AFGHAN REBELS TO GET MORE MISSILES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000604900020-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 4, 2012
• Sequence Number: 20
• Publication Date: February 8, 1987
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/04: CIA-RDP90-00965R000604900020-4
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YIASHINGTON POST
8 February 1987
Afghan Rebels to Get More Missiles
Bigger Shipment of Stingers Intended to Pressure Soviets to Leave
4 By David B. Ottawav
(7 sun on Post Staff Writer-,
The Reagan administration has
decided to send a larger number of
Stinger antiaircraft missiles to the
Afghan rebels this year to increase
pressure on the Soviet Union to
withdraw its troops from?6J&b=-.
istan, according to U.S. officials.
The decision comes after numer-
ous reports from the field indicating
that the rebels, known as mujahed-
din, are successfully using the
weapon, first shipped there late last
spring and put into extensive use in
battle last October.
U.S. officials said the decision
reflects a widely held view within
Congress and the administration
that the Soviet Union is still not
serious about withdrawing an es-
timated 115,000 troops from Af-
ghanistan. Secretary . of State
George P. Shultz, meanwhile, has
disclosed a tougher new U.S. policy
concerning a speedy Soviet with-
drawal. [Details, Page A29.1
Initially, the Afghan rebels re-
portedly had considerable difficulty
learning to aim and fire the sophis-
ticated Stinger. But beginning late
last summer, the Central Intelli-
gence Agency arranged for a group
of ex-Army specialists to train the
rebels in camps near the Afghan
border in Pakistan.
These specialists have been giv-
ing fighters from three of the seven
allied rebel groups a six- to eight-
week course on the Stinger, accord-
ing to a source familiar with the
program.
The source said the U.S. trainers
found the Afghan fighters eager to
learn but noted problems in storing
the Stingers and some malfunctions
due to the extreme hot and cold
temperatures common in the moun-
tains of Afghanistan.
He said the rebels were averag-
ing seven to eight hits for every 10
Stingers fired, but doubted that
they were downing one aircraft per
day, as the State Department re-
ported last December.
The source said close control
over the rebels was maintained by
giving each four-man attack team
one launcher and one missile at a
time. For any team to get another
Stinger, the launcher had to be re-
turned for verification and inspec-
tion, the source said.
U.S. specialists had hoped that
Afghans trained on the Stinger
would then instruct others in var-
ious resistance groups, he said. But
they found that the Afghans, once
trained, were unwilling to pass on
their knowledge because it was
such a highly valued skill.
The administration decided last
March to provide Afghan and An-
golan anticommunist groups with
Stingers at the insistence of a group
of conservative members of Con-
gress. Army Chief of Staff Gen.
John A. Wickham Jr. and some sen-
ators objected because of concern
that the weapon might be obtained
by terrorists and that shipments
could deplete the U.S. Army's lim-
ited supply.
Congress has reportedly ap-
proved $600 million this fiscal year
for the U.S. covert military aid pro-
gram to the Afghan resistance, up
from $470 million the previous
year.
The administration has approved
roughly $15 million in covert mil-
itary assistance to the Angolan reb-
els, with Stingers and light antitank
weapons being the most sophisti-
cated U.S. arms supplied. It was not
immediately known whether the
decision to provide the Afghan reb-
els with more Stingers also applies
to the Angolans.
Sen. Dennis DeConcini (D-Ariz.)
unsuccessfully sought legislation
last year requiring strict U.S. mon-
itoring of Stingers sent to the Af-
ghan and Angolan rebels. He has
asked the General Accounting Of-
fice to review measures used by the
resistance groups to safeguard the
weapon and to determine whether
Stinger shipments are hurting U.S.
military preparedness.
Initially, the administration sent
about 150 Stinger launchers to the
Afghan rebels and 50 to the forces
led by Jonas Savimbi in Angola, ac-
cording to congressional and other
sources. It is not clear how many
additional Stingers the administra-
tion plans to send to the Afghan
rebels this year, but one U.S. offi-
cial said there will be "a major in-
crease."
Late last year, Angolan and Af-
ghan rebels, and their U.S. support-
ers, were suddenly reporting a high
level of success in downing enemy
aircraft, even with the relatively
few Stingers at their disposal. Ad-
ministration officials have con-
firmed the rebels' success, if not
always their figures.
Savimbi's National Union for the
Total Independence of Angola
(UNITA) claims to have shot down
41 Angolan- or Cuban-piloted hel-
icopters and MiG fighters between
May and November of last year. As
a result, pilots are flying much high-
er and avoiding close ground-sup-
port missions in support of troops
assaulting rebel positions, accord-
ing to UNITA spokesmen.
Defense Department sources
would not confirm the figure of 41
downed aircraft claimed by UNITA
but said the figure was "in the ball-
park."
A December State Department
report on Afghanistan said the mu-
jaheddin's ,air defense capabilities
had improved "considerably" last
year. A department official said that
since October, the rebels had been
shooting down one aircraft per day
on average.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/04: CIA-RDP90-00965R000604900020-4