Editing Hafizullah Amin (section)

=== Assassination ===
An attempted poisoning of Amin was undertaken on December 13, 1979. Department 8 of the [[KGB]] succeeded in infiltrating the illegal agent Mitalin Talybov (codenamed SABIR) as a chef of Amin's presidential palace. However, Amin switched his food and drink as if he expected to be poisoned, so his son-in-law became seriously ill, and ironically, was flown to a hospital in Moscow.

Concerned for his safety, Amin moved the presidential offices to the Tajbeg Palace. The Soviets deployed soldiers near the palace, ostensibly to help protect it. However, their real purpose was to scout out the area and form a plan of attack. On December 27, elements of the KGB Alpha Group and Spetsnaz GRU stormed the Presidential Palace and killed Amin after another failed poisoning attempt. Amin was shot and killed by a Spetsnaz officer while hiding behind a bar. Another Spetsnaz soldier then lobbed a grenade in the vicinity of Amin, where it exploded, killing his young son.

The Soviet Spetsnaz blew up Kabul's communications hub, paralyzing the Afghan military command at 19:00. By 19:15, they had seized the Ministry of Interior. The Soviet military command at Termez did not wait until Amin's capture to announce on Radio Kabul (in a broadcast prerecorded by Babrak Karmal) that Afghanistan had been liberated from Amin's rule.
[[File:Dvorec 27 12 79.jpg|thumb|The palace where Amin he was a Killed]]

According to the Soviet Politburo, they were only complying with the 1978 Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Good Neighborliness that former President Taraki signed. The execution of Hafizullah Amin was, according to the Soviets, the action of the Afghan Revolutionary Central Committee. That committee then elected Babrak Karmal, who was in [[exile ]]in Moscow, as head of government.