Editing Soviet–Afghan War (section)

== Soviet invasion and palace coup ==
[[File:SovietInvasionAfghanistanMap.png|thumb|upright=1.5|Map of the Soviet invasion, December 1979]]
{{Main|Operation Storm-333}}
On 31 October 1979, Soviet informants under orders from the inner circle of advisors around [[General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Soviet General Secretary]] [[Leonid Brezhnev]] relayed information to the [[Afghan Armed Forces]] for them to undergo maintenance cycles for their tanks and other crucial equipment. Meanwhile, telecommunications links to areas outside of Kabul were severed, isolating the capital.

The Soviet [[40th Army (Soviet Union)|40th Army]] launched its initial incursion into Afghanistan on 25 December under the pretext of extending "international aid" to its puppet [[Democratic Republic of Afghanistan]]. On 25 December, [[Soviet Defence Minister]] [[Dmitry Ustinov]] issued an official order, stating that "[t]he state frontier of the [[Democratic Republic of Afghanistan]] is to be crossed on the ground and in the air by forces of the 40th Army and the Air Force at 15:00 hrs on 25 December". This was the formal beginning of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.<ref>{{cite book |last=Braithwaite |first=Rodric |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=13cTDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA205 |title=Afgantsy: The Russians in Afghanistan 1979–1989 |date=2011 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-983265-1 |location=New York |pages=86 |author-link=Rodric Braithwaite}}</ref> Subsequently, on 27 December, Soviet troops arrived at [[Kabul International Airport]], causing a stir among the city's residents.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Feifer |first1=Gregory |title=The Great Gamble: The Soviet War in Afghanistan |date=6 January 2009 |publisher=HarperCollins e-books |pages=63–64 |edition=Reprint |url=https://www.amazon.com/Great-Gamble-Soviet-War-Afghanistan-ebook/dp/B001P2UV7Y/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=}}</ref>

Simultaneously, Amin moved the offices of the General Secretary to the [[Tajbeg Palace]], believing this location to be more secure from possible threats. According to Colonel General Tukharinov and Merimsky, Amin was fully informed of the military movements, having requested Soviet military assistance to northern Afghanistan on 17 December.<ref name="GarthoffPage s1017-1018">{{cite book|last=Garthoff|first=Raymond L.|title=Détente and Confrontation|location=Washington D.C.|publisher=The Brookings Institution|year=1994|pages=1017–1018}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Arnold|first=Anthony|title=Afghanistan's Two-Party Communism: Parcham and Khalq|url=https://archive.org/details/afghanistanstwop00anth_0|url-access=registration|location=Stanford|publisher=Hoover Institution Press|year=1983|page=[https://archive.org/details/afghanistanstwop00anth_0/page/96 96]|isbn=978-0-8179-7792-4}}</ref> His brother and General Dmitry Chiangov met with the commander of the 40th Army before Soviet troops entered the country, to work out initial routes and locations for Soviet troops.<ref name="GarthoffPage s1017-1018" />

[[File:BMD-1 in Afghanistan.jpg|thumb|Soviet paratroopers aboard a [[BMD-1]] in Kabul]]
On 27 December 1979, 700 Soviet troops dressed in Afghan uniforms, including [[KGB]] and [[GRU (Soviet Union)|GRU]] [[Spetsnaz|special forces]] officers from the ''[[Alpha Group]]'' and ''Zenith Group'', occupied major governmental, military and media buildings in Kabul, including their primary target, the [[Tajbeg Palace]]. The operation began at 19:00, when the KGB-led Soviet ''Zenith Group'' destroyed Kabul's communications hub, paralyzing Afghan military command. At 19:15, [[Operation Storm-333|the assault on Tajbeg Palace]] began; as planned, General Secretary Hafizullah Amin was assassinated. Simultaneously, other key buildings were occupied (e.g., the [[Ministry of Interior Affairs (Afghanistan)|Ministry of Interior Affairs]] at 19:15). The operation was fully complete by the morning of 28 December 1979.

