Ahmad Shah Massoud in the context of "Ministry of Defense (Afghanistan)"

The Northern Alliance, officially known as the National United Islamic Front for the Salvation of Afghanistan, was an Afghan military alliance of groups that operated between early 1992 and 2001 following the dissolution of the Soviet Union. It was formed by military leaders such as Ahmad Shah Massoud, Burhanuddin Rabbani, Abdul Rashid Dostum, Abdul Momim and Ali Mazari. It consisted mainly of ethnicities from northern Afghanistan, such as Tajiks, Uzbeks, Hazaras, and Turkmens, as opposed to the Pashtun-led Taliban. At that time, many non-Pashtun Northerners originally with the Republic of Afghanistan led by Mohammad Najibullah became disaffected with Pashtun Khalqist Afghan Army officers holding control over non-Pashtun militias in the North. The alliance's capture of Mazar-i-Sharif and more importantly the supplies kept there crippled the Afghan military and began the end of Najibullah's government. Following the collapse of Najibullah's government, the Alliance would fall with a second civil war breaking out. However, following the Taliban's takeover of Kabul and establishment of their Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, the United Front was reassembled.

The Northern Alliance fought a defensive war against the Taliban regime. They received support from Iran, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, the United States and Uzbekistan, while the Taliban were extensively backed by the Pakistan Army and Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence. By 2001, the Northern Alliance controlled less than 10% of the country, cornered in the north-east and based in Badakhshan province. The US invaded Afghanistan, providing support to Northern Alliance troops on the ground in a two-month war against the Taliban, which they won in December 2001. With the Taliban forced from control of the country, the Northern Alliance was dissolved as members and parties supported the new Afghan Interim Administration, with some members later becoming part of the Karzai administration.

The Panjshir Valley (Dari: درهٔ پنجشير, Dara-i-Panjsher, literally "Valley of the Five Lions"), also spelled Panjsher, is a valley in northeastern Afghanistan, 150 kilometres (93 mi) north of Kabul, near the Hindu Kush mountain range. It is divided by the Panjshir River. The valley is home to more than 100,000 people, including Afghanistan's largest concentration of ethnic Tajiks as of 1997. In April 2004, it became the heart of the new Panjshir Province, having previously been part of Parwan Province. Politically, this province has been considered the start point of Afghanistan's Jihad period against the Soviets. This province is also the birthplace of Afghanistan's national hero, Ahmad Shah Massoud.

Though not officially a belligerent during the Soviet–Afghan War, the United Kingdom was heavily involved, playing a key covert role in the conflict. Also known as the Second Great Game, the British provided both indirect and direct support for the Afghan mujahideen in their fight against the Soviet Union, including secretly arming, funding and supplying various factions. Britain's Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) primarily supported the Mujahideen group Jamiat-e Islami, commanded by Ahmad Shah Massoud who, having received little support from the US and Pakistan, became Britain's key ally in the conflict. Fighting in the Panjshir valley, Massoud and his fighters with British support and intelligence, overcame nine Soviet offensives and held out up to the Soviet withdrawal from the vital valley in 1986. Massoud became the most successful and feared of the Mujahideen commanders.

The British also played a vital role in support of the US government's Operation Cyclone, from which the latter provided far more in financial and material terms. Unlike the US which had to funnel its program through Pakistan, the UK played a more direct combat role in Afghanistan itself – in particular, using retired or seconded Special forces such as the Special Air Service and private military corporations to support the resistance groups in practical manners. One of Britain's greatest contributions was training the Mujahideen; not just in Afghanistan and Pakistan but also in the Gulf states and the UK itself.

Burhanuddin Rabbani (20 September 1940 – 20 September 2011) was an Afghan politician and teacher who served as the sixth president of Afghanistan from 1992 to 1996, and again from November to December 2001 (in exile from 1996 to 2001).

Born in the Badakhshan Province, Rabbani studied at Kabul University and worked there as a professor of Islamic theology. He formed the Jamiat-e Islami at the university which attracted then-students Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and Ahmad Shah Massoud, both would eventually become the two leading commanders of the Afghan mujahideen in the Soviet–Afghan War from 1979. Rabbani was chosen to be the President of Afghanistan after the end of the former communist regime in 1992. Rabbani and his Islamic State of Afghanistan government was later forced into exile by the Taliban, and he then served as the political head of the Northern Alliance, an alliance of various political groups who fought against the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. During his time in the office, there were a lot of internal clashes between different fighting groups.

The Salang Pass (Dari: كتل سالنگ Kutal-i Salang, el. 3,878 m or 12,723 ft) is the primary mountain pass connecting northern Afghanistan with Parwan Province, with onward connections to Kabul Province, southern Afghanistan. Located on the border of Parwan Province and Baghlan Province, it is just to the east of the Kushan Pass, and both of them were of great importance in early times as they provided the most direct connections between the Kabul region with northern Afghanistan or Tokharistan. The Salang River originates nearby and flows south.

The pass crosses the Hindu Kush mountains but is now bypassed through the Salang Tunnel, which runs underneath it at a height of about 3,400 m. The tunnel was built by engineers and construction crews from the Soviet Union in 1958 – 1964 as part of a wide-ranging infrastructure build out in Afghanistan carried out by the USSR. During the Afghan civil war it was blown up in 1997 by forces of Ahmad Shah Massoud in order to prevent Taliban fighters from coming through it. In 2002 the Russian Ministry Of Emergency Situations (RMES) organized the work to rebuild the tunnel and the repairs were completed within a month.