Word: khalili
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...battlefield at Kunar, the once dreaded Mi-24 Hind helicopter gunships were taken almost entirely out of the fighting by the Stingers. They flew only a few sorties under cover of night, when Stingers are difficult to aim. Said mujahedin Leader Massood Khalili of the helicopters' decline: "For nine years the dragon ruled the skies over Afghanistan. Now the dragon is dead...
...them. Bullets are too expensive. Maybe we will stone them to death, or cut their throats, or throw them off a cliff." Despite heavy Soviet pressure, the resistance fighters remain confident. "The mujahedin are better organized than before, better unified than before, with better morale than before," says Massood Khalili, a guerrilla political officer. New weapons like surface-to-surface rockets, Oerlikon antiaircraft guns and the Stingers have helped immensely. The Stingers, for example, are potent weapons against the once omnipotent Mi- 24 helicopter gunship. Battlefield communication and coordination among mujahedin groups have also improved with the introduction of field...
Popular support for the guerrillas appears to be holding fast. "The Russians have found that it is not just a bunch of mujahedin they are fighting, it is the nation as a whole," says Khalili. "They found that all Afghans are really mujahedin, whether it is a seven-year-old child who gives information about the enemy or an old man of 70 who gives us a piece of bread...