The Afshar Operation was a military operation by Ahmad Shah Massoud and Burhanuddin Rabbani's Islamic State of Afghanistan government forces and Abdul Rasul Sayyaf's Ittehad-i Islami forces against Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's Hezb-i Islami and Abdul Ali Mazari's Hezb-e Wahdat militias in the densely populated Afshar district in west Kabul. The Iran-backed Hezb-e Wahdat together with the Pakistani-backed Hezb-i Islami of Hekmatyar had been shelling densely populated areas in northern Kabul from their positions in Afshar, killing thousands. To counter the shelling, Islamic State forces attacked Afshar in order to capture the positions of Wahdat, capture Wahdat's leader Abdul Ali Mazari and to consolidate parts of the city controlled by the government. At the time the Ittihad-i Islami para-military