logo
episode-header-image
Sep 2021
9m 58s

The killing of Ahmed Shah Massoud

Bbc World Service
About this episode

On the 9th of September 2001 the Afghan fighter Ahmed Shah Massoud who led the opposition to Taliban rule, was killed by a suicide bomber. Just two days later, Al Qaeda carried out their attacks in the USA. In 2011 Louise Hidalgo spoke one of Ahmed Shah Massoud's friends who was with him the day he died.

PHOTO: Ahmed Shah Massoud (Getty Images)

Up next
Apr 2025
The Cu Chi tunnels of the Vietnam War
During the Vietnam War, North Vietnamese VietCong guerrillas built a vast network of tunnels in the south of the country as part of the insurgency against the South Vietnamese government and their American allies. The tunnel network was a key base and shelter for the North Vietna ... Show More
9m 43s
Today
Weekend listening: The History Bureau
If journalism is the first draft of history, what happens if that draft turns out to be flawed? The History Bureau revisits the defining stories of our times with the reporters who first covered them. What did they get right first time around? And, in the chaos and confusion of u ... Show More
3m 26s
Yesterday
Afghan Star
In 2005, a new show was launched on television in Afghanistan to find new musical talent – it was called Afghan Star and was inspired by formats like American Idol and the X-Factor. The programme came after the music industry in Afghanistan had been decimated under the Taliban be ... Show More
10m 38s
Recommended Episodes
May 2021
The killing of Osama Bin Laden
<p>It is 10 years since the al-Qaeda leader was killed. We look at the US special forces operation that finally tracked him down to a city in northern Pakistan, the 1979 siege of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, one of the events that shaped his world view; we talk to a Western-based j ... Show More
49m 33s
Aug 2022
The Killing of bin Laden’s Successor
<p>On Monday, President Biden announced that the United States had killed Ayman al-Zawahri in a drone strike in Afghanistan. </p><p>Al-Zawahri was the leader of Al Qaeda. A long time number two to Osama bin Laden and the intellectual spine of the terrorist group, he assumed power ... Show More
18m 46s
Feb 2016
The Attempt to Kill Khaled Meshaal
In 1997 Israeli secret agents tried to kill a Hamas leader, Khaled Meshaal, in Jordan. But they botched their assassination attempt and a diplomatic scandal followed. In February 1998 the head of Israel's secret service, Mossad, was forced to step down after an official inquiry i ... Show More
9m 3s
Sep 2022
Al-Qaeda’s Next Top Terrorist: The jihadist movement after Zawahiri
A recent US drone strike, in the heart of the Afghan capital of Kabul, killed the head of Al-Qaeda. Ayman al-Zawahiri had led the group since 2011, following the death of Osama bin Laden, and during that time the jihadist terror organisation underwent a number of significant chan ... Show More
25m 2s
Sep 2020
Episode 1: The Bullet
The 9/11 attacks were so much more than a bolt from the blue on a crisp September morning. They were more than a decade in the making. Our story starts in a Midtown Manhattan hotel ballroom in 1990. Shots ring out and the extremist rabbi, Meir Kahane, lies mortally wounded. His a ... Show More
48m 3s
Oct 2019
The Life and Death of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi
<p>After a five-year international manhunt, the leader of the Islamic State, who at one point controlled a caliphate the size of Britain, was killed in a raid by elite United States forces in Syria over the weekend.</p><p>Today, we explore the life and death of Abu Bakr al-Baghda ... Show More
27m 53s