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

Chapter 6, Vignette 6 Page 187
mountains also let the Mujahideen move'into the area and prepare
attack positions undetected.
The enemy forces in Sarobi were in a favorable tactical position to
launch a flanking attack against the main base of the Mujahideen
toward Hisarak. Such a move, supported by air and artillery support,
should have foiled the Mujahideen operation and cut off their
withdrawal. Such a move, supplemented by heliborne landings
behind the Mujahideen lines, could have created chaos and forced
the Mujahideen to abort the operation. The DRA reaction, however
was reactive and unimaginative. The road-bound DRA forces paid
heavily for this leadership failure.
Falling into the final Mujahideen ambush was the worst arid
the most costly DRA mistake. After the Mujahideen guns fell silent,
the DRA did not bother to ensure that the silence really meant that
the Mujahideen had withdrawn and was not a "calm before the
storm." The DRA then allowed too much traffic to move down the
unsecured highway. The DRA traffic jam occurred right in the
Mujahideen kill zone.
The two following vignettes describe battles within OPERATION
ARROW on the eastern approaches to the gorge.