Afghan Resistance to Soviet Occupation

Afghanistan is a southwest Asian state populated by tribal clans with multiple ethnicities and languages. Historically, Afghans have identified with their religion, tribe, and kinship to a much greater degree than with any central government.

In April 1978, a small group of leftist Afghan officers with Soviet ties seized control of the government and established the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan (DRA). President Nur Taraki, the Soviet-backed Marxist leader, quickly announced a program of land reform, liberalized status for women, and changed other policies that ran counter to the centuriesold social order of Afghanistan.

Because many of Taraki's programs were in direct opposition to the social structure based on tribe, kinship, village, and religious identity, the government drew very little support in the countryside. Resistance to Taraki's government grew, and a civil war broke out among tribal clans. Afghan Islamic religious leaders proclaimed jihad (holy war) against the Communist régime and bands of mujahideen (holy warriors) formed to defend the faith.

On March 15, 1979, the city of Herat was in full rebellion against the DRA government, and most of the Afghan 17th Infantry Division mutinied and joined the anti-government rebellion. The DRA air force bombed the city, and the DRA retook the city by March 21, 1979. An estimated 5,000 Afghans and up to 200 Soviets were estimated to have died in the fighting. Desertions were so rampant in the Afghan army that, by the end of 1979, the actual strength of the DRA's army was estimated to be less than half of its authorized strength of 90,000 men.

In September 1979, Taraki's prime minister, Hafizullah Amin, seized power and had President Taraki killed. Under Amin's rule, the political situation in Afghanistan continued to deteriorate. The Soviet leadership under Soviet Secretary General Leonid Brezhnev determined that military intervention was necessary to restore political and social stability to Afghanistan. The Soviets' prior experiences in quelling large-scale insurrections were Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968.

Following some advance elements, the Soviet 40th Army invaded Afghanistan in force on Christmas Eve 1979. During the first several days of the invasion, the Soviets seized the government, killed President Amin, and installed Barbak Karmal as president. The Soviet plan was to stabilize the government, reconstitute and strengthen the DRA military, and withdraw the majority of Soviet forces within 3 years. The Soviets originally intended to leave responsibility for combat to the military of the DRA. However, with Afghan mujahideen in full rebellion against the government, the DRA army was ineffective and unreliable, and the possibility of its defeat worried the Soviet leadership. The Soviet 40th Army found itself drawn into direct combat with hundreds of guerrilla groups throughout the country. The 40th Army was a motorized rifle division, whose training predisposed them to conduct conventional large unit combat sweeps supported by artillery fire support and tactical close air support.

The Soviet invasion prompted an Islamic jihad against the Marxist régime in which many foreign nationals arrived, believing it their Moslem duty to defend their faith. For the most part, foreign mujahideen were funneled into one of seven major groups or alliances. Afghan and foreign mujahideen received significant support from numerous outside [Page 49]sources. Foreign countries such as Pakistan, Iran, the United States, China, and some European and Arab states began to supply money and arms to the mujahideen. In the case of the United States, the government did not believe that the mujahideen would be able to defeat the Soviets; the U.S. objective was to make this invasion costly to the Soviets and perhaps cause some reticence on the Soviets' part to embark on other foreign adventures.

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