Word: kunar
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Ever since the Soviets invaded Afghanistan last December, one of the most stubborn concentrations of anti-Communist Muslim resistance has been among the clannish Pushtun tribesmen of rugged Kunar province, near the Pakistan border. Six weeks ago, Soviet military commanders made the narrow river valleys and inaccessible mountains the target of their first major field offensive. Seven full combat battalions rolled into the province with the apparent mission of cutting rebel supply lines by sealing the porous border. TIME Correspondent David DeVoss managed to get across the frontier from Peshawar, Pakistan, for five days and linked up with fighting units...
With few large bridges or population centers, Kunar does not lend itself to mechanized warfare. But the fact has not deterred the Soviet juggernaut. Few towns lying near the sinuous Kunar River have escaped. Chenar and Dangam, first bombed by MiGs, were later also hit by rocket-firing helicopters. The exodus of 6,000 refugees from Kunar into Pakistan has left the area between the border and the river eerily quiet. But the hills have not been abandoned. No mountain is without its militia. After escorting their women into Pakistan, most men return, climb a few thousand feet higher...
...Kunar's embattled mujahidin clearly are on the defensive. Of the 160 rebels I saw, fewer than 10% had automatic weapons. The village commander at Baralow carries a bolt-action deer rifle. When asked how they could fight a modern army, several of the bearded elders in his 160-man force brandished curved swords. They make the most of what is available. Broken donkey harnesses are restitched into Sam Browne belts...
...Khyber Pass (the east); to Ghazni and Kandahar (the south); and to the Salang Pass and the Soviet frontier (the north). Other helicopter forces-sky caravans in what was once a land of camel caravans -fly farther, on missions and reinforcement flights to the eastern provinces of Paktia and Kunar, where a spring offensive against the mujahidin, the anti-Communist guerrillas, is under...
...principal source of news in Kabul is the "night letter." These hand-printed single-sheet leaflets circulate frequently, if sporadically. One distributed last week told of Soviet soldiers killing villagers in Paktia and Kunar provinces and claimed mujahidin success against Soviet and Afghan troops. The letters are scattered in streets, thrown over courtyard walls, stuffed under doors, but most commonly circulated from food bazaars and stalls by wrapping them around bread or fruit sold to housewives and children...