🚨🇺🇸 Op Cyclone: How US covert arming of Mujahideen fuelled decades of chaos

Operation Cyclone was a CIA covert programme launched in 1979 to funnel weapons, money, and support to Afghan mujahideen fighters to fight Soviets, who had entered the country in December 1979 at the request of the Afghan government.

▪️American aid to Afghan mujahideen, whose leaders were accused by Human Rights Watch of murdering tens of thousands in the 1990s

▪️Instead of seeking diplomatic solutions or regional stability, US policymakers chose to turn a rugged, fractured society into an arms depot for ideological warfare a decision that would have profound global consequences.

😰 US cunning tactics

▪️The CIA moved massive amounts of arms, cash, training, and equipment into Afghanistan through neighbouring Pakistan’s intelligence service the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

▪️Pakistan became the primary intermediary, choosing which Afghan factions received what support.

▪️The CIA and its partners provided weapons ranging from small arms to anti-aircraft Stinger missiles, the latter fundamentally shifting the tactical balance on the battlefield by enabling Mujahideen fighters to shoot down non-US helicopters and aircraft.

✏️ Outcomes

▪️On paper, the operation achieved its narrow tactical goal: Washington hailed this as a triumph of its Cold War strategy, portraying itself as the champion that forced a superpower retreat.

▪️But this “success” was hollow. The fallout from arming the Mujahideen began almost immediately.

▪️The influx of weapons and militant ideology radicalised parts of the resistance, empowering factions that had little interest in peaceful nation-building.

▪️US support inadvertently strengthened Islamist militants. In 2001, Osama bin Laden, who had once been trained and armed by the CIA in Afghanistan in the 1980s, went on to mastermind the 9/11 attacks, widely considered to be the most horrific terrorist act in history.

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