US 'EYES' SEE NO AFGHAN PULLOUT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000605620002-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 24, 2010
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: June 25, 1980
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/24: CIA-RDP90-00552R000605620002-2
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CHRISTIAN SCIENCE t,i0?1ITOR
25 June 1980
US `eyes'. see no Afghan pullout
Washingt
US inteil'io~ carefully watching for reported Soviet troop with-
drawals from Afghanistan but has no independent evidence of these yet,
a Defense Department spokesman, Thomas Ross, said Tuesday.
The intelligence community's estimate of Soviet troop strength is
85,000 inside Afghanistan and another 30,000 Soviet soldiers just across
the border, Monitor correspondent John K. Cooley reports.
At a conference here recently, a leading expert on Soviet Muslims,
Prof. Alexandre Bennigsen, said the Soviets had withdrawn all of their
own Muslim troop units from Afghanistan in Fetiniary and replaced them
with Russians, because the Mu i troops had in some cases refused to
fight their Afghan Muslim brethren:. US intelligence officials say they have
no confirmation of this. :_ .... _
Farther west, on the Iranian border,.the Soviets have one airbome and
one motorized rifle division in the Transcaucasia region between the Cas-
pian and Black Seas, Gen. David C. Jones, chairman of the US Joint
Chiefs of Staff, told the Senate Armed Service Committee last week be-
fore his Senate confirmation for a second term.
General Jones said the Soviets could move those two divisions quickly
to the Iranian oil fields if the United States and Gulf nations did not react
quickly. However, .he added, Soviet aircraft involved in such a move would
have to fly 1,000 miles, making their detection by airborne early-warning
aircraft easy-Soviet moves of troops into and out of Afghanistan by air
are more difficult to monitor, intelligence sources say
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/24: CIA-RDP90-00552R000605620002-2