Geographical, economic, cultural, and other realities collude to make Afghanistan one of the hardest countries to govern. The Soviet Union learned this after sending troops in 1979 to support a pro-Communist regime, only to face 10 years of fierce resistance, eventually forcing a Soviet withdrawal, from local and foreign guerrillas known as mujahideen (Islamic warriors). The loosely organized mujahideen captured Kabul in 1992, only to lose control to the Islamic fundamentalist Taliban — many of whose members had themselves been mujahideen. The Taliban allowed the international terrorist group Al Qaeda, headed by former mujahid Osama bin Laden, to base its operations in Afghanistan. After the attacks of September 11, 2001, a coalition led by the United States removed the Taliban from government, and Al Qaeda was forced to disperse. Hamid Karzai, who returned from exile in October 2001, helped negotiate the Taliban surrender of Kandahar and, in October 2004, became Afghanistan’s first democratically elected president. Direct elections scheduled for September 2005 will determine the lower house of the National Assembly; representatives in the upper house will be split evenly between provincial council elections, local council elections, and presidential appointment. Afghanistan has a long-established history of fiercely independent fiefdoms controlled by local leaders (some of whom are considered “warlords”), and allegiances are often fluid. Coalition troops have kept Kabul relatively stable, but large swaths of the country are controlled by remnants of the Taliban or warlords. President Karzai has survived multiple attempts on his life, and he faces a challenging future.