Word: rebel
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...transparent bids for some popular acceptance to complement the Soviets' military support. According to most accounts, Moscow's occupation force effectively controlled all of Afghanistan's major cities and highways, but still faced considerable resistance in rural areas; perhaps 80% of the barren countryside remained in rebel hands. After a four-day lull, attacks by Muslim insurgents flared again in the northeast provinces of Badakhshan and Takhar. Civil unrest, according to U.S. intelligence reports, erupted repeatedly inside Kandahar, an ancient trading center on the edge of the Desert of Death. Soviet forces also found themselves in confrontation...
...Rebel bands continued to mount raids against the Soviets' lines of communication. One ambush in the northern Salang Pass, for example, successfully blocked a Soviet convoy of more than 200 vehicles at a 7,000-ft. altitude for almost 24 hours. Yet for all their hit-and-run bravado, it was clear that the rebels were on the defensive, and sooner or later the Soviets would have the insurgency under control. "A besieged government on the verge of collapse has been saved," an Asian military attache grudgingly allowed. "Shoring up a doomed regime obviously was the Soviets' first...
...high-flying U.S. espionage planes have all, at one time or another, made use of Peshawar's strategic semidesert location at the base of the Khyber Pass. Today Peshawar, which is only 34 miles from the Afghan border, has become the principal bivouac and nerve center for Afghan rebels who have crossed the border to escape the invading Soviet troops. Last week, after a visit to the city-whose population of 300,000 has been swollen by thousands of refugees-TIME Correspondent David DeVoss filed this report: There are at least 60 different rebel factions fighting in Afghanistan. Nearly...
When the bullets run out, he will return to Peshawar to scrape up some more. Men like Janeb Gul are driven by a profound spirit of tribal vengeance that is almost as old as the Hindu Kush. Unfortunately, that same spirit has also kept the rebels from working well together. Liberation fronts and organizations for Afghan unity dissolve as quickly as they are formed. Intertribal conflicts are equally intense. One rebel leader is notorious for eliminating rivals by sending them on deadly undercover missions to Kabul. Complains the Pakistani director of the Commission for Afghan Refugees: "Everyone claims...
...power grab by Gailani for leadership of the insurgents would be challenged-probably without much success -by at least two other rebel leaders. Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, 32, an engineer who studied at Kabul University, is highly regarded for his administrative skills. But his base of support, an organization called Hezb-i-Islami, may be too rigidly Muslim in outlook for some rebels. Another Muslim group, Jamiat-i-Islami, is led by Burhanuddin Rabbani, 40, a former professor of religion at Kabul University. Although Jamiat is considered more tolerant than Hekmatyar's group, Rabbani has no personal following outside...