KABUL, Nov 25: The Russian military returned to Kabul on Monday for the first time in 12 years with a fleet of 13 vehicles arriving on the streets of the Afghan capital in the early evening, an AFP reporter saw.

Moscow announced earlier on Monday it was sending three cargo plans to Afghanistan with special equipment to reopen an embassy in Kabul, and to provide humanitarian aid.

The aircraft were seen landing at Bagram airport, 50 kilometres north of Kabul mid-morning. “We are Russians,” one driver said when the convoy of unmarked military vehicles parked on a roadside in central Kabul.

One member of the group, who had been in talks with Northern Alliance soldiers where they were parked, said briefly “we are working” and refused to discuss the mission further.

“We have already had enough problems tonight, come back tomorrow,” another said.

The convoy included nine trucks with trailers normally used for transporting troops and cargo, three fuel tankers, one truck with a red cross marking and a jeep.

The trucks were closed in, but men wearing blue jackets with Russian encryption on the shoulders were seen peering through the canvas on two of them.

It was not possible to confirm if they were soldiers.

Some drivers who descended from their vehicles had “Emercom of Russia” written in English on the back of their jackets.

Russian officials in Moscow stressed that the mission was the largest sent into Afghanistan since humbled Soviet troops retreated from the country following defeat in a secretive 1979-1989 war in which some 15,000 soldiers died.

Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said late Sunday that Russia would soon begin work on setting up a permanent diplomatic mission in Kabul.

“Starting Monday, a special group tasked with settling the mission in would begin their work, and we hope that this work will be completed soon,” Ivanov told the state-owned RTR channel.

Russia had already found a building that would house the mission, Ivanov said, adding that the former Russian embassy was too damaged to be used any time soon.

The embassy suffered major damage during factional infighting which scarred the 1992-96 mujahideen government years.

The Russian staff housing compound was turned into accommodation for refugees from the Shomali plains north of Kabul who fled from the war between the Taliban and the Northern Alliance after the hardline militia took power in 1996.—AFP