February 2, 1989
The USSR’s nine years of participation in the war in Afghanistan ended as Red Army troops withdrew from the capital city of Kabul, driven out principally by the insurgent mujahadin, who were armed through covert U.S. funding. By the time the final Soviet soldiers had left Afghanistan more than 15,000 of them had been killed and 50,000 injured, including over 10,000 left permanently disabled. Estimates vary on Afghan casualties, but the low end runs to a million dead while the high end suggests the total might be double that, with three million injured and more than a million permanently disabled. By 1986 half of all refugees on the planet were Afghan nationals.
