In May 1997, the Taliban launches another assault on the northern city of Mazar-e Sharif.

This time, they receive support from Dostum's second-in-command, General Malik Pahlawan, who has ousted Dostum in a coup and apparently believes he has struck a deal to share power with the Taliban.

The Taliban renege on the agreement, however, and began disarming local forces.

Resistance breaks out initially in Hazara neighborhoods, and the Taliban find themselves trapped in a city that has turned murderous on them.

Hundreds of Taliban are attacked in the streets and killed, and at least 2,000 taken prisoner, only to be summarily executed and their bodies dumped in wells or taken to remote desert sites and left lying in the open.

While General Malik is, in the opinion of most analysts, responsible for many of the summary executions of the Taliban prisoners, a large number of Taliban forces are reportedly gunned down in the streets by the Hazara Hizb-i Wahdat.

In late September, Malik flees to Iran, and Dostum returns from exile in Turkey.

In the wake of a subsequent failed assault on Mazar in September 1997, retreating Taliban troops who may include Balkh Pashtuns massacre 70 Hazara civilians, including children, in Qizalabad, south of the city on the road to Herat.