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'I helped Osama escape'
12/01/2007 11:43 - (SA)
Islamabad - An Afghan rebel leader wanted
by the United States claimed credit for helping Osama bin Laden
and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahri escape a massive US-led hunt
in eastern Afghanistan just over five years ago.
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a former Afghan prime minister in
early 1990s, said in an interview aired on Pakistan's private
Geo television channel on Thursday that he met Bin Laden and
Zawahri after fighters loyal to his Hizb-e-Islami group helped
the two al-Qaeda leaders escape from the Tora Bora region in
late 2001.
"After the American attack on Afghanistan, I directed my
people to evacuate our guest brothers to safer places," said
Hekmatyar.
"Some valiant and honest mujahideen of Hizb-e-Islami
evacuated Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahri along with some
other comrades and transferred them to a safer place," he said.
"I met with them there."
The authenticity of the interview could not be
independently confirmed, but interviewer Saleem Safi told
Reuters that it was conducted inside Afghanistan nearly three
weeks ago.
Though the whereabouts of both al-Qaeda leaders has
remained a mystery since the September 11 attacks, the US forces
are believed to have come closest to trapping Bin Laden when he
retreated to a complex of caves in mountainous Tora Bora region
near the Pakistan border.
The best guess about Bin Laden's whereabouts remains
somewhere on the rugged border between Pakistan and
Afghanistan.
Zawahri is believed to be hiding in the same region, but
analysts say it is unlikely the two men are together.
Hekmatyar's whereabouts have also remained unknown, though
he is believed to be hiding in eastern Afghanistan.
Wearing a black turban and sporting a grey beard, the
bespectacled militant blamed for much of the destruction of
Kabul in the 1990s civil war in Afghanistan, said his
Hizb-e-Islami group had no organisational link with al-Qaeda or
Taliban though he had tried to ally with the Taliban.
"The process of negotiation with the Taliban has been
disconnected, but if they feel the need then we are ready."
Hekmatyar shot to prominence during the guerrilla war
against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s, when
US and Saudi money covertly bankrolled leaders of the
mujahideen.
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