Afghanistan Civil War

Communist revolutionaries overthrew King Zahir Shah’s monarchy in Afghanistan and installed his close relative, Sardar Daoud, as the country’s leader. When Daoud failed to fulfill the promises he had made to the revolutionaries, the Afghan military and communist forces surrounded the Presidential Palace with their troops. They killed Sardar Daoud, and the Revolutionary Council installed another communist leader, Nur Muhammad Taraki, as the new head of state.

On the morning of December 27, 1979, when Soviet forces entered Afghanistan, the Afghan resistance movement began.