Word: mujahedins
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...Viet Nam. Surely it would be only a matter of time -- months at most -- before the collapse of the Kabul government led by President Najibullah, the weak puppet left in place by the withdrawing Soviets. Succeeding him would be an interim government composed of seven U.S.- and Pakistan-backed mujahedin factions...
...much for conventional wisdom. This week, when Secretary of State James Baker flies to Moscow for talks with Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze, Afghanistan will be high on the agenda: namely, Soviet requests for negotiations to devise a political settlement of the stalemated war between the mujahedin and the Kabul forces. Moscow will complain, moreover, that the ongoing fighting is fueled by arms from the U.S., a violation of the Geneva accord that led to the Soviet troop withdrawal. But Baker is unlikely to respond favorably. The National Security Council has concluded that the rebels need more time to prove their...
What clouded Washington's initially rosy scenario was the surprising tenacity of the Najibullah government. Few thought the leader handpicked by the Soviets could survive the departure of Moscow's troops, but he has moved with unexpected astuteness, politically and militarily. A much heralded mujahedin assault on the city of Jalalabad has bogged down in a costly siege. In a battle plan now called a "disaster" by a U.S. official, the guerrillas failed to make the transition from hit-and-run attackers to disciplined militiamen able to plan and carry out complicated offensives...
...political front, U.S. optimism also seems misplaced. Some experts are worried that the mujahedin leader who has received the lion's share of U.S. support, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, is a fanatic Muslim who might turn out to be Afghanistan's version of the Ayatullah Khomeini. Others wonder whether the mujahedin coalition, linked by hatred of the Najibullah regime, could stay together long enough to form an effective government...
...mujahedin's political disarray is heightened by the military stalemate at Jalalabad. On March 6, a force of 10,000 guerrillas launched an assault on the city, which was defended by an estimated 11,000 government troops. From ! the rebel perspective, Jalalabad was a logical, indeed necessary target. Government forces occupied 25 of Afghanistan's 31 provincial capitals. Seizing Jalalabad, the third largest city, would not only wound the fragile morale of government troops, but it would also enhance the rebels' bid for wider international recognition of their newly formed government-in-exile. Some mujahedin leaders confidently predicted that...