CHAPTER 9
Soviet technology often had minimal impact on the Mujahideen guerrilla. Many Mujahideen tactics were virtually unchanged and still effective from their combat with Great Britain in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Soviet high-performance aviation posed a direct threat to the civilian populace of Afghanistan, but, the Mujahideen learned how to avoid or misdirect high-performance aircraft. However, the Soviet transport helicopter and helicopter gunship proved to be major concerns to the Mujahideen. Helicopters, and later the SU-25 close air support aircraft, were potent systems in the Soviet arsenal that the Mujahideen respected and feared. Soviet transports could land raiding parties deep in Mujahideen areas while gunships and close support aircraft could attack any opposition. Throughout the war, the Mujahideen had difficulty countering heliborne insertions, but they did learn that planning, drills and air defense ambushes could help alleviate the heliborne threat.
VIGNETTE 1 — SOVIET HELIBORNE RAID ACHIEVES SURPRISE by Doctor Abdul Qudus Alkozai and Commander Haji Sidiqullah{95}
In the mid-1980s, Mujahideen forces based in Alingar District of the Laghman Province intensified their attacks on Soviet/DRA columns moving between Mingar and the provincial capital of Mehtar Lam. Mujahideen action included harassing supply columns, blocking traffic and launching raids on security outposts protecting government establishments. These actions were usually conducted by local resistance groups of 30 to 70 men. Most were affiliated with the Hezb-e Islami of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar (HIH).
Mujahideen commanders dispersed their men, weapons and equipment in the villages and hideouts and sometimes even buried their weapons between actions. However, rarely a day would pass in the region without some combat initiated by the Mujahideen or the DRA forces. In response, the Soviet/DRA forces targeted suspected bases or houses (permanent residences or headquarters) of major Mujahideen commanders in the area. Most of the raids were conducted by ground troops. However, after 1984, Soviet special forces launched several heliborne raids on Mujahideen targets in the region. Their action at Badiabad Village was one of these.
In the summer of 1985, a Soviet heliborne detachment raided the house of a local Mujahideen commander, Mamur Ghulam Jailani, in the village of Badiabad. The village is located about 15 kilometers northeast of Mehtar Lam on the main road connecting the provincial capital with the Mingar District (Map 9-1 Badiabad). Commander Jailani commanded 150 Mujahideen located in and around Badiabad. His group was armed with automatic rifles, RPG-7 grenade launchers and a few heavy and light machine guns.
The Soviet raid began around 0900 hours with successive gun runs by pairs of helicopter gunships. Continual heavy helicopter rocket and machine gun raked the village and gave the villagers little opportunity to move into the surrounding hills—a standard practice by women and children to escape the ground force attacks that usually followed air strikes. That day Commander Jailani was staying two villages away at Mirza Qala, less than one kilometer to the east. His 14-year-old son was alone in the house during the raid. The youngster was wounded, but managed to escape.
The aerial preparation continued about 30 minutes without any Mujahideen reaction or return fire. Four lift helicopters then set down in some corn fields 200-300 meters west of the commander’s house. The corn stalks were about 20-30 centimeters high at the time. About 40 commandoes disembarked and immediately split into three groups. Two 10-man groups secured the northern and southern flanks of the village and a 20-man group stormed through the village to the house only to find that it was empty. The commandoes, seized (stole) cash and other valuables in the house and destroyed what they could not take away. They searched several neighboring houses and found only women and children. They detained two unarmed Mujahideen who had buried their weapons. They were later released.
Several Mujahideen groups from the surrounding villages moved to Badiabad to fight the Soviets, but none arrived on time. The Soviet detachment withdrew unopposed and flew away in the helicopters that brought it in. The entire action lasted about an hour.
COMMENTARY: Soviet intelligence as to the location of the commander’s house was good, probably reflecting the presence of an informer in the area. However, the Soviets did not have current intelligence to pinpoint when the commander would be in his house. This indicates that they were relying on only one intelligence asset and should have directed other assets to supplement their agent’s reports. The resulting lack of accurate, current intelligence resulted in a failed mission. On the other hand, the guerrillas did not have an early warning system and had not developed and rehearsed a plan or drills to counter a Soviet-helicopter raid. This lack may have saved the Soviet force.
