CHAPTER 7
The Mujahideen besieged several isolated DRA garrisons. If the besieging Mujahideen were local, then the siege went on indefinitely. If outside Mujahideen were involved, the siege usually failed since the Mujahideen could not maintain the supplies necessary for the siege or keep enough of the Mujahideen in place. Since the Mujahideen were unpaid volunteers who also had family responsibilities, they were seldom interested in staying around for uninteresting, lengthy sieges.
VIGNETTE 1 — FAILED SIEGE AT URGUN by General Gulzarak Zadran{82}
Urgun was the home of the DRA’s 21st Mountain Regiment. It is located near the Pakistan border and is close to the strategic positions of Khost, Gardez, and Ghazni, as well as Waziristan, Pakistan. Once, after the Mujahideen formed their government in exile, they wanted to make Urgun the symbolic seat of their government. Despite the fact that Urgun is located in an isolated area, its political significance prompted the DRA and Soviet forces to keep it under control at all costs. One of the major Mujahideen actions at Urgun took place in 1983. About 800 Mujahideen from the Wazir, Zadran, and Kharoti tribes took part. Major commanders at the siege included Mawlawi Jalaluddin Haqani, Mawlawi Arsalah, Matiullah, Mawlawi Ahmad Gul and Qauzi Kharoti. The military council for the siege included Captain Abdul Majid, Major Arsala Wazir, Captain Qayum, Captain Sardar, Amanullah, Mawlawi Abdul Ghafur and me. The regiment’s main force was located in the old fortress at Urgun which is commonly called the Octagonal Fort (Hashtrakha Kala). It had one battalion based in another fort four kilometers south of the regiment at Nek Mohammad Kala. A reinforced company held the airfield to the west of the regimental headquarters. Another company protected the main road to Urgun at a post some 1.5 kilometers to the north. (Map 7-1 Urgun)
We planned to destroy the regiment in two phases. The first phase would destroy the security around the main headquarters (the southern battalion plus the two outlying companies). The second phase would destroy the regimental headquarters. The first phase began in August 1983. The Mujahideen based in the mountains east of Urgun Valley encircled and besieged the battalion at Nek Mohammad Kala. This enemy battalion was deployed in a fort which had several towers. The fort was surrounded by minefields and heavy ZGU-1 machine guns were positioned in the towers which made it impossible for the Mujahideen to approach close to the fort. This prevented the Mujahideen from tightening their siege on the fort.
A few days after the siege began, the religious Festival of Sacrifice (Eid-al-Adha) occurred. It was customary for Mujahideen to go home during the festival and the enemy felt that few Mujahideen would still be around. This time, however, we did not let our people go home but kept them at their bases. Thinking that the Mujahideen were not a threat, the DRA took advantage of the holiday and sent three tanks and a few trucks from the main regimental base to resupply the battalion. We put an ambush force of approximately 70 Mujahideen, commanded by Mawlawi Hasan, in a dry stream bed about halfway between the two forts. Among their weapons were some RPG-7s. When the DRA column entered the kill zone, he sprang the ambush. The ambush destroyed one tank and damaged another. The ambush-ers killed some DRA soldiers and captured 25. Some others escaped. The DRA abandoned one intact tank, but the Mujahideen could not retrieve it due to heavy machine gun fire from the battalion’s fort. The fire forced the Mujahideen force back into a side canyon. When night fell, Mawlawi Hasan and Khan Zamak led a group of Mujahideen back to the intact tank. The Mujahideen group included some former DRA tank crewmen. They drove the tank away to their position.
We planned to attack the battalion fort three days later, using the tank as the main weapon. We formed an 11-man tank protection group and mounted them on the tank. They were armed with some RPGs and small arms. They would ride the tank during a night advance through the antipersonnel minefield that surrounded the fort. In case the tank got stuck, the tank protection group would protect the tank and free it. A 65-man assault force would follow in the tracks of the tank as it passed through the minefield. The tank crew would blow a hole in the wall of the fort using the main gun of the tank. The 11-man tank protection crew would then dismount and secure the hole opening and the 65-man assault team would enter the fort. Mujahideen communications personnel would also help in the assault by interrupting the communications between the battalion and regiment. When possible, the radio operators would misdirect the artillery.{83}
At 2100 hours, the attack started. The Mujahideen tank moved on its designated route with the tank protection crew mounted on top. As it approached the fort and crossed the antipersonnel minefield, a few antipersonnel mines exploded, but the tank protection crew was unscathed. The tank crew opened fire on the fort’s towers with their main gun. The main gun rounds knocked out the heavy machine guns. However, the artillery located with the regimental headquarters began firing into the area. Our Mujahideen communications personnel began screaming into the radio their fire was short and was falling on the battalion. The artillery command post became confused with their demands that the fire be shifted further away. The artillery stopped firing. The Mujahideen tank crew then fired at the wall of the fort. After several rounds, they knocked a hole in the wall. The tank drove to within ten meters of the wall and the tank protection crew signaled the assault group with a flashlight. The tank protection crew immediately dismounted and secured the breach. The assault group followed in the tank’s tracks and entered the fort. The enemy was surprised by the sudden breach and offered no resistance. The Mujahideen captured 243 men plus all the weapons and ammunition in the fort. We let those DRA prisoners who wanted to join us. We released the others. We were now four kilometers closer to the main fort.
