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: Armed Resistance and Europe] Ahmad Shah Massoud became known as the "Lion of Panjshir" during the Soviet war in Afghanistan leading resistance fighters in north-eastern Afghanistan. The Wall Street Journal eventually called him "the Afghan who won the cold war". After the fall of the communist regime in Afghanistan, Massoud became minister of defense of the Islamic State of Afghanistan under the Peshawar Accords. After the rise of the Taliban, Massoud created the United Front (known as Northern Alliance), which united members of all Afghan ethnicities and backgrounds, to defend areas not under Taliban control and to oppose the Pakistani-backed Taliban regime. The National Geographic ultimately concluded: "The only thing standing in the way of future Taliban massacres is Ahmad Shah Massoud." Massoud repeatedly told the Taliban to join a peaceful political process with the ultimate goal of democratic elections, so the Afghans could choose their government for themselves. The Taliban refused. In early 2001, on a visit to Europe, Massoud warned about an unspecified attack on U.S. soil being imminent. Massoud was assassinated on September 9, 2001, two day before the attacks of September 11, 2001. Massoud was a deeply spiritual and religious person, reportedly always carrying Al-Ghazali's "Alchemy of Happiness" with him. At the same time he rejected the Taliban and Saudi Wahhabi interpretation of Islam. He was declared National Hero of the Afghan Nation by the order of the post-Taliban government and nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.