Battle of Jalalabad (1989)

Battle in the Afghan Civil War of 1989–1992

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Battle of Jalalabad

Part of Afghan Civil War (1989–1992), Afghanistan–Pakistan border skirmishes
| Date| 5 March – end of June 1989[8]

|

Location|

Jalalabad, Afghanistan and Salang Pass

Result|

Afghan government victory[9]

* ISI failure to install a government under Gulbuddin's leadership
* Hamid Gul sacked as head of the ISI
* CIA takes on a more direct role
* Gulbuddin Hekmatyar drops support for the "Afghan Interim Government"
* Battle won without direct Soviet involvement[10]

Territorial
changes|  ROA regains full control of Jalalabad from opposition forces
Belligerents
Afghanistan
Supported by:
Soviet Union|

* Pakistan[1][2][3]
* ISI

* AIG[4][5][6]
* HIG
* JI
* NIFA
* IDOA
* HIK
* Al-Qaeda

* Saudi Arabia[7]
* Wahhabi volunteers

Supported by:

United States

*     * CIA

Commanders and leaders

* Afghanistan
* President Najibullah
* Shahnawaz Tanai[5]
* Nur ul-Haq Ulumi
* General Barakzai †
* Mohammad Sardar Bajauri
* Khushal Peroz
* Abdul Rashid Dostum
* Mohammed Ehsan
* M . A. Delawar
* Rasul Pahlawan
* Haneef Atmar (WIA)

* Soviet Union
* Boris Gromov

* Pakistan
* Hamid Gul[11][12][13]
* Mirza Aslam Beg[14]
* Nasir Khan[5]
* Aitzaz Ahsan

* HIG
* Gulbuddin Hekmatyar

* JI
* Burhanuddin Rabbani
* Ahmad Shah Massoud

* NIFA
* Ahmed Gailani

* IDOA
* Abdul Rasul Sayyaf

* Saudi Arabia
* ibn Al-Khattab
* Osama bin Laden (WIA)

Units involved

* Afghan Army[5]
* 9th Infantry Division
* 53rd Infantry Division
* 55th Motorized Infantry Brigade
* 10th Engineer-Sapper Regiment
* 11th Infantry Division
* 66th Motorized Infantry Brigades
* 71st Motorized Infantry Brigades
* 81st Motorized Infantry Brigade
* 11th Tactical Ballistic Missile Battalion
* 91st Artillery Regiment
* Unknown Mechanized battalion
* Unknown Howitzer battalion
* Afghan Commando Forces
* 37th Commando Brigade

* Ministry of Interior[5]
* 7th Operative Regiment (Sarandoy)
* 12th Mountain Battalion (Sarandoy)
* 8th Border Guard Brigade
* 10th Border Guard Brigade

* WAD
* 904th Battalion

* Afghan National Guard[5]
* 1st Motorized Infantry Brigade
* 88th Heavy Artillery Regiment
* 22nd Guards Regiment

Afghan Air Force[3]

*     * 355th Fighter-Bomber Aviation Regiment
* 377th Helicopter Regiment
* 373rd Air Transport Regiment
* 12th Squadron
* 99th Missile Brigade

Defense of the Revolution[5]|

* Pakistan:
* Pakistani Army
* 11th Infantry Division
*     * Khyber Rifles (alleged by Kabul)[5]
* Pakistani Mercenaries

* AIG
* HIG:
* 5 battalions including a mechanized battalion (during the First Battle of Jalalabad Airport)[5]

Strength

Afghanistan

* 15,000 soldiers.

Pakistan

*     * 5,000 soldiers.[15]
* 2 Border Brigades

* AIG
* HIG[5]
* 3,300 soldiers.
* 11 T-54Ms
* 3 BMPs
* 2 BTR-60PB
* 2 BRDM-2
* 55 mortars
* 12 howitzers
* 79 rocket launchers
* HIK[5]
* 500 soldiers.
* JI[5]
* 500 soldiers.
* NIFA[5]
* 1,700 soldiers.
* IDOA[5]
* 1,300 soldiers.
* JNM
* 1,300 soldiers
* HEI
* 1,500 soldiers

Saudi Arabia[5]

*     * 1,300 soldiers.

