As the Soviets launch a spring offensive, the guerrillas hang tough
Ever since Soviet tanks first rumbled across the border in December 1979, Afghanistan has been an isolated land of mystery and misery. Some 3.3 million Afghans—20% of the population—are in exile, most of them in Pakistan. But little is known of the conditions they left behind. This spring Joseph Albright, chief foreign correspondent for Cox Newspapers, and Marcia Kunstel, a freelance reporter, spent six weeks between them in separate travels through the strife-ridden nation. Their joint report for TIME:
For two 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 apparently hope that by demolishing villages they can devastate local agriculture and drive the residents from areas that might otherwise lend support to the insurgents. As Abdul Haq, a guerrilla commander interviewed in Pakistan, points out, "Every kind of supply for the mujahedin [warriors] comes from the civilian population. It makes trouble when the villages are empty."
Whatever its wider aims, the offensive failed to squelch the guerrillas, who number anywhere from 100,000 to 200,000. Bolstered by their religious zeal—and, more practically, by a flow of arms and supplies from abroad—they are grimly determined to rid their homeland of the hated invader. "The Islamic faith is the force behind our jihad [holy war]," says Rebel Unit Commander Mohammed Anwar. "If we thought this was an ordinary battle, we could not fight the Soviets.
They could destroy Afghanistan in two hours. But if we believe God has promised us victory because we are right, it becomes quite feasible." That determination has won some battles. Only last week one Western analyst claimed that guerrillas killed some 200 government soldiers during a three-day battle, while forcing the rest of the unit to desert. Elsewhere, one young fighter claimed to have knocked out two Soviet tanks in a single day; another boasted that on the same day he had killed five enemy soldiers. Declared a guerrilla radio operator named Mirojadeen: "We will fight until our blood runs out—ten, 20,100 years."