MOSCOW. Feb 11 (Interfax-AVN) - The U.S. Department of Defense is thoroughly analyzing the experience of U.S. soldiers and their allies deployed in Afghanistan, as well as the Soviet campaign in Afghanistan in 1979-1989, ahead of the international coalition's pullout, State Duma Defense Committee Deputy Chairman Franz Klintsevich said.
"We are cooperating with the Americans. The coalition pullout from Afghanistan will be a challenging task. They analyzing and summarizing the experience they have gained in Afghanistan and the hostilities the Soviet forces had in that country," Klintsevich told a conference in Moscow on Tuesday.
The Soviet force deployed in Afghanistan had slightly more than 100,000 servicemen, who were fighting 200,000 well trained Mujahidin supported by many Western countries, he said.
Almost 130,000 coalition soldiers and 120,000-160,000 employees of private military companies are operating in Afghanistan at present. Militants, who were once trained by the West, are fighting the coalition, Klintsevich said.
"The allies are fighting no better than the Soviet forces. It must be noted that the Americans and their allies have never had such intensive and fierce fighting as the Soviet forces in Afghanistan," Klintsevich said.
In his words, the Soviet troops lost about 15,000 servicemen killed and more than 50,000 wounded in Afghanistan.
In turn, President of the Academy of Military Sciences General of the Army Makhmud Gareyev said no way the Americans would leave Afghanistan. "The main conclusion drawn from the war in Afghanistan is that gunpowder must be kept dry: the Americans will never abandon this region," Gareyev said.