 Once armored personnel carriers and helicopters came the guerrillas would retreat into the side valleys and carry out small ambushes rather than openly confront the Soviets.The first Soviet operation in Panjshir took place in April 1980, just four months after the arrival of Soviet forces in Afghanistan.It involved three Soviet battalions, of which one was the fourth battalion of the 56th Guards Air Assault Brigade led by Captain Leonid Khabarov, and 1000 men of the Afghan army and security forces.