Word: combative
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...This is a poor country so the only thing we purchase locally is fruit," he said with a smile. "We've brought everything else from the Soviet Union-in our cook tents it's just like eating at home." Best of all, he said, was the special combat pay: 180 rubles on top of his regular 200-ruble monthly salary. "Do you know what 380 rubles is worth? Back home I can live on that for ten months...
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...
...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...
...once more than 100,000 strong, had been reduced to fewer than 65,000 by defections. Morale was further eroded by Soviet commanders, who ordered the disarming of Afghan battalions considered to be of suspect loyalty. Consequently, Soviet troops have had to take on an increasing share of the combat against the rebels, who still control about 80% of Afghanistan's barren countryside...
...ordered Rhodesian troops into action along the country's eastern border. In another flagrant cease-fire violation, ten guerrillas attacked a white farm near the northwestern town of Sinoia, precipitating a clash with Rhodesian paramilitary police that left seven insurgents dead. The Commonwealth monitoring force suffered its first combat-related casualties when a Land-Rover detonated a mine, injuring a British soldier and a senior Patriotic Front field commander. The precarious truce was also marred by some 180 scattered incidents of banditry and lawlessness, from murder and kidnaping to armed robbery and cattle rustling. Patriotic Front officials insisted they...