The Soviet Union in 1979 sent in a massive number of troops to prop up the unpopular communist government in Kabul. What followed was a ten year blood bath of death among the rocks.
In Christmas 1979, Russian paratroopers landed in Kabul. The country was already in the grip of a civil war.
The prime minister, Hazifullah Amin, tried to sweep aside Muslim traditions within the nation and he wanted a more western slant to Afghanistan.
This outraged the majority of those in Afghanistan as a strong tradition of Muslim belief was common in the country.
By the end of the 1980's, the Mujahdeen was at war with itself in Afghanistan with hard line Taliban fighters taking a stronger grip over the whole nation and imposing very strict Muslim law on the Afghan population.
The country was ruled by warlords, but their rule ended when the Taliban took over. The Americans alongwith Western forces occupied Afghanistan and dislodged the Taliban, but now after a futile long-drawn war, the US is on the verge of withdrawing its army leaving Afghanistan to its Talibanist fate.
