Soviet Forces Gas Civilians in the Cave, Nangarhar Province (1985)
Incident- Incident date
- 1985/03/18
- Year of incident
- 1985
- Province of incident
- Nangarhar: Achin
- District geolocation of incident
Latitude: 34.0826692263006
Longitude: 70.6667628480014
- District geolocation of incident (linked Incident)
- Achin
- Town/Village
- Spin Khola
- Types of incident
- Complex Attack
- Ground Attack
- Heavy Weapon Attack
- Poisoning
- Conflict parties
- Hizb-e Islami Gulbuddin (HIG)
- Soviet Army
- Alleged types of crimes
- War crime: Attacking civilian objects
- War crime: Attacking civilians
- War crime: Cruel treatment
- War crime: Employing poison or poisoned weapons
- War crime: Employing prohibited gases, liquids, materials or devices
- War crime: Inhuman treatment
- War crime: Murder
- War crime: Wilful killing
- War crime: Wilfully causing great suffering
- Regime in place
- Democratic Republic of Afghanistan
- Summary of incident
On March 18, 1985, Soviet forces attacked Spin Khola village, Achin district, Nangarhar province, Afghanistan. First, the paratrooper forces landed in the area, and the other forces attacked the village. They used helicopters, tanks, and other fighting vehicles to attack the village. A group of mujahidin fighters from Hizbi-Islami of Hikmatyar under the command of Engineer Siyal Faqir tried to counter the attack, but they were forced to escape. The villagers, including men, women, and children, escaped their homes and hid in a cave called Haji Gul Rahman cave. The Soviet forces used gas to attack the cave. From around 100 villagers who hid in the cave, 52 people died in the attack, and 48 people were injured.
- Source_1
- No of victims involved
- 100