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University Daily Kansan, July 31, 1980
Copyright MAJID A. ALI, 1980, Thursday, July 31
Many Afghan guerrillas have lost their families since the Soviet invasion in
January and reflect the frustration found in fighting an enemy that sports 20th century weapons against the less-developed Afghanistan nation.
Afghan rebels fight long odds
Hashem Khan, a 18-year-old Afghan fighter, lay fatally wounded at his mother's house after a Soviet helicopter attack in the Logar Province. July 7. He could not be taken to a hospital for treatment of his chest wound because of the Soviet pressure in the area. Khan died two days later.
Afghan guerrillas show their limited fire power, which includes weapons made from several countries.
A camel transports a U.S. built 75mm recoilless rifle in the Pakhtiar Province.
Copyright  MAJID A. ALL; 1980, Thursday, July 31
Copyright MAJID A. ALI, 1980, Thursday, July 31
Makeshift hospitals like this one in Peshawar, Pakistan are usually crowded and poorly staffed.
By DAVID STIPI Staff Renorter
Copyright The University Daily Kansan (1980, July 31)
American Pakistan facing the same situation
Americans faced in Pakistan
Not unless the Afghan refugee get anti-aircraft weapons, according to a KU student who spent 21 days in Afghanistan this summer. The student, Majid A. Jali, Lawrence senior, traveled to Afghanistan in late June to photograph the war.
"It's basically an air war," he said. "The Afghan rebels control the ground."
"The myth of the super-Russians has been blown away. For instance, the rebels can knock out Russian tanks, but it costs a lot to do so."
All told of one incident in the 7-year-old was pretending to play by the roadside as a Soviet tank passed. The Soviets ignored the child. As the tank passed, the child threw a Molotov cocktail at it and knocked it out.
"But the Russians can call in air strikes," he said. "They use armored helicopters and strife with rockets from high altitudes. The helicopters are invulnerable to the Afghan rebels 'ground fire.'"
"I have a hunch the United States is involved in getting weapons to the rebels, but it only a hunch," he said.
Ali said the Afghan rebels were receiving small arms, some of which he suspected came from China through other countries. He said he a lot of Chinese-made rifles with Egyptian markings scratched in over their original markings.
But small arms aren't enough. It is not likely that with their
present weapons the Afghan rebels will be able to cause enough Soviet casualties to induce them to withdraw, he said.
The Soviet's 'air advantage allows them to carry on the war with relative impunity, he said. In comparison, the Americans in Vietnam were fighting guerrillas armed with sophisticated anti-aircraft weapons.
Ali said genocide was a likely outcome of the war if the Afghans didn't get better weapons.
"Since the rebels are fighting a holy war, it will go on until the last 2-year-old child is dead," he said. "The Russians are angry."
Part of the Soviet strategy is to mine the mountain passes to Pakistan to prevent the guerrillas from crossing the border. Early in the conflict, Ali said, the Soviets dropped watches and money attached to small time-bombes on the mountains. When Afghan guerrillas and refugees flee to Pakistan learned to use improvised weapons, they began dropping small mines that look like ocarinas. Ali said.
"The guerrillas walk in single file and can usually see the ocarinas and avoid them," he said. "But the women and children who are walking off the trail at night, where the mines have rolled, are the ones who hit them."
"The war is a family war. Lots of guerrillas I talked to had their wives and children. When they captured Russians they took them."
"But the Russians don't take prisoners either. I saw towns bombed that had not had guardmen in them, fields with wheat."
Soviet rocket attacks left these houses smoldering and in ruins in the Surkhaq Valley. The blitz in the Logar Province occurred on the same day that Khan was fatally wounded.
Copyright MAJID A. ALI, 1980, Thursday, July 31
A-tank missiles, like this one being planted by a guerrilla in the Logar anti-tank unit, are against the Soviets, who are often too hardened to crack the road ahead.