By the same author SOVIET LAND POWER

Transcription

1 WAR IN AFGHANISTAN

2 By the same author SOVIET LAND POWER

3 War in Afghanistan Mark Urban Defence Correspondent, The Independent M MACMILLAN PRESS

4 Mark L. Urban 1988 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright Act 1956 (as amended). Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. First published 1988 Published by THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 2XS and London Companies and representatives throughout the world Typeset by Vine & Gorfin Ltd, Exmouth, Devon British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Urban, Mark L. War in Afghanistan. I. Afghanistan-History-Soviet Occupation, I. Title 958'.1044 DS371.2 ISBN ISBN (ebook) DOI /

5 For my brother Stuart

6 Contents List of Maps List of Abbreviations Preface Prologue: Before 1978 One: 1978 Two: 1979 Three: 1980 Four: 1981 Five: 1982 Six: 1983 Seven: 1984 Eight: 1985 Nine: 1986 Analysis Appendix I: Kabul Forces Order of Battle Appendix II: Soviet Forces in Afghanistan Appendix III: The Afghan Cabinet Appendix IV: Resistance Parties Index VIII IX Xl VB

7 List of Maps I Afghanistan, provincial boundaries, II Central Corps main unit locations, Kabul, III Kabul forces main unit locations, IV Fighting in Kunar valley, August-December V Main axes of Soviet advance, VI Attack on the Marmoul Gorge, August VII Main Soviet unit locations, VIII Panjsher 5, May-June IX Panjsher 6, August-September X Shomali operation, November XI Panjsher 7, April-May XII Relief of Barikot, May XIII Second eastern offensive of XIV Zhawar campaign, vin

8 List of Abbreviations AGSA APC BMD BMP BTR CIA DIA ORA dushman DYOA DWOA GRU IAAM IP ISA 1M IRM IUAL jihad Jerga KAM KGB KHAD LCSFA MRL mujahadeen Afghan government intelligence service, May 1978-September 1979 armoured personnel carrier boyevaya maschina desantnika, (airborne combat vehicle) boyevaya maschina pekhoty, (infantry fighting vehicle) brontetransporter, (armoured troop carrier such as BTR-60) Central Intelligence Agency (of USA) Defence Intelligence Agency (of US military) Democratic Republic of Afghanistan meaning 'enemy', Soviet soldiers' word for guerrilla Democratic Youth Organisation of Afghanistan Democratic Women's Organisation of Afghanistan Glavnoye Razvedyvatelnoye Upravleniye, Main Intelligence Directorate (of Soviet General Staff) Islamic Alliance of Afghan Mujahadeen, resistance party, same as IU AL Islamic Party, resistance group, with Hekmatyar and Khalis factions Islamic Society of Afghanistan, resistance group Islamic Movement, resistance group Islamic Revolution Movement, resistance group Islamic Unity for Afghan Liberation, resistance group Holy War councilor meeting Afghan government intelligence service, September December 1979 Komitet Gosudarstvenoy Bezopasnosti, Committee for State Security of Soviet Union acronym for State Information Service, Afghan government intelligence service, January January 1986 (replaced Ministry of State Security) Limited Contingent of Soviet Forces in Afghanistan multiple rocket launcher fighters of God, anti-government guerrillas IX

9 x MVD Nasr NFF NIFA NLF PDPA PLO Sarandoy Shura TVD VDV VTA VVS List of Abbreviations Ministerstvo Vnutrenost Del, USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs Victory, resistance group National Fatherland Front National Islamic Front of Afghanistan, resistance group National Liberation Front (of Afghanistan), resistance group People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan Palestine Liberation Organisation Kabul Ministry of the Interior Armed Forces acronym for Council of the Union, Hazara guerrilla party Teatr Voyennikh Destviy, Soviet Theatre of Military Operations Vozduyushno Desantniki Voisk, Air Assault Forces (Soviet) Voyenno Transportnaya Aviatsaya, Military Transport Aviation (Soviet) Vozduyushno Voorezhenie Sil, Air Forces (Soviet)

10 Preface This book is a description of the military struggle for Afghanistan. It concerns the objectives, operations, tactics and effectiveness of the forces involved in that struggle. The aim is to describe the war as objectively and in as much detail as possible. Truth is an elastic commodity in Mghanistan. Both sides resort to exaggeration and plain dishonesty to publicise their cause. Cut away the rhetoric and a surprising amount of common ground emerges in guerrilla and government accounts of many incidents. For example mujahadeen reports that they had crushed enemy forces at Zhawar in April 1986 were in themselves an admission that the Afghan army had, as reported by Kabul, succeeded in fighting its way through to the fortress. This book has been written from a very wide variety of sources. It is one of the few books about Afghanistan that exploits Kabul and Moscow sources. An enormous amount of detail has been disclosed by 'the other side', but unfortunately most writers in the West digest the guerrilla view too uncritically to make any use of it. The book also makes use of many eyewitness accounts - some published, others related to me. Often these provide vital corroboration of the claim of one side or the other. It is not a work of personal experience; many of those have already appeared. Instead it is a summary drawn from many thousands of documents and accounts. The chapters of the book are intended to provide an account of events with a certain amount of analysis. The key military actions are described and background is provided. Examinations of trends, development offorces and so on are built into the chapters, so that Chapter Four, 1981, contains a great deal more than just the main battles of that year. I have tried to confine my opinions to the Prologue and the concluding Analysis. Statements and opinions in the chapters are attributed, as far as possible, in the notes at the end of each chapter. I have had access to some unpublished sources, such as US military maps of the country. The use of these - so much better than those which are publicly available - allowed a lot more sense to be made of battle accounts. As far as possible, the sketch maps in this book include relevant detail from these maps. Xl

11 XII Preface In some ways it would have been more sensible to have waited some years for the war to finish before embarking on this project. But by starting now the book has not been crushed by the weight of hindsight. Because the outcome is still in the balance I have been obliged to treat all of the research fairly - the gains and losses of both sides have to be reported. The argument cannot be stilted in favour of a particular outcome. The narrative ends injuly although some details of events beyond then have been included. Obviously interesting events have happened since July 1986, but the demands of producing a book mean that a line must be drawn. I would like to thank the many people who have given interviews for the book - their names are in the notes. I would also like to thank the staff at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, the BBC External Services, the Afghan Support Committee, the Friends of Afghanistan and Vincent Dowd for reading the manuscript. Mark Urban London