Soviet war in Afghanistan (1979–1989)

Soviet–Afghan War
Part of the Wars in Afghanistan and the Cold War
Mujahideen fighters in the Kunar Province of Afghanistan in 1987
Date December 24, 1979 – February 15, 1989 (9 years, 1 month, 3 weeks and 1 day) Location Democratic Republic of Afghanistan Result Soviet failure to quell the Afghan mujahideen insurgency Geneva Accord (1988) Withdrawal of Soviet forces from Afghanistan Continuation of the Afghan Civil War
Belligerents
Soviet Union 40th Army D.R. Afghanistan	Sunni Mujahideen: Jamiat-e Islami Shura-e Nazar Gulbuddin faction Maktab al-Khadamat Khalis faction Ittehad i-Islami IRM NLF NIFA Supported by:  Pakistan  United States  United Kingdom  Saudi Arabia  China  West Germany Shia Mujahideen: Harakat i-Islami Afghan Hezbollah Nasr Party (IVOA) COIRGA Shura Party IRM UOIF Raad Party Supported by:  Iran Maoist factions: ALO SAMA AMFFF
Commanders and leaders
Leonid Brezhnev Yuri Andropov Konstantin Chernenko Mikhail Gorbachev Dmitriy Ustinov Sergei Sokolov Dmitriy Yazov Valentin Varennikov Igor Rodionov Boris Gromov Babrak Karmal Mohammad Najibullah Abdul Rashid Dostum Abdul Qadir Shahnawaz Tanai Mohammed Rafie	Ahmad Shah Massoud Abdul Haq Abdullah Azzam Ismail Khan Gulbuddin Hekmatyar Jalaluddin Haqqani Mohammad Nabi Naqib Alikozai Abdul Rahim Wardak Fazal Haq Mujahid Burhanuddin Rabbani Michael G. Vickers Muhammad Asif Muhsini Assef Kandahari Sayeed Ali Begeshti Mosbah Sade Mulavi Dawood  (AMFFF)
Strength
Soviet forces: 620,000 total 115,000 at peak Afghan forces: 55,000	Mujahideen: 200,000–250,000
Casualties and losses
Soviet forces: 14,453 killed (total) 9,500 killed in combat 4,000 died from wounds 1,000 died from disease and accidents 53,753 wounded 264 missing 451 aircraft (including 333 helicopters) 147 tanks 1,314 IFV/APCs 433 artillery guns and mortars 11,369 cargo and fuel tanker trucks Afghan forces: 18,000 killed	Mujahideen: 75,000–90,000 killed 75,000+ wounded (tentative estimate) Pakistan: 300+ killed 1 F-16 fighter jet shot down Iran: 2 AH-1J helicopters shot down Unknown number killed
Civilians (Afghan): 562,000–2,000,000 killed 5 million refugees outside Afghanistan 2 million internally displaced persons Around 3 million Afghans wounded (mostly civilians)

Soviet Union

Sunni Mujahideen:

Shia Mujahideen:

Supported by:

Maoist factions:

Soviet forces:

Afghan forces:

Mujahideen:

The Soviet–Afghan War lasted over nine years, from December 1979 to February 1989. Insurgent groups known together as the mujahideen, as well as smaller Maoist groups, fought a guerrilla war against the Soviet Army and the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan government, mostly in the rural countryside. The mujahideen groups were backed primarily by the United States and Pakistan, making it a Cold War proxy war. Between 562,000 and 2,000,000 civilians were killed and millions of Afghans fled the country as refugees, mostly to Pakistan and Iran.

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