Office of the Historian

340. Intelligence Information Cable Prepared in the Central Intelligence Agency1

[cable number not declassified]
Washington, December 16, 1980

COUNTRY

  • Afghanistan/Iran

SUBJECT

  • Support by the Iranian Government for the Afghan Dissident Organization, United Islamic Alliance [1 line not declassified]

SOURCE

  • [3 lines not declassified]
[Page 896]

1. According to a former Afghan Army officer who arrived in Peshawar in early December 1980, and who until late November was an active member of the Iranian-based Afghan dissident organization, the United Islamic Alliance (UIA) (Shura-i-Etefaq), during mid-November the Iranian Government supplied a sizeable shipment of U.S. manufactured weapons to UIA insurgents in Ghazni Province. The UIA is an alliance of Afghan Shia groups dominated by Hazaras from central and southern Afghanistan. The leader of the UIA is Asif Mohsani, a Shia from Qandahar, who now resides in and leads the UIA from Qum, Iran. The UIA does not maintain a presence in Pakistan. (Source comment: The officer said he had been told by other UIA members that because of Mohsani’s fundamentalist Shia orientation, he has good relations with and the support of Ayatollah Khomeini. Because of this close relationship, Mohsani is the only Afghan dissident leader known to be residing in Qum. In the officer’s opinion, no other Afghan dissident group is currently receiving weapons support from the Iranians.)

2. The officer stated that during mid-November the UIA headquarters in Ghazni Province, located at Jaghori (approximate coordinates 33’ 10N 57’ 30E), received from Iran a shipment of 1,000 M–1 Garand rifles, a quantity of ammunition, grenade projection adapters for the M–1s with a quantity of both anti-tank and anti-personnel grenades, and a quantity of unidentified U.S.-manufactured anti-tank rocket launchers and anti-tank mines. (Source comment: Other than the number of M–1s in the shipment, the officer did not specify the quantities of other weapons and ammunition received by the UIA. The officer also commented that this was the only shipment of Iranian supplied weapons and ammunition he is aware of, but he presumed the UIA had received others.)

3. ACQ: [1½ lines not declassified]

4. [less than 1 line not declassified] Dissem: [2 lines not declassified]

  1. Source: Department of Defense, Afghan War Collection, Box 2, 13 Kabul Sitreps. Secret; [handling restriction not declassified].↩