Warlord Hekmatyar calls on Afghans to wage jihad against US
Warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who is wanted by Washington for terrorism has distributed a video recording in southern Afghanistan urging Afghans to wage jihad against America. In the 22-minute speech on a recording filled with graphic images of carnage and violence against Muslims in Indonesia, Palestine, Iraq and elsewhere, Hekmatyar makes a passionate call for holy war. Hekmatyar, who heads the fundamentalist Hezb-i-Islami guerrilla faction, has been declared a wanted terrorist by the US for his attempts to destabilise Karzai’s US-backed government. His foot soldiers are believed to be part of an alliance of Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants waging a guerrilla campaign against US and Afghan government troops in south and southeastern Afghanistan. The 8,000-strong ISAF multinational force is in Kabul and some northern provinces helping with security while more than 17,000 US-led soldiers are hunting militants in the south and southeast. Hekmatyar also called on Afghans to use suicide attacks against the enemy — a recent phenomenon in Afghanistan. An American woman and one Afghan child were killed by a suicide bomber in Kabul’s Chicken Street last month in an area which had once been popular with backpackers and tourists. Hekmatyar is a former prime minister and was a leading mujahideen warlord during the war against the Soviet Union. Ironically, the warlord who is now on the US’ most-wanted list, was once a CIA protege with close links to the Pakistani intelligence service.Full Story