U.S. Opens Its Arms to Wounded Afghans : Victims of Fighting Against Soviets to Be Treated Here

Mulla was 3 years old in 1983, when the attack began. Helicopter gunships swooped down on his village near Jalalabad, Afghanistan, and Soviet jets followed, ultimately destroying most of the dwellings and making refugees of a few thousand people.

Many died in the bombardment. Mulla suffered badly burned hands, losing four fingers from his right hand.

The youngster underwent three operations in a poorly equipped hospital in Pakistan before qualifying for a program that would bring him to the United States for expert medical care. On Monday, he and three moujahedeen --or Afghan rebels--arrived in Southern California, where they will undergo surgery and recuperation before returning to refugee camps in Pakistan.

The four stepped off a Northwest Orient jet at John Wayne Airport shortly after 2 p.m. to cheers and shouts of “Moujahedeen!” from a group of about 30 countrymen, supporters and congressional aides. Rep. Robert E. Badham (R-Newport Beach) was on hand. Assemblyman Gil Ferguson (R-Newport Beach) sent bags of oranges, and some in attendance held aloft signs that read: “WELCOME TO ORANGE COUNTY, WOUNDED AFGHAN MUJAHIDEEN.”

The three adult patients, who were sponsored by Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove), will undergo treatment at Western Medical Center in Santa Ana and Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian in Newport Beach.

Doctors Donating Time

Dornan aide Brian O’Leary Bennett said that 145 Afghan fighters have been treated in the United States since the effort to provide medical assistance was begun last July. Financing comes from a combination of private Afghan relief organizations and the U.S. State Department, he said, and the hospitals and doctors have all donated their time and facilities.

Mulla, who is sponsored by Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-San Bernardino), will be treated at White Memorial Medical Center in Los Angeles. Dr. Thora Howard, one of a team of doctors that will treat the 6-year-old refugee, presented Mulla with a stuffed teddy bear at the airport Tuesday. Dr. Howard said it would be a few days before Mulla is examined and probably will be a matter of “months” before he is considered well enough to return to Pakistan.

The four, along with Mulla’s brother, Shair-Hassan, 20, will stay in a Santa Ana apartment, their rent paid by Wounded Afghan (Moujahedeen) Help, a group of former Afghans now living in Southern California.

Mulla was too shy to meet the press Tuesday and chose instead to play with toys on the floor of the Evergreen Street apartment. His brother revealed that the youngster shed a few tears as they left his parents Saturday at the airport in Pakistan.

As he sipped tea in the small apartment, Zikr-Ullah, 26, said he had been shot four times while fighting in his province of Faryab, where no doctors were available. The first three bullets pierced his right leg, which healed with a little first aid. The fourth bullet, however, struck his right wrist, destroying the bone and leaving him without full use of his hand.

No U.S. Weapons Seen

Zikr-Ullah, whose wrist will be treated at Hoag by Dr. John Cook, praised the medical program, but he said that more military assistance from the United States was needed. All three fighters said Tuesday that they haven’t seen any U.S. weapons on the front lines.

For now, surface-to-air missiles and other weaponry are supplied on a covert level only, Badham said. Dornan “believes that the Afghan resistance fighters have not been getting enough assistance,” Bennett said. “We’ve only in the last year been able to get it to them covertly.”

Shair-Hassan said he has been fighting with Kalashnikov rifles captured from the Soviets and with Molotov cocktails. In one recent battle, he and more than 200 other rebels attacked a Russian ammunition convoy. From half-mile-long trenches on the roadside, moujahedeen lobbed Molotov cocktails, burnging about 30 trucks, he said, and lost only four men before making their escape.

Speaking through an interpreter, Shair-Hassan said he is anxious to return to Pakistan and hopes one day to rebuild his village.

“For this hope we are fighting. But first, we have to kick out the Russians,” he said. “We believe that always right is right and wrong is wrong. So we believe that 100% we will win this war.”

Along with Mulla and Zikr-Ullah came Mohammad Asghar, 36, and Khudai Dad, 17. Asghar, who also will be treated by Dr. Cook at Hoag, lost the sight in his left eye and his right hand was severely injured by shrapnel from a land mine. Dad suffered leg injuries from shrapnel during a bomb attack on his village in Kunduz province. The youth was treated by a local doctor, but his left leg became infected. He will undergo bone grafts and other treatment under the care of Dr. Joseph Swickard at Western Medical Center.