Maktab al-Khidamat

The Maktab al-Khidamat, or Maktab Khadamāt al-Mujāhidīn al-'Arab (Arabic: مكتب الخدمات or مكتب خدمات المجاهدين العرب), also known as MaK and the Afghan Services Bureau, was an organization founded in 1984 by Abdullah Yusuf Azzam and Osama bin Laden, to support the Afghan mujahideen in the Soviet–Afghan War (1979–1989).

The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979. MaK recruited foreign mujahideen into the Afghan jihad against the Soviets and their ally, the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan. MaK trained the foreigners and commanded them in a large jihadist force.

MaK was funded by bin Laden's inheritance from his wealthy family, who ran the Saudi Binladin Group construction company. A popular misconception is that the U.S. directly trained bin Laden's mujahideen fighters; however, bin Laden had ties to Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency during Operation Cyclone (1979–1992), a CIA initiative to funnel money and arms for the Afghan mujahideen through the intermediary ISI.

Following the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan in 1989, and Azzam's dispute with bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri over MaK's future, Azzam was killed by multiple land mine detonations; the attack was possibly organized by bin Laden or al-Zawahiri. Afterwards, bin Laden assumed full control of MaK, and had it absorbed into al-Qaeda, a militant organization he founded in 1988.