Afghan Rebels Killed Soviet POWs, Moscow Says

The official Soviet newspaper Izvestia on Saturday accused Afghan rebels of murdering three injured Soviet prisoners who were captured during an attack on a convoy pulling out of the city of Kandahar.

The three men were among a group of Soviet soldiers helping to protect the convoy as it set out for Kabul on May 30, Izvestia said.

Near the village of Dila, Muslim rebels began attacking the troops with mortars and rifles at close range, it added.

The battle continued until nightfall with Afghan and Soviet soldiers “encircled in an unequal fight,” the newspaper said in an unusually vivid description of military action in Afghanistan. Dozens of rebels were eventually taken prisoner and from them it was learned about the deaths of the injured soldiers, it said.

According to Izvestia, Lt. Col. Nikolai Bobrik was seriously wounded by flying shrapnel and was taken away in an armored personnel carrier manned by four other Soviets soldiers.

Bobrik, along with Lt. Col. Valentin Kryuchkov and Pvt. Sergei Kravtsov, both of whom also suffered serious injuries in the fighting, were captured by the rebels and then killed, Izvestia said without elaborating. The two other soldiers aboard, Lt. Col. Alexander Serikov and Pvt. Vladimir Smertenyuk, were killed after they had used up all their ammunition, the newspaper added.

Soviet troops began withdrawing from Afghanistan on May 15 in compliance with the Geneva accords, which were signed in April. However, Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev last week complained of violations of those accords, saying only that Soviet forces had lost some men near Kandahar.

On Thursday, Muslim rebels said they destroyed six government security posts near Kandahar during the last week of May and caused heavy troop casualties.