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

Chapter 10, Vignette 3 Page 255
remained standing, cursing the Soviets and demanding their surrender
in Pashtu. At that moment, I saw a light in his stomach. He was
hit and fell down. I recrossed the road to get his body. I could see the
bodies of Soviets in the stream. When I reached Habib, he died. He
had only five rounds left. He was my good friend and was not even
from our village. He was from the Ahmadzai tribe, which live away
from this area.
Fighting went on all around us. I heard shooting from everywhere,
but I only knew what was going on around me. Shaykh
Bombar from my unit came up to help. He had the only other
Kalashnikov in my group. He had given his Kalashnikov to another
guy and taken the RPG and one rocket and moved to my position.
As he came, I saw tanks moving toward us through the fields
from the Shna Kala village. The sun was setting. The air assault
troops had come down from the mountains and were advancing.
Tanks were coming from the west. We wanted to carry Habib Noor's
body to Rangin Kala village and from there it would be easier to
take his body out of the area. I took the RPG and rocket from Shaykh
Bombar. We wrapped Habib Noor's body in my tsadar—the allpurpose
cloth that we all carry and wear. Then I shot the RPG at a
tank. The tanks were out of range and so the rocket landed among
the infantry. The tanks and infantry promptly stopped, realizing that
we had antitank weapons. Their halt enabled us to break contact and
take Habib Noor's body out of the area to Gerdab village—about six
kilometers further to the east. There, I rented a camel and we took
Habib's body to his family at a refugee camp in Pakistan. We buried
him in the refugee cemetery in Peshawar, even though his home was
in Paktia Province. His family is doing okay now since one of his sons
has a job in Saudi Arabia.
COMMENTARY: At this point, the Mujahideen effort was uncoordinated
and put the villagers at direct risk. The Mujahideen were poorly
trained and their lack of cooperation put the area at risk. Their
personal bravery and motivation, however, turned the entire area into
a defensive zone that slowed the Soviet effort. Later, as the
Mujahideen were better armed, had better communications and began
to coordinate their actions, they were more effective against the Soviet
and DRA forces. However, by that time most of the civilians were
killed or had left the area for refugee camps in Pakistan.
The Soviet effort was well planned and used air assault forces effectively
to seal the area. However, their cordon enclosed a large area