Total Estimate: 14,000
Casualties and losses

Afghanistan

*     * 3,000 killed[3]
* 1 Antonov An-26 transport plane destroyed
* 2 airport employees killed

* Pakistan

1 killed (Mostly dressed as mujahideen, concealing their identity)

* AIG
* 10,000–15,000 killed[1][16]
* Heavy losses of armor[5]

Saudi Arabia
~100+ killed

Civilian casualties:

12,000–15,000 killed

The Battle of Jalalabad, also known as Operation Jalalabad or the Jalalabad War, occurred in the spring of 1989, marking the beginning of the Afghan Civil War.[17] The Peshawar-based Seven-Party Union (an alliance of seven Afghan mujahideen groups also known as the Afghan Interim Government or "government-in-exile"),[8][18] supported by the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence, attacked Jalalabad, which was then under the administration of the Soviet-backed Republic of Afghanistan.[8][11] Though the mujahideen quickly captured the Jalalabad Airport and Samarkhel, the former base of the Soviet 66th Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade, the Afghan Armed Forces recaptured them and claimed victory.[19]

## Background

[edit]

The Soviet Union officially withdrew from Afghanistan on February 15, 1989, marking the end of the Soviet-Afghan War. The war was fought between mujahideen guerilla groups (supported by Pakistan, the United States, Saudi Arabia, China, Iran, and other nations) and the Soviet-backed Democratic Republic of Afghanistan.[20][21] However, the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan, which the mujahideen perceived as a "puppet government" remained in power after the withdrawal.

The Mujahideen were supported by Pakistani intelligence. ISI Director Hamid Gul's stated goal was to establish a mujahideen government in Afghanistan,[11] led by Hezb-e Islami leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.[12][4] Analysts disagree as to whether Pakistan's Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was kept in the dark about the ISI's plan to overturn Afghanistan[11] or was aware of the attack.[12] One analyst stated that United States Ambassador to Pakistan Robert B. Oakley was exhortating[clarification needed] this mujahideen attack.[12]

The Americans reportedly were motivated by their wish to humiliate the Marxists and send them out of Afghanistan "clinging to their helicopters" to avenge the fall of South Vietnam. Pakistan wished to establish a friendly government in Kabul that would not support Baloch and Pashtun separatists in western Pakistan.[22] The plan was for Jamiat-e Islami to close the Salang Pass, paralyzing the Afghan Government's supply lines.[23][24] The plan was to establish an interim government in Jalalabad that would be recognized by western nations as the legitimate government of Afghanistan.[23]

## Battle

[edit]

Involved in the operation were forces of Hekmatyar's Hezb-e Islami Gulbuddin, Abdul Rasul Sayyaf's Ittehad-e Islami and Arab fighters totaling 14,000 men. The attack began on March 5, 1989, and went well at first for the mujahideen, who captured the Jalalabad airfield before facing a counterattack.[25]: 138 When government troops began to surrender, the attacking forces were soon blocked by the main Afghan Army positions held by the 11th Division, which were protected by bunkers, barbed wire and minefields. The government troops received on intensive air support, as the Afghan Air Force flew 20 sorties a day over the battlefield. An-12 transport aircraft, modified to carry bombs, flew at high altitude out of range of the Stinger missiles used by the mujahideen; cluster bombs were used intensively.[25]: 139 Three Scud firing batteries deployed around Kabul, specifically the 99th Missile Brigade, fired more than 400 missiles in support of the Jalalabad garrison.[26][27]

Despite their lack of precision, these weapons had a significant effect on the morale of the mujahideen, who were unable to defend against them.[28][29] The Battle of Jalalabad is considered to be the most concentrated ballistic missile campaign since the V2 Attacks on London during the Second World War.[26][27][29]

By the middle of May, the mujahideen had made little progress against the defences of Jalalabad, and were running low on ammunition.[citation needed] In July, they failed to prevent the Afghan Army from retaking the army base in Samarkhel. Jalalabad remained under Najibullah’s government control. The mujahideen suffered an estimated 3,000 casualties during this battle. Arab foreign fighters sustained over 300 casualties.[30] Approximately 12,000–15,000 civilians were killed, and 10,000 fled the conflict.[31] The Afghan Army reported around 1,500 casualties during the battle.[32] towards the end of the battle, the ISI-backed Hezb-i-Islami (led by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar) launched an attack Jamiat-e Islami forces in Takhar Province, resulting in the deaths of 36 of Ahmad Shah Massoud’s commanders. In retaliation, Massoud pursued and executed the perpetrators of the ambush after a trial.[33]

## Aftermath

[edit]

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Contrary to American and Pakistani expectations, this battle proved that the Afghan Army could fight without Soviet help, and greatly increased the confidence of government supporters. Conversely, the morale of the mujahideen involved in the attack slumped and many local commanders of Hekmatyar and Sayyaf concluded truces with the government.[34]

The failure of the battle can be attributed to the failure of Ahmad Shah Masoud's forces to close the Salang Pass allowing Kabul to supply their forces.[23] In the words of Brigadier-General Mohammed Yousaf, an officer of the ISI, "the jihad never recovered from Jalalabad".[28] In particular, Pakistan's plans to promote Hekmatyar were also harmed.

