Word: mujahedin
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...miles of the Pakistani border. About 20,000 Soviet paratroopers, backed by Mi-24 helicopter gunships, artillery and armor, blasted the Afghan border provinces of Paktia and Nangarhar. They were resisted, at times in bitter hand-to-hand fighting, by an estimated 5,000 Afghan rebels known as mujahedin. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, were killed on both sides. At least 300 rebel casualties were carried into refugee camps on the Pakistani side of the border. In the Afghan capital of Kabul, eyewitnesses reported that military and civilian hospitals were filled with wounded Soviet soldiers...
...Soviet assault apparently began last month with a massive helicopter airlift of paratroopers into the Afghan town of Gardez, 65 miles south of Kabul. For nearly a month, the small Soviet garrison at Khost, 22 miles from the Pakistani border, had been under siege by the Afghan mujahedin...
They converged in the bleak scrublands of southeastern Angola. Rebel Leader Jonas Savimbi played host to the others: spokesmen for the Nicaraguan Democratic Force, the Afghan mujahedin and the hill tribes opposing the Communist regime in Laos. For two days they talked and socialized in Jamba, stronghold of Savimbi's well-armed and organized movement against Angola's Marxist government, and stood shoulder to shoulder with the American who had brought them together: Lewis Lehrman, millionaire Republican leader of a lobby called Citizens for America. The group announced the formation of an alliance, Democratic International, to support "the fight...
Some governments affected by the rebel movements were even more cautious than Reagan. Pakistan blocked Afghan rebel leaders from traveling to the meeting from Pakistani base camps. Mujahedin Colonel Ghulam Wardak flew to Africa from Washington, where he is recovering from battle wounds. Nervous Thai authorities, according to a Lehrman aide, created "tremendous problems" before allowing Laotian Guerrilla Leader Pa Kao Her to fly to the conference from Bangkok. But South Africa, which supports Savimbi, allowed participants to fly from Johannesburg...
...sees the situation, however, the Soviet military leadership is frustrated by the stalemate in Afghanistan, where 115,000 Soviet troops are engaged, and is preparing for an all-out campaign against the mujahedin, including their bases in Pakistan. Pakistani officials point out, for example, that Moscow seems to have lost interest in the resumption of the U.N.-mediated talks between Pakistan and Afghanistan in Geneva. If the Soviets are in fact determined to destroy the mujahedin once and for all, it stands to reason that they would exert increased pressure on the neighboring country that provides the guerrillas with sanctuaries...