Ali Ahmad Jalali

“ There was a political advantage to holding districtcapitals, as it conferred a degree of legitimacy on the Mujahideen.However, these capitals were usually located on accessible groundand were not sited for defense against modern artillery and airpower. In this instance, the Mujahideen moved from guerrilla war-fare to a set-piece battle to capture Sorubay and were victorious.However, their attempt to hold the prize resulted in heavy losses andno political advantage. ”

“ Westayed in Sorubay overnight. The enemy responded by sending forces from Jalalabad. Heavyenemy artillery fire began to fall on the OPs located on the highground. Aircraft hit us as enemy armored vehicles neared the districtcenter. We could not hold the district center against the air andartillery and so we vacated the place. During this fighting, we lostmany people. I lost another seven KIA in my group. ”

“ ATTACKING A STRONG POINT Attacking a strong point is often similar to conducting a raid andmany of the same tactical considerations and techniques apply.Attackers quickly abandon their objective after a successful raid,while there is usually an intent to hold a captured strong pointfor some period of time. ”

“ Therefore, an attack on a strong pointgenerally involves more supplies and heavier armaments. Mostoften, the strong points were political centers which the Mujahideenwanted to hold for propaganda value. ”

“ Mujahideen Tactics in the Soviet-Afghan War 10 of the Mujahideen WIA. We killed around 100 in the brigade and cap-tured some 400-450 DRA soldiers. We also captured some 40 armoredvehicles, although not all of them were functioning We captured 10trucks and some 600 small arms. The Kabul government was slow inreacting to our attack, since they did not expect that the brigade's resis-tance would collapse so quickly. After 1400 hours, the artillery of theDRA 8th Infantry Division" began firing on the captured garrison frompositions in Qargha and the Kabul airport. ”

“ A canal runs par-allel to the main road north of Ghanikhel and a militia unit guard-ed a bridge on this road. Another battalion protected a bridge furtherto the northwest. Our base at Marochina, was seven kilometers west of Gula'i.There were no people left in Gula'i since everyone had migrated. Ihad 59 Mujahideen armed with an 82mm mortar and 12 RPG-7s.The 8th of July 1985 was the last day of fasting in Ramadan. Thenext day would be the Feast of Ramadan (Eid-al-Fitr) . We felt thatmany DRA soldiers would celebrate the festival at home makingthis a good time to attack. ”

“ The regime restored the districtgovernment in Panjwayee. CommErrrARY: The Mujahideen gradually learned that overrunningand seizing control of government administrative centers is easy, butretaining them usually resulted in rapid Soviet or DRA retaliation.The Soviets/DRA felt that they had to retain control of local govern-ment agencies and would go to great lengths and take high risks todefend local administrative centers, even when they were tightlybesieged by the resistance. Control of a district center symbolizedcontrol of the district, though this was seldom the case. ”

“ Many Arabs came to Afghanistan for the jihad. The over-all Afghan impression of the Arab Mujahideen, gathered from our interviews, is that theywere prima donnas who were more interested in taking videos than fighting. Page 130 The Other Side of the Mountain: Mujahideen Tactics in the Soviet-Afghan War ■ 4%•. ”

“ The Mujahideen force harassed the DRA battalion, butlacked sufficient combat power to overrun any of its outposts sincemuch of its force was deployed to prevent the DRA forces from movingto reinforce the besieged outposts. ”

“ Manygovernment people also surrendered to us. It was a bonanza. InNawaz Khan's group, they lost three KIA and seven WIA. InSidiqullah's group they lost two KIA. We kept the district capital forsome time until a joint Soviet/DRA force pushed us out and reestab-lished DRA government in Alingar. COMMENTARY: Alingar is about 30 kilometers from the province capitalof Mehtar Lam. At this point of the war, the Mujahideen were deter-mined to control political centers so that they could claim to be a legit-imate government in Afghanistan. The DRA was equally determinedto prevent this. ”

“ That night, theMujahideen consolidated their gains and captured the district head-quarters the next day. The militia had suffered heavy casualties and retreated to the over-watching high ground of a neighboring hill. The Mujahideen sur-rounded the militia positions. The government forces then openednegotiations with the Mujahideen—apparently to gain time As theywere talking, an armored Soviet/DRA column arrived from Kandahar.The Mujahideen withdrew inside Panjwayee. The following night, the Soviet and DRA forces attackedPanjwayee and a heavy house-to-house battle ensued. ”