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- WORLD, Page 35World NotesAFGHANISTANImpasse at Jalalabad
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- Despite repeated furious attacks, mujahedin rebels were no
- closer to capturing the city of Jalalabad last week. They seemed
- to be suffering from disorganization as well as an inability to
- pull off major assaults. In one battle last week, rebel artillery
- pounded the Soviet-backed government's positions at the city's
- airport for hours at a time, but the several hundred guerrillas who
- mustered to rush the defenses never got going -- the attack bogged
- down under return fire and arguments within their own ranks over
- how to attack across several hundred yards of open ground.
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- When tanks and MiG aircraft zeroed in on their positions, the
- rebels fell back, taking an alarming number of casualties along
- the way. Reviewing the failed encounter, a frustrated Rahim Wardak,
- the battlefront commander of the National Islamic Front for
- Afghanistan, concluded that the battle that began more than three
- weeks ago "is turning into a stalemate."