Commander Ahmed Shad Massoud (centre), otherwise known as 'The Lion of Panjshir', at the first ...

Commander Ahmed Shad Massoud (centre), otherwise known as 'The Lion of Panjshir', at the first press conference announcing the Mujahideen victory in Afghanistan following the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan and the collapse of the pro-Soviet Democratic Republic of Afghanistan (DRA). In April 1992, the Mujahedeen, various loosely-aligned Afghan opposition groups led by Massoud, overthrew the Soviets and DRA, took control of Kabul and negotiated the creation of a government. At the conference, Massoud declared "Welcome to free and Islamic Afghanistan". As Defence minister in this government, Massoud later ordered a retreat from Kabul on September 26, 1996, after Taliban forces encircled the capital. He subsequently was 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 a Taliban suicide bomber. 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.