Hekmatyar goes Al-Qaeda - Kabul Bomb Kills Italians

Hekmatyar goes Al-Qaeda
Kabul Bomb Kills Italians

Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, the radical Islamist guerrilla fighter, has pledged his allegiance to Usamah Bin Laden.

Back in the 1980s, Hekmatyar was a "freedom fighter" supported strongly by the Reagan administration. His radical Islamists received on the order of a billion dollars from the CIA to fight the Soviets, via Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence. In his youth, Hekmatyar is said to have thrown acid in the faces of unveiled girls.

In the 1990s, he became "prime minister" but fell out with "President" Burhan al-Din Rabbani, and the two of them fought a war over Kabul that killed thousands and destroyed much of the city! When warlords rule . . .

When the Taliban took over, Hekmatyar went underground to fight them, and could easily have been part of the "Northern Alliance" of warlords. But he went his own way, and opposed the US invasion of 2001-2002. He's been an underground guerrilla fighter, leading his Hizb-i Islami (Islamic Party) ever since. He pledged to kill US troops, just as Reagan once helped him kill Soviet troops.

But now, he's joined forces with al-Qaeda, as it and the Taliban are regrouping in southern Afghanistan.

On Friday, On Friday, a roadside bomb killed two Italian soldiers and wounded others. There are 1775 Italian troops in that country as part of the NATO force. The neo-Taliban and resurgent al-Qaeda are attempting to force the Europeans out by disheartening their publics.

And, you remember those advertisements during the Olympics about the Bush administration having "liberated" 50 million people. The Afghans are so liberated that millions are going hungry.

' Also Friday, the World Food Program called for an additional $40 million US in financial aid to help feed an estimated 3.5 million Afghans.

"Our lack of funding has left us almost no choice," Charles Vincent, the WFP representative in Afghanistan, told the Associated Press.

"Food rations and activities will have to be cut if we do not receive fresh donations." '

A majority of Canadians has turned against the deployment of troops in Afghanistan, which began this winter. Guerrillas killed 4 of them on April 22 near Qandahar.