The Other Side of the Mountain: Mujahideen Tactics in the Soviet-Afghan War/About the Book

by Ali Ahmad Jalali

About the Book

Author Les Grau, regularly travels back and forth to Russia. Hereceived a book from the History of Military Art department at theFrunze Combined Arms Academy in Moscow. The book was intendedfor students' classroom use only and, as such, shows both the goodand the bad. With Frunze Academy permission, Les translated thisbook and added commentary before it was published by NDU Pressas The. Bear Went Over the Mountain: Soviet Combat Tactics inAfghanistan. Author Ali Jalali, helped in the editing process. "TheBear" showed the tactics of the Soviets, but the Mujahideen tacticswere absent. Charlie Cuthbertson and Dick Voltz of the USMC inQuantico agreed that both sides needed to be presented and sent Aliand Les to Pakistan and Afghanistan to interview Mujahideen com-manders for a companion volume.

Author Ali Jalali has the perfect credentials to do this book. Aliwas a Colonel in the Afghan Army and taught at the Afghan Military Academy and Army Staff College. His foreign education included the Infantry Officer's Advanced Course at Fort Benning, Georgia; theBritish Army Staff College at Camberley; and the Soviet FrunzeAcademy. Many of Ali's officer students were key resistance figures.Ali was also a member of the resistance and an accredited journalistduring the conflict. Now Ali works as a journalist and has coveredAfghanistan and Central Asia over the last 15 years. Ali is respectedby all the factions and has exceptional entre to the Mujahideen.

All and Les arrived in Pakistan in September 1996 and were preparing to go into Afghanistan when the Taliban advance on Kabulclosed the borders to American citizens. Ali interviewed some 40Mujahideen during a month in Peshawar, Quetta, and Islamabad,Pakistan. Our colleague, Major Nasrullah Safi, conducted interviewsfor another two months inside Afghanistan for this book. The inter-views are the basis of this book. In those interviews where we haveseveral sources for the same vignette or where we have lots ofsupporting written reports and material, we have written the vignettein the third person. In those cases where the person interviewed is theprimary source, we have written the vignette in the first person. Thevignettes are arranged chronologically by type of action. Occasionally,when the actions occur at the same place over time, we lump thoseactions together instead of chronologically. We have tried to make thebook as accurate as possible, but realize that time and retelling mayhave altered some of the facts. We have limited the span of the bookfrom the Soviet invasion until their withdrawal. The war startedbefore the Soviet invasion and continued long after their departure. We plan to write about these battles in a future book. We used edition 2-DMA series U611 1:100,000 maps from the U.S.Defense Mapping Agency for the final preparation of the material.For those who wish to consult the map sheets, map sheet numbersare given with each vignette. We have numbered each vignette within the chapter and started each chapter with a country map showing the rough location of each vignette. The interviews were long andexhaustive, so many details are available. Many of the interviewswere conducted at different times and places, with different peoplewho had been part of the same battle or operation. This allowed usto check and compare details and sequences of events. Map eleva-tions are given in meters. Contour intervals are not consistent andmerely show elevation. Place and name spelling is based on Ali Jalali's best transliteration efforts. Consistency in spelling is difficult when two alphabets are involved—some spellings are different than in other books on Afghanistan. Although the Mujahideen always say 'Russian' instead of 'Soviet', we have used 'Soviet' throughout unless it is a direct quote.

We use Russian map graphics on the maps. The Afghan Army used the Soviet graphics system and most Mujahideen were familiar with them. Russian graphics are more "user friendly" ( flexible and illustrative) than Western graphics. The Russians can show thesequential development of an action by adding times or identifyinglines to their graphics. These lines are explained in the legend. A table of Russian map graphics is located in the back of the book. Mujahideen forces are shown in blue and Soviet/DRA forces are shown in red.