Word: tribesmen
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Afghanistan was an odd and remote focal point for such a U.S.-Soviet crisis. The snow-swept, mountainous land has few natural resources, and its Muslim tribesmen are more than 90% illiterate. Yet it was here that the Soviets chose to do something they had not done since World War II: in a blitzkrieg involving an estimated 50,000 soldiers, supported by tanks and helicopter gunships, the Soviet army crashed across the Afghan border to take control of a country that had not been a member of the Soviet bloc. By forcefully expanding its international sphere of direct control...
...region of crisis. Around Christmas, the U.S.S.R. began airlifting combat troops into Afghanistan, reinforcing an already strong Soviet presence. Last week the Soviet soldiers participated in a coup ousting a pro-Moscow regime that had proved hopelessly ineffective in trying to put down an insurrection by anti-Communist Muslim tribesmen. At week's end, Washington charged that Soviet troops had crossed the border into Afghanistan in what appeared to be an outright invasion (see WORLD...
...first dramatic signs of the Soviet action appeared on Christmas morning. Moscow suddenly began a massive airlift of combat soldiers to Afghanistan. The suspected motive at the time: to help the Afghan regime put down the rebellion of conservative Muslim tribesmen. In full sight of arriving and departing passengers, wave after wave of Soviet An-12 and An-22 transports landed at Kabul's international airport and unloaded not only combat troops but equipment ranging from field kitchens to armored vehicles...
Ominously for Taraki and the Soviets, however, there were already rumblings of revolt among conservative Muslim tribesmen unhappy at the prospect of radical social and economic reforms. As the Marxists in Kabul pressed their case, the opposition gradually developed into a full-scale religious insurgency. In March, thousands of Afghans in Herat (pop. 150,000), a provincial capital 400 miles west of Kabul, rose in a revolt that lasted for several days. An estimated 20,000 civilians lost their lives; so did at least 20 Soviet advisers and their families in a series of brutal rebel attacks...
...Afghanistan, the Soviet role has been aggressive and heavyhanded. Within the past three weeks, according to U.S. intelligence estimates, the Soviets may have tripled their military assistance to the Marxist regime of Hafizullah Amin, which is fighting to hold its own against a country-wide rebellion by Muslim tribesmen. The Soviets are now believed to have 5,000 to 10,000 military advisers in Afghanistan, many of whom are actually directing some field operations...