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

Page 22 The Other Side of the Mountain: Mujahideen Tactics in the Soviet-Afghan War
uated their dead. The following day, the DRA came and towed the
damaged armored vehicles away.
COMMENTARY: The Mujahideen were unpaid volunteers, so the money
truck was a real boon. Mujahideen still had to support their families,
so normally all heavy weapons and 1/5th of the loot from an ambush or
raid went to the commander. The other 4/5ths was divided among the
Mujahideen combatants. Some Mujahideen would take their captured
Kalashnikovs to Pakistan where they would sell them and give the
money to their families to live on. Governments supporting the
Mujahideen would buy the weapons in Pakistan's bazaars and give
them to Mujahideen faction leaders for distribution.
LTC Rahim's military professionalism shows throughout this
vignette. His ambush lay down is by the book and very effective. He
might have blown the bridge in the middle of the kill zone, but that
would have meant that a guarded bridge repair crew would be
near his base camp for an indefinite period of time impeding his freedom
of movement.