No one has forgotten the Al-Qaeda-orchestrated 9/11 attacks, which hijacked aircraft and struck the United States in 2001, shaking the world and claiming numerous lives. However, exactly two days before that attack, Ahmad Shah Massoud, leader of Afghanistan’s Northern Alliance, was assassinated — a killing that shook the superpower to its core. While it was not initially known who carried out the assassination, subsequent investigation following the 9/11 attacks revealed that Al-Qaeda’s hand was also behind this killing. International media reports have stated that although Al-Qaeda had no real need to kill him, Osama bin Laden had planned the assassination purely to win favour with the Taliban.
Ahmad Shah Massoud led Afghanistan’s Northern Alliance and played a key role in the insurgent resistance against the Taliban within the country, which made him an adversary of the Taliban. On September 9, 2001, Massoud was brutally assassinated at his camp in the Panjshir Valley. Two assailants disguised as Belgian television journalists approached him that day, claiming they wanted to conduct an interview. Having concealed explosives within their video cameras, the assailants carried out a suicide attack upon reaching him. Notably, the Northern Alliance did not disclose Massoud’s assassination until September 15.
Since he had been fighting against the Taliban, several suspicions arose over his assassination. A subsequent investigation by the United States revealed that bin Laden’s hand was behind the killing. Bin Laden had already anticipated that the 9/11 attacks in America would trigger a fierce response from the United States. To shield himself from the superpower’s retaliation, bin Laden devised a calculated strategy to secure the Taliban’s support, and the investigation found that Massoud, the Taliban’s rival, was assassinated as part of that very strategy. Notably, on the same day Massoud was killed, then-CIA Director George Tenet met with Pakistan’s ISI chief, Lieutenant General Mahmud Ahmed. The two are known to have discussed Al-Qaeda and the Taliban during that meeting, with the Pakistani intelligence official reportedly advising the US at the time to seek the Taliban’s assistance in securing bin Laden’s handover.
As is known, Al-Qaeda terrorists carried out the devastating terror attacks in the United States on September 11, 2001. This year marks twenty-five years since that massacre, in which nearly 3,000 people lost their lives. In retaliation, the United States carried out a major operation in 2011, during which bin Laden, who had been hiding in Pakistan, was killed.