Free Republic

Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai will negotiate to share power with notorious warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, The Sunday Times of London reported. Without naming sources, the newspaper said Karzai, who is facing reelection this summer, will hold talks with the anti-American hardliner in the coming weeks in a bid to co-opt a main rival and bring his group, Hezb-i-Islami, into the government. The Sunday Times reported Hezb-i-Islami will be offered several government ministries and provincial governorships in exchange for laying down its arms. Hezb-i-Islami is regarded by the United States as a terrorist group and has been blamed for many attacks in...

The recent meeting between a deputy of Richard Holbrooke, the United States special representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan, and an emissary of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, leader of Hezb-i-Islami Afghanistan (HIA), is by all accounts a landmark move in the United States' stated aim of involving militant groups in ending the conflict in Afghanistan. The choice of Hekmatyar also indicates just how desperate the US is in finding an escape route from the escalating crisis in Afghanistan. Hekmatyar is a declared terrorist with a reported $25 million price on his head. The 61-year-old engineer from Kunduz province and his anti-government fighters are...

WASHINGTON, April 7, 2008 – Afghan and coalition security forces operating in Afghanistan’s Nuristan province cleared Kendal and Shok villages of insurgents and captured several suspects yesterday, military officials reported, while coalition troops and Afghan police seized two militants in operations in Khowst province. The combined Afghan-U.S. force repelled the attack with accurate small-arms fire and crew-served weapons. During the long battle, the insurgents reinforced their positions in several compounds with large groups of fighters. Close-air support was called upon to dislodge the heavily armed insurgents from their reinforced defensive positions. After neutralizing the threat, the combined force detained numerous...

AFGHAN REBEL LEADER HEKMATYAR SAYS ENDS INSURGENCY -STATEMENT

Gulbuddin Hekmatyar Reported Captured The commander of Hezb-i-Islami and al-Qaeda ally detained during a raid in eastern Afghanistan On the day of the fifth anniversary of the 9-11 attack, Coalition forces score a high value target in Afghanistan. Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, the commander of Hezb-i-Islami and ally of al-Qaeda and the Taliban, has been captured during a joint U.S. and Afghan Army raid in “eastern Afghanistan.” Hekmatyar, contrary to his rhetoric gave up to the Coalition forces without a fight. Hekmatyar's arrest is said to be part of an 'ongoing operation.' Hekmatyar has been designated by the U.S. Department of State...

In the small rural community of Kamdesh, Nuristan province, US troops recently constructed a base that houses hundreds of troops, making it the first such outpost of its kind to be built in one of the most untamed areas of Afghanistan. The base at Kamdesh is dug into a rugged mountain side that backs up to a sheer mountain side; prime real estate in the insurgent saturated northeast. Serving as an extension of forward operating base Naray, which lies due south in Kunar province, Kamdesh aims to reach further into the northern areas, namely Nuristan, to help the locals with...

An Afghan warlord who settled in Britain kept a human dog to bite his victims and waged a campaign of kidnap and torture against civilians, the Old Bailey was told yesterday. Faraydi Zardad, a veteran fighter against the Russians and the Taliban, was the commander of soldiers manning checkpoints on the Jalalabad road, the vital supply route between Kabul and Peshawar. He had complete authority in the area between 1992 and 1996 and "had a fearsome reputation for being cruel and merciless", the court was told. In the first prosecution of its kind Zardad, 41, who was arrested while living...