Word: mujahedin
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...Soviet Union's "limited contingent" of 105,000 men still seems far from winning a decisive victory over anti-Communist rebels. Moscow's forces had not previously engaged in combat outside the Soviet bloc since 1945, and from the start they appeared to be unprepared for the mujahedin's hit-and-run guerrilla tactics. In recent months, Soviet military journals have devoted considerable space to the problems of mountain combat, pointing out that Soviet soldiers have not been adequately trained to cope with communication and equipment breakdowns in rugged terrain with fluctuating temperatures...
...troops have been killed in the past four years, according to U.S. estimates, but the Soviets are not about to leave. They still have a force of 105,000 in Afghanistan, enough to hold the cities most of the time but nowhere near enough to dominate the countryside. The Mujahedin guerrillas, whose insurrection precipitated the Soviet invasion in the first place, control some 80% of the Texas-size country. Despite factional differences and a pressing shortage of modern equipment, the rebels fight on with unflagging ferocity, but they are far from defeating the combined force of the Soviet occupation...
...civilians dead in nearby settlements. At times over the past year, they have mounted aerial and artillery attacks on Istalif, Herat and other cities, but without destroying the rebels' resiliency. Soon after the Soviet and Afghan government forces announced last August that they had "pacified" Kandahar, the Mujahedin took to the rooftops with loudspeakers and for hours taunted the government soldiers, urging them to defect to the rebel cause...
...flow of arms smuggled over the mountain passes from Pakistan by hand and by horseback. (Guerrillas are routinely expected to carry a rifle and 500 cartridges for 24 hours without rest.) Most of the weapons are leftovers from Soviet military aid programs in Egypt and China, given to the mujahedin by the governments of those countries. They generally include Soviet-made Kalashnikov rifles, bazookas and portable antitank rocket launchers (RPG-7s). Against Soviet air attacks the rebels have only a few ZPU-1 14.5-mm machine guns and hundreds of 12.7-mm DShK heavy machine guns identical to those discovered...
...rebels lack transportation, heavy equipment and medicine, they must rely on resilience and resourcefulness. Their principal aim is to stem the tide of refugees. Along the exit route in the Panjshir Valley, for example, they check the papers of every would-be emigrant, turning back those without appropriate mujahedin documentation. In battle, the rebels specialize in bushwhacking tank columns, raiding army garrisons, blowing up power lines and assassinating members of the KhAD. Using Soviet land mines fished out of the ground with wooden pitchforks, they destroyed at least twelve enemy tanks in the Panjshir Valley last year. "We destroy their...