Why did the Taliban/Al Qaeda FIGHT AGAINST the Afghan Mujahideen for 10 years IF THEY ARE THE SAME GROUP?

Question

Nuts say that the USA supported Usama Bin Laden in the fight against the Soviet Union. So why did UBL and the Taliban and Al Qaeda spend 10 years fighting against the Afghan Mujihadeen? If they are the same group, why was there a 10 year bloody war inside Afghanistan during the 1990s?

Ummm. Please do not confuse the time periods of the 1980's and the 1990's. During the 1980's the local Afghan Mujahideen were fighting the Soviet Union with minimal help from foreigners. During the 1990's there was a full scale war INSIDE Afghanistan between the foreigners (invaders) -- the Taliban and Al Qaeda -- and the local Afghan Mujahideen. By the 1990's the foreigners had learned how to fight in Afghanistan and had billions in oil dollars from Saudi Arabia. The Taliban was a foreign invasion of Afghanistan. Do not confuse 1980's fighting the Soviet Union with AFTER the Soviet Union fell in the 1990's

Answer 1

I read a few books on this, the Taliban were just one faction of the mujahideen all the different groups of mujahideen banded together sometimes against the Soviet army but as time wore on they begain to turn on each other and by the 90s the Taliban came out on top.The US did support all groups in the mujahideen including Osama bin Laden and his small group, he did not do that much fighting but he got a good rep among some of his fighters. I did not confuse the timeline (and the post below me is saying the same thing) during the 80s they were fighting together and 90s they broke up and fought each other

Answer 2

The mujihadeen were not one group. Each town or area had its own boss man and he had a private army. Basically everyone agreed to fight the soviets. Afterwards the taliban came out on top and formed a gov't. Unfortunately not everyone (the bossmen) did not agree with everything the taliban said, did or wanted. Since their aim was to control and say what happened everywhere it grated against the boss men who fought for freedom rather than new restrictive controls.

result was a civil war that ruined the country even worse than the fight against the soviet army as now you have afghan fighting afghan (although this did happen during the fight with the soviets).

further was the control of the drug trade from which the boss men made a large amount of their cash. The taliban wanted that money or at least a decent portion.

UBL was of course allied with the taliban as it appears he likes their way of doing things.

There was no real plan in place for proper gov't after the soviets were defeated. There were probably some verbal agreements between leaders in different areas but it also came down to many of the local bosses did not want to give up anything they had taken over during the fighting with the soviets. Basically a lot of people were being pigheaded.

Answer 3

The Taliban did not fight the Mujahadeen. The Taliban were a group recruited from Pakistan to go to Afghanistan to aid in the fight against the Soviet Union who had invaded Afghanistan from the North. Al Qaeda and Osama Bin Ladan teamed up with the Taliban