On Thursday morning, the NLA combat columns defending the southern section of Islamabad again attacked the enemy's troop concentrations on Islamabad's southern heights. At 9 am, an enemy commander at the scene begged on the wireless for more helicopters to evacuate his wounded: "We have a lot of wounded. Some of them are dying." The Guards Corps sent another batch of fresh troops around noon. But the NLA combatants found out in advance, and took up positions at the eastern section of Illam road and at Islamabad's southern orchards. They repelled the new troops and chased them out of town.
The NLA forces counted over 2,700 enemy casualties and destroyed a large number of vehicles.
In the fifth major confrontation, which began at 11 o'clock on Wednesday morning and continued through the night, the NLA cleared enemy forces from the ridges around Islamabad road (toward Hassanabad). They also launched a second attack and captured the Guards Air Corps base located in southeast Islamabad on the Islamabad-Khorramabad road. Two days before, the NLA forces had captured and then left the base. But as the NLA combat brigades were advancing toward Kermanshah, the regime resumed extensive use of the base to airlift reinforcements. When the NLA retook the base, at least 550 Guards were killed or wounded and the base's fortifications destroyed. The NLA blew up four ammunition depots, destroyed heavy weaponry including a Shillika anti-aircraft gun equipped with radar, and seized a large amount of arms.
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