The guerrillas’ lack of an overall village security plan and slow reaction time cost the resistance a good opportunity for inflicting heavy losses on the raiding detachment. A good security plan would concentrate on destroying the lift ships first and then fragmenting and destroying the raiding detachment piecemeal.
Eyewitnesses say that Jailani had left an RPG-7 in his house. As the Soviet gunships started strafing the village, he asked for a volunteer to go to the village and retrieve the valuable weapon. He offered 40,000 Afghanis (about 100 dollars) as a reward. His 17-year-old nephew, Ismail, volunteered, reached the embattled house and retrieved the weapon minutes before the Soviets stormed the place.
Instead of retiring with the RPG-7, the Mujahideen commander could have it used against the raiding force—perhaps to knock out enemy helicopters. There was no lack of brave men among the Mujahideen, like Ismail, who rushed to the village for combat. The Mujahideen, in this case, demonstrated a lot of individual courage but little tactical teamwork, initiative or cohesiveness.
About one month later, the Mujahideen had another chance and reversed the outcome of a similar raid just four kilometers north of Badiabad. This is the subject of the next vignette.
VIGNETTE 2 — SOVIET RAID ON KANDA by Doctor Abdul Qudus Alkozai and Commander Haji Sidiqullah{96}
In July 1985, about one month after the Soviet raid on the Mujahideen base in the village of Badiabad, the Soviets made a similar attack against the resistance base of Doctor Alkozai at Kanda Warajayee. Kanda Warajayee, commonly called Kanda, is located on the main road between the provincial capital of Mehtar Lam and the Mingar District in the Laghman Province. The village is nearly eight kilometers south of the Mingar District center.
I located my base just outside the village to the west of the main road. I moved all the crew-served weapons from my house in the village to the base since the Soviets had conducted a series of raids on the homes of known Mujahideen commanders. I located my base in a ruin near an intermittent drainage ditch and protected it with security posts and crew-served weapons firing positions.
One day in July 1985, a group of six Soviet helicopters flew into my area. The helicopter group included four gunships which started firing at positions around my house. It seemed to me that the enemy intended to land troops and mount a raid on my house. The Mujahideen in my base opened up with machine gun fire on the enemy helicopters. This forced the Soviets to land at a distance from the village. As the helicopters landed about three kilometers away from Kanda on Shakhatara Dashta (plain), six of my Mujahideen carried an 82mm Chinese-manufactured recoilless rifle to a natural drainage ditch which extended from the village to the Prang Ghar Mountain to the west (Map 9-2 Kanda).
The Soviet soldiers jumped from their helicopters onto the open terrain near a flock of sheep. The Soviets promptly gunned down the unarmed teenage shepherd. The enemy then tried to advance on Kanda under the air cover provided by their gunships. But the intensity of fire from my Mujahideen pinned them down in the open. As the fire fight continued, more of my Mujahideen rushed into the fray. This forced the Soviet troops to withdraw, quickly board their helicopters and fly away. The Soviet raid was a complete failure.
COMMENTARY: The Mujahideen’s prompt reaction to the enemy attack saved the day. The Mujahideen had learned that enemy airmobile assaults in a guerrilla-controlled area have little chance of success when met with coordinated fire from multiple directions. Dr. Alkozai had planned for enemy air assault and positioned weapons to deal with that possibility.
On the other hand, the Soviet forces paid heavily for their attempt to land small units in an area totally dominated by the resistance. A heliborne attack may succeed when it is launched against an enemy caught by surprise and unable to respond swiftly. However, heavy Mujahideen ground fire should have convinced the Soviet commander to abort his mission. Instead, he relied on gunship fire to carry the day and was forced to withdraw from a hot LZ. He was lucky not to lose some lift ships, particularly since his landing zone was so close to the objective.
Soviet intelligence about their target appears to have been good, but the Soviet commander lacked the complete intelligence picture about the strength and location of guerrilla forces. If the Soviet commander had inserted some forces to secure the high ground overlooking Kanda before landing the bulk of his force, he might have been able to suppress guerrilla crew-served weapons and accomplish his raid.
