 During the nine campaigns launched, coordinated Soviet assaults would regularly drive out the Mujahideen from the valley but they would return as soon as the Soviets left.The Panjshir Valley lies 70 km north of Kabul, in the Hindu Kush mountains close to the Salang Pass, which connects Kabul to the northern areas of Afghanistan and further on to Uzbekistan, then part of the Soviet Union.In June 1979, an insurrection led by Ahmed Shah Massoud expelled all government forces, and the valley became a guerrilla stronghold.