In the 2nd period of the Afghan war, the armed opposition units abandoned the positional struggle and made wide use of maneuver actions.
Having suffered several major military defeats in the first period of the war, the opposition moved the main groupings of its troops to hard-to-reach mountainous areas, where the usage of modern technology became practically impossible. Benefitting from the knowledge of the area, the opposition forces made a skillful use of various tactics.
The battles were fought only when forced by the circumstances - during the defense of the base regions, when the opposition forces were completely blocked, and it was impossible to avoid a battle. In these cases, ‘the blocked units fought in close combat which virtually eliminated the use of aircraft and drastically reduced the ability to use artillery, especially from closed fire positions.