s bases around Kabul came under threat. On 10 February the provincial capital Maydan Shar fell after heavy fighting and on 14 February the Taleban moved into Hizb-i Islami’s headquarters in Charasyab. Hizb-i Islami-yi Afghanistan fled and the Taleban concentrated on fighting government forces in and around Kabul.

When the Taleban captured Kabul in 1996, Hekmatyar fled to Iran, but many of his followers joined the Taleban movement. When the US-supported Northern Alliance ousted the Taleban in 2001, Hizb-i Islami-yi Afghanistan restated their incompatibility against the Government of Afghanistan and its US allies, and has since then fought for control of the government. Although Hizb-i Islami, to some extent, share the goal of the Taleban and some cooperation between the groups is likely to have taken place since 2001, they have also continued to fight each other in violent encounters.

In March 2010, fighting between the parties flared as the Taleban gained ground in the territory which had previously been under Hizb-i Islami-yi Afghanistan control. When the Taleban installed a shadow governor in the northern province of Baghlan, a traditional stronghold of Hizb-i Islami, Hekmatyar's fighters responded by taking to arms. Afghan officials reported that many Hizb-i Islami fighters joined the government forces when they could not win the battle against the Taleban, but spokesmen from Hizb-i Islami denied those reports.

The standard weapons of the insurgent groups are RPG’s, AK-47’s and heavy machine guns, but they also have access to tanks, rockets, and mortars. In the mid-1990s Hizb-i Islami had access to helicopters, but it is unlikely that any of the parties possess aircraft today.

The non-state conflict between Hizb-i Islami-yi Afghanistan and Taleban is first included in UCDP data in 1994. In November of that year violent clashes took place in Kandahar, resulting in at least 50 battle-related deaths.