The Mujahedeen are those who struggle on behalf of Islam. The most famous Afghan mujahedeen fought the Soviet troops during the Russian occupation. Following that invasion, the Mujahedeen resistance was initially waged locally by regional warlords. Eventually, however Muslim fighters from other countries rallied to the cause, as Osama bin Laden and others came to support the Afghan Mujahedeen. These foreign fighters came to be known as "Afghan Arabs or Jihadists. (those who wage Holy War). They were primarily young Muslims fighting a holy war against an atheist enemy who had invaded a Muslim land. The wealthy Osama Bin Laden, a Saudi Arabian, emerged as both a skilled organizer and a generous financier for these groups of Arab Islamist volunteers; 

 

The Mujahedeen were also financed and armed by the CIA during the Carter and Reagan administrations The CIA provided Stinger missiles, man-portable, shoulder-fired antiaircraft heat seeking weapons which were highly effective against Soviet helicopters. Saudi Arabia also provided extensive funding through their neighbors, Iran and Pakistan.

  

After the Soviet Union withdrew in the late 1980s, the Mujahedeen turned against each other in what in a power struggle known as the Afghan Civil War. Throughout these decades of conflict, thousands of Afghans were injured, and many fled to Pakistan or Iran as refugee

s.