| Assassination of Ahmad Shah Massoud | |
|---|---|
| ترور احمدشاه مسعود | |
| Part of War in Afghanistan | |
 Tomb of Ahmad Shah Massoud in 2011 | |
 | |
| Location | Guest house in Khwaja Bahauddin, Takhar |
| Date | 9 September 2001 c. 11:45 am (UTC+4:30) |
| Target | Ahmad Shah Massoud |
Attack type | Suicide bombing |
| Weapon | Explosive-packed camera battery belt |
| Perpetrator | Al-Qaeda |
| Assailants |
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On 9 September 2001, Ahmad Shah Massoud was assassinated by two al-Qaeda operatives posing as journalists in Khwaja Bahauddin District, Takhar Province, Afghanistan.
Massoud, a pivotal guerilla fighter nicknamed The Lion of Panjshir, had led insurgent forces against the governments of Daoud Khan, communist government under the People Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA), invading Soviet forces, and the 1990s Taliban de-facto regime. At the time of his assassination, Massoud commanded the forces of the Northern Alliance, backed by the United States, India, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Iran, fighting against Taliban forces, backed by Pakistan. Massoud remained a vocal critic of Pakistani interference in Afghanistan (through the Taliban) and Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, including publicly warning President George W. Bush five months prior to 9/11 that the situation in Afghanistan, if unresolved, "will also affect the United States and a lot of other countries".
Shortly after a press conference in the European Parliament, in which Massoud denounced Pakistani interference, the Taliban, and al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden called for volunteers to "deal with Ahmad [Shah] Massoud". From their training camp in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, al-Qaeda's Ayman al-Zawahiri and Abu Hani al-Masri planned and prepared the operation. Two Tunisian Arab attackers in Europe, Abd as-Sattar Dahmane and Rachid Bouari el-Ouaer, were brought to Afghanistan where they were provided a stolen television camera and battery belt, packed with explosives. With an interview fraudulently arranged by Zawahiri and al-Masri, the two assassins were escorted by Taliban to the Panjshir Valley, flying by helicopter to join Massoud at his rear headquarters in Khwaja Bahauddin. After weeks of failed attempts, Massoud agreed to sit with the Arabs and conduct the interview. After peppering Massoud with questions about his condemnation of bin Laden, al-Ouaer detonated his camera battery belt, mortally wounding Massoud. Despite a timely medical evacuation by helicopter to a military clinic in Tajikistan, Massoud was pronounced dead on arrival.
The timing of Ahmad Shah Massoud's assassination has drawn significant attention, taking place only two days before the September 11 attacks in the United States. Though the attackers lacked any control over the exact date, waiting weeks for Massoud to make time for the purported interview, many still debate whether Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri had planned Massoud's assassination with the intention of disabling the Northern Alliance before 9/11, after which the United States would join them in a campaign to topple the Taliban regime. A partially-declassified U.S. intelligence report in November 2001 revealed that Massoud's intelligence apparatus had "gained limited knowledge regarding the intentions of [Osama bin Laden] and his terrorist organization al-Qaida to perform a terrorist attack against the U.S. on a scale larger than the 1998 bombing of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania."
Though al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for the attack, debates continue over allegations of Pakistani (Inter-Services Intelligence, ISI) covert support to, or complicity in, the assassination of Ahmad Shah Massoud.