Both the Pakistani and the American governments were frustrated with the outcome. As a result of this failure, General Hamid Gul was immediately sacked by Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and replaced with General Shamsur Rahman Kallu as the Director-General of the ISI. Kallu pursued a more classical policy of support to the Afghan guerillas.[28] In this respect he cut off the barrier that his predecessors, Akhtar Abdur Rahman and Gul had placed between the mujahideen and the American secret service, which for the first time had direct access to the mujahideen.[citation needed]

The former Pakistani spies, such as Gul, had argued that this gave the United States an opportunity to both undercut Pakistan's interests as well as to weave discord among the mujahideen (something which Pakistan's promotion of Hekmatyar had of course done as well).[citation needed]

With direct American access to the mujahideen – in particular that of the envoy Peter Tomsen, whose attitude towards independent Afghans was arrogant and arguably hostile in that he deemed them dangerous extremists without direct US supervision – any segment of mujahideen unity crumbled.[citation needed] Traditionally independent mujahideen leaders, such as Yunus Khalis and Jalaluddin Haqqani, who had tried to unite the mujahideen rivals Massoud and Hekmatyar, now moved closer towards Pakistan because of their suspicion of the United States' intentions.[citation needed] (See also Haqqani network).

Others, like Abdul Haq and Massoud, instead favoured the United States because of their tense relations with Pakistan.[citation needed] While Abdul Haq remained hostile towards the communist government and its militias, Massoud would go on to make controversial alliances with former communist figures.[citation needed] Massoud claimed that this was an attempt to unite Afghanistan, but his enemies such as Hekmatyar attacked him for this.[citation needed]

Hekmatyar's push was also supported by Pakistan, so that by 1990 there was a definite (if loose) pair of competing axes. One was promoted by Pakistan and included Hekmatyar, Khalis, Jalaluddin Haqqani and other mujahideen leaders who were unsympathetic to Hekmatyar. The competing axis was promoted by the United States and led by Massoud, but also including other leaders such as Abdul Haq who were unsympathetic to Massoud.[citation needed]

The government forces further proved their worth in April 1990, during an offensive against a fortified complex at Paghman. After a heavy bombardment and assault that lasted until the end of June, the Afghan Army spearheaded by Dostum's militia, was able to clear the mujahideen entrenchments.[30] During the final stages of the battle, Hezb-e Islami Gulbuddin reportedly ambushed Jamiat-e Islami fighters, killing 36 of Ahmad Shah Massoud’s fighters and 7 important commanders. Massoud retaliated and captured the perpetrators of the attack, executing them after a trial.[33]

## Criticism

[edit]

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Afghanistan

The Jalalabad operation was seen as a grave mistake by some mujahideen leaders such as Ahmad Shah Massoud and Abdul Haq, who did not believe the mujahideen had the capacity to capture a major city in conventional warfare.[35]

Neither Massoud nor Haq claimed to have participated in the attack on Jalalabad. Massoud even said it was by BBC radio that he learned about the operation.[36] This is contradictory however as Masoud's party, Jamiat-e Islami, committed 500 men to the battle.[37] Furthermore, it has been stated that Massoud was tasked with closing the Salang Pass, which he failed to do, disabling him from taking Jalalabad.[38] Haq advocated the pursuit of coordinated guerilla warfare that would gradually weaken the communist regime and cause its collapse through internal divisions.[citation needed]

Abdul Haq was also quoted as asking: "How is that we Afghans, who never lost a war, must take military instructions from the Pakistanis, who never won one?"[31] Ahmad Shah Massoud criticized the go-it-alone attitude of Pakistan and their Afghan followers stating: "The damage caused by our (Mujahideen forces) lack of a unified command is obvious. There is a total lack of coordination, which means we are not launching simultaneous offensives on different fronts. As a result, the government can concentrate its resources and pick us off one by one. And that is what has happened at Jalalabad."[36]

Pakistan

Former Pakistani Minister of Interior Aitzaz Ahsan claimed that the civilian government knew about the "Jalalabad Operation" beforehand and opposed Hamid Gul's proposal but let the operation happen anyway.[39]