The Soviet military command at [[Termez]], [[Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic|Uzbek SSR]], announced on [[Radio Kabul]] that Afghanistan had been "liberated" from Amin's rule. According to the [[Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Soviet Politburo]], they were complying with the 1978 ''Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Good Neighborliness'', and Amin had been "executed by a tribunal for his crimes" by the Afghan Revolutionary Central Committee. That committee then installed former Deputy Prime Minister [[Babrak Karmal]] as head of government, who had been demoted to the relatively insignificant post of ambassador to Czechoslovakia following the Khalq takeover and announced that it had requested Soviet military assistance.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www12.georgetown.edu/sfs/isd/Afghan_1_WR_group.pdf |title=The Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan in 1979: Failure of Intelligence or of the Policy Process? |page=7 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060722123446/http://www12.georgetown.edu/sfs/isd/Afghan_1_WR_group.pdf |archive-date=22 July 2006 }}</ref>

Soviet ground forces, under the command of Marshal [[Sergey Sokolov (marshal)|Sergey Sokolov]], entered Afghanistan from the north on 27 December. In the morning, the [[103rd Guards Airborne Division|103rd Guards 'Vitebsk' Airborne Division]] landed at the airport at Bagram and the deployment of Soviet troops in Afghanistan was underway. The force that entered Afghanistan, in addition to the 103rd Guards Airborne Division, was under command of the [[40th Army (Soviet Union)|40th Army]] and consisted of the [[108th Motor Rifle Division|108th]] and [[5th Guards Motor Rifle Division]]s, the 860th Separate Motor Rifle Regiment, the [[56th Guards Air Assault Brigade|56th Separate Airborne Assault Brigade]], and the 36th Mixed Air Corps. Later on, the [[201st Motor Rifle Division|201st]] and [[68th Motor Rifle Division]]s also entered the country, along with other smaller units.<ref>Ye. I. Malashenko, [https://web.archive.org/web/20071013201357/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0JAP/is_2_13/ai_n15623829/pg_7 Movement to contact and commitment to combat of reserve fronts], Military Thought (military-theoretical journal of the [[Russian Ministry of Defence]]), April–June 2004</ref> In all, the initial Soviet force was around 1,800 [[tank]]s, 80,000 soldiers and 2,000 [[Armoured fighting vehicle|AFVs]]. In the second week alone, Soviet aircraft had made a total of 4,000 flights into Kabul.<ref>{{cite book|last=Fisk|first=Robert|author-link=Robert Fisk|title=The Great War for Civilisation: the Conquest of the Middle East|url=https://archive.org/details/greatwarforcivil00fisk_0|url-access=registration|location=London|publisher=Alfred Knopf|year=2005|pages=[https://archive.org/details/greatwarforcivil00fisk_0/page/40 40–41]|isbn=978-1-84115-007-9}}</ref> With the arrival of the two later divisions, the total Soviet force rose to over 100,000 personnel.

As part of Baikal-79, a larger operation aimed at taking 20 key strongholds in and around [[Kabul]], the Soviet 105th Airborne Division secured the city and disarmed Afghan Army units without facing opposition. On 1 January 1980, [[Soviet Airborne Forces|Soviet paratroopers]] ordered the 26th Airborne Regiment in [[Bala Hissar, Kabul|Bala Hissar]] to disarm, only for them to refuse and fire upon the [[Soviet Army|Soviets]] as a firefight ensued.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last1=Ken Conboy |url=http://archive.org/details/elite-forces-of-india-and-pakistan |title=Elite Forces of India and Pakistan |last2=Paul Hannon |date=1992}}</ref> The Soviet paratroopers annihilated most of the regiment, with 700 Afghan paratroopers being killed or captured. In the aftermath of the battle, 26th Airborne Regiment was disbanded and later reorganized into the 37th Commando Brigade, led by Col. [[Shahnawaz Tanai]], being the largest commando formation at a strength of three battalions.<ref>{{Cite web |title=THE AFGHAN ARMY: THE SOVIET MILITARY'S POOR STUDENT {{!}} CIA FOIA (foia.cia.gov) |url=https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp86t00587r000100060003-0 |access-date=2024-05-04 |website=www.cia.gov}}</ref> As a result of the battle with the 26th Airborne Regiment, the Soviet 357th Guards Airborne Regiment were permanently stationed in [[Bala Hissar, Kabul|Bala Hissar]] fortress, meaning this new brigade was stationed as [[Rish Khor camp|Rishkhor]] Garrison In the same year, the 81st Artillery Brigade was given airborne training and converted into the 38th Commando Brigade, stationed in Mahtab Qala (lit. Moonlit Fortress) garrison southwest of [[Kabul]] under the command of Brig. Tawab Khan.<ref name=":0" />

