Mujahideen Tactics in the Soviet-Afghan War - Bennett Park Raiders

VIGNETTE 4
ATTACK ON SORUBAY
by Toryalai Hemat
There were a lot of DRA sympathizers in the Nazian Valley. We
called this area "Little Moscow", as did the many Arabs in the area
who had joined us in jihad. 4
The district headquarters of the Nazian
Valley is Sorubay. All the residents of Sorubay were communist
sympathizers. We decided to seize the district center in July 1985
(Map 4-4 - Sorubay). It was a combined action by the forces of
Hikmatyar, Sayyaf, Mohammadi and Khalis (HIH, IUA, IRMA and
HIK). There were about 1,000 Mujahideen in various bases in the
Maro Mountain stronghold area.
Sorubay District center is 12 kilometers north of the Melava base
and Maro Mountains—about a six-hour hike through the mountains.
I had 80 men in my command and we were well armed. I had three
BM12s, some medium mortars and many heavy machine guns in my
group. This was a major attempt by us to seize the Nazian District
government and in many respects was closer to conventional war
than guerrilla war. For two weeks, Mujahideen supply trains resupplied
Melava base, replenished our ammunition and our MRL rockets.
We prepared for the attack for an additional week and then
moved from Maro Mountain down into the Nazian Valley. Early in
the morning, we deployed our first groups against the DRA OPs
which sat on the small mountains overlooking Sorubay. There were
about 12 security OPs on the mountains surrounding Sorubay, so the
attack on the center started with the attack on the security posts.
After conducting heavy fire on these posts, we attacked and seized
them. We captured Sar Ghar and Tor Ghar security posts by 1000
hours. Then we started shelling the district center and descended on
Sorubay. Government officials, DRA soldiers and their families started
fleeing. They left in such a hurry that when we entered Sorubay,
we discovered that the occupants had left their dinners still cooking
and bread dough was waiting to be baked. We captured many impor-
Toryalai Hemat was a regiment commander of a mobile force allied with the IUA—Islamic
Unity of Afghanistan of Sayyaf. He fought in many provinces in Afghanistan. [Map sheet -
3185, vie grid 8299].
4
Moscow soghra is the Arabic. Many Arabs came to Afghanistan for the jihad. The overall
Afghan impression of the Arab Mujahideen, gathered from our interviews, is that they
were prima donnas who were more interested in taking videos than fighting.