Word: mujahedin
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Increasingly, the signs seemed to point to a Soviet exit from Afghanistan before the end of 1988. Kremlin officials made no secret of their desire to bring home their 115,000 troops. Both the Soviet-backed regime of Afghan Leader Najibullah and the government of Pakistan, which supports the mujahedin rebels, predicted that the Geneva negotiations expected to resume in March under United Nations auspices would be the "last round" leading to a final agreement. But a sharply worded declaration from the guerrillas, blasting the Geneva talks and casting serious doubt on their willingness to accept a compromise settlement, dimmed...
...citizens have an extra cause to celebrate during this year's May Day festivities? If a report in Pravda is to be believed, the 115,000 Soviet troops in Afghanistan could start coming home May 1. The Soviets still insist, however, that the U.S. first halt support for the mujahedin rebel groups -- something the Reagan Administration has refused to do until Moscow agrees on a definite timetable for its pullout. Said a skeptical U.S. official: "We're waiting for that crucial missing link, which is a Soviet decision on withdrawal...
...pull out quickly "so that once it starts, there's a certain inevitability to it." Shultz added a new demand, insisting that all Soviet military aid to Afghanistan cease after the pullout. On a conciliatory note, he reiterated that the U.S. would similarly cut off arms supplies for the mujahedin, Afghanistan's rebels. The U.S., he said, might taper off its arms shipments to the rebels as the Soviets retreated...
...thorniest issue is how to constitute a government. Washington and Moscow would like to resolve the issue with some form of coalition between the ruling Afghan Communists and the mujahedin, but neither Afghan party likes the idea. Most mujahedin leaders reject outright any suggestion of sharing power with the Afghan Communists, who will be powerless without their Soviet backers. U.S. Under Secretary of State Michael Armacost raised the issue with rebel leaders last week in Islamabad but made no headway. Said Sayed Ahmed Gilani, chief of the National Islamic Front for Afghanistan: "We told Mr. Armacost that the future government...
...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...