=== International positions on Soviet invasion ===
The Christmas-time invasion of a practically defenseless country was shocking for the international community, and caused a sense of alarm for its neighbor Pakistan.<ref name="Noor-2007">{{cite thesis |url=http://prr.hec.gov.pk/jspui/bitstream/123456789/1322/1/799S.pdf |title=The Causes of the Failure of Government of Afghanistan Under Professor Burhanuddin Rabbani (Afghanistan from Geneva Accords to the rise of Taliban (1988–96)) |last=Noor |first=Ahmad |publisher=University of Peshawar |date=December 2007 |access-date=26 December 2021}}</ref> On 2 January 1980 President Carter withdrew the [[Strategic Arms Limitation Talks|SALT-II treaty]] from consideration before the Senate,<ref name=pco1>{{cite web|last=Glass|first=Andrew |title=Carter withdraws SALT II accord, Jan. 2, 1980|url=http://politi.co/2qejDLf|access-date=13 November 2021|website=POLITICO|date=January 2018}}</ref> and on 3 January he recalled US Ambassador [[Thomas J. Watson Jr.|Thomas J. Watson]] from Moscow.<ref name=wapo1>{{Cite news|last1=Walsh|first1=Edward|last2=Goshko|first2=John M.|date=3 January 1980|title=U.S. Ambassador to Moscow Recalled|newspaper=Washington Post|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1980/01/03/us-ambassador-to-moscow-recalled/11954a73-b0b4-435a-8fde-170d3c757217/|access-date=13 November 2021|issn=0190-8286}}</ref> On 9 January the [[United Nations Security Council]] passed [[Resolution 462]]. Following the resolution, the [[Sixth emergency special session of the United Nations General Assembly]] took place. Soviet military activities were met with strong criticism internationally, including some of its allies at the [[UN General Assembly]] (UNGA),<ref name="Borshchevskaya 2022 24">{{Cite book |last=Borshchevskaya |first=Anna |title=Putin's War in Syria |publisher=I. B. Tauris |year=2022 |isbn=978-0-7556-3463-7 |location=50 Bedford Square, London, WC1B 3DP, UK |pages=24 |chapter=2: The Soviet Union in the Middle East and the Afghanistan Intervention |quote=}}</ref> but the Soviet machine scored a victory when, in the words of political scientist [[William Maley]], "the General Assembly accepted the credentials of the delegation of the Soviet-installed puppet regime in Kabul which duly voted against the resolution."<ref name="maley89">{{cite book |date=1989 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |doi=10.1017/CBO9780511598869.003 |title=The Soviet Withdrawal from Afghanistan |chapter=2 - The Geneva Accords of April 1988 |pages=12–28 |last=Maley |first=William }}</ref> The UNGA passed a resolution on 15 January by a vote of 104–18 protesting the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan.<ref name="ReferenceA">{{cite news |date=15 January 1980 |title=U.N. General Assembly Votes to Protest Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan |newspaper=Toledo Blade |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=MQwVAAAAIBAJ&pg=6049,7393411&dq=soviet+invasion+of+afghanistan&hl=en}}{{dead link|date=January 2022|bot=InternetArchiveBot|fix-attempted=yes}}</ref> On 29 January foreign ministers from 34 Muslim-majority countries adopted at the [[Organisation of Islamic Cooperation]]<ref name="rgics21">{{Cite journal |date=July 2021 |title=India-Afghanistan Relations: What Choices does India have in the Emerging Context? |url=https://www.rgics.org/wp-content/uploads/Policy-Watch_July-21.pdf |journal=Policy Watch |volume=10 |issue=7 |pages=20}}</ref> a resolution which condemned the Soviet intervention and demanded "the immediate, urgent and unconditional withdrawal of Soviet troops" from the Muslim nation of Afghanistan.<ref name="ppg1">{{cite news |date=29 January 1980 |title=Moslems Condemn Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan |newspaper=Pittsburgh Post-Gazette |page=2 |url=https://post-gazette.newspapers.com/image/89560644/?match=1&terms=urgent%20and%20unconditional%20withdrawal |agency=Associated Press}}</ref><ref name=rgics21/> According to political scientist [[Gilles Kepel]], the Soviet intervention or invasion was viewed with "horror" in the West, considered to be a fresh twist on the geo-political "[[The Great Game|Great Game]]" of the 19th century in which Britain feared that Russia sought access to the Indian Ocean, and posed a threat to Western security, explicitly violating the world balance of power agreed upon at [[Yalta Conference|Yalta]] in 1945.{{sfn|Kepel|2002|p=138}}

