Look who is helping Osama escape

Islamabad: Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, former prime minister of Afghanistan and chief of the Hizb-e-Islami said in a television interview that his fighters helped al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden escape intense US bombing in the Tora Bora mountains in 2001.

Hekmatyar told Pakistan's private Geo TV network that when the US began its assault on the rugged Afghan mountains five years ago, some of his fighters moved bin Laden, his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri and other associates to ''a safe place'' where he met them later.

He did not say where they found the shelter. Bin Laden and al-Zawahiri are believed to be still hiding along the Afghan-Pakistan border after the heavy US pounding failed to kill them or lead to their capture.

Hekmatyar was a leader of the Mujahedeen that fought the Soviet occupation of the 1980s and was briefly Afghan prime minister during the civil war of the early 1990s that cost tens of thousands of lives.

In the interview, broadcast Thursday, Hekmatyar insisted he has not maintained links with al-Qaeda.

''We have no organisational link with al-Qaeda,'' he said. ''We have no military operations outside of Afghanistan.''

Hekmatyar was speaking in Pashto language. Only fragments from Hekmatyar's comments were audible under a voiceover translated into Urdu, Pakistan's main language. Geo TVdid not disclose when or where the interview was made.

Hekmatyar wore a black turban, a brown coat and a white shirt. He was seen sitting in front of a backdrop with a painting of a mountain.

He also said that he had offered the Taliban that the two militant groups should unite in a joint fight against US-led forces in Afghanistan, but he added that the Taliban leaders did not support the idea.

''A series of negotiations (with the Taliban) have broken down,'' Hekmatyar said. ''If they realize the need (for negotiations), we are ready.''

Hekmatyar's militia are active in eastern Afghanistan along the Pakistan border. His whereabouts are unknown.

In the interview, Hekmatyar said that foreign troops must first leave the country before the conflict can be solved politically.