Afghan insurgent leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar 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, a former Afghan prime minister and leader of the Hezb-e-Islami militant group, 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 identify the location of the hideout. Bin Laden and al-Zawahiri are believed to be still hiding along the Afghan-Pakistan border.
Hekmatyar was a leader of the mujahidin 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 on Thursday, Hekmatyar insisted he has not maintained links with al-Qaeda.
"We have no organizational link with al-Qaeda," he said. "We have no military operations outside of Afghanistan."
Hekmatyar was speaking in Pashto language.
He also said that he had offered to join forces with the Taliban to fight against US-led forces in Afghanistan, but said that Taliban leaders did not support the idea.
"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.
In the interview, Hekmatyar said that foreign troops must leave the country before any political solution can be found.
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