The World : Afghan Army Mutiny Told

An Afghan army detachment of 400 men mutinied and tried to seize a provincial headquarters but was ambushed by troops loyal to the government and defeated in a bloody battle, Tass reported. The Soviet news agency, in a dispatch from the capital of Kabul, called the incident a coup attempt in the city of Kandahar in southern Afghanistan. According to the report, officers and soldiers loyal to the pro-Soviet Afghan government learned of the plan and ambushed the mutineers. In another report from Kabul, Tass said Afghan troops uncovered 70 corpses in plastic bags near the border city of Torkham and that “investigating bodies reached the conclusion that they were tortured to death.”