Word: herat
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...forces pounded villages throughout the Shomali region. Their objective, presumably, was to obliterate guerrilla strength around the crucial 50-mile stretch of highway leading from Kabul toward the Soviet border, along which the invaders transport their supplies. Meantime, according to Western intelligence reports, Soviet bombers were attacking targets near Herat in the west and around Kandahar in the south. They apparently hope that by demolishing villages they can devastate local agriculture and drive the residents from areas that might otherwise lend support to the insurgents. As Abdul Haq, a guerrilla commander interviewed in Pakistan, points out, "Every kind of supply...
...have caused heavy casualties on both sides. In the Panjshir Valley northeast of Kabul, the Soviets have apparently given up their attempt to dislodge the fierce mujahidin (Islamic warriors) from their strongholds. Similarly, Soviet troops have been unsuccessful in efforts to reimpose order on the lawless city of Herat in the northwest, and have only managed to maintain a tenuous and frequently interrupted hold on Kandahar in the south. In Kabul, sniper and grenade attacks have forced a progressively longer and stricter curfew, most recently from 10 o'clock in the evening to 5 in the morning...
With its ancient mosques, covered bazaars, parks and gardens, Herat (pop. 50,000) used to be a popular tourist spot. Today it is a lawless ghost town, a kind of Tombstone, Ariz., of Afghanistan. Rival bands of mujahidin, who long since took over, roam almost everywhere at will, answering to no one. Bandit gangs rob and pillage at gunpoint. Citizens, if caught out of doors, can be routinely gunned down in the street. Shortly after we arrived, a young businessman tried to illustrate the pervasiveness of the violence: "I went home to change my clothes at 10:30 this morning...
During their long, turbulent history, the people of Herat have been conquered by the likes of Genghis Khan and Tamerlane-but it has always been over their dead bodies. Nowadays neither the Soviets nor the Afghan army dare go into the center of the city. The mujahidin control the old quarter, but sectarian fighting has made Herat unsafe for anyone. Understandably, travelers have scratched it from their itineraries. The owner of a handicraft shop, one of the few stores still open, said we were his first customers in a month. "What kind of life is it when you come...
Remarkably enough, there was an attempt to celebrate a holiday called Pashtunistan Day in Herat during our stay. In the past the occasion has called for parties, parades and dancing in the streets. This year in the desultory procession were a T-55 Afghan army tank, a number of military trucks carrying sullen soldiers, and a small band. The dispirited musicians played a couple of numbers, and a squad of soldiers in field boots galumphed through a dance. The whole affair was over in an hour. Only a handful of people watched...