Afghanistan Barrage and Counterbarrage

Nearly seven years after the Soviet Union sent 80,000 troops into Afghanistan to install a more compliant puppet regime in the capital of Kabul, fighting throughout the country, though still indecisive, has grown more intense than ever. A few months ago, heavy Soviet offenses had pushed the resistance to the brink of collapse. Recently, however, the anti-Communist mujahedin rebels have struck back with some of their most punishing assaults of the war so far.

Typical of the seesaw battle has been the fight for Barikot, a garrison just across the border from the Pakistani town of Arandu. Barikot is a major base of Soviet operations to block rebel supplies from abroad. Since the mujahedin first attacked the northeastern frontier outpost six years ago, the Soviets have broken the siege twice, only to see the rebels re-establish it. Robert Schultheis, an American free-lance writer, recently made his third trip into Afghanistan since the war began -- and his second for TIME -- and observed the fighting around Barikot. His report:

On a forested ridgeline near Barikot, Commander Mahmad Alam carefully adjusts the range finder on his new green BM-13 rocket launcher. His men screw fuses into Chinese-made rockets and slide them into the barrels. Another guerrilla commander, the bearded and burly Sher Mohammed, scans the horizon with a brand-new pair of West German military binoculars. Mahmad Alam confers via walkie-talkie with his forward artillery observer. "God is Great!" the devout guerrillas shout, almost in prayer. "Long live Islam! Long live Afghanistan! Death to Communism!"

A rocket screams from the launcher, then another and another. There is a brief period of waiting, and then the artillery observer radios in: three direct hits within the garrison's defensive perimeter. "Communist -- tika, tika, tika!" (good, good, good!), Sher Mohammed exclaims, striking his open palm with his fist.

A few minutes later the Soviets and their Afghan Communist allies strike back with 120-mm mortar shells that fall on a ridge to the north, sending up great plumes of smoke and dust. Soon, the well-concealed guerrillas begin to lash Barikot with heavy machine-gun fire. Barrage, counterbarrage -- a typical day in the long and ongoing siege.

Barikot lies in a strategic valley in the mountains of Kunar province where two rivers, the Nuristan and the Chitral, meet to form the Kunar. Nearby are several important mujahedin supply routes, leading from the Pakistan border to Nuristan, the Panjshir valley and northern Afghanistan. Last summer, when Barikot was in danger of falling, the Soviets mounted one of their biggest operations of the war in order to save it. Supported by scores of MiGs and other jets, and Mi-24 helicopters, some 10,000 troops managed to fight their way through to Barikot, but after a few days the guerrillas began to close in behind and around them. The main force had to retreat, leaving behind a beefed-up garrison dug in behind a maze of minefields and heavily armed with howitzers, mortars and rocket launchers.

Today the Soviets are back where they started. Barikot is once again under a tightening siege. The road south toward Jalalabad has been cut again, and all supplies have to be airlifted in. By contrast, the guerrilla supply lines are largely open, and the mujahedin are now talking about taking Barikot before the year is over.

Most of the rebels here are local farmers who left their fields and flocks to take up Kalashnikovs and carbines in the cause of liberating their homeland. Some of their weapons are stolen from the enemy, some are bought from arms merchants, and some are secretly supplied through the CIA. In the BM-13 rocket launcher, the guerrillas have a much more powerful long-distance weapon than the recoilless rifles and machine guns that constituted their "heavy artillery" a few years ago. On the ridges above the garrison, the rebels have a dozen or more Soviet- and Chinese-made heavy machine guns and several mortars.

The newest and most important additions to the local guerrilla arsenal, however, are two highly accurate rapid-firing Swiss 20-mm Oerlikon antiaircraft guns that keep the deadly Soviet Mi-24 helicopter gunships at bay. There are reportedly some 40 Oerlikons now in Afghanistan. In the absence of reliable shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles, they give the rebels effective antihelicopter weapons for the first time in the war.

As another day dawns in Barikot, the mujahedin resume their attacks, firing at Soviet observation posts and mortar positions across the valley. Soon the enemy is sending a counterbarrage. The mortar rounds fall with an ugly, twisted whistle, and their explosions rattle the whole ridgeline. As one or two rounds land dangerously close, the rebels hurry to take cover.

Sitting in their stone-walled shelters, the guerrillas joke with insouciance while sipping tea and munching on bread and grapes. When an enemy shell goes spectacularly awry, they exchange gibes about the enemy's marksmanship. Near misses evoke nods and grins of appreciation.

As the shelling intensifies and grows more accurate, however, the mujahedin who are not part of the gun crews decide to move to safer ground. They scamper west along the ridge, then start down the long, steep slopes, moving fast. One guerrilla is missing a foot, blown off by an antipersonnel mine a year ago. He moves as fast as the others, hopping nimbly with the aid of a walking stick.

It takes perhaps an hour to descend the mountainside. The mortar barrage goes on and on, hitting where the rebels have been, or off to one side, or on the trail ahead, but never quite where they are. Finally, as the guerrillas reach the valley floor, the barrage subsides. The men stop to pray in the shade of a grove of trees, by the thistle-covered graves of two slain comrades.

Next morning four MiGs attack the BM-13 and Oerlikon positions, dropping their tons of high explosives and vanishing as quickly as they appeared. The bombs miss by a wide margin. Less than an hour later mujahedin rockets are once again falling on Barikot. The war goes on.