FOREIGN ARMS AID AFGHANS INSURGENCY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000706820006-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 26, 2010
• Sequence Number: 6
• Publication Date: December 19, 1982
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/26: CIA-RDP90-00552R000706820006-4
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Foreign Arms
did Afghans'
Insurgency
By Aernout van Lynden
special to The Washington Post
ON THE AFGHAN-PAKIS-
TANI BORDER-In the months
immediately following the Soviet
occupation of Afghanistan three
years ago, most of the guerrillas bat-
tling the foreign enemy were armed
with bolt-action rifles from the
World War II era or even relics from
the 19th century.
The courageous tribesmen ap-
peared to be fighting a romantic but
doomed struggle, carrying little more
than devotion to Islam onto the field
against a superpower. Lacking an-
titank or antiaircraft weapons, they
seemed to have little chance of tri-
umphing over Soviet troops armed
with the latest models of tanks and
helicopter gunships.
Today, the religious ardor has not
changed, but the arms certainly
have. The most common firearm
among the insurgents has become
the' Soviet-designed AK47 or
Kalashnikov, an automatic weapon
often called the world's best assault
rifle. More importantly, most guar=
rilla bands now have several rocket-
propelled grenade launchers, bazoo-
ka-like weapons that can turn a tank
or armored car into a flaming wreck
from 300 yards away. They have
shiny new mortars, mines and recoil-
less rifles.
The guerrillas captured many of
these weapons from the enemy or
obtained them from Afghan Army
defectors, but an increasingly impoy-
tart source of supply is from across the
Pakistani border. The United States,
China, Egypt and Saudi Arabia have co-
o?erated with the Pakistanis to guara.-i-
tee a steady flow of infantry weapons to
the insurgents, according to a variety of
sddrees including Afghan resistance lead-
eias, senior diplomats and local officials in
Pakistan, and Western European mili-
tary specialists.
WASHINGTON POST
19 DECEMBER 1982
The late Egyptian president Anwar
Sitdat provided the only public confirma-
tion of foreign assistance, saying that he
agreed to ship arms to the guerrillas at.
Washington's request. Egyptian and Eu-
ropean sources say that the United
States was paying between $20' million
aid $30 million a year to Cairo to cover
the cost of the arms going to the insur-
gents from Egypt at least until the end of
let year.
Since then, diplomats in Islamabad
'isy that the new Egyptian president,
Hosni Mubarak, seems to have reduced
;thpplies to the Afghan guerrillas, perhaps
to put some distance between his govern-
'n nt and U.S. policies.
The steady increase in the number and
q,histication of weapons at the disposal
>f. the guerrillas probably has been the
most important factor in ensuring not
,qty the survival of the resistance move-
:nent but also the steady escalation that
:iis marked the war in Afghanistan over
she past three years.
;The arms supply from abroad also has
?)rbvided the Soviets with a ready justi-
ication for keeping their troops in the
.ountry. Moscow maintains that it will
tay in Afghanistan until all outside in-
.erference ceases.
'The supply line can be seen in action
t'the tiny frontier hamlet of Teri Mang-
i just inside Pakistan, an Afghan equiv-
dent of a Wild West town of hastily con-
.tiucted buildings, muddy streets and
timing crowds of armed men. There,
des of mujaheddin or insurgents
Tossed the border day after day carrying
iew Kalashnikovs with markings in
hinese or Arabic, or modified .303 rifles
made either in Canada or the United
states.
Passing the deserted ruins of what
>noe was an Afghan border post, they
loaded on mules, donkeys and horses
loaded with a wide array of ammunition,
;renades and heavier weapons.
The group of insurgents that I acc'om-
)apied in Afghanistan waited three days ,
n the nearby Pakistani town of Parachi-
mif for arrival of weapons from Pesha
headquarters of the Afghan rears=
vsk
;am parties. The mujaheddin picked up
heir arms at a small Parachinar party
.)flce set up as a sort of distribution can-
,er'
The truck that arrived carried a 'vari-
;ty.of weapons of a sophistication that J.
iad not witnessed during a previous 'visit'
ast year: 150 brand-new Chinese Kalash-
nikovs with folding metal stocks; 300
thaki, plastic-covered mines, also from
"hina; 15 mortars, both the British-made
3-inch variety and the Chinese 82mm,
;ype; four 82mm recoilless rifles, a kind
)f antitank cannon, each brand new, with
"hinese markings, and 24 grenades.
I was told that supplies of this kind
lave doubled or tripled since last year,
and that the center at Parachinar now
"eoeives such truckloads every three or
our days. It is not the only distribution
enter, and it clearly showed that aid has
bean stepped up, that the mujaheddin
rely increasingly on arms from outside,
and that the weapons themselves have
become far more sophisticated.
This impression was confirmed inside
Afgthanistan, where rocket-propelled
;reade launchers, recoilless rifles and
mortars were much more in evidence
their a, year ago: The overwhelming bulk
of :these relatively advanced weapons
have come from outside Afghanistan,
whereas the majority of rifles have been
either captured from the enemy or were
brought over by defectors, particularly
during the first two years of the war.
The Soviet-designed RPG7 grenade
launcher, with enough power to pierce
Aernout van Lynden, a Dutch free-lance
journalist who previously has written
froki Afghanistan for The Washington
Poet, filed this dispatch from London.
He,left Afghanistan after two months
during which he accompanied insur-
gents.
the armor of the standard Soviet T62 or
T72 tank, has been the most important'
addition to the mujaheddin .arsenal. Of'
about 60 guerrilla bands that I saw in the
area south of the, capital of Kabul, most
were equipped with the weapon. The
guerrillas have proved adept at learning
to use the RPG7, which has given them
the ability to go on the offensive-against
small Soviet units.
During an ambush of a Soviet convoy
on the Kabul-Jalalabad -road last year, I
watched accurate firing of five RPG7s
cripple all five vehicles-two armored
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 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/26: CIA-RDP90-00552R000706820006-4
personnel carriers and three trucks-in j
three minutes. That ambush illustrated ,
that the resistance was capable of chal-
lenging Soviet control of the major roads,
a possibility that few- observers had
thought likely when the Soviets invaded
in December 1979.
Resistance officials tersely insist that
they have purchased all of-these new
arm, either on the open market.or from
the local, unsophisticated arms industry
that flourishes legally in the tribal areas.
of Pakistan's northwest' provinces: Pal+is-
tani authorities regularly have denied
Soviet allegations that they were supply-
ring the mujaheddin with arms...:
But the Afghan, Pakistani. and Euro=
plan sources interviewed for this "article
told a different story. Resistance leaders
admit privately that they do not= have
enough money to pay for all the weapons
that they are receiving. And while it is
true that Pakistan is not giving arms to
the mujaheddin, it is serving as the
3najor conduit for funneling weapons into
Afghanistan.
The sources said that a framework w
iiet up, poss- y under the coordination of
the Ub. Central to igence Agency, to
de iI`ver arms m. a four onor coun-
t es The common fac-
tor uniting the donors is a fear of Soviet
expansion m.
In confirming the foreign role in sup
plying arms, Sadat said in an