Soviet-Afghan troops attack

Press, 8 September 1982, Page 9

Soviet-Afghan troops attack

NZPA Islamabad Thousands of SovietAfghan troops supported by hundreds of military vehicles, including tanks and artillery, had launched a "massive attack" on the Panjshir Valley, said several sources yesterday. The attack, coming several weeks after a stalemate, was intended to consolidate the Soviet-Afghan position in the main Muslim resistance stronghold north-west of the Afghan capital, said the sources. The latest offensive confirmed Western diplomatic dispatches from Kabul on Tuesday that "additional troops are being sent" to Panjshir to control the strategic valley. Western diplomatic sources, citing reports from Kabul, said that the Soviets would make another attempt to reach the guerrilla points in the mountains before the (northern) winter came. The Soviet-Afghan troops succeeded in mid-May in regaining control of the towns

of Unaba and Rokha at the mouth of the valley.

But they failed to stay at five check posts set up after the operation, and in June abandoned three such posts faced with rebel attacks from the mountain side, said the diplomatic sources. According to Afghan rebel sources, the latest attack included another 1000 “fresh Soviet soldiers who crossed the Afghanistan-U.S.S.R. border last month" for the Panjshir assault.

The group of special Soviet soldiers was seen refuelling its 200 tanks and military vehicles in Qala Surkh on the way to Panjshir Valley, the rebel sources said, citing eyewitnesses. The rebels said that several thousand Afghan soldiers had accompanied the Russian convoy to the valley’s mouth at Unaba and Rokha where "fierce fighting" erupted last Wednesday. According to the rebels, the guerrilla position was “not weak" in the valley and their “morale was high."