Afghan Civil War (1989–1992)
Seeing the success of the mujahideen, the UN and senior leaders of several Afghan mujahideen parties decided to meet in Peshawar to try to form a new neutral acting Afghan government to replace Najibullah's regime. The UN presented a plan to the mujahideen groups to form a pre-interim council and accept formal sovereignty from President Najibullah. In March 1992, Najibullah announced his cooperation to resign in order to make way for a new neutral acting government. With this announcement, he lost internal control. In April 1992, Kabul came completely under the control of the interim government, with the hope for a new era. But the situation quickly spiraled into escalation. Throughout the negotiation process, mujahideen forces were stationed outside Kabul city. In the spring of 1992, at least five mujahideen groups fell out and started fighting each other to take control over Kabul. Parties involved in the conflict were the Jamiat-e Islami group (led byAhmad Shah Massoud), the Hezb-e Islami group (led by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar), the Hezb-i Wahdat group (led by Abdul Ali Mazari, the Ittehad-e Islami group (led by Abdul Rasul Sayyaf) and the Junbish-i Islami group (led by Abdul Rashid Dostum). By the end of 1992, the city of Kabul was badly damaged, thousands of civilians had been killed, and half a million residents were forced to flee. In November 1994, a new group entered the scene: the Taliban. They gradually gained the upper hand in the conflict, conquered Kabul in September 1996, and took control over Afghanistan altogether.