Destructive and inconclusive fighting between forces loyal to Prime Minister Hekmatyar and troops loyal to President Rabbani results in the disintegration of central state authority and weaken the cohesion of the multinational state.
U.S. State Department Special Envoy to Afghanistan Edmund McWilliams, after numerous tours of the interior of Pakistan, found that Afghan people were unhappy with the Wahhabist-leaning and anti-American Hekmatyar contingent, and recommended pulling back support for fighting in favor of a political settlement involving more of the ex-pat Afghan professional class.
Hekmatyar was victorious and eventually his troops sacked Asadabad.