Soviets in Final Stages of Afghan Pullout : Truck Convoy Sets Out Amid Rebel Attacks on Strategic Highway

Government troops and Muslim guerrillas fought for control of this highway Sunday as what may have been the Soviet army’s last truck convoy out of Afghanistan left for home.

A convoy of Soviet soldiers driving armored personnel carriers and trucks bristling with missile launchers and other equipment cruised through a Soviet bunker checkpoint as helicopter gunships hovered overhead, offering cover.

The highway, the only road to the Soviet border, winds through mountains where the moujahedeen rebels are waiting for the Red Army to complete its withdrawal.

Two ground-attack jets streaked overhead and then disappeared behind the snow-covered mountains just beyond the hills surrounding the capital of Kabul.

‘Could Be Last Convoy’

“This could be the last convoy,” said a Soviet diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity. He refused to elaborate.

Rebels based in Pakistan reported Sunday that Soviet bombing and missile attacks along the highway have killed 600 civilians and wounded 1,200.

“The mangled bodies are still under the debris,” the rebel Afghan News Agency said in a telexed statement.

Official Radio Kabul, monitored in Islamabad, Pakistan, said Sunday night that Afghan troops had carried out “successful military operations” with civilians who want to keep the 260-mile Salang Highway open.

“The inhabitants of the Salang Highway assisted the forces, as they hate the robbers, and complete security has been restored on the highway,” it said.

At a Soviet checkpoint about 12 miles north of Kabul on Sunday, Afghan soldiers paced nervously along the highway.

Soviet soldiers in the convoy looked bored.

“How’s everything going?” one Afghan officer was asked.

“Very bad,” he said.

Earlier Sunday, Afghan soldiers said, the U.S.-backed rebels fired on a convoy of about 350 trucks carrying flour, eggs, diesel fuel, gasoline and other supplies down the highway to Kabul. One driver, an Afghan, was slightly injured by a bullet, they said.

When asked what would happen when the Soviets are gone, an officer said: “The moujahedeen. “

Soviet Delegation Arrives

The Soviet news agency Tass reported Sunday that a Soviet delegation led by Yuri D. Maslyukov, a non-voting member of the ruling Politburo, arrived in Kabul.

Maslyukov, Finance Minister Boris I. Gostev and Konstantin F. Katushev, minister of foreign economic relations, met with Afghan President Najibullah to discuss Soviet economic aid to Afghanistan, the official news agency said.

It said the discussion focused on how the Soviet Union would help the Afghans “thwart the opposition’s plans to establish an economic blockade of the capital” and said that Moscow would supply food, fuel “and essentials.”

In Pakistan, Western diplomats said that in the past week an average of 18 Soviet transport planes a day had landed and taken off from Kabul--more than twice the number reported the previous week.

The aircraft deliver arms and food to the beleaguered city, then depart with hundreds of Soviet soldiers, the diplomats said.

The Red Army began pulling out eight months ago under an agreement sponsored by the United Nations to end the nine-year intervention.

Soviet diplomats in Kabul say the remaining 15,000 to 20,000 troops could be gone by the end of the week, about 10 days before the U.N. deadline. The remaining soldiers apparently are to leave on transport planes.

The guerrillas are not a party to the U.N. pact and have vowed to overthrow Najibullah’s government once the Soviets leave.