The Marmoul offensives were a series of military operations conducted by Soviet troops, KGB Border Guards of the USSR and DRA government forces, more specifically the 203rd Special Purpose Battalion, against Afghan mujahideen in the provinces of Balkh and Samangan in northern Afghanistan during the Soviet–Afghan War.
The Marmoul offensives included operations to seize fortified areas, fortification complexes and logistical bases (Alburs, Agarsai, Bayramshah, Shorcha), and to destroy the infrastructure of rebel bases. Other objectives included blocking the supply channels for weapons and ammunition and neutralizing members of the armed formations of the Mujahideen. They consisted in a series of joint or independent, ground and air combat operations on a broad front with the involvement of considerable forces and means.
Military-political situation in the region
The situation on the Soviet-Afghan border has significantly worsened. Cases of violation of the state border, provocation against border units and local population of the Soviet Central Asian republics living on the border with Afghanistan, attacks on transport columns carrying cargo, from the USSR into the DRA, had increased significantly.
The predominant part of the local population was on the side of a large group of insurgents operating in the region, almost in every village there were members of local opposition groups and foreign militant groups. A quarter of the total number of members of armed groups in Afghanistan, reaching in 1982 up to 45 thousand, and by 1987 up to 82,3 thousand, were active in the northern regions of the country.
By the end of 1981, as a result of operations in northern Afghanistan, the plans of the Mujahideen to seize the territory of one of the northern provinces and to establish an anti-government regime were foiled. The threat of seizure by opposition groups of a number of areas adjacent to the Afghan-Soviet border was prevented.
However, by 1982 the situation was significantly complicated. The outbreak of armed protests against the Kabul Government became more widespread. More than 40% of the districts of the northern provinces of the DRA were under the control of the armed opposition. The activities of the provincial and local administrative centers were paralyzed, and the main axes of communication by road were blocked.
Field Commander Mohammad Zabiullah
Mohammad Zabiullah (real name Abdul Kader, nom de guerre Mohammad Zabiullah) was the Mujahideen commander from 1980 until 1984 in the Marmoul area. At the initial stage of the war he was a field commander under Ahmad Shah Massoud in the Panjshir valley. In 1980 Massoud sent him to Balkh province to organize the armed struggle in the region. Before the war, he was a religious teacher in Mazar-i-Sharif.
According to the description of a western journalist in 1982, Zabiullah was short, round-faced with a thick beard - a charismatic young man, more than twenty years old, possessing the qualities of a leader and organizer, and was distinguished by restraint.
At the initial stage of the guerrilla struggle, Zabiullah personally led the actions of his detachments in the attack on Soviet troops and government forces in the province of Balkh and in the vicinity of the city of Mazar-i-Sharif. By 1983, most of the fighting in the province of Balkh was conducted under his direct leadership.
An excellent organizer, he divided the region into 73 controlled military districts, each of them had a commander leading one or several partisan groups. Most of these groups were intentionally small, with 10, 20 and not more than 30 fighters. All of them were under the general command of Zabiullah.
Like Massoud in Panjshir, Zabiullah did not neglect civil initiatives. He created schools and classes in literacy, Islamic studies, and the foundations of guerrilla warfare. The government of Kabul unsuccessfully tried to bribe Zabiullah, he was twice approached with a proposal to pay money or grant status, in exchange for guarantees that his partisan detachments would not attack the Soviet and Afghan government columns in the Marmoul gorge.
Zabiullah was killed in the Balkh province on December 14, 1984, when the vehicle in which he was traveling was blown up by a land mine allegedly laid by a rival partisan detachment.
The history of the Marmoul offensives
In accordance with Soviet military custom, the operation was named after its principal geographic objective.
During the Afghan War (1979-1989) in the northern Balkh province, the districts of the Marmoul, Tangimarmoul, Shadian, and Tashkurgan canyons, a series of different in scale, goals, tasks, forces and means - combined arms operations of units of the 201st Motorized Infantry Division 40th Army, units of the Border Guards of the KSAPO of the KGB of the USSR, special forces of the GRU of the USSR Ministry of Defense, with the participation of parts of the government forces of the DRA armed forces were undertaken against the armed formations of Afghan mujahideen of the Islamic Society of Afghanistan of Burhanuddin Rabbani, operating under the leadership of Ahmad Shah Massoud whose field commanders were Mohammad Zabiullah (killed in a mine explosion on December 14, 1986) and Atta Muhammad Nur.
Marmoul gorge and base area
The region of Marmoul, a highland in the west of the Hindu Kush mountain system, is located on a pedestal raised above 1000 meters, combining mountain ranges and massifs alternating with wide flat hollows, intermontane depressions, plateaus and valleys. The height of the crest above the foot of the mountain range varies from 1400 to 2200 meters in different places.
The Marmoul gorge is located in a mountain range 17 kilometers south of the city of Mazar-i-Sharif. Stretching for 400 kilometers from west to east (200 kilometers), and further to the south (200 kilometers), it forms a deep canyon, orange-brown in colour, with sheer rockfaces on either side. In the western and central parts of the Marmoul gorge, the Shadian and Tangimarmoul gorges proceed from it perpendicularly to the south, reaching, at the final stage, the valleys and villages of Shadian and Marmoul, respectively. In the eastern sector, the Marmoul gorge itself bends strictly southward, and expanding within the canyon boundaries, already extends in the province of Samangan towards the district town of Aibak.
