Video: 'Former KGB colonel recounts Soviet assault on Afghan president'

(Thursday, December 27, 1979, 7:15 p.m. Afghanistan Time (AFT); during Operation Storm-333, part of the Soviet–Afghan War and the Cold War) — Soviet forces stormed the Tajbeg Palace located about 10 miles south-west outside the center of Kabul today and assassinated Afghan President Hafizullah Amin.

The Soviets installed Babrak Karmal as Amin’s successor while the Soviet Army began its intervention in Afghanistan that would last for nine years.

“The tyrannical, murderous, treacherous, dictatorial and fascist regime of Hafizullah Amin has been overthrown,” Kabul radio announced tonight.

Video: 'Dateline: 1979, Afghanistan - ABC News' (Dec. 27, 1979, at 19:55)

The coup followed a Christmas Day airlift of thousands of Soviet troops to Kabul, capital of neighboring Afghanistan.

The troop deployment was reported by State Department officials in Washington on Dec. 26, and strongly criticized as “blatant military interference.”