Battle of Kabul (1992–1996) in the context of "Mohammed Najibullah"

The Islamic State of Afghanistan (Persian: دولت اسلامی افغانستان, Dawlat-i Islāmī-yi Afghānistan, Pashto: دا افغانستان اسلامی دولت, Da Afghanistan Islami Dowlat) was an Islamic state that was established in April 1992 under the Peshawar Accord. Its power was limited due to the country's second civil war, which was won by the Taliban, who seized Kabul in September 1996. The Islamic state then transitioned to a government-in-exile and led the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance. It remained the internationally recognized government of Afghanistan at the United Nations until 2001, when the Transitional Islamic State of Afghanistan was created and an Afghan Interim Administration took control of Afghanistan with US and NATO assistance following the overthrow of the first Taliban government. The Transitional Islamic State was subsequently transformed into the Islamic Republic, which existed until the Taliban seized power again in 2021 following a prolonged insurgency.

The 1996–2001 Afghan Civil War, also known as the Third Afghan Civil War, took place between the Taliban's conquest of Kabul and their establishing of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan on 27 September 1996, and the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan on 7 October 2001: a period that was part of the Afghan Civil Wars that had started in 1989, and also part of the conflict (in wider sense) in Afghanistan that had started in 1978.

The Islamic State of Afghanistan government remained the recognized government of Afghanistan by most of the international community. The Taliban's Islamic Emirate government, however, received recognition from Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates.

Mohammad Najibullah Ahmadzai (Pashto; Dari: محمد نجيب الله احمدزی, 6 August 1947 – 27 September 1996) was an Afghan military officer and politician who served as the fifth president of Afghanistan from 1987 until his resignation in April 1992, shortly after the Afghan mujahideen's takeover of Kabul. He was also the General Secretary of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) from 1986 to 1992. After a failed attempt to flee to India, Najibullah remained in Kabul, and lived in the United Nations headquarters until his assassination during the Taliban's first capture of Kabul in 1996.

A graduate of Kabul University, Najibullah held different careers under the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA). Following the Saur Revolution and the establishment of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan, Najibullah was a low-profile bureaucrat. He was sent into exile as Ambassador to Iran during Hafizullah Amin's rise to power. He returned to Afghanistan following the Soviet intervention which toppled Amin's rule and placed Babrak Karmal as head of the state, the party and the government. During Karmal's rule, Najibullah became head of the KHAD, the Afghan equivalent of the Soviet KGB. He was a member of the Parcham faction led by Karmal. During Najibullah's tenure as KHAD head, it became one of the most brutally efficient governmental organs. Because of this, he gained the attention of several leading Soviet officials, such as Yuri Andropov, Dmitriy Ustinov and Boris Ponomarev. In 1981, Najibullah was appointed to the PDPA Politburo. In 1985, Najibullah stepped down as the state security minister to focus on PDPA politics; he had been appointed to the PDPA Secretariat. Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev, also the last Soviet leader, was able to get Karmal to step down as PDPA General Secretary in 1986, and replace him with Najibullah. For a number of months, Najibullah was locked in a power struggle against Karmal, who still retained his post of Chairman of the Revolutionary Council. Najibullah accused Karmal of trying to wreck his policy of National Reconciliation, a series of efforts by Najibullah to end the conflict.