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Ghosts in the Mountains: The Mujahideen Civil War (Part 4)

Conflicted: A History Podcast

CHAPTER

The Taliban's Origins

The Taliban started out as a tiny band of vigilantes, lynching Mujahideen warlords who preyed on young girls. Mir Tamim Ansari: Legend has it that sometime in the spring of 1994, the prophet Muhammad appeared to Mullah Omar in a dream and asked him to save the Muslim people. He says legend has it because this story might be apocryphal; I know of no evidence that it was told at the time. Ansari: Within months, they had snowballed into a national movement that could stand toe to toe with the most well-armedMujahideen factions. The orphans of the Soviet Afghan war were all grown up and they flocked

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