Afghanistan, 1990 — military coup attempt

Event Summary

On 6 March 1990 General Shahnawaz Tanai, the hardline communist defense minister of Afghanistan and leader of the Khalq faction, launched a coup attempt against President Mohammad Najibullah in Kabul, striking as a trial of Khalqist army officers was about to begin. In an unlikely alliance, Tanai, a fierce enemy of the mujahideen, joined forces with the Islamist rebel commander Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who intensified his fighters' attacks in support of the plot; the affair was backed by Pakistan and partly financed by Osama bin Laden, who bribed officers to defect. Tanai ordered air strikes on government buildings, and jets flown by loyal pilots bombed targets in Kabul, with rockets landing near the presidential palace, but the expected army uprising failed to materialize because Tanai had no direct control of troops inside the capital.

Interior Minister Mohammad Aslam Watanjar ordered a battalion to intercept Tanai's tanks and paramilitary forces helped crush the revolt. Najibullah appeared on television that night to prove he was in control. Tanai fled by helicopter to Peshawar, where Hekmatyar welcomed him, and Najibullah purged the army of Khalqists, fatally weakening it.