Mass graves linked to Reagan/Carter era freedom fighters

By David Brunnstrom

KABUL (Reuters) - Afghan police have found mass graves of hundreds of communist troops killed after surrendering to mujahideen forces in the 1980s, a crime in which at least two election candidates are implicated, officials said on Thursday.

The graves were discovered about three weeks ago in Saraqala, a remote part of the southeastern province of Paktika, said a provincial police officer, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"It's believed that these people were killed in 1989," he said. "There was a government brigade that went missing and they captured them. There are at least 300-500 people -- we have counted from their belts, uniforms, boots and bones."


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These were army soldiers of the Najibullah regime who surrendered to the mujahideen and then they were killed," he said referring to the Soviet-backed president executed by the Taliban in 1996.

He said there were reports that up to 550 bodies were in the graves.

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Mujahideen (Muslim holy warrior) forces overthrew the Soviet-backed government in 1992. The Taliban grew out of these forces and took power in 1996 only to be overthrown by U.S.-led forces in 2001.

the mujahideen were our guys back in 89this from wikipedia The most well-known and feared mujahideen were the various loosely-aligned opposition groups that fought against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan between 1979 and 1989, and then fought against each other in the following civil war. These mujahideen were significantly financed, armed, and trained by the United States (under the presidencies of Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan), Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and China.[1] Reagan referred to these mujahideen as "freedom fighters ... defending principles of independence and freedom that form the basis of global security and stability."

just in case you been in a fox news zone to long I'm just here as a reminder