Word: mujahedin
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...fill the country's power vacuum. Just three days after the departure of the last Soviet troops based in Afghanistan, as major cities became the target of sporadic but deadly rebel rocket attacks, the government of President Najibullah abruptly slapped a state-of-emergency decree on the country. The mujahedin, meanwhile, after two weeks of paralyzing delays, managed to reach at least tentative agreement on the leadership of a rival government-in-exile...
...Sayed Ahmad Gailani, 56, is the most pro-Western and secular of the mujahedin leaders, despite his claim of direct descent from the Prophet Muhammad. Gailani's National Islamic Front is nicknamed the "Gucci Muj" for its leader's taste in well-tailored camouflage uniforms. Though he favors the return of exiled King Zahir Shah, Gailani is also a fervent believer in Western-style elections...
...eventual government would be Islamic in character, though not as radical as Iran's. According to this view, the new regime would not only be sufficiently decentralized to keep power outside Kabul largely in tribal hands but nonthreatening to the Soviets as well. Even the most anti- Soviet mujahedin, says a State Department official, realize that "the Afghans sleep next to the bear, and so they must act accordingly...
...breaking down the morale of government troops, the rebels hope to trigger defections or even rebellion within the army ranks. Some rebel commanders boast that army garrisons around the country have arranged for their own surrender, and that soldiers will turn themselves over to the mujahedin shortly after the last Soviets pull out. But according to one scenario making the rounds in Washington, the rebels will not need to manipulate the economic and military noose for very long. The ruling party, these analysts conclude, will hang itself. "The rot within the ((ruling party)) is already pronounced," says a State Department...
...face-saving Soviet diplomacy fails and the mujahedin squabble, the Kabul regime prepares for the final siege and Washington ponders its next move. | -- The Chemical Connection: why the South American coke trade is a two-way street. -- Steering a new course, former Jamaican Prime Minister Michael Manley is returned to power...