Word: bagram
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Dates: during 1980-1980
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Soviet air superiority in the fighting was complete. The airfields at Kabul, Bagram and Shindand bristled with MiG-21s as well as ultrasophisticated MiG-23s; high altitude MiG-25 reconnaissance planes were also spotted overflying combat zones, though they were believed to be based at fields in the U.S.S.R. The Soviet airfields and some base headquarters were guarded by surface-to-air missiles -an obvious precaution in case of foreign attack, but hardly a necessary defense against the insurgents...
According to Western intelligence estimates, they controlled the five main population centers, the three big airfields at Bagram, Shindand and Kandahar, and all the important intersections of the paved "beltway" linking Kabul and other main Afghan cities...
...stiffen the Afghan army's wavering resistance against the Muslim insurgency. A huge Soviet military airlift, which set the stage for the Christmas overthrow and execution of President Hafizullah Amin, showed no sign of slowing. Each day, eight to ten gigantic Antonov transport planes landed at Kabul and Bagram airports. Besides an arsenal of T-62 tanks and armored personnel carriers, the planes disgorged electric generators, bulldozers and building materials-telltale fixtures of an army that was digging in for a long stay. At least five Soviet combat divisions were in the country...
Between Dec. 24 and 27, at least 350 Soviet aircraft landed at Kabul International Airport and at Bagram airbase, 25 miles north of the capital. The planes had been mustered from bases throughout the Soviet Union; they carried an airborne division from near Moscow and support troops from Turkestan. On Dec. 27, Russian airborne troops stormed the Darulaman Palace. Amin was captured and shot, along with some of his relatives. The only other serious clash was a skirmish outside Radio Afghanistan, just across from the U.S. embassy. In both fights, Afghan troops loyal to Amin resisted as best they could...
...place between Dec. 29 and 31. One Soviet motorized rifle division, with at least 12,000 men, rolled down the western route from Kushka, in the Soviet Union, to Kandahar. Another streamed in from the Soviet city of Termez over the road that passes through the Salang Pass to Bagram and Kabul. At the time the Soviets built this second route about 15 years ago, some Afghans had noted that the highway seemed strong and wide enough to accommodate tanks and troop carriers...