VIGNETTE 3 — AIR ASSAULT ON MARO STRONGHOLD by Toryalai Hemat{97}
In April 1987, the Soviets and DRA launched a combined strike on the Mujahideen stronghold in Nangrahar Province, Shinwar District near the Nazian Valley. The Nazian Valley was heavily populated, although many of the inhabitants had emigrated to Pakistan to avoid the Soviet bombing attacks. The Mujahideen stronghold that the enemy wanted was at Maro, some 70 kilometers southeast of Jalalabad near the Pakistan border. Several Mujahideen groups from different factions were located around Maro and there were probably some 500 well-armed Mujahideen in the stronghold area. The Soviets called this stronghold the Melava fortified region.{98}
For 18 days prior to the attack, the Soviets hit the area with airstrikes. Then, a mechanized Soviet/DRA column moved east from Jalalabad and, when it reached Shinwar Town, it split in two (Map 9-3 Maro). One column moved through Shinwar and up the Nazian Valley, while the other column moved further to the east to the subdistrict of Dur Baba and then attacked to the southwest. Commander Saznur and his men defended on the Dur Baba approach. Commander Khaled and I, along with our 10 other Mujahideen, defended Ghazgisar—the highest ground in the area overlooking Maro. The enemy launched heavy air strikes against us. Following the airstrikes, Soviet helicopters landed air assault forces on the high ground between the two axes.{99} Some 40 or 50 helicopter sorties were involved. One of the landing zones was right in front of us. The fighting was fierce. Nine of my group were killed by the bombing or while fighting the air assault force. Only Khaled, Abdul Wakil and I survived. The Mujahideen [under Commander Saznur] initially stopped the column from Dur Baba, but the column coming from the Nazian Valley advanced quickly and captured Maro. In my group, we three survivors were caught between two LZs. We snuck out of the area and crossed the border into Pakistan and hiked to the nearby village of Bazar.
When the enemy took Maro, many Mujahideen fled across the border and assembled at Bazar (Tirah Agency in Pakistan). Reinforcements from the HIH and IUA factions poured into the area. Arab volunteers along with Talibs from religious schools also came for the fighting. We launched a counterattack. The fighting for the bases was so fierce that at times it was hand-to-hand combat. I personally was so close to some Russians during the fighting that I would recognize them today. The enemy left many vehicles behind and many dead on the ground. The Soviets did not usually leave their dead, but we counted 75 Soviet KIA. I do not know the total number of Mujahideen casualties, but I do know of 72 Mujahideen killed and wounded. The Soviets only held Maro for three days. They burned and destroyed what they could and mined the area before they withdrew.
COMMENTARY: The Soviet air assault raids on mountain base camps usually lasted for one to three days. As in this instance, the Soviets preferred to have ground forces involved to link up ‘with the air assault forces. They tried to seize the area, destroy as much of the base as possible, lay down mines and depart. And, they tried to avoid getting trapped in the mountains fighting the Mujahideen on their turf. As in Zhawar and Magistral, the Mujahideen initially retreated, regrouped and reinforced and then launched a punishing attack. The close proximity of this base to Pakistan allowed the Mujahideen to do this. The Soviet planning and execution of this action was well done, but they apparently were late in withdrawing and had to fight a running withdrawal.
The Mujahideen distribution of forces on the two axes was uneven and the air assault prevented the Mujahideen from employing a reserve against the threatened axis. Part of the maldistribution is due to the fact that various factions of various strengths were in the area and missions were assigned by faction, not by strength.
CHAPTER COMMENTARY
In the early days of the war, Soviet air assault missions were rather timid and unimaginative. Later, the Soviets became more confident with the air assault concept and struck deeper and more aggressively. Ambush forces were delivered by helicopter, and raiding forces struck deep at Mujahideen supply bases and staging areas and even conducted raids against Mujahideen redoubts such as the one at Maro. The Soviets usually sent a ground element to link up with the air assault element if the air assault element had to remain in the area for any length of time. Soviet air assaults relied on helicopter gunships and SU-25 close air support aircraft for fire support, but frequently brought their artillery with them by helicopter.
The Mujahideen learned to counter air assaults with thorough planning, immediate action drills, an early warning system and air defense ambushes. They learned to mine likely LZs, employ massed RPG fire against hovering or landing helicopters, and to try and overrun a LZ before the air assault forces had an opportunity to get organized and oriented. They also learned to “hug” Soviet forces so that helicopter gunships could not fire at them.