The killing of Ahmad Shah Massoud on September 9, 2001, removed one of the Taliban’s strongest rivals days before the 9/11 attacks. The assassination was believed to have been carried out at the behest of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden as a favour to his Taliban hosts.
According to Newsweek, Massoud, who led Afghanistan’s Northern Alliance, was killed while speaking to two men who had arrived at his camp in the Panjshir Valley, posing as Belgian television journalists. The visitors had gone through security checks before meeting him. They carried explosives hidden inside their video camera.
The attack took place two days before the September 11 attacks in the United States. The Northern Alliance did not publicly confirm Massoud’s death until September 15.
Massoud was a key figure in the fight against the Taliban. He had built an insurgent network in northern Afghanistan and remained a major challenge to Taliban control. His leadership and popularity also made him an important figure for those opposing the group.
Bin Laden was reportedly aware of that threat. His decision to target Massoud was also linked to his expectations of a US response after the planned attacks. Removing Massoud, who could have played a major role in the fight against the Taliban and al Qaeda, was seen as useful to bin Laden and his allies.
The news of Massoud’s assassination also worried the CIA. Gary Berntsen, the CIA officer who would later lead its first team into Afghanistan after 9/11, recalled, “made me feel sick to my stomach … I figured this was the end of the Northern Alliance.”
CIA director George Tenet, however, believed the agency still had other contacts in Afghanistan. He later wrote, “Masood’s [sic] brutal murder by al-Qaeda on the eve of the 9/11 attacks might have undone our plan before it got under way if we hadn’t maintained contact with other warlords in the north.”
Tenet also recalled a meeting with Pakistani intelligence chief Gen. Mahmood Ahmed on September 9. While discussing al Qaeda and Taliban leader Mullah Omar, Mahmood defended Omar and suggested that the CIA try bribing Taliban officials to hand over bin Laden.
“As gracious as he could be over the lunch table, the guy was immovable when it came to the Taliban and al Qaeda,” Tenet later wrote.
After the September 11 attacks, Mahmood met US officials as Washington pushed Pakistan to cooperate in its new campaign against terrorism. US forces were also secretly deployed in Pakistani territory soon after.
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