Word: hekmatyar
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Last week Massoud's troops moved into Kabul, where they met and mixed with thousands of guerrillas loyal to Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who heads the main southern mujahedin unit. Most government troops and police surrendered without a fight, but rifle fire echoed over neighborhoods on the outskirts. Some of the shooting was celebratory, but some resulted from brief skirmishes between the factions...
Massoud, a member of Afghanistan's Tajik minority, had initially held his men out of the capital, partly to avoid chaos in the city of 1.5 million and , partly to try to seal it off from Hekmatyar, his principal rival. Hekmatyar, an ethnic Pashtun and Islamic fundamentalist, had demanded that the rump government in Kabul surrender to him so that a strictly religious Muslim regime could be installed. Now both mujahedin forces are in the center of the city, including the grounds of the presidential palace, where even a small clash could spark another round of civil...
...Islami faction, a fundamentalist group, were ambushed while returning from a five-day strategy session in the northern Farkhar Valley. Gunmen from a local command of the more radical Hezb-i-Islami faction killed 30 Jamiat men, including seven military commanders. Jamiat quickly pointed an accusing finger at Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, Hezb's leader, whose power struggle with the Jamiat leadership dates back to the 1970s. Without Hekmatyar's authorization, said Jamiat spokesman Mohammed Shoaib, "this incident would not have happened...
...political front, U.S. optimism also seems misplaced. Some experts are worried that the mujahedin leader who has received the lion's share of U.S. support, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, is a fanatic Muslim who might turn out to be Afghanistan's version of the Ayatullah Khomeini. Others wonder whether the mujahedin coalition, linked by hatred of the Najibullah regime, could stay together long enough to form an effective government...
Because the U.S. has largely operated through the ISI, it is seen as endorsing Pakistan's vision of a friendly Islamic regime in Kabul. The rebel leader who most closely fills that bill is Hekmatyar, head of the best- disciplined guerrilla organization, Hezb-e-Islami (Islamic Party). Some ; Western experts are uncomfortable with Hekmatyar's plan to turn Afghanistan into a Muslim state governed by shari'a (Islamic law), which could take an anti-American course. Should Washington be supporting someone with the potential to be a U.S. enemy? Defenders say Hekmatyar, despite his Islamic zeal, is also a pragmatist...