After the Soviet Union withdrew in 1989, Babrak Kamal, the president installed by the Soviets, was replaced by Mohammad Najibullah, who received some Russian support until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.   In Afghanistan, ethnicity determines where loyalties lie, and the tribal groups which had fought side by side to free Afghanistan from Soviet domination now began to fight both Najibullah and each other for control of the country.  In 1992, a senior Afghan general finally capitulated to the leading Mujahedeen militia, bringing down the Communist Regime.  The Afghan political parties then established a power-sharing agreement, the Peshawar Accords, which created the Islamic State of Afghanistan, and appointed a transitional government followed by democratic elections.  

     The peace was short lived, however, as Pakistan, Iran, Uzbekistan, and Saudi Arabia, each seeking to influence the future of Afghanistan, supported various militias hostile to each other. Fighting broke out once again, and the fledgling government was never able to establish itself.  In the ensuing power struggle the capital city of Kabul was nearly destroyed.  As the various factions struggled, the Taliban emerged in 1994 as a political and religious force in southern Afghanistan.  With support from Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, they captured Kabul in 1996 and established the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.  The United Front (Northern Alliance) was then formed under Ahmad Shah Massoud to fight the Taliban Emirate.