Siege of Khost
1980 CE.
Shown on the map at 33.333°, 69.917°.
The eleven year siege of Khost took place throughout the nine-year Soviet–Afghan War in the 1980s and the subsequent Afghan civil war in the 1990s. Its airstrip's 3 km runway served as a base for helicopter operations by Soviet forces. It began soon after the invasion of Afghanistan by Soviet troops, when Afghan guerillas took control of the only land route between Khost and Gardez, effectively putting a stop to the Soviet advance. At the end of July 1983, the forces of Jalaluddin Haqqani laid siege to two towns in Khost and the Tani, Mangal, Zazai and Waziri tribes began taking an active part in the fighting, despite being passive up until then. All of the aforementioned events coincided with former King Mohammed Zahir Shah's appeal for a united front, which caused rumours about the Royalists intending to establish a provisional government in a liberated Khost. However, Khost wasn't captured and by October, the Tani tribe had withdrawn from coalition due to a tribal rivalry with the Zadran. Many rebels also returned home as winter came on.
Text from the Wikipedia article Siege of Khost, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.