Tide turns against Afghan guerrillas

Press, 24 July 1986, Page 24

Tide turns against Afghan guerrillas

The Communist Government of Afghanistan rarely allows journalists into the country for a first-hand look at the eight-year-old war against Muslim guerrillas. Barry Renfrew, an Associated Press correspondent, was recently taken across the border by the insurgents. He filed this report from Gagi in Afghanistan.

Commander Muhammad Anwar watches boys learning to use a machine-gun. He says the rebels’ war against the Communists is getting harder and that the youngsters soon will be fighting for their lives.

The commander’s 14-year-old brother was among the boys clustered around the gun, clamouring to fire it while a guerrilla with a greying beard motioned them to be quiet so he could finish the lesson.

The boys shouted with excitement as each of them was allowed to fire a burst of bullets.

“This is how we will go on fighting. Always there are the young,” said Anwar, a stocky, 33-year-old Muslim guerrilla commander who has been fighting the Soviet-backed Government since 1978. “The war is harder because the Russians have more and better weapons,” he added. “The Mujahideen (rebels) have the same old weapons. It does not get better for us.” Anwar was spending a few days at the base before returning to his headquarters near the Afghan capital of Kabul, 80 kilometres to the north.

The guerrillas bombard the city wih rockets and mortars, but it is getting more difficult, he said.

“Already the city (Kabul) has two defence rings and now the communists are building a third,” he said.

Anwar and other senior guerrilla commanders in eastern Afghanistan’s Pakhtia province were interviewed recently by an Associated Press correspondent escorted into the country by rebels.

The Afghan Government in Kabul rarely grants permission for Western correspondents to visit the country. Other senior guerrilla commanders seconded Anwar’s assessment that the war against the Government and an estimated 115,000 Soviet troops is not going well.

Soviet forces have launched several offensives in Pakhtia in

the last year and the guerrillas have admitted heavy losses. Soviet and Afghan Government forces have been reinforced with large numbers of jets, helicopter gunships, and artillery pieces, the commanders said.

The Soviets also have deployed thousands of elite commandos and, borrowing tactics from the rebels, are engaging in ambushes and surprise attacks, the rebels said.

The outgunned guerrillas said they are short of weapons, ammunition, and food, have few defenses against the jets and helicopters that control the sky, and are having trouble moving men and supplies and mounting attacks.

“This war will be a long one. We don’t know how long it will last — 10 years, 15 years,” said Commander Ahmad Shah.

Western intelligence assessments of the war indicate the guerrillas still control most of the countryside and the war is roughly a stalemate. But diplomatic sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, also agreed the insurgents must contend with a massive arms buildup, evidenced by recent sightings of formations of up to 60 Soviet jets in single raids in Afghanistan. Soviet and Afghan jets often attack the guerrilla base, Yaqub Shah said, and the damage from a raid the week before, including one destroyed anti-aircraft gun, was still visible.

Some guerrillas had tried futilely to drive off the supersonic jets with anti-tank grenades designed to knock out slow-moving vehicles, Shah said. “We tried to stop the men, but they would not listen,” he said. “There are more people dying in Afghanistan. There is more fighting and it means more people are going to die,” said Ali Khan, a guerrilla officer. During the recent visit, the occasional crack of machine-gun and rifle fire was audible all day from Government outposts further up the valley, but the dozens of guerrillas sorting supplies and

cleaning weapons paused only when they heard the roar of a jet, followed by a shattering bomb blast.

Every guerrilla encountered at the Gagi base expressed a seemingly unshakeable faith that the insurgents eventually will win because God is on their side. An ardent faith in Islam, the guerrillas said, is their greatest strength against jets, tanks, and cannons.

“First we fight for Allah, then we fight for freedom,” said Yaqb Shah, aged 27, a top commander for Jamiat-i-Islami, one of the seven main guerrilla groups. Some guerrilla leaders privately say they fear that their fighters and the civilians they depend upon are exhausted after eight years of war. Anwar, Yaqub Shah and other

commanders at Gagi admitted that some of their men are weary and dispirited. Whenever possible, they said, tired fighters are sent to see their families in Afghanistan or the refugee camps in Pakistan where more than three million Afghans live. “People are getting tired after eight years of war, but children born in this time are becoming our new soldiers and they are not tired,” Yaqub Shah said. On the peaks surrounding the base, gunners lounged around the two remaining anti-aircraft guns, part of the arms supplied to the insurgents by the United States, China, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and other nations.

The gunners scanned the sky every now and then as they chatted quietly.

"It’s no good against the jets. The gun is too slow,” said gunner Mohammad Zarif. He, like other guerillas, said he had never received any formal military training, learning what he could from more experienced fighters. As night fell, some guerrillas prepared a meagre evening meal of rice and flat, unleavened bread.

Little camp fires dotted the surrounding hills and sentries on the peaks called “Allah Akbar” (”God is great”) to each other through the twilight.' Anwar, who was a high school literature teacher in Kabul before the war, pulled a blanket tighter around his shoulders against the evening chill. “I want to go back to my old job,” he said. “It was good to teach.”