Introduction
Potential informants and government spies surround urban Guerrillas. They must frequently move around unarmed and the government can usually react to their actions much faster than they can in the countryside. For this reason, urban guerrilla groups in Afghanistan were usually small and fought back with short-duration actions. Many urban guerillas lived in the country side or suburbs and only entered the cities for combat.
Haji Mohammad Yakub, whose nickname was Mansur (Victor), was an urban guerrilla in Kabul. He belonged to the HIH faction.
Four Urban Bomb Attacks
Number 1 - Bombing is a necessary part of being an urban guerrilla. The object is to create fear and take out selected individuals. We got our explosives form Pakistan. Commander Azizuddin and Commander Meskinyar were our contacts in Paghman District who forwarded the explosives and detonators to us. They used elderly people as our go-betweens to carry messages and explosives to us.
In April 1980, we carried out an attack on the Radio Afghanistan building. This housed the central offices for Afghanistan radio and television broadcasting. Soviet advisers worked at the building and cleared the news before it was broadcast. The Soviets were our target. We received a bomb from our contacts and gave it to a woman who worked in the radio station. She smuggled it into the station and armed it. The bomb went off at 1000 hours on a workday. The explosion killed two Afghan Party activists and two Soviets. It also wounded a DRA soldier. For some time after the blast, Afghanistan Radio and TV stopped broadcasting. After this, the security procedures for the building were greatly increased and everyone was carefully searched. Our lady contact later managed to get herself transferred to the payroll of Kabul University.
Number 2 - The communist regime converted Kabul University into a center for communist indoctrination. We decided to target the primary party organization at the university in January 1981. Bombing seemed to be our best option. By this time, our lady contact at Radio Afghanistan was working in the payroll office at Kabul University. We gave her two bombs. She planted one in the university administration building and the timer for 1100. She set the second in the primary Party Organization building and set the timer for 1145. The theory was that, after the first bomb went off, people would mill about around the site and then the key party activists would gather in the primary Party Organization building to discuss the bombing. The second bomb would attack this concentration. Our plan worked as we thought it would. Following the blast in the administration building, the party secretaries of all the various communist organizations gathered in the primary Party Organization building. The blast killed a Soviet advisor and several party secretaries. The bombs killed a total of 10 and wounded an unknown number.
Number 3 - On 6 May 1983, we bombed the Ministry of Interior building in Kabul. We planted 27 kilograms of explosives in a room on the second floor of the building. This room was close to the office of the Minister. The bombs were hidden in four large flowerpots that had been there for some time. We had a contact who was a gardener for the Ministry of the Interior. He agreed to smuggle in the explosives, plant the bombs and set them for detonation. We trained him how to do the job. He mixed the explosives with limestone and smuggled them in plastic bags over a period of time. We planned to detonate the bombs during the daytime for maximum casualties. However, our HIH headquarters in Peshawar overruled us and told us to set he bombs off at night. HIH wanted to keep the Minister of the Interior Gulab Zoy alive since he was a leading member of the Khalq faction and his survival would insure that friction between the Khalq and Parchim communist factions continued.
The gardener set all the time pencils for 2300 hours when he went home at 1600 hours. There was no sense setting different times since the building would be virtually deserted. The time bombs went off on time and killed four duty officers and damaged the Minister’s office. If we had set off the bombs during the day we would have killed Gulab Zoy, Ghazi (his bodyguard), Sheruddin (his aide-de-camp) and perhaps a hundred others. The DRA closed roads around the building for 24 hours and conducted an investigation. However, they thought the blast was connected to some internal quarrel within the communist leadership and never suspected our gardener.
Number 4 - The Soviets lived in the eastern Micro region of Kabul. We decided to attack the Soviets right where they were living. There was a bus stop in the area where the Soviets would wait for their buses to work. We checked the timing of the buses. There was a daily 0745 morning bus that drew the most Soviets. We needed to establish a pattern so that we could leave a bomb without drawing attention. We got a push art and loaded it with the best fruit and vegetables we could get. The produce came from Parwan Province. We charged reasonable prices. The Soviets and local people got used to seeing us and buying from us. We kept this up for several days. At night, we would work on the pushcart. We put a false bottom in the cart so that we could put our bombs in the bottom of the cart and they would be undetected even if the cart were inspected. WE attacked on the 2nd of October 1983. We loaded five bombs into the bottom of the cart. We inserted time pencil fuses in the bombs and set them for 0743. Then we put in the false bottom and loaded the cart with produce. Six Mujahideen carried out the attack. None of us carried weapons. We brought the cart to the bus stop as usual. Thirteen Soviets crowded around it to see what was on sale. We slipped away from the cart and mixed with the local people. The bombs went off at 0743 just before the bus arrived. The blast killed 13, wounded 12 and damaged a nearby store. The DRA searched the crowd but made no arrests from our group.
Many people find such bombing attacks morally reprehensible, yet have no qualms when much larger bombs are dropped from aircraft. Neither type of bombing attack is surgical and both types kill innocent bystanders. The only real difference is in the size of the bomb and the means of delivery. The Mujahideen lacked an air force but retained a limited bombing option. The Soviets had an air force and conducted large- scale bombing attacks throughout the war.
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