Word: shomali
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...hours after dawn, thunderous explosions boomed every five seconds across the Shomali region of northeast Afghanistan, as Soviet tanks and artillery fired more than 1,000 shells at suspected guerrilla hideouts. Every 15 minutes, in reply, came the resounding rattle of heavy machine-gun fire as the guerrillas aimed, in vain, at two helicopter gunships circling high above the green plains. That evening tanks could be heard clanking through the darkness. By morning they were gone...
Such were the sounds of the Soviet spring offensive, vintage 1983, perhaps the most savage assault since the invasion. There are, according to Western estimates, some 105,000 Soviet troops now in Afghanistan. Using tanks, helicopters and fighter-bombers, these forces pounded villages throughout the Shomali region. Their objective, presumably, was to obliterate guerrilla strength around the crucial 50-mile stretch of highway leading from Kabul toward the Soviet border, along which the invaders transport their supplies. Meantime, according to Western intelligence reports, Soviet bombers were attacking targets near Herat in the west and around Kandahar in the south. They...