Throughout the length of the Marmoul gorge the height of the opposite slopes and the width of the winding canyon vary considerably. At the western entrance to the gorge through a neck cut in the rocks, the narrowest point does not exceed 3.6 meters. Because of the characteristic orange-brown color of the rock, it was known among Soviet servicemen as the gorge of «red rocks».
Marmoul, a remote mountainous region well equipped according to the laws of engineering thought and military science, was a fortified complex with a multi-level echeloned fire control system. It was designed to act in a sustainable defense and to allow a small isolated force to inflict maximum damage on a much superior attacking force. The permanent firing points of the Marmoul district were located in caves cut out of rock formations in steep cliffs at different altitudes and were connected by communication routes and provided with various communication means.
The plateau was surrounded by mountains, rising 800 meters above it. In the center of the plateau was a hill. The road ran along the narrow Tangimarmoul passage in the intermontane area. To prevent the passage of Soviet troops, the rebels mined this passage. In addition to the mines on the road, where armored vehicles of the 40th Army were being damaged, explosive charges from aerial bombs were laid on the mountain slopes. The charges were wired together into a single network capable of causing landslides on the Soviet and Afghan units.
On the heights, where the firing points of the rebels were located, during the operation in Marmoul, powerful aviation and artillery strikes were employed, after which groups of assault rifle units and assault groups landed along the entire circumference of the plateau. Following them in the district were units of motorized maneuver groups, which completed the rout of the base area. During operations in the caves of Marmoul, a large number of warehouses with weapons and ammunition were seized, the entrance to them was mined. In one of the caves a prison was found.
The Marmoul operation in February 1983, the causes and course of the operation
The Soviet Union provided its Afghan ally with a large-scale assistance in the industrialization of the country. The construction and operation of many plants and factories in many cities of Afghanistan such as Kabul, Herat, Puli Khumri and other cities of Afghanistan was carried out by Soviet civilian experts.
On January 2, 1983, sixteen Soviet civilian specialists, who were contracted to build a bakery near the city of Mazar-i-Sharif, were abducted while returning from a working shift. A group of armed men blocked their bus on the road, took the Soviet citizens captive and led them to the Marmoul area.
Marshal of the Soviet Union S.L. Sokolov, who was in Kabul at the time, ordered an army operation to search for the missing Soviet citizens and the liquidation of the armed formation that had organized their abduction.
According to Soviet intelligence, the Mujahideen field commanders of the northern front, could mobilize more than 1,300 militants from local villages. According to the plan of the headquarters of the 40th Army, the military operation was to be carried out by air landing groups to block the way out of the gorge, with the further elimination of the enemy's manpower and the seizure of his material assets.
The plan for the Marmoul operation in 1983 was developed promptly. However, the command did not have precise information about the strength of Zabiullah's group. The collected intelligence indicated a good defensive capability of the base area. In the city of Mazar-i-Sharif, an operational group was formed to search for the abducted Soviets. For this purpose it was given control of part of the 201st motorized rifle division.
The search lasted for a whole month. During this period, all military operations were stopped in the area. Adverse weather conditions made the search difficult. In the first days, on January 3, the corpse of one of the plant adjusters was discovered in the channel of a mountain stream, not far from the village of Marmoul. The others could not be found.
On the orders of the commander of the 40th Army, General VF Ermakov launched the operation. On January 30, in the mountainous area near the village of Marmoul, landing groups were set up to conduct reconnaissance and search operations. The search group captured a 16-year-old local boy, who told them that he had seen a group of captured Soviet specialists in the village of Wardak, in the house of the local mullah. A team of 50 Afghan KhAD troops was flown to Wardak urgently. The operation was conducted by 20 Mi-8 transport helicopters and the same number of Mi-24 attack helicopters. During the landing of the landing groups from the second pair of Mi-8, a heavy machine gun fire was opened from the mullah's house. Landing of the paratroopers from the Mi-8 covered the combat helicopters Mi-24.
Shooting at the Soviets, in a hurry, not finishing off the wounded, so as not to get involved in the fight, the rebels quickly retreated into the mountains. During the fleeting battle several Soviet soldiers were wounded. According to the survivors, the released wounded specialists, their kidnapping and public execution had both a propagandistic and intimidating purpose. The execution was carried out after a sermon in front of the local population. The field commander presented the captured Soviets as military pilots who bombed Afghan villages and called upon the population of Marmoul to wage a ruthless war on the infidels.
The reconnaissance, motorized rifle, antiaircraft artillery units of the units of the 201st Motorized Rifle Division, the special purpose of the GRU GSh, were involved in the operation; 40 combat helicopters (MI-8 and MI-24). Parts of the 18th and 20th Infantry Division of the DRA Armed Forces, a separate commando brigade and the operational regiment of sarandoy were drawn from Afghan government forces. The fighting took place in difficult climatic conditions. There was a strong squally wind, it was raining with snow. Active fighting in the area of the Marmoul gorge lasted nine days, of which a week the Soviet troops advanced under the continuous fire of the enemy.