Word: stinger
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...rebels were not known to have the heat-seeking SA-7s until they fired one at a Salvadoran jet last week. The shoulder-held SA-7 is a Soviet-designed cousin of the more advanced U.S. Stinger rocket that significantly boosted the power of the mujahedin in the Afghan war. "These missiles could really make a difference," says a key U.S. Senate staffer. The insurgents offered to sheathe the weapon if the air force stopped bombing and strafing ground targets, but Cristiani is unlikely to accept the deal...
...them in a final showdown, Massoud is training 10,000 men, initial units of an "Islamic army," to fight like a conventional force, rather than as hit-and-run marauders. Training, in camps spread along the rugged northern flanks of the Hindu Kush, includes the use of U.S.-supplied Stinger antiaircraft missiles as well as heavy artillery, rockets and a few highly treasured tanks. "But," Massoud concedes, "we have to prepare, and that will take time...
...discuss military strategy and the internal politicking with Massoud, the leader of Jamiat-i-Islami, Burhanuddin Rabbani, 53, in September made his first trip to Afghanistan's northeast since the war began. Accompanied by an escort equipped with Stinger missiles, the former Kabul University theology professor met with Jamiat commanders in Panjshir's bomb-scarred villages. Rabbani told TIME that he thought it unlikely that elections could be held soon after Kabul falls. "It is important to establish a government on the basis of the vote of the common people of Afghanistan," he said in a bow to principle...
...drive has hardly daunted UNITA. Thanks to years of support from South African troops, bases in neighboring states and U.S. military aid, including potent Stinger antiaircraft missiles, Savimbi's men seem as determined as ever. They roam freely in 16 of Angola's 19 provinces and constantly launch deadly assaults on government soldiers. UNITA, Savimbi claims, has enough arms and money to go on fighting for two more years...
...months later Gorbachev came to power. The most significant act of his tenure has been his decision to pull the Soviet army out of Afghanistan. To hear some enthusiasts for the Reagan Doctrine tell it, Gorbachev was merely yielding to vigorous and effective containment: the U.S. gave Stinger missiles to the Afghan freedom fighters, enabling them to blow enough Soviet helicopters out of the sky for the pragmatic new man in the Kremlin to order a tactical retreat...