MOSCOW, Dec. 19, Reuter: Afghan troops have launched a major offensive against some 9,000 Moslem insurgents in south-east Afghanistan near the Pakistan border, Moscow television said on Saturday.
The television showed film of the troops shelling what a Soviet reporter said were rebel strong- holds and arms supply routes in a snow-capped mountain range in the Khost district of Pakhtiya province.
The reporter, Mikhail Leshchin- ksy, said the operation had both military and political objectives and was under the command of the Chief-of-Staff of the Afghan army, Lieutenant-General Shah – Nawas.
In an interview translated into Russian, the General’ told Lesh-chinsky the action had been laun- ched after efforts to find a peaceful solution to the fighting in the area had failed.
The Soviet reporter said armed groups from the local Jadran tribe had cut the region. Off from the center of the country over a long period.
For nine years the population of the district has been held host- age by the counter-revolution,” Leshchinsky said.
In his interview with the correspondent, as translated by Lesh- chinsky, Nawas said the Jadran tribe had apparently rejected – peace proposals under pressure from Pakistan and Western countries,
“The blockade of Khost will now be lifted by military means”, the General said.
Article extracted from this publication >> December 25, 1987
