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Afghan Rebels Launch Offensive on Jalalabad Issue Date: March 31, 1989 Afghan Rebels Launch Offensive on Jalalabad Drive on City Slows after Initial Gains Army Blunts Assault Soviets Resume Arms Shipments Other Developments Drive on City Slows after Initial Gains The first major battle in the Afghan war since the withdrawal of Soviet troops in mid-February began March 6 when rebel forces launched a much-heralded offensive against the eastern city of Jalalabad. After some early gains, however, the rebel advance bogged down, and by March 24 foreign observers said the battle had settled into a stalemate. [See 1989 Afghanistan: Rebels Elect Interim Leaders, 1989 Soviets Complete Troop Withdrawal from Afghanistan; Kabul Regime Faces Advancing Rebels] Jalalabad, Afghanistan's third-largest city, was considered a strategic prize for the rebels. It lay on a key highway, 80 miles (130 km) east of Kabul, the Afghan capital, and 40 miles (65 km) west of the Pakistani border. Approximately 12,000 government troops were deployed in and around the city. The rebels, known as mujaheddin, had massed an attacking force of between 10,000 and 15,000 soldiers. The offensive marked one of the first times the mujaheddin had attempted to fight a conventional battle against government troops. During most of the 10-year-old war, the rebels had restricted themselves to guerrilla-style hit-and-run attacks. For weeks prior to the offensive, the rebels had indicated their intention to attack Jalalabad. Rebel commanders had boasted that the city would fall within a week. Army Blunts Assault The rebels commenced their assault March 6 with a fierce rocket and artillery barrage of government positions ringing Jalalabad. On March 7, a key Afghan military base, at Samarkhel, five miles (eight kilometers) from Jalalabad, fell to the advancing guerrillas. Rebel forces March 8 claimed that they had seized the Jalalabad airport, which was a vital supply link for the Afghan troops defending the city. The Afghan government March 9 reported that the airport had been recaptured. The rebel advance reportedly stalled March 12, barely a mile and a quarter (two kilometers) from the city line, in the face of stiff resistance by Afghan army troops. As the army tightened its defenses around Jalalabad, the rebels unleashed withering artillery attacks against the city. During a 24-hour period March 12-13, the rebels fired some 12,000 rockets and shells into the city. A spokesman for the Afghan regime revealed March 13 that government troops defending Jalalabad had used Soviet-supplied Scud-B surface-to-surface missiles to blunt the mujaheddin assault. The heavy fighting had caused some 20,000 to 30,000 civilian residents of the city to flee toward the Pakistani border, it was reported March 13. Jalalabad had an estimated population of 100,000. Soviet diplomats in Kabul March 24 said the battle had bogged down into "an intensive stalemate," with the Afghan army unable to break the siege of the city and the rebels unable to cut the government's supply lines. Western military experts said the mujaheddin's inexperience in conventional warfare and a lack of coordination between the various rebel forces involved in the battle were key reasons behind the collapse of the offensive. In addition, the Afghan air force was proving more adept at bombarding the guerrillas than had been expected, Western observers said. Soviets Resume Arms Shipments In response to the rebel offensive against Jalalabad, the Soviet Union March 15 resumed airlifting arms and ammunition to the Afghan government. At least 40 Soviet transport planes, carrying military supplies and food, landed at Kabul airport on the first day of the airlift, Soviet officials said. Other Developments In other recent developments in the Afghan civil war: The Soviet Union and the mujaheddin had staged a prisoner of war exchange somewhere in Afghanistan in mid-March, the Washington Post reported March 20. According to the report, which cited unidentified diplomats, between 30 and 70 Soviet soldiers who had been taken prisoner by the rebels during the war were returned to Soviet authorities. For each Soviet POW exchanged, 10 captured rebels were released, the report said. [See 1988 World News Briefs: Afghanistan, 1988 Afghanistan: Soviets List Casualty Toll] Saudi Arabia March 9 became the first country to recognize the interim Afghan government established in February by a coalition of rebel groups based in Pakistan. Two other nations, Sudan and Bahrain, followed suit March 13. [See 1989 Afghanistan: Rebels Elect Interim Leaders] At least several thousand Afghan soldiers and militiamen had defected February 16 to join the mujaheddin, Western diplomats and guerrilla sources said. Some rebel reports claimed that as many as 11,000 government troops had defected. The apparent desertions came one day after the last Soviet soldiers had departed Afghanistan. © 2010 Facts On File News Services Modern Language Association (MLA) Citation: "Afghan Rebels Launch Offensive on Jalalabad; Drive on City Slows after Initial Gains; Other Developments." Facts On File World News Digest: n. pag. World News Digest. Facts On File News Services, 31 Mar. 1989. Web. 9 July 2010. <http://www.2facts.com/article/1989008980>. For further information see Citing Sources in MLA Style. Facts On File News Services' automatically generated MLA citations have been updated according to the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 7th edition. American Psychological Association (APA) Citation format: The title of the article. (Year, Month Day). Facts On File World News Digest. Retrieved Month Day, Year, from World News Digest database. See the American Psychological Association (APA) Style Citations for more information on citing in APA style. .
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