In pictures: Russia's Afghan veterans Veterans of the Soviet Union's war in Afghanistan have been marking the 20th anniversary of the army's pull-out from the country. About 15,000 Soviet soldiers were killed and many more were wounded in the 10-year war. The troops were ordered in to bolster the struggling communist government there against an Islamic insurgency. The Soviet army became bogged down in a costly war against mujahideen rebels supplied with money and arms from the US, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. The Soviet Union collapsed within a couple of years of the army's withdrawal from Afghanistan, and veterans found themselves living in a number of different countries. The war left Afghanistan in ruins with millions of people displaced. Seven years after the Soviet withdrawal, the Taleban took power in Afghanistan. Veterans of the Soviet war see lessons for the US-led Nato forces in their own attempts to bolster Afghanistan' s government against an insurgency.

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