Word: hekmatyar
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...pictures of Hamid Karzai posing with George Bush and Tony Blair. Everyone in Afghanistan knows that real power resides with people like Rashid Dostum, the ethnic Uzbek warlord who controls Mazar-i-Sharif; Ishmael Khan, ruler of Herat and recipient of Iranian tanks and money; and the exiled Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a religious fanatic who currently resides in Iran but who is rumored to be staging a comeback...
...Hekmatyar and Dostum make Mullah Omar look like a Girl Scout. While he was prime minister of Afghanistan in a coalition government, Hekmatyar systematically shelled residential neighborhoods in Kabul. Dostum is well known in the region for torturing enemies, and journalists are already alleging that Dostum has been ethnically cleansing ethnic Pashtuns from his domain of Mazar-i-Sharif...
AFGHANISTAN Roundup As the first 600 members of the new Afghan multi-ethnic National Guard completed their training, the need for it became apparent. The government ordered the arrest of more than 200 political opponents. The detainees, said to be supporters of the anti-Western warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, were accused of conspiring to mount a terror campaign against the government of interim leader Hamid Karzai...
...possible reason for requesting the delay: Following the closure of his offices, Hekmatyar warned that he would return to Afghanistan if forced to leave Iran. According to a spokesperson, the State Department hasn't sent any direct messages to Tehran about Hekmatyar. But Washington's preference is clear: "We're not looking for him to go back to Afghanistan," says the spokesperson. Iran would have liked him gone sooner, but according to Foreign Minister Kharrazi: "The reason Hekmatyar is still in Iran is because our friends and those outside the region have requested it, but he is free to leave...
...Presumably, though, not if he's headed home. Sources close to Iran's Foreign Ministry claim Tehran will expel Hekmatyar from the country next week, following the visit of Hamid Karzai. And close associates expect that his next home may be in Baghdad...