Pishiano Ghar (the mountain of the cats) overlooks the octagonal fortress. The regiment had a security post with mortars located on the mountain. Our next move was to seize the security post so that the siege would become more effective. A few days later, 70 Mujahi-deen attacked the security post from the north and south in a night attack. The Mujahideen attack was successful. Once we controlled Pishiano Ghar, the regiment pulled back the company that protected highway 141 to the regimental base. We prepared for phase two. The enemy was now completely besieged and could not receive supplies by road and had to get supplies by air. The beseiged DRA could only get to the airfield, located some 1.5 kilometers to the west of the fortress, by armored vehicles, since we could take out trucks and jeeps. Our machine guns on Pishiano Ghar prevented DRA resupply by day. We continued to tighten the siege. Mujahideen from Zadran brought their tank to help out.
The DRA brought in an operations group from Kabul. Their job was to help the regiment plan its defense and a linkup with a Soviet unit which was coming from Ghazni to break the siege. DRA General Jamaluddin Omar was in charge of the group. He was my old tactics instructor at the Royal Afghan Military Academy. The DRA spread their 3rd battalion in the south of the city instead of in the fort. They had two companies in the forward defensive line. To the southeast, natural ditches and ravines created barriers to our advance. The airfield lay to the west. One approach to west of the airfield was inadequately mined, so the DRA covered the gap with guards and patrols.
Besides our two tanks, we had two 76mm mountain guns, one 122mm D30 howitzer, one 107mm mountain mortar, other lighter mortars, many RPGs, many DShK and ZGU heavy machine guns and other lighter machine guns. It was January and snow was on the ground. We covered part of our tanks with white cloth to hide them. We recorded the sound of a moving tank. We received some loud-speakers from Peshawar and assigned people to use them on the eastern flank to depict tanks coming from the east. We structured our forces for the assault by creating several groups:
—A tank and tank protection group commanded by Mawlawi Shadam
—Two assault groups—Northern and Southern
—An evacuation group to carry away the spoils.
—A family and dependents protection group to protect the families of DRA officers who were in the garrison
—A truck transport group
—A command and control group
We planned the attack. Following an artillery preparation, a tank would spearhead the assault from the north and the south to clear a path through the antipersonnel minefields. An assault group would follow in the tank’s tracks to hit the enemy from two sides simultaneously.
I was with the southern forces. At 2000 hours on a cold January night, our Mujahideen were all in position. We started artillery preparatory fire on the DRA positions. Ten minutes later, our tank moved north toward the city. The tank fired on two city towers and knocked out the machine guns in them. Then we turned on the loudspeakers in the southeast to create tank noises there. The enemy fired at the noises as our tank changed direction and headed west where it could reach the unmined area. Fifteen Mujahideen, including Mawlawi Shadam, Ismail Turkistani and me were on the tank as it entered the city. As we passed through the mined area, we dismounted and moved to the rear of the 3d battalion. Assault group south followed the tank’s tracks into the city. They stormed through the city and the 3d battalion resistance collapsed. Battalion personnel either surrendered. or retreated north. As the Mujahideen continued to advance, we were stopped by the fire of a DShK machine gun some 50 meters to our north. It was now 0300 in morning. We attacked the position and killed the gunner—a Soviet adviser. The rest of the DRA regiment had retreated into the fortress with General Jamaluddin Omar.
At this point, Mawlawi Shadam reported that his tank was out of ammunition. The tank driver, Lt Mohammad Gul Logari, was wounded in the arm and the gunner was killed. The enemy resolve was strengthening and showing renewed resistance. Other Mujahideen in the assault group were running low on ammunition. We had failed to plan for ammunition resupply. We instructed Mawlawi Shadam to take the tank and go back to get all types of ammunition and then return to resupply and support our combatants. As the tank moved back, the Mujahideen and the DRA heard it and thought that we were withdrawing. It was cold, early in the morning and our command and control was collapsing. Mujahideen began to fall back. The enemy counterattacked and pushed us out of the city. Daybreak came with the disorganized Mujahideen milling around outside the city. Wave after wave of enemy aircraft appeared and began bombing and straf-fing the Mujahideen caught in the open. They destroyed our tank. We retreated into the mountains.