The general feeling in the United States was that inaction against the Soviet Union could encourage Moscow to go further in its international ambitions.<ref name="Noor-2007" /> President Carter placed a trade embargo against the Soviet Union on [[United States grain embargo against the Soviet Union|shipments of commodities such as grain]],<ref name=bryan81>{{cite web |publisher=The Heritage Foundation - "Backgrounder" |last=Bryan |first=Paige |title=The Soviet Grain Embargo |url=https://www.policyarchive.org/handle/10207/8930 |date=12 January 1981 |access-date=26 September 2024 |website=Policy Archive}}</ref> while also leading a 66-nation [[1980 Summer Olympics boycott|boycott]] of the [[1980 Summer Olympics]] in Moscow.<ref name="milestones">{{cite web|url=http://history.state.gov/milestones/1977-1980/Olympic |title=The Olympic Boycott, 1980 |work=state.gov |publisher=U.S. Department of State |access-date=7 December 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100204004633/http://history.state.gov/milestones/1977-1980/Olympic |archive-date=4 February 2010 |url-status=dead}}</ref> Carter later suspended high-technology exports to the Soviet Union.<ref name="Brown-2013" /> The invasion, along with other concurrent events such as the [[Iranian Revolution]] and the [[Iran hostage crisis|hostage stand-off]] that accompanied it showed the volatility of the wider region for U.S. foreign policy. This was identified on 4 January during President Carter's Address to the Nation:

{{Blockquote|text=Massive Soviet military forces have invaded the small, nonaligned, sovereign nation of Afghanistan, which had hitherto not been an occupied [[Satellite state#Soviet Union|satellite of the Soviet Union]]. [...] This is a callous violation of international law and the [[United Nations Charter]]. [...] If the Soviets are encouraged in this invasion by eventual success, and if they maintain their dominance over Afghanistan and then extend their control to adjacent countries, the stable, strategic, and peaceful balance of the entire world will be changed. This would threaten the security of all nations including, of course, the United States, our allies, and our friends.|author=U.S. President Jimmy Carter<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/address-the-nation-the-soviet-invasion-afghanistan|title = Address to the Nation on the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan &#124; the American Presidency Project}}</ref>}}

China condemned the Soviet coup and its military buildup, calling it a threat to Chinese security (both the Soviet Union and Afghanistan shared borders with China), that it marked the worst escalation of Soviet expansionism in over a decade, and that it was a warning to other Third World leaders with close relations to the Soviet Union. Vice Premier [[Deng Xiaoping]] warmly praised the "heroic resistance" of the Afghan people. Beijing also stated that the lacklustre worldwide reaction against Vietnam (in the [[Sino-Vietnamese War]] earlier in 1979) encouraged the Soviets to feel free invading Afghanistan.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.everycrsreport.com/files/19800502_IB80006_cdb9eeda3b49cdfce9a4d95a0bb0eb61bd4130cc.pdf |title=Afghanistan: Soviet Invasion and U.S. Response Issue Brief Number IB80006 |author=Afghanistan Task Force |publisher=Library of Congress Congressional Research Service |date=10 January 1980 |access-date=26 December 2021}}</ref>

