The Other Side of the Mountain: Mujahideen Tactics in the Soviet-Afghan War - Ali Ahmad Jalali

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directly. The action continued for less than an hour. When enemy aircraft arrived over the ambush site, we broke contact and pulled out through the green zone. We had no casualties, while we destroyed or damaged one tank, one APC, one jeep and eight trucks.

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      The Mujahideen group achieved surprise by deploying in the dark and using the covered area close to the road for the ambush. The small number of the Mujahideen limited its action to one strike, after which they had to pull out. Failure to act decisively cost the convoy several vehicles and allowed the Mujahideen to slip away unscathed. The passive response of the Soviets caught in ambush often was due to the fact that they were carrying very few infantry in their escorting personnel carriers.

      The cover provided by the orchards and vegetation that flanked both sides of the Kabul-Charikar highway helped the Mujahideen lay successful ambushes. Later in the war, the Soviets destroyed the roadside orchards and villages to prevent the Mujahideen from using them in their ambushes.

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      by Toryalai Hemat

      (Toryalai Hemat was a regiment commander of a mobile force allied with the IUA-Islamic Union of Afghanistan of Sayyaf. He fought in many provinces in Afghanistan.)

      In the summer of 1986, the Soviets and DRA were moving lots of reinforcements and supplies to Paktia Province. We set an ambush on Highway 157 south of Mohammad Agha District headquarters on the 12th of July. This was four days after an ambush at the Mamur Hotel. I sited the ambush along a two-kilometer stretch between Qala-e Shekhak and Dehe Naw. Qala-e Shekhak is six kilometers south of Mohammad Agha and Dehe Naw is three kilometers further south from Qala-e Shekhak. There was a DRA outpost at Qala-e Shekhak, so we started our ambush a kilometer south of the outpost. The outpost was surrounded by mines and the DRA seldom left the outpost. I felt that the DRA might shoot at us, but would not attack from the outpost (Map 8 - Two Convoys).

      We did not have any advance information on the movement of columns, but there were enough columns moving to Paktia. At this time, there was usually a daily column, so it was a free hunt. There were many petrol tankers in these convoys. They were easy to set on fire, and just firing at them would do the job. Once you set them on fire, it would demoralize the entire column as everyone could see the smoke. We always wanted to hit DRA columns since they wouldn't fight, whereas Soviet columns would. Usually when a column would come, the enemy would establish security forces at suspected ambush sites and occupy them until the column passed or until they were certain that nothing was going to happen. Many times we wouldn't risk taking on the entire column. We would attack the tail since the enemy would not turn back to help the petroleum tankers at the rear. The column would often reach Gardez, but they would have lost a piece of it along the way. Attacking the column in the rear was less risk to us, although sometimes there would be some APCs at the rear of the column.

      The enemy reaction when caught in the kill zone was usually ineffective. They normally stopped, dismounted and took cover. They fought back only when assistance arrived. We learned to hit the column and leave. We did not want to fight reinforcements or helicopters because we did not have enough combat power and it was very hard to move our wounded from the area under fire. Later in the morning, a Soviet security force of armored vehicles moved close to us and occupied a position. Then the column came from the north. The security force rejoined the column before the entire column passed. This left the fuel tankers in the rear of the column for us! We hit them by surprise, and it was effective. We damaged or destroyed one jeep and nine tankers. Mohammad Hashem took mt an armored security vehicle with his RPG. We later learned that two Russians fled from the south-bound column when we ambushed it. They were captured by Mujahideen from HIH. As we were getting ready to leave the ambush site, a Soviet armored column came from the south. My southern security group had already pulled back, so we were caught totally by surprise. They began pouring fire into our ranks. Four helicopters also flew over firing at us.

      Mohammad Hashem hit one helicopter with his RPG, but the fight was unequal. All of my group, except for Ehsan and myself were wounded - most of them were wounded while we were withdrawing. Most were lightly wounded, but two of them are still paralyzed. What happened is that as we ambushed the tail of the southbound column, a north-bound column was traveling on the same section of road. The heavily-armored head of the north-bound column arrived at the kill zone as we were withdrawing. Helicopters were flying air cover for the arriving column as well. Since my southern security group had withdrawn, we did not know of their arrival until they were firing at us.

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      The road runs through a deep gorge three kilometers south of Dehe Naw. The Soviets probably had anticipated problems at this area and leapfrogged the security force there and put the helicopters overhead to deal with this probable ambush site. Security elements should be the last elements to pull out of an ambush - not the first. The southern security element should have been south on the high ground where it could see. Simple hand-held walkie-talkie radios and a security element that performs its mission would have averted disaster for this Mujahideen commander. The RPG-7 could be an effective anti-helicopter weapon - particularly when several RPGs were fired simultaneously at a hovering helicopter or at a helicopter on the ground.

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      by Haji Abdul Qader and Haji Qasab

      (Haji Abdul Qader was a HIK commander in the Bagram area. Haji Qasab was a JIA commander in the Deh Baba’Ali area.)

      In October 1980, a Soviet column left its base in Bagram to conduct a four day operation against the Mujahideen in the Nejraw District of Kapisa Province. To get there, they crossed the Abdullah-e Burj bridge over the Panjshir River. The bridge is on the main highway connecting Bagram with the provincial capitals of Mahmoud-e Raqi and Deh Baba’Ali and other major towns including Gulbahar in the north and Sarobi in the south. Since this is the only bridge over the Panjshir River in this region, Mujahideen felt that the Soviet force would return to their base by the same route.

      The Mujahideen based around the Abdullah-e Burj decided to ambush the column on its return trip when the troops were tired and more vulnerable. They decided to hit the column while it was crossing over the bridge from Kapisa to Parwan Province. The Soviets would be most vulnerable when half their column had crossed the river and their force was divided by the river (Map 9 - Burj). Haji Abdul Qader and Haji Qasab jointly planned and executed the ambush. They decided to let the Soviet force move unopposed until the head of the column reached Qala-e Naw, about 3.5 kilometers southwest of the bridge. The Mujahideen had watched the column depart and knew how long the column was. They calculated that when the column reached Qala-e Naw, half of the

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