Foreign Fighters

Jihad magazine, an Arabic propaganda magazine known for glorifying the achievements of the Arab foreign fighters in Afghanistan, could not downplay the disastrous defeat at Jalalabad. In its report of the battle, the magazine reported the Afghan communist forces had rained down Scud missiles with two thousand-pound warheads on the Arab fighters resulting in the slaughter of more than a hundred Arab fighters, and that each fallen warrior was soon followed by another rocket taking down another jihadist.[citation needed]

In the account of the battle by Osama bin Laden, the founder of Al-Qaeda, bin Laden claimed that the defeat at Jalalabad had inflicted greater casualties on the Arab fighters than they had sustained in the entire war against the Soviets.[40]

The defeat in Jalalabad led to internal squabbles between Al-Qaeda and Maktab al-Khidamat. Ayman al-Zawahiri turned Osama bin Laden against Abdullah Yusuf Azzam, accusing him of mishandling the MAK. Zawahiri accused Azzam of being a puppet of the United States and the Saudi Arabian monarchy. He distributed leaflets in Peshawar, depicting Azzam as a questionable Muslim and advising Arabs not to pray with him.[citation needed]

Azzam was later killed by a bomb in November of the same year. While the identity of Azzam's killer remains uncertain, it is possible that it was the work of Al-Qaeda or al-Jihad affiliated jihadists operating in Pakistan, although bin Laden himself is unlikely to have been involved, as he was in Saudi Arabia at the time of the murder and still on (relatively) good terms with Azzam.[41] The assassination of Azzam has also been attributed to KhAD.[42]

## Further reading

[edit]

* What Happened in Jalalabad
* AFGHANISTAN REBELS LOSE KEY BATTLE
* Rebels Without a Cause
* The Epic of the Battle of Jalalabad by General Syed

