Karmal tries for political legitimacy as the rebels fight on. More than five Soviet armored divisions were deployed around his country to help suppress the Muslim rebels. Fortified by what might be called Russian courage, Moscow's puppet President Babrak Karmal tried to improve his image last week, both inside and outside Afghanistan. In an attempt to broaden his shaky political base at home, he announced the formation of a "national unity" Cabinet, giving unprecedented prominence to non-Communist and military leaders. And in an effort to mend regional ties he made flamboyant overtures of friendship to Iran's Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini.
Karmal's political ventures were transparent bids for some popular acceptance to complement the Soviets' military support. According to most accounts, Moscow's occupation force effectively controlled all of Afghanistan's major cities and highways, but still faced considerable resistance in rural areas; perhaps 80% of the barren countryside remained in rebel hands. After a four-day lull, attacks by Muslim insurgents flared again in the northeast provinces of Badakhshan and Takhar. Civil unrest, according to U.S. intelligence reports, erupted repeatedly inside Kandahar, an ancient trading center on the edge of the Desert of Death. Soviet forces also found themselves in confrontation with mutinous units of the crumbling Afghan army; on at least one occasion, at the southern town of
Ghazni, they were forced to disarm an entire Afghan rifle battalion.
Rebel bands continued to mount raids against the Soviets' lines of communication. One ambush in the northern Salang Pass, for example, successfully blocked a Soviet convoy of more than 200 vehicles at a 7,000-ft. altitude for almost 24 hours. Yet for all their hit-and-run bravado, it was clear that the rebels were on the defensive, and sooner or later the Soviets would have the insurgency under control. "A besieged government on the verge of collapse has been saved," an Asian military attache grudgingly allowed. "Shoring up a doomed regime obviously was the Soviets' first priority."
Subdued by the first blizzard of winter, Kabul was regaining a semblance of normality. Soviet convoys no longer growled through the narrow streets at dawn. Curio shops on Chicken Street reopened for business. The capital's telephones were functioning once more, and cross-country buses were running again. But the city was not the same. Soviet officers and political cadres were virtually in charge of the Defense and Interior ministries. Most large police stations now had live-in Soviet advisers. Just outside the city limits more than 16,000 Soviet soldiers continued to dig in.