The Other Side of the Mountain: Mujahideen ... - Tribal Analysis Center

Page 162 The Other Side of the Mountain: Mujahideen Tactics in the Soviet-Afghan War
secrecy. This helped surprise the enemy and hit him at a time and
place where he was not fully ready to react effectively.
Early on the morning of 31 October 1983, Soviet and DRA forces
moved out of their Bagram base along two parallel routes and
approached the Abdullah-e Burj bridge. I estimate the strength at
several regiments backed by strong artillery support and ample logistics.
Tanks and APCs led the column. As the head of the column
reached the lower Sayad village on the southern bank, the tail of the
column had not cleared their Bagram base some ten kilometers to the
southwest. As the enemy tanks and APCs passed through lower
Sayad village toward the river, we opened fire and took the enemy by
surprise. It took the enemy some time to react and find our positions.
We intensified our fire as more vehicles of the enemy column came
into anti-tank weapons range. We hit several of their vehicles and
they started to burn. Instead of trying to secure the bridge by
infantry, the enemy continued to push his tanks and APC's toward
the bridge. One tank and two APCs made it to the bridge, but we
knocked them out at the bridge site.
The enemy stopped and began pounding suspected Mujahideen
positions with artillery fire and air attacks. He also began indiscriminately
bombing the area, including the surrounding villages.
However, our blocking force was well entrenched and protected
against the enemy fire. Most of our Mujahideen moved into the
covered shelters for the duration of the enemy fire preparation. As
soon as the enemy began to shift his fire so that he could launch an
attack, our Mujahideen would reoccupy their fighting positions and
engage enemy infantry and tanks with mortars, machine guns,
82mm recoilless rifles and RPG-7s. The news of our defense against
the Soviet/DRA forces soon spread throughout the area and reached
as far as Kabul, Charikar and Panjsher. Mujahideen from these
areas began to move to the fight. This had a demoralizing impact on
the enemy as these Mujahideen began probing attacks against his
flanks and rear.
In early afternoon, the enemy reinforced his efforts with some
DRA troops and launched another attack to clear the roadblock. We
drove back the attack and inflicted heavy casualties on the enemy. In
the late afternoon, the enemy again conducted heavy artillery and air
strikes on our positions. Artillery, jets and helicopter gunships took
their turns against us and then a Soviet unit attacked us. We defeated
this attack as well. During the night, the enemy tried to attack
across the bridge three times. Each time he was unsuccessful. The