Operation Cyclone
Sign in to save1979 to 1989 CIA programme
Key facts
- Operational scope
- Weapons sales, training and financing of Afghan mujahideen forces
- Location
- Democratic Republic of Afghanistan
- Planned by
- Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Saudi intelligence
- Target
- Government of Afghanistan and Soviet invasion force
- Date
- 3 July 1979–1992
- Outcome
- Training of tens of thousands of Mujahidin and delivery to them of thousands of tons of weaponry worth several billion US dollars. Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan in February 1989. Collapse of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan in 1992.
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Image
- Reagan sitting with people from the Afghanistan-Pakistan region in February 1983.jpg
Show 2 more facts
- start time
- 1979-00-00
- end time
- 1989-00-00
Sources (1)
via Wikidata · CC0
~29 min read
Article
Operation Cyclone was the code name for the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) program to arm and finance the Afghan mujahideen in Afghanistan from 1979 to 1992, prior to and during the military intervention by the Soviet Union in support of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan. The mujahideen were also supported by Britain's MI6, who conducted their own separate covert actions.
The program leaned heavily towards supporting militant Islamic groups, including groups with jihadist ties, that were favored by the regime of Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq in neighboring Pakistan, rather than other, less ideological Afghan resistance groups that had also been fighting the Soviet-oriented Democratic Republic of Afghanistan administration since before the Soviet intervention.