I later learned that the northern assault group had not moved that night since their tank was stuck in the sand and they could not free it. The entire assault was from the south. This cost us an almost certain victory. We had no other choice but to withdraw into our mountain hideouts in the east. In the following days, as we were preparing to resume the siege, a Soviet regiment arrived in Urgun from Ghazni to resupply and reinforce the Urgun garrison.
COMMENTARY: Ammunition resupply was clearly a problem and the withdrawal of the tank at a critical juncture turned the tide of battle. Communications was as big a problem. The Mujahideen had radios, but they were not able to accompany the assault forces. The northern and southern assault groups were unable to communicate with each other and, presumably, with the command and control group. If both attacks had occurred, prevention of fratricide would have been a difficult problem without radio communications. Further, members of the military council were forward with the assault forces rather than directing the battle. Mujahideen air defense planning was also limited. The natural air approach. into Urgun follows highway 141 in a north-south direction. The Mujahideen had heavy machine guns and control of the high ground flanking the approach. Evidently, most of the machine guns were used to fire on DRA ground forces and the air defense posture was degraded at the time of the Soviet air response.
Mine clearance was a continual problem for Mujahideen forces and the use of tanks to clear lanes through antipersonnel minefields and to breach a hole in the fortress walls deserves high marks. The use of a tank protection group, mounted on the tank, was a tactical innovation that worked well. This may not seem a tactical innovation to professional officers who always keep infantry up with their tanks, but it was not a common practice when Mujahideen acquired armor. The presence of professional officers, like General Zadran, was responsible for the formation of the tank protection group.
VIGNETTE 2 — DEHRAWUD OFFENSIVE{84}
In the spring and summer of 1984, the Soviet forces stepped up their attacks on Mujahideen hideouts and mobile bases in the three adjoining provinces of Kandahar, Helmand and Uruzgan. The Soviets also intensified their efforts to intercept Mujahideen supply convoys coming through the mountains from Pakistan. In the fall, a number of major Mujahideen commanders in these provinces decided to set up a regional supply base in the Uruzgan Mountains that could support Mujahideen units deployed in the area. Dehrawud District, located in Uruzgan Province, seemed to be a suitable place for the supply base. It is an oasis in the mountains in the upper Helmand Valley. It is easy to defend and it is conveniently located between the three provinces (Map 7-2 Dehrawud).
The Dehrawud District capital of Dehrawud was garrisoned by some 500 government militia. who manned security outposts around the town. They were supplied by air since the town was blockaded by the local Mujahideen who controlled all the roads leading into the town. The Mujahideen council decided to attack the government enclave, dislodge the militia and consolidate control over the entire valley. To do this, however, they first had to negotiate a truce between rival groups in the region to ensure their full cooperation during the upcoming operation. Two months before the action, Mujahideen delegations from Kandahar and Helmand mediated such a truce.
In October, Mujahideen forces from Kandahar under Mulla Malang, Faizullah and other leaders joined a contingent of Helmand Mujahideen commanded by the late Nasim Akhund Zada, the leading resistance figure in Helmand Province. Haji Assadullah and some Mujahideen fighters from Uruzgan and Baghran areas joined the attacking force. This force eventually numbered over 1,000 men. The Mujahideen force moved along different approaches to Dehrawud and surrounded the government positions in the area. A 300-man detachment sealed off the main approach to Dehrawud from the south along the Helmand River. Another 100-man detachment deployed to the southeast to cover the Kotal-e Murcha (the Murcha pass) and mine its road. About 500 fighters deployed around the district center, while the rest were engaged in fulltime logistic support.
The siege lasted 45 days while the Mujahideen gradually tightened the noose around the militia positions. The Mujahideen kept only one third of the fighters on the front line at any one time. The rest were either in reserve or involved in logistic service. The front line fighters were relieved every 24 hours.
The Soviets and DRA supported the Dehrawud garrison with daily air strikes on Mujahideen positions to check their advance. They would run two or three attack missions daily using fighter bombers and helicopter gunships. In the meantime, the Soviet/DRA command assembled ground forces from Kandahar and Shindand to relieve the embattled militia at Dehrawud. However, it took the enemy weeks before he was ready to move large columns of infantry and tanks to the mountainous battlefield.
