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

Chapter 7, Vignette 1 Page 201
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 seige would become more effective. A few days later, 70 Mujahideen
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 beseiged 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 seige. 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 seige. DRA General
Jamaluddin Omar was in charge of the group. He was my old tactics