The Marmoul offensives were a series of military operations conducted by Soviet troops, KGB Border Guards of the USSR and DRA government forces, more specifically the 203rd Special Purpose Battalion, against Afghan mujahideen in the provinces of Balkh and Samangan in northern Afghanistan during the Soviet–Afghan War.

They consisted in a series of joint or independent, ground and air combat operations on a broad front with the involvement of considerable forces and means.

According to the description of a western journalist in 1982, Zabiullah was short, round-faced with a thick beard - a charismatic young man, more than twenty years old, possessing the qualities of a leader and organizer, and was distinguished by restraint.

At the initial stage of the guerrilla struggle, Zabiullah personally led the actions of his detachments in the attack on Soviet troops and government forces in the province of Balkh and in the vicinity of the city of Mazar-i-Sharif.

Zabiullah was killed in the Balkh province on December 14, 1984, when the vehicle in which he was traveling was blown up by a land mine allegedly laid by a rival partisan detachment.

In the eastern sector, the Marmoul gorge itself bends strictly southward, and expanding within the canyon boundaries, already extends in the province of Samangan towards the district town of Aibak.

Marmoul, a remote mountainous region well equipped according to the laws of engineering thought and military science, was a fortified complex with a multi-level echeloned fire control system.

In addition to the mines on the road, where armored vehicles of the 40th Army were being damaged, explosive charges from aerial bombs were laid on the mountain slopes.

On January 2, 1983, sixteen Soviet civilian specialists, who were contracted to build a bakery near the city of Mazar-i-Sharif, were abducted while returning from a working shift.

Sokolov, who was in Kabul at the time, ordered an army operation to search for the missing Soviet citizens and the liquidation of the armed formation that had organized their abduction.

According to the plan of the headquarters of the 40th Army, the military operation was to be carried out by air landing groups to block the way out of the gorge, with the further elimination of the enemy's manpower and the seizure of his material assets.

The field commander presented the captured Soviets as military pilots who bombed Afghan villages and called upon the population of Marmoul to wage a ruthless war on the infidels.

Active fighting in the area of the Marmoul gorge lasted nine days, of which a week the Soviet troops advanced under the continuous fire of the enemy.

During the capture of the base area in the Marmoul gorge in 1983, similar to operations: Smerch, Manoeuvre, Zapadnya, Uragan, in the Black Mountains, air cover was used.

The large-scale actions of Soviet troops along a broad front were preceded by powerful artillery and aviation preparation, during which anti-aircraft fire weapons were suppressed, minefields and controlled landmines were undermined.

The presence of an active Mujahideen base area in close proximity to the capital of northern Afghanistan, Mazar-i-Sharif, was deemed inadmissible by the command of the 40th Army.

Zgersky, compared the available reconnaissance data on the enemy's forces, the geography of the area and, having approved the plan of the operation, promised the general every support.

Given the difficult conditions of the mountainous region, the presence of powerful strong points with echeloned and multi-tiered defense, extensive areas of mine-explosive obstacles, significant forces and resources were invested in the operation.

According to the command directive of the 40th Army, aviation support during the operation to the troops of the KSAPO was provided by the Air Force from 24 airplanes of fighter-bombers.

The idea of the operation of 1984 - with the words of the head of the operation, Major-General Zgersky GA. consisted of the following actions: covering the entrance to the canyon by MMG forces and batteries of 122 mm-howitzers, to strike aviation and artillery strikes against the base area, all Mujahideen strongholds equipped on the peaks surrounding the Marmoul depression, then simultaneously landing 10 assault groups, 70 men each, to destroy the enemy in strong points equipped around Marmoul and to organize the defense of this area by two bypassing detachments of the 18th Infantry Division of the Armed Forces of the DRA under the command of the Major's Advisor, Major V.N.

After completing the demining of the area with the help of road engineering equipment, to expand the narrowness in the canyon, to make a colonial path, ensuring the advancement of the technique of moto-maneuvering groups to the Marmoul depression.

Actions on a broad front with considerable forces were preceded by powerful artillery and aviation preparation, during which the enemy's air defense weapons were reliably suppressed, minefields and controlled landmines were cleared.

The operation began with air and artillery strikes against strong points and rebel firing positions, holding the dominant heights of the single mountain pass and access to the main base in Marmoul.

Before it, the defense was occupied by units of the troops of KSAPO, who carried out an order to cover the artillery battery, and made ready to move into the canyon.

Before the entrance to the canyon, large-scale charges of incendiary aerial bombs and landmines were mounted into the rock, with remotely controlled mines laid on them.

Undermining the charges and the collapse of the rock, leading to blockages on the roads, the rebels planned to block the way to the armored vehicles of the Soviet troops.

The narrow passage to the ravine, in the future, was planned to be used by the enemy to draw equipment and troops into the depths, where by ruptures of landmines and firing into the rear, to defeat, not allowing reinforcements to come up.

Zgersky wrote in his memoirs that Marmoul, a village located in a basin surrounded on all sides by high mountains, their peaks defended the rebel firing points.

Established in the territory of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan, the grouping of border troops led to a significant activation of the actions of the opposition forces.

Interaction was carried out with the units of the army of the Armed Forces and the border troops of the DRA, the battalions of Tsarandoy and the Ministry of State Security of Afghanistan.