Word: salang
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...slow and steady strangulation of the major cities. "We want to collapse the city from within," explains Abdul Haq, a powerful commander whose men are positioned around Kabul. Key targets include the shutdown of airports, the closure of the government's arms pipeline and the cutting of the Salang Highway, the 264-mile road that stretches from Kabul into Soviet territory...
Political solutions are not uppermost in the minds of most of the 2.2 million residents of Kabul. They are worrying about day-to-day survival. The winter has been unusually harsh. With the exception of the Salang Highway, roads into the city are cut, resulting in shortages of bread, diesel fuel, sugar, kerosene and other basics; electricity is available only part of the time. The Kabul grain silo, which usually holds a stock of 20,000 tons, has been empty at several points in the past few weeks. The poor are especially vulnerable because they cannot afford to shop...
...Khair Khana, a residential area, a thousand women and children pushed and shoved for flour and fuel provided by the Soviets. Afghan soldiers thrashed the crowd with blankets and sticks to keep order. Last week an emergency Soviet airlift, along with the arrival of large convoys on the Salang, greatly alleviated the food shortages, but despite Moscow's promises, it was unclear how long that aid could continue...
...government's most immediate military concern focuses on the Salang. The Soviets have been able to keep the route open by combining military muscle with diplomacy. Outposts dot the way. Soviet officers had an informal understanding with Ahmad Shah Massoud, the powerful mujahedin commander in the Panjshir Valley, north of Kabul: safe passage for Soviet vehicles as long as Moscow keeps up the withdrawal. After last week's offensive by Soviet and Afghan troops, that arrangement may be finished...
...Soviet-backed Afghan government likes to control the news by supplying foreign correspondents with official "guides." Though Desmond's assigned minders complained that it was unauthorized, he managed to drive a few miles out along the snowy Salang Highway to a new Afghan army base currently guarding the Red Army's exit route...