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b "War between Afghanistan Government and Mujahedin intensifies, UN watches helplessly". India Today. 15 April 1989. Retrieved 12 July 2023.
2. ^ "AFGHANISTAN REBELS LOSE KEY BATTLE". Washington Post. 8 July 1989. Retrieved 20 December 2019. "It also is a setback to the U.S.-Pakistani policy that supports the guerrillas in their fight against the Kabul government of President Najibullah."
3. ^ a b c "The Lessons Of Jalalabad; Afghan Guerrillas See Weaknesses Exposed". New York Times. 13 April 1989. "Casualties have been high on both sides. Government troops have been reduced by heavy guerrilla shelling and rocketing from 12,000 to 9,000, Western diplomats say....The Afghan Air Force is said to be taking advantage of the fact that, probably for the first time in the war, guerrilla forces are concentrated in static positions, which makes them easier bombing targets."
4. ^ a b Refugees, United Nations High Commissioner for. "Refworld | Afghanistan: The Forgotten War: Human Rights Abuses and Violations of the Laws of War Since the Soviet Withdrawal". Refworld. Retrieved 12 July 2023.
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p "What Happened In The Battle Of Jalalabad?". rebellionresearch. 5 April 2022. Retrieved 20 December 2019.
6. ^ Eur (2003). Far East and Australasia 2003. Routledge. p. 65\. ISBN 1-85743-133-2.
7. ^ Hamid, Mustafa; Farrall, Leah (16 April 2015). The Arabs at War in Afghanistan. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-1849045933.
8. ^ a b c 'Mujahidin vs. Communists: Revisiting the battles of Jalalabad and Khost Archived 2018-08-02 at the Wayback Machine. By Anne Stenersen: a Paper presented at the conference COIN in Afghanistan: From Mughals to the Americans, Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO), 12–13 February 2012. Retrieved 1 February 2018.
9. ^ "A Tale of Two Afghan Armies | Small Wars Journal". smallwarsjournal.com. Retrieved 28 June 2023.
10. ^ "Segment: Afghanistan". PBS NewsHour. Archived from the original on 10 November 2012. Retrieved 21 May 2024.
11. ^ a b c d Nasir, Abbas (18 August 2015). "The legacy of Pakistan's loved and loathed Hamid Gul". Al Jazeera. Retrieved 4 January 2017. "His commitment to jihad – to an Islamic revolution transcending national boundaries, was such that he dreamed one day the "green Islamic flag" would flutter not just over Pakistan and Afghanistan, but also over territories represented by the (former Soviet Union) Central Asian republics. After the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan, as the director-general of Pakistan's intelligence organization, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) directorate, an impatient Gul wanted to establish a government of the so-called Mujahideen on Afghan soil. He then ordered an assault using non-state actors on Jalalabad, the first major urban center across the Khyber Pass from Pakistan, with the aim of capturing it and declaring it as the seat of the new administration. This was the spring of 1989 and a furious prime minister, Benazir Bhutto – who was kept in the dark by ... Gul and ... Mirza Aslam Beg – demanded that Gul be removed from the ISI."
12. ^ a b c d Kaplan, p. 178
13. ^ Battle of Jalalabad - Operation Jalalabad - Pak-Afg war, 1989, 13 October 2021, retrieved 6 July 2023
14. ^ Battle of Jalalabad - Operation Jalalabad - Pak-Afg war, 1989, 13 October 2021, retrieved 6 July 2023
15. ^ Barfield, Thomas (19 December 2023). Afghanistan : A cultural and political history. Princeton University Press. ISBN 9780691145686.
16. ^ Afghanistan - Rebels Without A Cause (1989), retrieved 8 September 2023
17. ^ Battle of Jalalabad - Operation Jalalabad - Pak-Afg war, 1989, 13 October 2021, retrieved 6 July 2023
18. ^ Eur 2003, p. 94
19. ^ "66th Independent Motorised Rifle Brigade". www.ww2.dk. Retrieved 12 August 2024.
20. ^ "How the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan Strengthened Pakistan's Military Deep State". thediplomat.com. Retrieved 21 May 2024.
21. ^ Hilali, A.Z (September 2001). "China's response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan". Central Asian Survey. 20 (3): 323–351. doi:10.1080/02634930120095349. ISSN 0263-4937.
22. ^ Battle of Jalalabad - Operation Jalalabad - Pak-Afg war, 1989, 13 October 2021, retrieved 20 May 2023
23. ^ a b c Afghanistan - Rebels Without A Cause (1989), retrieved 17 June 2023
24. ^ "Глава IX "Шурави" ушли — моджахеды продолжают войну / Трагедия и доблесть Афгана". www.telenir.net. Retrieved 27 March 2024.
25. ^ a b Wright, Lawrence (2006). The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11. New York: Random House. ISBN 9780375414862.
26. ^ a b imp_navigator (30 August 2017). ""Эльбрус" за Кушкой". Юрий Лямин. Retrieved 17 June 2023.
27. ^ a b "Герой Афганистана". afganets.ru. Retrieved 17 June 2023.
28. ^ a b c Yousaf, Mohammad; Adkin, Mark. "Afghanistan – The bear trap – Defeat of a superpower". sovietsdefeatinafghanistan.com. Archived from the original on 8 October 2007. Retrieved 27 July 2007.
29. ^ a b The Most Concentrated Ballistic Missile Campaign Since the V2 Attacks on London..., 6 May 2022, retrieved 17 June 2023
30. ^ a b Marshall, p. 7
31. ^ a b Roy Gutman (2008). How We Missed the Story: Osama Bin Laden, the Taliban and the Hijacking of Afghanistan. United States Institute of Peace Press. p. 304. ISBN 978-1-60127-024-5.
32. ^ Oliker, Olga (13 October 2011). Building Afghanistan's Security Forces in Wartime: The Soviet Experience (Report). Rand.
33. ^ a b Jalali, Ali Ahmad (2017). A Military History of Afghanistan: From the Great Game to the Global War on Terror. University Press of Kansas. doi:10.1353/book51632. ISBN 978-0-7006-2408-9.
34. ^ "Rebels without a cause". PBS. 29 August 1989. Archived from the original on 10 November 2012. Retrieved 27 July 2007.
35. ^ Kaplan, Robert D. (2001); Soldiers of God: With Islamic Warriors in Afghanistan And Pakistan; Vintage Departures; ISBN 1-4000-3025-0, p. 166
36. ^ a b [dead link] "Afghanistan – the Squandered Victory". BBC. 1989.
37. ^ Fleiss, Alex (5 April 2022). "What happened in the battle of Jalalabad?". Rebellion Research. Retrieved 4 July 2023.
38. ^ Afghanistan: The Squandered Victory (1989), 8 April 2016, retrieved 20 May 2023
39. ^ Battle of Jalalabad - Operation Jalalabad - Pak-Afg war, 1989, 13 October 2021, retrieved 6 July 2023
40. ^ Bergen, Peter L. (2 August 2022). The Rise and Fall of Osama Bin Laden. Simon and Schuster. pp. 49–50. ISBN 978-1-9821-7053-0.
41. ^ Bergen, Peter L. (2 August 2022). The Rise and Fall of Osama Bin Laden. Simon and Schuster. pp. 50–52. ISBN 978-1-9821-7053-0.
42. ^ "Ghost wars : the secret history of the CIA, Afghanistan, and bin Laden, from the Soviet invasion to September 10, 2001 | WorldCat.org". search.worldcat.org. Retrieved 27 March 2024.

*[WIA]: Wounded in action