Word: najibullah
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...Soviet Union's 115,000 troops rumbled out of Afghanistan last February, the common wisdom saw it as a whimpering finale to Moscow's 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...
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...
...stormy two-week session was marred by infighting and last-minute reversals. But last week outside Islamabad, a council of the seven Pakistan- based mujahedin factions at last agreed on a formula for sharing power if they overthrow the Soviet-backed government of President Najibullah in Afghanistan...
...year-old civil war wasted much time last week in attempting to fill the country's power vacuum. Just three days after the departure of the last Soviet troops based in Afghanistan, as major cities became the target of sporadic but deadly rebel rocket attacks, the government of President Najibullah abruptly slapped a state-of-emergency decree on the country. The mujahedin, meanwhile, after two weeks of paralyzing delays, managed to reach at least tentative agreement on the leadership of a rival government-in-exile...
...Soviet withdrawal, the operating word has been "symmetry." Last week the Bush Administration held a one-hour high-level review of U.S. policy toward Afghanistan that resulted in no announced changes. That means that Washington would continue to fund and arm the rebels as long as Moscow supplied Najibullah's forces...