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Behind the Renewed Fighting in Afghanistan: Saudi Links?
(ABC News) The fierce battles in Afghanistan are being conducted against forces headed by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who has been described by Taliban expert Ahmed Rashaid as a "neo-Wahhabi protege" of Saudi Arabia. In March 1990, according to Rashid, the Saudis granted him $100 million. In the late 1980s and early 1990s his militia - Hezb-e-Islami - was known for its extreme brutality. The 1993 war between Hekmatyar and President Rabbani of Afghanistan left 10,000 civilians dead. (Ahmed Rashaid, Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil, and Fundamentalism in Central Asia, New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000) In a March 2002 20/20 interview with Barbara Walters, Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Abdullah admitted that he met Hekmatyar together with Osama Bin Laden.