One day, a Mujahideen gun crew on a ZGU-1 anti-aircraft heavy machine gun shot down one of a pair of Soviet fighter-bombers flying over Dehrawud. The plane burst into flames and fell in the Helmand River. The pilot, said to be a high ranking officer,{85} bailed out and landed five to six kilometers from the nearest Mujahideen position. The other fighter circled the area and flew away apparently after pinpointing the crash site of the fallen plane. A seven-man Mujahideen team under Mulla Juma Khan went to capture the pilot. By the time the Mujahideen reached the pilot, he had moved to a position from which he could fire his AK-74 at the advancing resistance fighters. The Mujahideen tried to capture the pilot alive. While they were preparing to try and capture him, a swarm of transport helicopters and helicopter gunships flew over the Kotal-e Murcha pass from Kandahar and began gun runs against the Mujahideen positions. Two helicopters hovered over the crash site. One hovered about 50 meters from the ground and lowered a ladder. The Soviet pilot jumped up from his hideout and started climbing up the ladder. Seeing that the Soviet pilot was escaping, the Mujahideen opened fire and killed the pilot and damaged the helicopter. The helicopter tried to escape but crashed about three kilometers away.
This incident triggered increased Soviet air activity as they tried to soften up the area for the upcoming attack by ground forces moving on two axes to Dehrawud. One column was approaching along the Helmand River from Kajaki dam and the other from Khakrez across the Kotal-e Murcha pass. For three days, Soviet air strikes continued uninterrupted from dawn to dusk. However, the Mujahideen suffered fewer casualties than the militiamen, who sustained losses from both collateral damage and “friendly fire.”
Following three days of heavy bombardment, a column of enemy infantry and tanks arrived from the Kajaki side. Although the Mujahideen groups assigned to cover this approach had left earlier, the terrain did not support tank movement. A Soviet Movement Support Detachment (MSD) used road construction machines and demolitions to open a way through the rocky approaches to Dehrawud for the tanks and APCs. The Soviets conducted airmobile insertions of soldiers on the heights overlooking the movement route to provide flank security.
By this time, the Mujahideen were too widely dispersed for effective control. The contingents from Kandahar and Helmand were on opposite sides of the Helmand River and could not cross it. Their heavy weapons, such as the ZGU-1, DShK and surface-to-surface rockets were also positioned on both sides of the river. Their fires could not be coordinated. Five days after they killed the Soviet pilot on the Helmand River, the Mujahideen realized that they had lost command and control over the scattered detachments and could not deal with the two-pronged enemy advance. Therefore, the Mujahideen groups withdrew to their separate provincial bases by mountain paths.
The Soviet column from Kajaki reached Dehrawud and recovered the body of the dead pilot. The Mujahideen had removed his documents earlier. As the Mujahideen pulled out, the column from Kandahar stopped at Khakrez and did not proceed to Dehrawud. It conducted a number of search and destroy actions in the area and returned. During the entire 45-day battle, the DRA militia incurred the heaviest losses. Mujahideen casualties were negligible. Mulah Malang states that the Mujahideen shot down a jet fighter and 10 helicopters.
COMMENTARY: This Mujahideen siege was a conventional battle by a guerrilla force. It ended in a tactical setback. Had the Mujahideen established an operational command system in the region, it would have been easier for them to coordinate their action in terms of time and space: Lack of such an arrangement left a sizeable Mujahideen force without operational support by other local groups, especially in blocking the movement of Soviet/DRA reinforcements.
Guerrilla forces are best employed for actions of short duration. Long, extended operations, such as this siege, asks a lot of unpaid volunteers. The Mujahideen did assign detachments to cover the approaches to Dehrawud from the south, but, as the siege continued, many of the fighters found more pressing business to attend to then sitting idly on a mountain. They departed one after another and left the approaches open. Both the Kajaki axis and the Kotal-e Murcha axis were very easy to block with a small detachment of determined fighters. If the Mujahideen had held their positions, they could have stopped the large columns of their enemy and celebrated a Mujahideen victory in Dehrawud. But, once again, the Mujahideen experience demonstrated their tactical and logistical limitations in maintaining control over large forces for an extended period of time. Most of the Mujahideen were not fighting on their home territory and, therefore, were less enthusiastic about remaining in stationary positions for an extended period of time while the Soviet Air Force attacked them.
Air power, while seldom decisive in guerrilla war, played a major role in breaking this siege. Once the Mujahideen assumed static positions, the Soviet Air Force was able to delay the Mujahideen assault and gain the time needed for the ground forces to reach the battlefield.