Word: kabul
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...eyewitness account of hatred and terror in Kabul...
...city to Western reporters, as the Soviets seek to crush a widespread rebellion that makes mock of their claim that last December's invasion was merely an attempt to help a neighbor in need. The reality is that despite an awesome military presence, resistance goes on even inside Kabul-a curfewed, frightened and sullen city under the gun. John Shaw, an Australian journalist and former TIME correspondent, spent a week in its tank-guarded streets and markets, often under the surveillance of Afghanistan's dreaded secret police. His report...
Every morning, as the weak spring sunshine breaks through the mists and low clouds swathing the jagged snowcapped mountains ringing Kabul, flocks of Soviet helicopters-Mi-24 "Flying Tank" gunships and Mi-8 troop and supply carriers-lift off from the airport and roar across the city on flight paths calculated to inspire fear and respect. Thus begins the daily ritual of checking and opening the highways through Kabul Gorge, Sarobi and Jalalabad to the Khyber Pass (the east); to Ghazni and Kandahar (the south); and to the Salang Pass and the Soviet frontier (the north). Other helicopter forces...
...Kabul Airport is a massive Soviet military base. Tanks guard key city intersections. Cannons are trained on the main bazaar. Armored personnel carriers rumble through the streets. Heavily armed soldiers guard all public buildings. A curfew begins at 10 p.m., but the streets are empty between 7 p.m. and 8 a.m. It is forbidden for more than four people to assemble without permission in a public place...
...Kabul is waiting for something to happen-riots, guerrilla action, a tightening of curfew, the replacement of Moscow's puppet party boss Babrak Karmal, army or police mutiny, perhaps an even more overt Soviet takeover. However ill founded, however paranoid, the constant rumors have a reality of their own in shaping the war psychosis of the occupied city. The men seen in the streets with guns, the façade of power, are Afghans. The real occupiers, the Soviets, are invisible, except for their helicopters, the jet contrails, the daily barrage of Pravda-phrased media propaganda, the Cyrillic script...