Attempts to break rebel siese

Press, 30 May 1985, Page 15

Attempts to break rebel siese

By

TOM HENEGHAN

of Reuters through NZPA Islamabad Soviet troops have launched a major offensive in Afghanistan’s Kunar Valley near Pakistan’s border, sending hundreds of tanks and military vehicles to break an 11-month long rebel siege there, according to Western diplomats and Afghan exiles. The push was aimed at breaking the guerrilla encirclement of the Afghan army garrison at Barikot and cutting rebel supply lines from Pakistan, the diplomats said. Intense air strikes began pounding rebel positions in the valley on May 11 and the Soviet column, which guerrilla sources estimated at more than 600 vehicles, started the ground thrust on May 21. A second convoy of more than 150 vehicles reached the village of Asmar, threequarters of the way up the valley, on .May 23 and then pushed into rebel-held areas bn its way to Barikot, they said. The offensive was the latest in a series of increasingly successful Soviet attempts to block rebel supply routes bringing men and weapons from bases in Pakistan, the diplomats said.

The Afghan Communist Party Politburo said that sealing the borders and eliminating what it called the counter-revolutionaries was the main task for Kabul’s Soviet-backed Government, the official Bakhtar News Agency reported. Barikot, where the Afghan garrison can be supplied only by airdrops, has been under rebel siege for the last 11 months. Soviet and Afghan aircraft bombing guerrilla positions there have frequently dropped bombs in nearby Pakistan, prompting protests from Islamabad. Resistance sources in Peshawar, where most guerrilla parties are based, said wounded had already begun arriving at refugee hospitals there but the continued heavy bombing made travel difficult. They said they had no idea yet of the extent of casualties. The diplomats said preparations for the offensive began in mid-May. The airport at Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan was closed to civil aviation from May 14 to 16 as men and material were airlifted there from Kabul. Heavy daily air strikes have pounded Kunar and its side valleys, pinning down rebel groups and making reinforcement difficult, the

exiles said. The Soviet column coming up from Jalalabad was joined by the Afghan Army’s Ninth Mountain Division at Chagaserai, halfway up the 135 km valley, then continued towards Barikot, they said. Communist forces have stepped up reconnaissance flights between Asmar and Barikot, indicating heavier fighting ahead, they added. The diplomats said several Soviet soldiers were killed on May 24 when they tried to break through a rebel blockade south of Barikot but were repulsed. They said several other Soviet soldiers have been captured but had no further details. The number of Soviet helicopters at Kabul airport last week was down to about half its normal total as MI-8 transport planes and MI-24 helicopter gunships shuttled between the capital and Jalalabad. A squadron of at least nine jet fighters with Afghan markings, possibly SUI 7 close-support attack aircraft, was seen at the airport, a rare sight in Kabul where the authorities try to minimise the number of fighter jets visible to outsiders, they said.