Word: massoud
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Ahmad Shah Massoud, 35, a onetime engineering student at the Soviet Polytechnic Institute in Kabul, has spent the past nine years molding the mujahedin in Afghanistan's northeast into what is widely considered the country's most effective guerrilla formation. Last May Massoud's men, who owe allegiance to Jamiat-i-Islami, one of the seven mujahedin parties based across the border in Pakistan, watched in triumph as the last Soviet and Afghan government troops retreated from the Panjshir...
After nine years of fighting, mujahedin can drive their few vehicles through the valley in daylight with little worry of attack. The government withdrawal from the Panjshir has prompted hopes in Kabul that Massoud might be coaxed into a cease-fire or even a coalition. According to Massoud, President Najibullah has even offered him a choice of top government posts in exchange for peace...
...walled farmhouse three days' ride from the Panjshir Valley, Massoud is asked if he would consider dealing with Najibullah. Amid interruptions from aides bringing intelligence reports scribbled on scraps of paper, the guerrilla chief declares, "There is no possibility of coexistence with the Communists...
Never staying in the same house for more than a few hours, Massoud lives in constant motion. Several assassination attempts by government agents and Soviet commandos have forced him to behave like a hunted man. Beyond that, overseeing an estimated 50,000 rebel fighters demands constant meetings with his commanders. Not only must the mujahedin adapt their military tactics if they are to oust the government, but they must also position themselves to determine which among the main insurgent groups will predominate once the government in Kabul falls. Though it is impossible to predict which group will be the most...
...military area, Massoud believes that the mujahedin must strike a decisive blow soon, before Najibullah can adjust to the departure of the Soviets, who are scheduled to complete their troop withdrawal by Feb. 15. The government has 150,000 troops dug in around major cities. To face them in a final showdown, Massoud is training 10,000 men, initial units of an "Islamic army," to fight like a conventional force, rather than as hit-and-run marauders. Training, in camps spread along the rugged northern flanks of the Hindu Kush, includes the use of U.S.-supplied Stinger antiaircraft missiles...