80 Killed in Afghan Air Strike on Iran, Pakistan Borders, Rebels Say

Afghan planes Wednesday raided Muslim rebel camps in southwestern Afghanistan along the borders with Pakistan and Iran, killing at least 80 fighters and civilians, rebel officials reported.

They said that scores of people were wounded, and some bombs appeared to have fallen across the frontier on Pakistani and Iranian territory. Iranian military forces fired at the planes but did not appear to have hit any, they said.

Guerrilla officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that 12 MIG fighter-bombers of the Afghan air force attacked several guerrilla-controlled camps at Ribat in the extreme southwestern corner of Afghanistan.

No Pakistani Confirmation

Pakistani officials in Islamabad said they could not confirm the attack, but it often takes days for news from the remote border region to reach the capital at the northeastern end of the country.

Afghan Islamic Press, a news service with close ties to the insurgents, said at least 60 wounded were taken across the border to Iran for medical treatment, but indications were that many more were hurt.

About 2 million Afghan refugees live in Iran, which aids some guerrilla groups. The 5 million Afghans living in Pakistan and Iran represent about one-third of the population of Afghanistan before the Communist takeover.

It was the second major Afghan air strike reported in border areas in two days. Pakistani officials said Afghan planes raided two border villages in Pakistan on Monday, killing at least 85 people and wounding 123. (Reuters news agency quoted Pakistani officials as saying the death toll in Monday’s raids had risen to 149.)

Soviet Declarations

The increased activity by Afghan forces coincides with new Soviet declarations that the Kremlin wants to withdraw the estimated 115,000 Soviet soldiers who help Afghanistan’s Communist government fight a Muslim insurgency.

The Afghan guerrillas began their battle after a Communist coup in April, 1978. Soviet military forces entered the country in December, 1979.

Guerrilla groups also said Wednesday that hundreds of fighters and civilians were killed by Soviet air attacks and commando raids in northern Afghanistan in response to a rebel rocket attack on Soviet territory.

Jamiat-i-Islami, the dominant northern rebel group, said that its reports described great destruction in the frontier province of Qonduz.