The author's propaganda objectives are certainly clear enough...
Yep...
All were new recruits, largely from Jordan, and they had come to fight in a fratricidal civil war in neighboring Afghanistan—an outgrowth of the CIA-financed jihad of the 1980s against the Soviet occupation there.
As if our permission was required for Afghans to fight back, as if our permission was required for every wannabe non-Afghan freelancers or jihadists backed by Islamic countries to join in, as if we somehow were able to handpick all the combatants. The fighting against the Soviets was going to go on with or without us.