Kabul Government

An Afghan guerrilla leader has defected to the Afghanistan government with 60 of his men after working as a double agent for the last two years, a guerrilla official said Saturday. Esmatulla Muslim had commanded about 500 guerrillas in the southern province of Kandahar, according to a senior guerrilla official, who spoke on condition he not be identified. He said Muslim took about 60 of his men with him, but more than 400 refused to defect.

Thousands of Afghan troops backed by tanks and helicopter gunships have launched a major offensive in northern Afghanistan in an attempt to recapture a guerrilla-held fort, rebel sources said. Jamiat-i-Islami, one of the largest groups fighting the Kabul government, said the Afghan army began the drive Nov. 3 in Takhar province, near the Soviet border. Reports told of heavy fighting with losses on both sides.

Four people were killed and 18 injured over three days in two bomb blasts in northern Pakistan near the Afghanistan border, police said Tuesday. Two women were killed and 16 people, including three children, were injured early Tuesday when a bomb exploded in a passenger bus at the Naguna bridge, near the provincial city of Peshawar. Two members of a family were killed and two seriously injured Sunday night when a bomb exploded at a private residence in the small city of Darban Kalan.

Afghan guerrillas said they launched a major attack on the eastern city of Jalalabad, but the Soviet-backed Kabul government said its forces retaliated with artillery and air attacks, causing heavy casualties. The official Kabul Radio, monitored in Pakistan, said government forces killed about 250 Western-backed guerrillas after they launched a three-sided attack. Rebel spokesman said the attack was aimed at capturing the airport and three government bases. The rebel offensive, begun last month, has been bogged down by heavy bombing by government planes and by mine fields.