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Sarandoy
The Sarandoy or Tsarandoi (Pashto:څارندوی - "Defenders (of the Revolution)") were a militarized gendarmerie force of the Soviet-backed Democratic Republic of Afghanistan in the 1980s,Craig Karp, (March 1988), US Department of State Bulletin. during the Soviet–Afghan War. History Successor of the former Afghan Regional Gendarmerie, the Sarandoy were raised in 1978 with an initial strength of 30,000–35,000 officers and enlisted men, intended to be used on internal security duties. The Soviet MVD Kobalt unit was responsible for providing training assistance to Sarandoy officers from 1980/1981.https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/monographs/2011/RAND_MG1078.pdf 5,000 Soviet advisors were brought to Afghanistan to assist in training. The unit was disbanded by 1992 after the start of the Afghan Civil War due to mass cases of desertion. Lack of cooperation The Sarandoy was subjected to internal politics of the ruling PDPA, as its forces were controlled by the ''Khalq ...
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Democratic Republic Of Afghanistan
The Democratic Republic of Afghanistan (DRA),, renamed the Republic of Afghanistan, in 1987, was the Afghan state during the one-party rule of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) from 1978 to 1992. The PDPA came to power through the Saur Revolution, which ousted the regime of the unelected autocrat Mohammed Daoud Khan; he was succeeded by Nur Muhammad Taraki as the head of state and government on 30 April 1978. Taraki and Hafizullah Amin, the organizer of the Saur Revolution, introduced several contentious reforms during their rule, such as land and marriage reforms and an enforced policy of de-Islamization alongside the promotion of socialism. Amin also added on the reforms introduced by Khan, such as Universal access to education, universal education and Women in Afghanistan, equal rights for women. Soon after taking power, a power struggle began between the hardline ''Khalq'' faction led by Taraki and Amin, and the moderate ''Parcham'' faction led by Ba ...
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Soviet–Afghan War
The Soviet–Afghan War was a protracted armed conflict fought in the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan from 1979 to 1989. It saw extensive fighting between the Soviet Union and the Afghan mujahideen (alongside smaller groups of anti-Soviet Maoism, Maoists) after the former militarily intervened in, or launched an invasion of, Afghanistan to support the local pro-Soviet government that had been installed during Operation Storm-333. Most combat operations against the mujahideen took place in the Afghan countryside, as the country's urbanized areas were entirely under Soviet control. While the mujahideen were backed by various countries and organizations, the majority of their support came from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, the United States, the United Kingdom, China, and Iran; the American pro-mujahideen stance coincided with a sharp increase in bilateral hostilities with the Soviets during the Cold War (1979–1985), Cold War. The conflict led to the deaths of between 562,000 and ...
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Defense Of The Revolution
Defense of the Revolution was a generic term employed to designate the irregular paramilitary or popular militia units created by the Communist government of Afghanistan following the 1978 Saur Revolution, with the intent of mobilizing the population against counter-revolutionaries and other enemies of the new state. These units were officially volunteer, and based on the "Cuban model"; they were armed by the government and employed to guard sensitive infrastructure and maintain public order. Some reports indicate volunteers received incentives such as coupons for government stores. Editorials in the Soviet journal ''Pravda'' praised these defensive formations as early as mid-1979. Bruce Amstutz documents DotR units composed of teenage urban males, numbering 20,000 on paper by the mid-1980s, who received US$162 per month for supporting the security forces. Other academics have commented on the female members of DotR units. Early organization Hafizullah Amin, the General Secret ...
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Afghan Local Police
The Afghan Local Police (ALP) was a US- UK sponsored local law enforcement agency, defence force and militia in Afghanistan as part of the Afghan Ministry of Interior Affairs. Formed primarily as a local defence force against Taliban insurgents its members have no power of arrest and are only authorised to investigate crime if requested to do so by the Afghan National Police (ANP). It was established at the request of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Summer 2010 and is paid for by the United States. Officers undergo three weeks military and police training by ISAF personnel and receive weapons and a uniform. They are intended to defend their villages from insurgent attack and allow the ANP to focus on offensive operations. It was originally intended to function for between two and five years. The US government provided funding in February 2013 to expand the ALP to 45,000 members and to provide the programme until at least 2018, anticipating the withdraw ...
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Sayed Mohammad Gulabzoy
Major General Sayed Muhammad Gulabzoi (born 1951) is an Afghan politician. An ethnic Pashtun from the Zadran tribe, Gulabzoi was born in Paktia Province. An Air Force mechanic by training, he studied at the Air Force college. As an air force officer, he supported Daoud Khan's 1973 coup d'état which overthrew King Zahir Shah, for which he was rewarded with the position of Aide to the Air Force Commander. In 1976, he went to the Soviet Union to study radar technology. He was recruited into the Khalq faction of the communist People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan by Hafizullah Amin. He held only a minor role in the Saur Revolution of 1978, which brought the PDPA to power. Following the coup, he was appointed aide to President Nur Muhammad Taraki, and later Minister of Communications. As internal struggles grew within the communist regime, he distanced himself from Amin, and joined a group of officers(the "gang of four") plotting against Amin, which also included Aslam Watanjar and ...