[[Ba'athist Syria]], led by [[Hafez al-Assad]], was one of the few states outside the [[Warsaw Pact]] that publicly favoured the invasion. Soviet Union expanded its military support to the Syrian government in return.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Borshchevskaya |first=Anna |title=Putin's War in Syria |publisher=I. B. Tauris |year=2022 |isbn=978-0-7556-3463-7 |location=50 Bedford Square, London, WC1B 3DP, UK |pages=24, 25 |chapter=2: The Soviet Union in the Middle East and the Afghanistan Intervention |quote=}}</ref> The [[Warsaw Pact]] Soviet satellites (excluding Romania) publicly supported the intervention; however, a press account in June 1980 showed that [[Polish People's Republic|Poland]], [[Hungarian People's Republic|Hungary]] and Romania privately informed the Soviet Union that the invasion was a damaging mistake.<ref name="nsarchive2.gwu.edu" />

In his 2009 book, Maley excoriated "the West", which "allowed the issues for these negotiations to be determined substantially by the USSR—a
classic weakness of Western negotiating style. On 14 May 1980, the Kabul regime issued at Moscow's behest a statement directed at Iran and Pakistan, outlining a program for a 'political solution' to the 'tension that has come about in this region'. Its program was to be precisely mirrored in the agenda of the
subsequent negotiations conducted under UN auspices, which dealt with the withdrawal of the foreign troops, non-interference in the internal affairs of states, international guarantees, and the voluntary return of the refugees to their homes. This was a notable victory for the Soviet Union: the issue of self-determination
for the Afghan people, also mentioned by the General Assembly, of course did not figure in Kabul's program, and its exclusion effectively subordinated the General
Assembly's conditions for an acceptable settlement to those specified by the Soviet leadership."<ref name=maley89/>

=== Military aid ===
Weapons supplies were made available through numerous countries. Before the Soviet intervention, the insurgents received support from the United States, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Libya and Kuwait, albeit on a limited scale.<ref>{{cite book |last=Garthoff |first=Raymond L. |date=1994 |author-link=Raymond L. Garthoff |title=Détente and Confrontation: American-Soviet Relations from Nixon to Reagan |edition=revised |publisher=Brookings Institution Press |isbn=0-8157-3041-1 |page=1030}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Harrison |first1=Selig S. |author-link1=Selig S. Harrison |last2=Cordovez |first2=Diego |date=1995 |title=Out of Afghanistan: The Inside Story of the Soviet Withdrawal |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=327mCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA33 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York |isbn=0-19-506294-9 |pages=33–34}}</ref> After the intervention, aid was substantially increased. The US clandestinely purchased all of Israel's captured Soviet weapons, and then funnelled the weapons to the Mujahideen, while Egypt upgraded its army's weapons and sent the older weapons to the militants. Turkey sold their [[World War II]] stockpiles to the warlords, and the British and Swiss provided [[Blowpipe missile]]s and [[Oerlikon 20&nbsp;mm cannon|Oerlikon]] anti-aircraft guns respectively, after they were found to be poor models for their own forces.<ref name="unholy">Kinsella, Warren. "Unholy Alliances", Lester Publishing, 1992</ref> China provided the most relevant weapons, likely due to their own experience with [[guerrilla warfare]], and kept meticulous record of all the shipments.<ref name="unholy" /> The US, Saudi and Chinese aid combined totaled between $6 billion and $12 billion.<ref>{{cite book |last=Coll |first=Steve |author-link=Steve Coll |date=2005 |title=Ghost Wars. The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ToYxFL5wmBIC&pg=PA238 |location=New York |publisher=Penguin Books |page=238 |isbn=978-0-14-303466-7}}</ref>

=== State of the Cold War ===
{{See also|Cold War (1979–1985)}}
In the wider [[Cold War]], drastic changes were taking place in [[Southwestern Asia]] concurrent with the 1978–1979 upheavals in Afghanistan that changed the nature of the two superpowers. In February 1979, the [[Iranian Revolution]] ousted the American-backed [[Shah]] from Iran, losing the United States as one of its most powerful allies.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.brown.edu/Research/Understanding_the_Iran_Contra_Affair/i-background.php|title=Understanding the Iran Contra Affairs|access-date=4 June 2014}}</ref> The United States then deployed twenty ships in the [[Persian Gulf]] and the [[Arabian Sea]] including two aircraft carriers, and there were constant threats of war between the [[Iran–United States relations|U.S. and Iran]].<ref>{{cite book|first=Jiri|last=Valenta|year=1980|title=From Prague to Kabul: The Soviet Style of Invasion}}{{page needed|date=December 2019}}</ref>

