Word: chaghasaray
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High on a ridge overlooking overlooking the provincial capital of Chaghasaray, a small pine grove stands amid a series of fieldstone revetments. The mujahidin use the rocky enclosure to observe Afghan government convoys on the valley floor below; it is also a resting place for the bodies of five Soviet paratroopers killed there last January. Few of the insurgents can resist taking a ritual poke at the skulls. "This is what we do to Russians," Rebel Tribesman Shaler Seyed beams ferociously, hoisting a cranium into the air with a stick. "We will cut them all into little pieces...
About the only time rebel spirits flag is when they hear the helicopters, for the Soviets' control of the air is total. During the day the Kunar valley echoes with the drone of Mi-8 utility choppers shuttling men and supplies from Chaghasaray up to Asmar or down to Jalalabad. The danger increases as dusk approaches. It is then, when a man's shadow is longest, that the armor-plated Mi-24 helicopter gunships come in low on their final patrols...
Next, as soon as the sun goes down, armored personnel carriers equipped with high-intensity searchlights rumble out of the mud-walled Soviet tank depot half a mile south of Chaghasaray. The APCs probe the mountains with their lights and shoot off silver-and orange-colored flares at areas of suspicious movements. On the night I stayed awake to watch, the light show came on every ten to 15 minutes. According to mujahidin, the most intense fighting is in the Pich valley, where Soviet tanks have been trying to secure the main road. As I listened for more than...
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