The Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan

Date: 1973-1988
Location: Afghanistan

Soviet troops withdrawing from Afghanistan in 1988

        Muhammad Zahir Shah was deposed as king of Afghanistan in a Marxist-led coup in 1973. The People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) government of Nur Muhammad Taraki and Hafizullah Amin then began a programme of secularization that offended conservative Muslims and brutally suppressed dissent. When 50 Russian advisors were murdered in the Afghan city of Herat, the USSR invaded to restore order on 24th of December 1978. 

A Soviet-made AK-47 Kalashnikov assault rifle used by both Soviet soldiers
and Afghan Mujahideen fighters during the 1978-1988 conflict in Afghanistan

        An Islamic resistance group then declared a Jihad (holy war) aganist the USSR and PDPA. These Islamist Mujahideen guerrillas fought off the Soviet troops, and even began to threaten Soviet aircraft. The war was vastly expensive for the USSR, and in February 1988, under firm international pressure, President Mikhail Gorbachev announced the withdrawal of Soviet troops, leaving the Mujahideen and PDPA in a stalemate.