Word: najibullah
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...rebels' timing was impeccable. Najibullah, leader of the Moscow-backed regime in Afghanistan, was 15 minutes into his opening address at a National Assembly session called to adopt a new constitution giving him vast powers as President. Suddenly a rocket explosion shook the meeting hall. Three more blasts, each louder than the last, followed during the next few minutes. The beefy Najibullah, 41, known to his countrymen as "the Ox," never flinched as he outlined a policy of national reconciliation aimed at ending eight years of civil war. The rockets killed five people outside the hall, helping the rebels make...
...Najibullah (like many Afghans, he uses no first name) was trying to consolidate his grip on the affairs of state, but the ground was moving beneath him. His effort to coax rebels back into the fold with offers of amnesty has failed. His army has become a demoralized shambles. Soldiers often refuse to fight and are deserting to the rebels in large numbers. Now he must face the most daunting prospect of all: a possible pullout of Soviet troops...
...Kabul, Najibullah and his Moscow backers began climbing down from their insistence on a 16-month schedule for the removal of Soviet troops. Now the Afghan leader, installed by Moscow in May 1986, proposed a twelve-month timetable. Significantly, he said his proposal "has already been negotiated with the Soviet side." Concluded a Western envoy in Kabul: "This is the summit proposal. This is the timetable they are offering...
There may also be a threat from Najibullah's Communist rivals. In downtown Kabul, a series of small bombs exploded last week, damaging a shop and an apartment complex. Western diplomats speculate that the blasts were caused by followers of Najibullah's political opponent, former Party Chief Babrak Karmal, whom the Soviets purged last year. Karmal's followers may have staged the attacks to protest the departure of their leader for the Soviet Union two weeks ago, ostensibly for medical treatment. They fear that Karmal has been forcibly detained...
...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 in the mujahedin's holy war against Kabul...