American observers argued that the global balance of power had shifted to the Soviet Union following the emergence of several pro-Soviet regimes in the Third World in the latter half of the 1970s (such as in Nicaragua and Ethiopia), and the action in Afghanistan demonstrated the Soviet Union's expansionism.<ref name="nsaessay" />

March 1979 marked the signing of the U.S.-backed [[Egypt–Israel peace treaty|peace agreement between Israel and Egypt]]. The Soviet leadership saw the agreement as giving a major advantage to the United States. A Soviet newspaper stated that Egypt and Israel were now "[[Gendarme (historical)|gendarmes]] of [[the Pentagon]]". The Soviets viewed the treaty not only as a peace agreement between their erstwhile allies in Egypt and the US-supported Israelis but also as a military pact.<ref>{{cite book|first=Minton|last=Goldman|year=1984|title=Soviet Military Intervention in Afghanistan: Roots & Causes}}{{page needed|date=December 2019}}</ref> In addition, the US sold more than 5,000 [[List of missiles by nation#United States|missiles]] to [[Saudi Arabia]], and the USSR's previously strong relations with [[Iraq]] had recently soured, as in June 1978 it began entering into friendlier relations with the Western world and buying French and Italian-made weapons, though the vast majority still came from the Soviet Union, its Warsaw Pact satellites, and China.

The Soviet invasion has also been analyzed with the model of the [[resource curse]]. The 1979 [[Iranian Revolution|Islamic Revolution]] in Iran saw a massive increase in the scarcity and price of oil, adding tens of billions of dollars to the Soviet economy, as it was the major source of revenue for the USSR that spent 40–60% of its entire federal budget (15% of the GDP) on the military.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://su90.ru/defence.html|title=Расходы на оборону и численность вооруженных сил СССР|translator-last=Defense spending and size of the Armed Forces of the USSR}}</ref> The oil boom may have overinflated national confidence, serving as a catalyst for the invasion. The [[Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Politburo]] was temporarily relieved of financial constraints and sought to fulfill a long-term geopolitical goal of seizing the lead in the region between Central Asia and the Gulf.<ref name="Brown-2013">{{Cite journal|last=Brown|first=James D. J.|date=1 January 2013|title=Oil Fueled? The Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan|journal=Post-Soviet Affairs|volume=29|issue=1|pages=56–94|doi=10.1080/1060586X.2013.778543|issn=1060-586X|doi-access=free}}</ref>

=== December 1979 – February 1980: Occupation and national unrest ===
The first phase of the war began with the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and first battles with various opposition groups.<ref name=ppg1/> Soviet troops entered Afghanistan along two ground routes and one [[air corridor]], quickly taking control of the major urban centers, military bases and strategic installations. However, the presence of Soviet troops did not have the desired effect of pacifying the country. On the contrary, it exacerbated [[Nationalism|nationalistic]] sentiment, causing the rebellion to spread further.<ref>{{cite book|last=Roy|first=Olivier|author-link=Olivier Roy (professor)|title=Islam and resistance in Afghanistan|year=1990|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]|page=118}}</ref> [[Babrak Karmal]], Afghanistan's new leader, charged the Soviets with causing an increase in the unrest, and demanded that the 40th Army step in and quell the rebellion, as his own army had proved untrustworthy.<ref>Russian General Staff, Grau & Gress, ''The Soviet-Afghan War'', p. 18</ref> Thus, Soviet troops found themselves drawn into fighting against urban uprisings, tribal armies (called ''lashkar''), and sometimes against mutinying Afghan Army units. These forces mostly fought in the open, and Soviet airpower and artillery made short work of them.<ref name="mired">{{cite web|url=http://leav-www.army.mil/fmso/documents/miredinmount.htm|title=The Soviet-Afghan war: a superpower mired in the mountains|access-date=15 September 2007|last=Grau|first=Lester|date=March 2004|publisher=[[Foreign Military Studies Office]] Publications}}{{dead link|date=April 2025|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref>

