Afghan Mujahideen

The Afghan mujahideen were the religiously-motivated insurgents who banded together to oppose the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. Most of the major leaders in Islamist extremist groups initially trained, fought and rose to prominence during this fighting. It is also the modern origin of the "global jihad" movement, a concept some extremist leaders draw upon to encourage international support for locally-focused Islamist extremist groups and insurgencies.