A Mujahideen checkpoint in Kabul with a Soviet 14.5mm ZPU-1 anti-aircraft gun. Behind can be seen ...

A Mujahideen checkpoint in Kabul with a Soviet 14.5mm ZPU-1 anti-aircraft gun. Behind can be seen a poster of Commander Ahmed Shad Massoud, otherwise know as 'The Lion of Panjshir'. In April 1992, Massoud led various loosely-aligned Afghan opposition groups known as the Mujahideen to overthrow the Soviets and the pro-Soviet Democratic Republic of Afghanistan (DRA). He later ordered a retreat from Kabul on September 26, 1996, after Taliban forces encircled the capital. Massoud was subsequently a key figure in the formation of the 'Northern Alliance', an alliance of various political groups who later fought against Taliban rule in Afghanistan. A prominent moderate and later, as part of the Northern Alliance, a close ally of the USA, Massoud was assassinated on September 10, 2001 by the Taliban. One of a series of photographs taken by the Australian photojournalist, Ben Bohane, who travelled to Kabul and Mazar-e Sharif to report on the overthrow of the DRA by the Mujahideen in April 1992.