Introduction
Commander Shahabuddin is from Shewaki Village south of Kabul. Zabat Halim was a legendary urban guerrilla who had been a non-commissioned officer in the Royal Afghan Army. His death was a blow to the Mujahideen.
Raid on Balahessar Fortress
A Soviet Regiment was garrisoned in the Balahessar Fortress in Kabul. In September or October of 1983, we decided to raid a security outpost south of Balahessar. This outpost formed part of the security belt around the fortress. I had 62 Mujahideen in my group. My armaments included eight RPG-7s and two 82mm recoilless rifles. My base was some ten kilometers south of Kabul at Yakhdara. We planned the raid in our base at Yakhdara, moved in the late afternoon to the village of Shewaki and waited until dark. We moved out at dark. On the way, there were several regime outposts. I detailed a five-man security element against each one as we passed it. The main outpost was at Akhozi and others were at Bagh-e Afzal and Qalacha. The security elements mission was to secure our return trip so that we wouldn’t be ambushed by the enemy.
We reached Balahessar fortress, which is surrounded by several security posts. I retained a 15-man attack group and posted the rest of my command as security elements guarding the other outposts. I divided my attack group into a five-man support group and a 10-man assault group. We crept up to the outpost, climbed up the wall, got up on the roof of the outpost and then attacked it. I led the assault group. We hit the sentry with an RPG and he vaporized. We blew open the doors with RPG rockets and opened fire on the soldiers in the courtyard. We killed 12 of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan (DRA) and captured three of their wounded. The rest escaped through a secret covered passage into Balahessar Fortress. I had two killed in action. One was Zabat Halim. We took our dead with us. We could not carry the wounded prisoners so we left them there. We captured 16 weapons - Kalashnikovs and machine guns, a mortar and an RPG. As we left, there was a commotion in Balahessar and tanks moved out of the fortress in our direction. One tank came close to us and we destroyed it with an RPG. The other tanks then quit coming towards us - they had lost their taste for a fight. We just wanted to get out of there, so we left for our assembly area. We had a designated assembly area and as we approached it, we were challenged and we responded with the password. Once I assembled my entire group, we left. My security elements guaranteed a safe return. This raid was on the 10th day of the first month of the Islamic Lunar calendar - the Day of Ashura. This day commemorates the anniversary of the massacre of the Prophet Mohammad’s grandson Hussein and his 72 followers at Karbala in Iraq. It is a day of mourning, reflection and solemn thinking for Shia and others. On this Day of Ashura, we thought of our own dead who died defending truth and righteousness. They had died appropriately on the Day of Ashura.
Author’s Commentary
Many of the urban guerrilla commanders maintained their main operating base within the suburbs or outlying villages where it was easier to assemble and train a group of men without government observation. The guerilla commanders maintained a net of informers and supporters who aided their entry and passage through the urban area. Still, guerilla groups operating within an urban area had to secure their route of entry and withdrawal which took the bulk of their force.
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