A wanted Afghan warlord said he was ready to fight under the banner of the Al Qaeda terror network headed by Osama bin Laden, according to a video broadcast on Qatar-based Al Jazeera yesterday.

“We look forward to fighting along their side and under their banner,” Gulbuddin Hekmatyar said referring to bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri.

Hekmatyar, who heads the anti-government party Hezb-e-Islami, is a former prime minister now wanted by US forces as a terrorist.

Hekmatyar berated Western governments for not taking seriously a truce offer made by bin Laden in January to the American people and another to European countries in April 2004 in return for an end to interference in Muslim countries.

“The Americans and their friends the Europeans are the ones who declared war on the Muslims and ignited the flames in Palestine, Afghanistan and Iraq,” he said.

“They are trying to rule Muslim states directly or through their vassals. They are plundering the wealth of Muslims and holding them back from self determination.”

An anti-government insurgency in southern Afghanistan being carried out by Taliban and other Islamic militants has claimed more than 1,600 lives in the past year.

Bin Laden, sheltered by the Taliban regime that was removed from power in a US-led invasion in late 2001, is believed to be hiding out along the remote, mountainous border between Pakistan and Afghanistan. – AFP