News In Brief

Soviet drive is reported against Afghan stronghold

A leading resistance group in Peshawar, Pakistan, said Monday that Soviet troops have launched a major offensive against the strategic Panjshir Valley, one of the main strongholds of Afghanistan's Muslim guerrillas.

The Panjshir Valley, north of Kabul, overlooks the main highway between the Afghan capital and the Soviet Union.

The Soviet Army, which intervened in Kabul in 1979 to prop up a faltering communist government, sent thousands of troops into the Panjshir in previous campaigns. It has about 105,000 soldiers in Afghanistan.