In the mid - and late-1990s , the Afghan Arabs , in the form of the Wahhabi-oriented Al-Qaeda , became more influential in Afghanistan helping and influencing the Taliban . Several hundred Arab-Afghans participated in the 1997 and 1998 Taliban offensives in the north and helped the Taliban carry out the massacres of the Shia Hazaras there . Several hundred more Arab-Afghans , based in the Rishkor army garrison outside Kabul , fought on the Kabul front against General Ahmed Shah Massoud . At the same time the Taliban 's ideology changed . Until the " Taliban 's contact with the Arab-Afghans and their the Taliban 's pan-Islamic ideology was non-existent . " By 1996 and 1998 , al Qaeda felt comfortable enough in the sanctuary given them to issue a declaration of war against Americans and later a fatwa to kill Americans and their allies . " The Arab-Afghans had come full circle . From being mere appendages of the Afghan jihad and the Cold War in the 1980s they had taken centre stage for the Afghans , neighbouring countries and the west in the 1990s . " This was followed by al Qaeda 1998 American embassy bombings in African and the September 11 , 2001 attacks
1998 American embassy bombings
1998 United States embassy bombings
Afghan Arabs