Word: rebels
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...Baker agreed with an NSC recommendation that in Moscow he should reject any Soviet pleas to promote a compromise settlement between the Soviet-backed Afghan government and the U.S.-backed rebels. Washington insists on continuing to supply arms to the rebel mujahedin, even though the U.S. has achieved its goal of getting the Soviets out of Afghanistan. Moscow denounces the U.S. policy as a violation of the Geneva accords under which the Kremlin pulled out its troops...
...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...
...rebels quickly shut down the airport and overran a government garrison at Samarkhel, south of Jalalabad. But their frontal attacks on the city were repulsed. The fighting now consists mostly of duels between government artillery and rebel rockets that have led only to horrendous civilian casualties...
Perhaps his most effective tactic, however, is to paint the mujahedin as pawns of a foreign power. Afghans abhor foreign invaders, and now that the Soviet army has gone, Najibullah has begun harping on how much the rebels are run by Pakistan and the U.S. His case has been helped by recent news accounts that Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto had ordered Lieut. General Hamid Gul, head of Pakistan's military intelligence organization (ISI) to launch the bloody Jalalabad assault. Gul and the ISI are unmistakably doing their best to direct the mujahedin operations, but it seems likely that...
Because the U.S. has largely operated through the ISI, it is seen as endorsing Pakistan's vision of a friendly Islamic regime in Kabul. The rebel leader who most closely fills that bill is Hekmatyar, head of the best- disciplined guerrilla organization, Hezb-e-Islami (Islamic Party). Some ; Western experts are uncomfortable with Hekmatyar's plan to turn Afghanistan into a Muslim state governed by shari'a (Islamic law), which could take an anti-American course. Should Washington be supporting someone with the potential to be a U.S. enemy? Defenders say Hekmatyar, despite his Islamic zeal, is also a pragmatist...