Afghanistan urges backing by youth amid desertions
September 11, 1980
New Delhi
The Afghan government has appealed to its young for support amid increasing desertion from the ranks of the Soviet-backed army. The army is also taking men who formerly were exempt, icluding doctors, teachers, students, and be who formerly have already served. Families with draft-a ge though they know they may never see them again.
Meanwhile, a diplomatic source reports that Soviet troops are using a new assault riffle that shoots outlawed hollow-nose dumdum-type bullets and have grought in "cluster bombs filled with needlike arrows that scateer over a widearea." Another source had arrived, but said there is"no hard evidence" that 10,000 Cuban troops are fighting in Afghanistan.