a273  2033  05 May 85
AM-Cuba-Afghanistan,0278
Guerrillas Claim Cuban Forces Fighting in Afghanistan
    ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) - Cuban paratroopers are fighting alongside
Soviet soldiers in Afghanistan and helped execute hundreds of
villagers in a recent attack, according to an Afghan rebel leader.
    Commander Sanagul of the Hazbe Islami guerrilla group, speaking with
reporters Saturday night, said 1,200 Cuban commandos parachuted into
the Qarghaie district in eastern Afghanistan in a raid on 15 villages
on April 21.
    They surrounded the villages, rounded up residents for questioning
and executed 360 of those suspected of supporting the anti-Marxist
rebels, said Sanagul, who uses only one name.
    The Cubans, backed by Soviet tanks, shut some villagers inside
buildings and then set the structures on fire, he said. He added that
the invaders burned houses, food stores and crops in the villages to
deny supplies to the guerrillas.
    About 1,500 guerrillas operate in the area, but they could do
nothing against the 80 tanks deployed by the Soviets and the jets and
helicopter gunships supporting the operation, according to the rebel
leader.
    He said his information was based on accounts from survivors who had
fled to Pakistan and from guerrilla units in the area. He was unable
to produce any evidence in the form of equipment or identity papers
from dead soldiers to show they were Cubans, however.
    The guerrillas have claimed in the past that Cuban forces are
fighting in the country.
    The Soviet Union dispatched troops to Afghanistan in late 1979 to
support the Marxist government in its fight against the rebels, and
more than 100,000 Soviet military personnel are operating there now,
according to Western estimates.
    
AP-NY-05-05-85 2331EDT
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