The Soviet Union's retreat from Afghanistan in 1989 marked a high point for the global Islamist movement and legitimized the extremist tactics of the militants in eyes of others who now looked to them as a way forward. Their job complete in Afghanistan, the holy warriors now dispersed to other regions such as Bosnia, Kashmir, and elsewhere to carry on their jihad. The former CIA asset bin Laden, in alliance with the Egyptian Ayman al-Zawahari, formed al-Qaeda and turned the Afghan jihad into a global phenomenon.

XREF: Connects to the broader story of US support for mujahideen via CIA backing of bin Laden and the later blowback of that policy.

Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politi…, loc. 257