External Actors in the Afghan Problem continues ..

Following the emergence of the Taleban and their harsh treatment of Afghanistan’s Shi’a minority, Iran stepped up assistance to the Afghan Northern Alliance. Iran viewed the rise of Sunni Taleban, and Pakistan’s support for them, with concern.

In 1995, Iran sent troops across the border to help Ismael Khan’s fighters, and it welcomed Khan and hundreds of his combatants when they fled across the border later that year. Iran also sheltered Abdul Rashid Dostum and Hezb-i-Wahdat’s Karim Khalili after they lost their territories to the Taleban. Khan resurfaced in Iran after escaping from a Taleban jail in 2000 and Hekhmatyar lived there for several years until he was forced out in early 2002 for announcing his support for the Taleban and Al-Qaeda.

Iran is known to have supplied at least the following weapons to the United Front: 100mm and 115mm tank ammunition for the T-55 and T-62 tanks, respectively; YM-II antitank mines; D-30 122mm towed howitzers and ammunition; 122mm rockets for the BM-21 and BM-21V “Grad” multiple-rocket launch systems; 122mm mortar bombs; rockets for RPG-7 rocket-propelled grenade launchers F-1 hand grenades; and 7.62mm rifle ammunition. All of these weapons systems deployed in Afghanistan are in wide use there

To be continued...