Word: kabul
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...strange defection in Kabul...
Brandishing his AK-47 assault rifle, a 21-year-old Soviet soldier alighted from a taxi at the gate of the U.S. embassy compound in Kabul one morning last week, and was met by an American official who took him inside. Then, speaking only Russian laced with a smattering of German, he managed to tell surprised embassy officers that he wanted to defect. It was the first such move by any of the estimated 85,000 Soviet military personnel who have occupied the country since last winter's invasion. Before long, the mysterious enlisted man had become the most...
Both the State Department and the Pentagon chose to play the issue down, partly because of lack of hard information. Although they believe that the soldier wants to defect to avoid punishment for insubordination, they are not certain. Strangely, no one on the 16-member staff of the Kabul embassy speaks either Russian or German and the would-be defector thus has not yet been fully interrogated. For their part, the Soviets insist that he is a common criminal escaping from military justice. They charge that he was lured into the compound...
Armed with tanks, armored personnel carriers and helicopter gunships, Soviet forces launched major attacks last month in four areas: Ghazni, southwest of Kabul; Parwan to the north; Ghorband, 30 miles south of the capital; and the Kunar Valley to the northeast. Nonetheless, the Soviets have not yet pacified the forbidding, mountainous country. Even with an estimated 85,000 troops in Afghanistan, plus 30,000 in reserve near by, they are unable to control the countryside or protect their lines of communication from guerrilla ambushes. Says Naji Bullah, an official of one of the Afghan rebel groups based in Peshawar...
Even in the capital, the Soviets must contend with the smoldering hostility of the local population. Civil riots in Kabul last February reportedly resulted in 500 to 2,000 civilian deaths, while another 60 to 100 people were killed during two weeks of anti-Soviet demonstrations last month. At least seven people died last week in clashes between police and armed students...