Afghanistan: June 14, 2005

Archives

Eighteen leaders of terrorist Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's Hezb-e-Islami organization have surrendered to police. Hekmatyar was a Islamic radical competitor with the Taliban, who did not get along with the Taliban. Hekmatyar went into exile in Iran, and returned when the Taliban were driven out in late 2001. Hekmatyar has been responsible for some terrorism in Afghanistan, but without any al Qaeda support, and a bad reputation from the 1990s, he was unable to built a large organization among Islamic conservatives.