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Kandahar
Kandahar (; Kandahār, , Qandahār) is a List of cities in Afghanistan, city in Afghanistan, located in the south of the country on the Arghandab River, at an elevation of . It is Afghanistan's second largest city after Kabul, with a population of about 614,118. It is the capital of Kandahar Province as well as the de facto capital of the Taliban, formally known as the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. It also happens to be the centre of the larger cultural region called Loy Kandahar. In 1709, Mirwais Hotak made the region an independent kingdom and turned Kandahar into the capital of the Hotak dynasty. In 1747, Ahmad Shah Durrani, founder of the Durrani dynasty, made Kandahar the capital of the Durrani Empire, Afghan Empire. Historically this province is considered as important political area for Afghanistan revelations. Kandahar is one of the most culturally significant cities of the Pashtun people, Pashtuns and has been their traditional seat of power for more than 300 years. ...
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Afghan Army
The Army of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (), also referred to as the Islamic Emirate Army and the Afghan Army, is the land force branch of the Armed Forces of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. The roots of an army in Afghanistan can be traced back to the early 18th century when the Hotak dynasty was established in Kandahar followed by Ahmad Shah Durrani's rise to power. It was reorganized in 1880 during Emir Abdur Rahman Khan's reign. Afghanistan remained neutral during the First and Second World Wars. From the 1960s to the early 1990s, the Afghan Army was equipped by the Soviet Union. After the resignation of President Najibullah in 1992, the army effectively dissolved. In 1996 the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (Taliban regime) took power, creating their own army, which lasted until United States invasion of Afghanistan in October–November 2001. By 2016, most of Afghanistan came under government control. However over the next few years the government slowly lost ter ...
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Saur Revolution
The Saur Revolution or Sowr Revolution ( ps, د ثور انقلاب; prs, إنقلاب ثور), also known as the April Revolution or the April Coup, was staged on 27–28 April 1978 (, ) by the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) and overthrew Afghan president Mohammed Daoud Khan, who had himself taken power in the 1973 Afghan coup d'état and established an autocratic one-party system in the country. Daoud and most of his family were executed at the Arg in the capital city of Kabul by PDPA-affiliated military officers, after which his supporters were also purged and killed. The successful PDPA uprising resulted in the creation of a socialist Afghan government that was closely aligned with the Soviet Union, with Nur Muhammad Taraki serving as the PDPA's General Secretary of the Revolutionary Council. or is the Dari-language name for the second month of the Solar Hijri calendar, during which the events took place. The uprising was ordered by PDPA member Hafizull ...
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Mark Urban
Mark Lee Urban (born 26 January 1961) is a British journalist, historian, and broadcaster, and is currently the Diplomatic Editor and occasional presenter for BBC Two's ''Newsnight''. His older brother is the film-maker Stuart Urban. Education and early career Urban's father came from Poland, but Mark was born in England. Educated at the independent day schools Rokeby School and King's College School in Wimbledon, South London, he continued his education at the London School of Economics. After graduation, he served in the British Army, for nine months as a regular officer in the Royal Tank Regiment on a Short Service Limited Commission and for four years in the Territorial Army. Correspondent career Urban joined the BBC in 1983 as an assistant producer, working on several BBC news programmes. From 1986 to 1990 he was the defence correspondent of ''The Independent'', before rejoining the BBC as a general reporter on ''Newsnight''. From 1993 to 1994 he was Middle East cor ...
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Badakhshan
Badakhshan is a historical region comprising parts of modern-day north-eastern Afghanistan, eastern Tajikistan, and Taxkorgan Tajik Autonomous County in China. Badakhshan Province is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan. Much of historic Badakhshan lies within Tajikistan's Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region, in the southeastern part of the country. The music of Badakhshan is an important part of the region's cultural heritage. Name The name "Badakhshan" ( fa, بدخشان, ''Badaxšân''; ps, بدخشان; tg, Бадахшон, ''Badaxşon''; ) is derived from the Sasanian official title ''bēdaxš'' or ''badaxš'', which may be from an earlier *pati-axša; the suffix -''ān'' indicates that the country belonged, or had been assigned as a fief, to a person holding the rank of a '' badaxš''. People Badakhshan has a diverse ethnolinguistic and religious community. Tajiks and Pamiris are the majority while a tiny minority of Kyrgyzs and Uzbeks also are found in their ...
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Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran border, west, Turkmenistan to the Afghanistan–Turkmenistan border, northwest, Uzbekistan to the Afghanistan–Uzbekistan border, north, Tajikistan to the Afghanistan–Tajikistan border, northeast, and China to the Afghanistan–China border, northeast and east. Occupying of land, the country is predominantly mountainous with plains Afghan Turkestan, in the north and Sistan Basin, the southwest, which are separated by the Hindu Kush mountain range. , Demographics of Afghanistan, its population is 40.2 million (officially estimated to be 32.9 million), composed mostly of ethnic Pashtuns, Tajiks, Hazaras, and Uzbeks. Kabul is the country's largest city and ser ...
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Baghlan
Baghlan (Dari: بغلان ''Baġlān'') is a city in northern Afghanistan, in the eponymous province, Baghlan Province. It is located three miles east of the Kunduz River, 35 miles south of Khanabad, and about 500 metres above sea level in the northern Hindu Kush. Baghlan's capital, Pul-e-Khumri, is known to be an economic hub connected to eight other provinces by the Kabul-North highwa History Baghlan grew as an urban centre in the 1930s as a result of a new road from Kabul across the Kunduz River. Baghlan was the capital of the defunct Qataghan Province of northeastern Afghanistan, prior to the controversial 1964 dissolution. Climate With an influence from the local steppe climate, Baghlan features a cold semi-arid climate (''BSk'') under the Köppen climate classification. The average temperature in Baghlan is 15.8 °C, while the annual precipitation averages 284 mm. July is the hottest month of the year with an average temperature of 28.3 °C. The coldest ...
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