Afghanistan: Impasse at Jalalabad

Despite repeated furious attacks, mujahedin rebels were no closer to capturing the city of Jalalabad last week. They seemed to be suffering from disorganization as well as an inability to pull off major assaults. In one battle last week, rebel artillery pounded the Soviet-backed government’s positions at the city’s airport for hours at a time, but the several hundred guerrillas who mustered to rush the defenses never got going — the attack bogged down under return fire and arguments within their own ranks over how to attack across several hundred yards of open ground.

When tanks and MiG aircraft zeroed in on their positions, the rebels fell back, taking an alarming number of casualties along the way. Reviewing the failed encounter, a frustrated Rahim Wardak, the battlefront commander of the National Islamic Front for Afghanistan, concluded that the battle that began more than three weeks ago “is turning into a stalemate.”