The active stage of the operation was launched on August 18, 1986 to clear out the rebel positions and the surrounding areas with the intent of breaking a mujahideen logistics chain in the northwest triangle of Herat Province in the Gulran District.

[1][2] During the presence of the Restricted contingent of Soviet troops in the Republic of Afghanistan in the western province of Herat, a large-scale air-ground combined arms operation was conducted under the codename "Zapadnya" (Trap).

Strengthening the state power of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan, the stabilization of HPE in the region bordering Iran the defeat of the "Western United Grouping" of Ismail Khan blocking the supply of weapons and ammunition to various international Islamic organizations - the Shiite Eight, the Islamic Society of Afghanistan the liquidation of the rear services in the region bordering Iran, the mastery of the Kokari-Sharshari base area, the seizure of weapons and ammunition depots.

received an order to go - one battalion of the 12th motorized rifle regiment of the 5th SME and a motor-maneuvering group of the Takhta-Bazar detachment of the USSR border troops, to seize the dominant heights and block the base from the north.

Approached by that time in the area of operation of the 17th Infantry Division of the Armed Forces of the DRA was tasked to block the base from the south.

The goal of the flat stage of the operation was also to ensure the safety of the movement of the columns of auto-armored vehicles along the route: Kushka-Herat-Kandahar, transporting military, civilian and humanitarian supplies to the southern provinces of Helmand and Kandahar.

The command of the forces of OKVA was carried out by Army General VI Varennikov, head of the operational group of the USSR Defense Ministry in Afghanistan.

From the 40th Army - deputy commander, Major-General Kondratiev G. G. The formation of anti-government forces in the province of Herat, consisted of the units of the Sunni Party "Islamic Society of Afghanistan" its leaders: Burhanuddin Rabbani, Ismail Khan, a member of the Peshawar Seven; Shiite "pro-Iranian" parties, members of the alliance, the so-called "Shiite Eight", its leaders: Karim Ahmad Yak Daste, Sheikh Nasrullah Mansour and others.

The base area was located on the very border with Iran and included a large number of warehouses of weapons, ammunition, food and other property.

Such a number of troops to gather from the Herat area was impossible, and therefore most of the units were transferred from Kabul, Bagram and Kunduz by air, which is not could go unnoticed.

Military experience, literacy and exactingness quickly allowed him to become a local emir, in the power of which there were seven provinces and an army of five thousand militants.

The success of Operation Zapadnya, on the border with Iran on the capture of the Kokari-Shashari base, also consisted in the fact that after the defeat of the opposition in this region, the process of transferring some rebel groups to the side of state power.

As a result, Soviet troops destroyed 32 underground structures, 26 ammunition and weapon stockpiles and 25 rammed-earth defensive constructions.

[1] After achieving the main strategic goal of the operation, many participants have been awarded and promoted in their ranks, with ceremonies continuing long after the collapse of the Soviet Union.