Word: mujahedin
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This is a bitter war, one without rules or limits. In early April, according to the mujahedin, the Soviets used poison gas in an attack on guerrilla antiaircraft positions. Hoja Inatullah, 19, says he nearly died of asphyxiation, surviving only by wetting his blanket and breathing through it. "For four or five hours afterward, I had trouble breathing," he says. "My friends carried me to the bomb shelter, and I lay there spitting up black fluid." In such a conflict, justice can be harsh for captured invaders. Said a young guerrilla named Ismail: "We won't shoot them. Bullets...
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...
Evidence of this solidarity is everywhere. In a seemingly pacified valley in the shadow of a Soviet base, where the crops grow tall and farmers toil in unbombed fields, the walls of the local teahouses are plastered with guerrilla posters and photographs of mujahedin heroes. Bands of guerrillas move about openly by daylight, carrying AK-47s and RPG-7s, on their way to attack Communist positions. In almost every valley a guerrilla base camp is hidden away in some ravine...
Though the guerrilla war simmered beyond the city limits, Kabul was calm. Traffic filled the streets as Afghans commemorated the monthlong Muslim holiday of Ramadan. In the bazaars, everything from carpets to Coca-Cola was selling briskly. Even so, the mujahedin have forced the government of & Communist Party Chief Najibullah to take precautions within the capital. There are insistent signs of anxiety. Sounds of distant artillery salvos punctuate Kabul evenings like erratic heartbeats. Searchlights rake the surrounding hills in search of rebel infiltrators. In the daytime, armored personnel carriers often clatter through city streets that are patrolled by soldiers armed...
...going its way, Kabul is often forced to concede the effectiveness of the guerrillas. Acknowledging that government forces shot down an intruding Pakistani F-16 recently, officials explained that the pilot had bailed out and was escorted back across the border by rebel forces -- an indication that mujahedin move freely in the border area. The national reconciliation drive launched by Najibullah in January has not fared well either. It has drawn the support of only about 40,000 refugees, a tiny fraction of the estimated 4 million displaced Afghans in Pakistan and Iran who support and often fight...