CIA activities in Afghanistan

The Afghanistan conflict began in 1978 and has coincided with several notable operations by the United States (U.S.) Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Operation Cyclone, began in 1979 during the Jimmy Carter's presidency; it financed and later supplied weapons to the anti-Soviet Union mujahideen guerrillas in Afghanistan. This continued throughout the nearly ten-year Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, and under Carter's successor, Ronald Reagan.

Operation Cyclone primarily supported militant Islamist groups that were favored by Pakistani president Zia-ul-Haq's government, at the expense of other groups fighting the Soviet-aligned Democratic Republic of Afghanistan (DRA). To help the Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), CIA funding disproportionately benefited Muslim Brotherhood-inspired mujahideen commanders like Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and Jalaluddin Haqqani; the CIA also developed a limited relationship with the more moderate Afghan commander Ahmad Shah Massoud beginning in 1984. Operation Cyclone was one of the longest and most expensive CIA operations ever undertaken. The Reagan administration rejected compromise with reformist Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in favor of a total mujahideen victory. Funding continued until 1992 as the mujahideen battled the PDPA during the 1989–1992 civil war.

After the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan in 1989, the CIA's objective was to topple Mohammad Najibullah's government, which was formed under Soviet occupation. By 1990, the ISI and Hekmatyar were working to eliminate Massoud and their other rivals, in advance of the anticipated fall of the Afghan capital, Kabul. The ISI and CIA jointly formulated a plan to capture Jalalabad and Kabul during 1989–1990. Najibullah's government collapsed in 1992, following the Soviet Union's dissolution and the end of U.S. aid to the mujahideen, leaving Afghanistan a failed state in the grip of a multifaceted and destructive civil war. While some U.S. officials initially welcomed the emerging Taliban militia as it sought to restore order to Afghanistan, by the late 1990s, the U.S. became increasingly concerned about Pakistan's relationship with the Taliban, as the Taliban and its ally al-Qaeda became a more direct threat to the U.S..

In response to the September 11 attacks, CIA personnel coordinated closely with the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance during the 2001 U.S. invasion of Afghanistan. During the invasion, which was largely planned by the CIA, Osama bin Laden and other al-Qaeda leaders escaped to Pakistan. Throughout the war in Afghanistan (2001–2021), CIA-backed Afghan paramilitaries participated in numerous war crimes, most notably the Dasht-i-Leili massacre in 2001.