To the Mountains: My Life in Jihad, from Algeria to Afghanistan

362 Pages·2019·3.959 MB·English

by  Abdullah Anas, Tam Hussein

TO THE MOUNTAINS

ABDULLAH ANAS with TAM HUSSEIN
To the Mountains
My Life in Jihad, from Algeria
to Afghanistan
HURST & COMPANY, LONDON
First published in the United Kingdom in 2019 by
C. Hurst & Co. (Publishers) Ltd.,

41 Great Russell Street, London, WC1B 3PL
© Abdullah Anas and Tam Hussein, 2019
All rights reserved.
Printed in the United Kingdom
Distributed in the United States, Canada and Latin America by
Oxford University Press, 198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016,
United States of America.
The right of Abdullah Anas and Tam Hussein to be identified as the
authors of this publication is asserted by them in accordance with the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.
A Cataloguing-in-Publication data record for this book
is available from the British Library.
ISBN: 9781787380110 hardback
This book is printed using paper from registered sustainable
and managed sources.
www.hurstpublishers.com
To God and all His Messengers. To my dear friends Faheem Khan, Ghada,
Pana, Registani, Muslim, Aryanpour, Sarmuallim Tariq, Syed Ekramuddin,
Bismillah, Abdullah, Amir Mujahid, Syed Najmuddin, Engineer Bashir, Abdel
Vader Zabibullah, Abdessabour Farid and Abdullah Azzam and all the martyrs
of Afghanistan. Without you the Soviets would never have left. To my wife
Summayah and my mother in law, Mrs. Samira. To my parents. Last but not
least to my dear friend Jamal Khashoggi who remained true till the very end.
Abdullah Anas
The the special women in my life. You have always been the mountains that
I have leaned on drawing strength from your love and prayers.
To Vale, my wife who has the best nose for a story, whose patience with me is
unfathomable. To my daughter whose kisses and fearlessness push me on. And to
my mother who strove alone on the path urging us always to be human.
And then there is a boy—you have a mighty name may this book be of use.
Tam Hussein

CONTENTS
Preface and Acknowledgements ix
Introduction 1
PART I
THE ROAD TO AFGHANISTAN
1.  From Whence I Came 9
2.  On the Road to Afghanistan 25
3.  The Road to Sholgara near Mazar Sharif 41
PART II
MASSOUD AND ME
 4.  In Search of Massoud 61
 5.  Into Battle with Massoud 69
 6.  My First Battle with Massoud 75
 7.  Hekmatyar 83
 8.  Politicking in Peshawar and the Entry of Extremists 97
 9.  The Broken Truce 103
10. W hen Kabul Fell, My World Fell 115
11. P ower and Its Bitter Fruits 129
PART III
THE ARAB SERVICES BUREAU
12. T he Establishment of the Arab Services Bureau 141
13. T he Early Arabs 155
vii
CONTENTS
14. T he Inner Circle 163
15. I nner of the Inner Circle 171
16. A ssassination 187
PART IV
INTO THE WILDERNESS
AND RETURN TO THE MOUNTAINS
17. I nto the Wilderness 215
18. P eshawar 231
19. T o the Mountains 245
Epilogue 261
Notes 267
Bibliography 301
Index 313
viii
PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The idea for this book has been a long time coming and has
germinated for six years. But life is such that I have put it off.
Initially, I started to develop the project with two journalists,
Adam Lively, and then Nick Fielding, then of the Sunday Times.
Though the project fell through, in Adam I found a teacher who
taught me English. I, in turn, hope I taught him Arabic. In Nick
I found a dear friend. Both these men are excellent journalists
but unfortunately our busy working and private lives prevented
completion of this text.
 Then I started working with two young men who were insepa-
rable and for whom I have immense love and respect: Alex Strick
van Linschoten and Felix Kuehn. I feel a deep connection to them
due to our shared passion for Afghanistan. Alex and Felix also
knew Arabic and, moreover, they also had that experience of living
in Afghanistan and could write about the Taliban with great
authority, which was very good for context. But then life in the
shape of two women got in the way. They separated! They both
became husbands and life’s responsibilities overtook them, not to
mention the looming deadlines to finish off their respective PhDs.
 As for me, my own life took different turns. The responsibility
of raising five children, setting up a television channel, al-
Magharibiya, and then later the unleashing of the Arab Spring
all made me kick this book into the long grass.
 Then circumstances were such that I felt obliged to return to
complete this book. The post-9/11 world was already highly
ix