The Soviet occupation provoked a great deal of fear and unrest amongst a wide spectrum of the Afghan populace. The Soviets held the view that their presence would be accepted after having rid Afghanistan of the "tyrannical" Khalq regime, but this was not to be. In the first week of January 1980, attacks against Soviet soldiers in Kabul became common, with roaming soldiers often assassinated in the city in broad daylight by civilians. In the summer of that year, numerous members of the ruling party would be assassinated in individual attacks. The Soviet Army quit patrolling Kabul in January 1981 after their losses due to terrorism, handing the responsibility over to the Afghan army. Tensions in Kabul peaked during the [[3 Hoot uprising]] on 22 February 1980, when the Soviet soldiers murdered hundreds of protesters.<ref name="thekabultimes">{{cite web|url=http://thekabultimes.gov.af/index.php/editorial/5945-3rd-hoot-uprising%3B-a-millstone-in-afghanistan%E2%80%99s-freedom-fighting-history-against-invaders.html|title=3rd Hoot uprising; a millstone in Afghanistan's freedom-fighting history against invaders|website=The Kabul Times |date=February 21, 2015 |access-date=2017-11-29|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171201042135/http://thekabultimes.gov.af/index.php/editorial/5945-3rd-hoot-uprising%3B-a-millstone-in-afghanistan%E2%80%99s-freedom-fighting-history-against-invaders.html|archive-date=2017-12-01|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="cdlib" /> The city uprising took a dangerous turn once again during the [[1980 student protests in Kabul|student demonstrations]] of April and May 1980, in which scores of students were killed by soldiers and PDPA sympathizers.<ref>{{cite book |chapter-url=https://publishing.cdlib.org/ucpressebooks/view?docId=ft7b69p12h&chunk.id=s1.6.4&toc.id=ch06&toc.depth=1&brand=ucpress&anchor.id=d0e3434 |chapter=Urban Uprisings and Their Suppression: Student Uprisings |title=Afghanistan: The Soviet Invasion and the Afghan Response, 1979-1982 |first1=M. Hassan |last1=Kakar |date=1995 |via=UC Press E-Books Collection, 1982-2004 |url-status=live |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20230406213318/https://publishing.cdlib.org/ucpressebooks/view?docId=ft7b69p12h&chunk.id=s1.6.4&toc.id=ch06&toc.depth=1&brand=ucpress&anchor.id=d0e3434 |archive-date= Apr 6, 2023 }}</ref>

The opposition to the Soviet presence was great nationally, crossing regional, ethnic, and linguistic lines. Never before in Afghan history had this many people been united in opposition against an invading foreign power. In [[Kandahar]] a few days after the invasion, civilians rose up against Soviet soldiers, killing a number of them, causing the soldiers to withdraw to their garrison. In this city, 130 Khalqists were murdered between January and February 1980.<ref name="cdlib" />

According to the [[Mitrokhin Archive]], the Soviet Union deployed numerous [[active measures]] at the beginning of the intervention, spreading disinformation relating to both diplomatic status and military intelligence. These efforts focused on most countries bordering Afghanistan, on several international powers, the Soviet's main adversary, the United States, and neutral countries.<ref name="digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org">{{cite web|title=KGB Active Measures in Southwest Asia in 1980-82 |url=https://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/110013|access-date=13 November 2021|website=Wilson Center Digital Archive }}</ref> The disinformation was deployed primarily by "leaking" forged documents, distributing leaflets, publishing nominally independent articles in Soviet-aligned press, and conveying reports to embassies through KGB residencies.<ref name="digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org" /> Among the active measures pursued in 1980–1982 were both pro- and anti-separatist documents disseminated in Pakistan, a forged letter implying a Pakistani-Iranian alliance, alleged reports of U.S. bases on the Iranian border, information regarding Pakistan's military intentions filtered through the [[List of diplomatic missions of Pakistan|Pakistan embassy]] in [[Bangkok]] to the [[Presidency of Jimmy Carter|Carter Administration]], and various disinformation about armed interference by India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Indonesia, Jordan, Italy, and France, among others.<ref name="digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org" />