The Second Battle of Zhawar was a significant engagement that took place during the Soviet-Afghan War. It pitted Afghan Army units, supported by the Soviet Union, against mujahideen faction led by Jalaluddin Haqqani. The objective of the battle was to destroy the mujahideen's logistical base located in Zhawar, just three kilometers from the Durand Line.
The initial offensive, known as the first battle of Zhawar, and was launched in September 1985. DRA divisions, with air support from the Soviet Union, initiated the attack while major mujahideen commanders were absent, including Haqqani who was on pilgrimage to Mecca. The DRA forces advanced from Khost and successfully captured the village of Bori, northeast of Zhawar. However, they encountered fierce resistance and were forced to retreat.
The main attack began on September 4 and initially achieved success, with the capture of the village of Lezhi and the killing of a mujahideen commander. However, the offensive was halted at the heavily fortified Manay Kandow pass, where the mujahideen put up a strong defense. After ten days of relentless resistance, the mujahideen were compelled to withdraw due to heavy airstrikes by Soviet aircraft. This allowed the DRA forces to cross the pass and capture the strategic Tor Kamar position, enabling them to shell the mujahideen base with artillery.
During a subsequent counter-attack led by the mujahideen, the DRA forces were caught off guard by the presence of two T-55 tanks. Sustaining heavy losses, the DRA troops fell back and attempted to renew the assault but were met with reinforcements from Pakistan. The mujahideen successfully repelled further attacks, leading to the eventual withdrawal of the DRA units after 42 days of intense fighting. This victory significantly bolstered the morale of the mujahideen forces.
Zhawar
The Zhawar caves in 2002.
The Mujahideen base at Zhawar, situated in Paktia Province,[lower-alpha 1] served as a storage facility for supplies and equipment being transferred from neighbouring Pakistan to the various guerrilla groups operating in the region. It also served as a training and command facility. The Mujahideen had dug tunnels up to 500 m into the Sodyaki Ghar mountain, with accommodations including a hotel, a mosque, a medical point and a garage to house the two T-55 tanks that had been captured from the DRA in 1983.
The Mujahedeen defending the base numbered 500, and they were armed with a D-30howitzer, several BM-21multiple rocket launchers and five ZPU-1 and ZPU-2 heavy machine-guns for air defence. Additionally, other Mujahideen groups were active in the area, and they participated in the defense of the base when necessary. These groups were part of various movements including the Hezbi Islami, the Hezb-e Islami Khalis, the Harakat-i-Inqilab-i-Islami and the Mahaz-e-Melli, though all in theory came under the authority of regional commander Jalaluddin Haqqani.
The Battle
The second offensive was conducted on a larger scale, and eventually involved 12,000 troops, including 2,200 Soviets, led by DRA General Nabi Azimi, with Soviet General V. G. Trofimenko serving as advisor.
The offensive began on 28 February 1986, a short while after General SecretaryMikhail Gorbachev had announced the decision to withdraw Soviet troops from Afghanistan. Thus the Soviet units were initially confined to supporting the Afghan offensive.
The opening moves were conducted by DRA ground troops attacking from Khost and Gardez who made very slow progress, due to bad weather and harassment by the Mujahideen, reaching the approaches to Zhawar only one month later.
The second phase of the offensive was to be an airborne assault carried out by the Afghan 38th Commando Brigade. The initial assault group, transported by Mi-8 helicopters, departed on 2 April, but they got lost in the darkness and accidentally landed on the wrong side of the Pakistani border. This force was quickly surrounded and taken prisoner. The main airborne assault came in the immediate vicinity of Zhawar, and was supported by precision airstrikes by Soviet Su-25 attack aircraft. These attacks caused some losses among the Mujahideen defenders, even trapping 150 of them, including Haqqani, inside a cave that had been targeted by a missile. Haqqani later escaped and led 700-800 Mujahideen in a series of counter-attacks against the DRA landing zones, that they overran one by one. After three days of fighting, the DRA 38th Brigade had ceased to exist as a fighting force, and 530 commandos had been captured by the Mujahideen. The DRA also lost 24 helicopters. This fiasco prompted the Soviets to take over the operation, whose command was given to General Valentin Varennikov. The DRA force was strengthened with Soviet units, and the aerial bombardment of Mujahideen positions was intensified and pursued round the clock.
