Due to being a USSR allied, Afghanistan was not spared by Doomsday. The capital city of Kabul was destroyed by NATO nuclear attack, plunging the rest of the country into chaos. Amidst the confusion, the Pashtun people of southeastern Afghanistan-who had long desired their own state-convened in the city of Lashkar Gah on January 29, 1984, and declared independence. The first year of the new nation's existence was focused mostly on survival and building up a functioning state.