[9][10] The defense minister of the Islamic State of Afghanistan, Ahmad Shah Massoud, created the United Front (Northern Alliance) in opposition to the Taliban.

Following the rise of the Taliban in 1996, Massoud returned to the role of an armed opposition leader, serving as the military commander of the United Islamic Front.

[14] While it was Massoud's stated conviction that men and women are equal and should enjoy the same rights, he also had to deal with Afghan traditions, which he said would need a generation or more to overcome.

[19] Following the rise of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan and their capture of Kabul, Abdul Rashid Dostum aligned himself with the Northern Alliance (United Front) against the Taliban.

Malik entered into secret negotiations with the Taliban, who promised to respect his authority over much of northern Afghanistan, in exchange for the apprehension of Ismail Khan, one of their enemies.

Analysis from the Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) states: "The Taliban is the first faction laying claim to power in Afghanistan that has targeted women for extreme repression and punished them brutally for infractions.

To PHR's knowledge, no other regime in the world has methodically and violently forced half of its population into virtual house arrest, prohibiting them on pain of physical punishment ..."[27] After taking control of the capital city of Kabul on September 26, 1996, the Taliban issued edicts forbidding women to work outside the home, attend school, or to leave their homes unless accompanied by a male relative.

[27] Women were practically banned from public life, denied access to health care, education, and work and they were not allowed to laugh in a manner they could be heard by others.

Taliban hit-squads from the infamous "Ministry for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice" watched the streets conducting brutal, public beatings of people when they saw what they considered as un-Islamic behavior.

General Pervez Musharraf was responsible for sending thousands of Pakistani nationals to fight alongside the Taliban and bin Laden against Ahmad Shah Massoud.

[citation needed] As the war progressed, Pakistan Army deployed its 50th Airborne Division and the Frontier Corps to provide logistic support to Taliban campaigns against the Massoud's forces.

After the attacks on September 11, 2001 (in which nearly 3,000 people were killed in the U.S.), Osama bin Laden and his organization became major targets of the United States' War on Terror.

[35] Arab militants under bin Laden were responsible for some of the worst massacres in the war, killing hundreds of civilians in areas controlled by the United Front.

[13] A report by the United Nations quotes eyewitnesses in many villages describing Arab fighters carrying long knives used for slitting throats and skinning people.

It is estimated that the IMU in the late 1990s was approximately 2000 men strong, and that they contributed around 600 fighters to the Taliban's offensive against Massoud, participating in the siege of Taloqan, where they fought alongside bin Laden's 055 Brigade.

[...] Islamabad could not possibly expect the new Islamic government leaders [...] to subordinate their own nationalist objectives in order to help Pakistan realize its regional ambitions.

In 1994, the Taliban (a movement originating from Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-run religious schools for Afghan refugees in Pakistan) also developed in Afghanistan as a politico-religious force, reportedly in opposition to the tyranny of the local governor.

[14] They started shelling Kabul in early 1995 but were defeated by forces of the Islamic State government under Secretary of Defense Ahmad Shah Massoud.

[46][48] Amnesty International, referring to the Taliban offensive, wrote in a 1995 report: This is the first time in several months that Kabul civilians have become the targets of rocket attacks and shelling aimed at residential areas in the city.

From the Taliban conquest in 1996 until November 2001 the United Front controlled roughly 30% of Afghanistan's population in provinces such as Badakhshan, Kapisa, Takhar and parts of Parwan, Kunar, Nuristan, Laghman, Samangan, Kunduz, Ghōr and Bamyan.

[14] According to a 55-page report by the United Nations, the Taliban, while trying to consolidate control over northern and western Afghanistan, committed systematic massacres against civilians.

"[11] The 055 Brigade were also believed to be behind a string of civilian massacres of the Shia population nearby in Hazarajat, including one attack in early 2001, in which more than 200 people died.

Despite the large series of organized attack operations led by the General Rana of Pakistan Army and their Taliban allies, they were not able to subdue the Panjshir.

The alliance pushed forward with tanks, armored personnel carriers, and heavy weapons into the Bagram airbase, which was the first major victory against the Taliban since they lost Kabul.

In the Hazara sections of the city, particularly in the north-east and east areas around Syedabad, local Hezb-i Wahdat commanders and armed "civilians" began to enlist themselves in resistance.

At this point, Malik changed allegiances allying his forces with Hezb-i Wahdat, taking thousands of Taliban soldiers as prisoners in Maimana, Sheberghan and Mazar-i-Sharif.

Some Hezb-e Islami Gulbuddin forces joined the Taliban during that time encircling the front lines of Hezb-i Wahdat at Qalai-Zaini-Takhta Pul.

Others were kidnapped by the Taliban, touching off a hostage crisis that nearly escalated to a full-scale war, with Iran amassing 70,000 Iranian soldiers on the Afghan border.

On September 9, 2001, two Arab suicide attackers allegedly belonging to Al Qaeda, posing as journalists, detonated a bomb hidden in a video camera while under the pretense of interviewing Ahmed Shah Massoud.

In over 26 years Massoud had survived dozens of other assassination attempts by the Soviet KGB and the Afghan communist intelligence service, the Pakistani ISI, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, the Taliban and Al Qaeda.