Eventually, on April 17, the offensive was renewed. After several unsuccessful attempts, the DRA/Soviet force managed to capture the strategic Dawri Gar mountain. At a crucial moment, a Hezbi Islami unit drew back from their positions without fighting. At the same time, Jalaluddin Haqqani was injured in an airstrike, causing rumours of his death to spread rapidly among the Mujahideen, and their forces abandoned the defense of Zhawar, that was overrun by government forces.
The Soviet engineers tasked with destroying the base had very little time to do so, as the Afghan troops were intent on withdrawing as soon as possible, fearing a Mujahideen counter-attack. In the end they tried to do as much damage as they could by detonating explosives inside the caves, and laying seismic mines before withdrawing hurriedly.
Aftermath and losses
The Soviet and DRA losses remain uncertain, but were presumably heavy. The Mujahideen claimed to have destroyed 24 helicopters and 2 jets, and captured 530 prisoners, for a loss of 281 killed and 363 injured. Of the 500 Afghan prisoners, 78 officers were tried and executed by Haqqani and Khalis, including the commander of the 38th commando brigade, Colonel Qalandar Shah.
The Afghan government celebrated their victory, and though the success had proved costly, it served to alleviate the pressure on Khost, that was then under siege. However, Zhawar was quickly retaken by the Mujahideen, who repaired the damage, and strengthened their defenses.
↑ 281 killed and 363 injured are losses reported by the mujahideen. Gregory Feifer reports that the mujahideen suffered one thousand casualties in this battle. See The Great Gamble: The Soviet War in Afghanistan, by Gregory Feifer, HarperCollins, 2009. ISBN978-0-06-173557-8
Grau, Lester & Jalali, Ali Ahmad (September 2001). "The campaign for the caves: the battles for Zhawar in the Soviet-Afghan War". The Journal of Slavic Military Studies. 14 (3): 69–92. doi:10.1080/13518040108430488. S2CID144936749.
Khost is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan located in the southeastern part of the country. Khost consists of thirteen districts and the city of Khost serves as the capital of the province. Historically, Khost used to be a part of Paktia and a larger region surrounding Khost is still referred to as Loya Paktia.
Paktia is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, located in the east of the country. Forming part of the larger Loya Paktia region, Paktia Province is divided into 15 districts and has a population of roughly 623,000, which is mostly a tribal society living in rural areas. Pashtuns make up the majority of the population and a small percentage include Tajiks. Gardez is the provincial capital. The traditional food in Paktia is known as (dandakai) which is made from rice and mung bean or green gram.
Jalaluddin Haqqani was an Afghan insurgent commander who founded the Haqqani network, an insurgent group fighting in guerilla warfare against US-led NATO forces and the now former government of Afghanistan they support.
The 1989–1992 Afghan Civil War, also known as the First Afghan Civil War, took place between the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan and the end of the Soviet–Afghan War on 15 February 1989 until 27 April 1992, ending the day after the proclamation of the Peshawar Accords proclaiming a new interim Afghan government which was supposed to start serving on 28 April 1992.
Operation Magistral was a Soviet Army military operation during the Soviet–Afghan War that began in late November 1987 and ended in early January 1988.
The Panjshir offensives were a series of battles from 1980 to 1985 between the Soviet Army and groups of Afghan mujahideen under Ahmad Shah Massoud. The goal of these offensives was control of the strategic Panjshir Valley in Afghanistan, during the Soviet–Afghan War of the 1980s.
The Battle for Hill 3234 was a successful defensive battle fought by the 9th Company of the 345th Independent Guards Airborne Regiment, Soviet Airborne Troops, in Afghanistan against a force of some 250 Mujahideen rebels who were supported by several Pakistani mercenaries in early January 1988. Two of the soldiers killed, Vyacheslav Aleksandrov and Andrey Melnikov, were posthumously awarded the Gold Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union. All of the paratroopers in this battle were given the Order of the Red Banner and Order of the Red Star.
