Former Afghan warlord pledges support for Taliban

A former Afghan warlord has urged the ruling Taliban regime to form an alliance with other ethnic groups to fight the United States.

Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a mujahideen commander who fought against the Russian invaders in the 1980s, said his troops are ready to join an alliance with the Taliban for the jihad (holy war) against America.

Hekmatyar, the leader of the once influential Hezb-e-Islami, has been in exile in Iran since the Taliban seized his stronghold on the outskirts of Kabul in 1996.

Speaking from Tehran, he said: "I am ready for jihad against America. We will soon reach an understanding with the Taliban on all the conflicting issues. At this stage, I can just say that the Taliban want my support."

Hekmatyar said he still has stocks of weapons, including anti-aircraft Stinger missiles provided by the US during the Russian invasion, and he has offered these to the Taliban.

"I am waiting for the arrival of American ground forces," he said. "Let them come to Afghanistan to face war of a different kind."

During the Afghan resistance of the Soviet invasion, Hekmatyar was a key recipient of aid from the CIA, which was helping the Afghan mujahideen at the time.

He led a four-year assault on the capital, Kabul, after the Northern Alliance seized it following the overthrow of the Russian puppet government in 1992.

He and former Northern Alliance Defence Minister Ahmad Shah Masood waged a bloody battle for control of the city, which left much of Kabul in ruins.

The advancing Taliban then drove both Hekmatyar and Massod out of the area in 1996.

Since then, the Hezb-e-Islami party has become almost defunct and many of Hekmatyar’s former associates have defected to the Taliban.