External Actors in the Afghan Problem
continues...

The Russian base at Kulab served as the primary conduit for United Front forces in the Panjsher Valley and northern Afghanistan.

The base had been an assembly point for military supplies headed to the de facto United Front capital at Taloqan (until September 2000) through the crossing at Dasht-i-Qalah. The base also provided logistical support and maintenance services for United Front aircrafts and helicopters. In 1997 and 1998, Antonov-12 cargo planes based in Kulab were used to ferry military supplies from Mashhad, Iran to the United Front. Supply flights of Mi-17 helicopters, ferrying ammunition and weapons from Kulab to Takhar province, Panjsher Valley, and other areas under United Front control, were a commonplace. Western military experts in the region have alleged that Russia recently provided helicopters to Massoud’s forces.

Another resource employed by the Russian government to expedite shipments of military materials to anti-Taleban forces was the Russian Army’s transportation battalion based in Osh, Kyrgyzstan.

The battalion was responsible for road maintenance and security during the final phase of the trip that brought arms cargo from Mashad to the rail terminus at Osh, and from there to Afghanistan loaded on trucks. Not only did it appear that bulk arms shipments were sent into Afghanistan from Tajikistan across the Amu Darya river with Russian cooperation, as it was unlikely that the 100 to 140 (or more) heavy trucks required to transport the 700 tons of arms and 300 tons of flour that arrived by train in Osh in October 1998 (see also the section on Kyrgyzstan), could travel from Osh to Khorog or Ishkashim without the knowledge and permission of the Russian military and foreign ministries.

To be continued....