The Battles of Zhawar were fought during the Soviet–Afghan War between Soviet Army units, and their allies of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan against Afghan mujahideen groups. The Soviets' objective was to destroy the Mujahideen logistic base situated at Zhawar, 3 kilometers from the Pakistani border.
During the nine-year Soviet–Afghan War in the 1980s and the subsequent Afghan civil war, the town of Khost was besieged for more than eleven years. Its airstrip's 3 km runway served as a base for helicopter operations by Soviet forces.
Operation Ghashey was a military offensive launched by Mujahideen forces against positions held by the army of the Republic of Afghanistan between October 23 and November 7, 1988. The aim of the operation was to seize and hold a portion of the Kabul–Jalalabad highway for a short period of time, an action that was aimed at weakening the hold of the Afghan government over Jalalabad.
The Haqqani network is an Afghan Islamist group, built around the family of the same name, that has used asymmetric warfare in Afghanistan to fight against Soviet forces in the 1980s, and US-led NATO forces and the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan government in the 21st century. It is recognized as a terrorist organization by the United Nations. It is considered to be a "semi-autonomous" offshoot of the Taliban. It has been most active in eastern Afghanistan and across the border in north-west Pakistan.
The Battle of Arghandab was an offensive launched by Afghan government forces, supported by Soviet troops, against mujahideen strongholds in the Arghandab District of Kandahar Province, Afghanistan, in 1987. The operation ended in failure, and the government forces withdrew after suffering heavy losses.
The siege of Urgun was a military engagement that took place during the Soviet–Afghan War. Between August 1983 and January 1984 Mujahideen forces laid siege to the town of Urgun, which was defended by a garrison of troops loyal to the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan. The mujahideen tried to take the town by storm using tanks, but despite making initial progress, they were eventually driven back and the siege was lifted.
General Mohammad Nabi Azimi. was the Deputy Defense Minister of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan (DRA) who played a critical role in the fall of President Mohammad Najibullah. General Mohammad Nabi Azimi was an ethnic Tajik who belonged to the Parcham faction of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan.
The Afghan National Army Special Operations Command is a special forces formation of the Afghan National Army, established in 2011.
The Janikhel offensive was launched by the Taliban and the Haqqani network in early August 2016 to conquer the Janikhel District within the contested Paktia Province from government forces. Due to the district's geographic location, it is of great strategic and tactical value to any force that controls it. After being besieged by insurgents for weeks and not receiving any outside help, the local government forces retreated from the district on 27 August. Even though the district was retaken by the government on 5 September, the fact that the district had been captured by the Taliban in the first place was widely considered a heavy blow for the government, which faced increasing insecurity and loss of territory since the ISAF retreat in 2014.
Events in the year 2018 in Afghanistan.
The Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan was the military force of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan from 1978 until its collapse in 1992. Following President Mohammad Najibullah’s National Reconciliation policy in 1986, it was renamed into the Armed Forces of the Republic of Afghanistan.
The FirstBattle of Zhawar was fought during the Soviet–Afghan War between Afghan Army units, and their allies the Soviet Union, against mujahideen groups of Haqqani and Khalis. Their objective was to destroy the Mujahideen logistic base situated at Zhawar, 3 kilometers from the Durand line.
Soviet Union and Democratic Republic of Afghanistan Air Force jet fighters and bombers would occasionally cross into Pakistani airspace to target Afghan refugee camps in Pakistan. To counter the Soviet jets, the United States started providing F-16 jets to Pakistan. These F-16 jets lacked the capability to fire radar-guided beyond-visual range missiles, and thus they were required to get close to their opponents in order to use their AIM-9P and more advanced AIM-9L Sidewinder heat-seeking or their 20-millimeter Vulcan cannons.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
Afghanistan 
Soviet Union 
Mujahideen 
Pakistan 
