One of the batteries, obviously new, had just been installed and test-fired. Recently, the group substantially beefed up Torabora's air defenses by adding a pair of twin-barreled 20mm antiaircraft batteries to the existing three Chinese-made 14.5-mm guns. New huts were quickly built nearby and work at Torabora resumed. The few minutes' advance warning of an attack given by the sound of advancing aircraft is all that is necessary for the 200 guerrillas living at Torabora to take shelter among the boulders and crevasses that cover the mountainside.ĭuring a recent raid, several mud and rock huts were destroyed, but no one was killed. Repeatedly attacked from the air by helicopter gunships and Soviet Mig fighter jets, Torabora survives, much as the insurgency itself, despite the enemy's superior firepower. In addition to a command and disbursement center, Torabora serves as the group's only medical aid station in the area and a modest supply staging area.Īlthough Torabora is barely 25 miles south of major Soviet and Afghan Army troop concentrations at Jalalabad, the steep, narrow Asam River gorge protects the village from ground assault. "Torabora's our Kabul," one insurgent leader said with pride. The heavily guarded enclave is the command center for one of the biggest groups of Islamic fighters operating inside Afghanistan, the Hezbi Islami led by Younis Khalis.
Only the armed sentries posted along the narrow trail leading toward the settlement and the barely visible profile of antiaircraft guns perched high above it that there is something different about the village of Torabora. From a distance, the cluster of mud huts that cling to the side of a mountain gorge high above the Asam River would hardly appear to be a major military center.