Afghans have gathered in Kabul to mark the 10th anniversary Friday of the death of resistance leader Ahmad Shah Massoud.

An Afghan vice president and other government officials placed wreaths at a monument in Kabul.

Massoud was a prominent resistance leader who fought Soviet troops and their allies in Afghanistan in the 1980s. He also led the Northern Alliance, a group of Afghan commanders who swore to resist the Taliban.

He was killed on September 9, 2001, by suicide bombers posing as Arab journalists, two days before the September 11 attacks on the United States.

His assassination was seen as a plot related to the U.S. attacks.

Massoud's brother, Wali, said at Friday's service that he felt “proud” the Afghan people celebrate this day.