Afghan Rebel Positioned for Key Role

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Exclusive Video: Afghan Warlord Reemerges

Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a renegade Afghan commander, is increasingly being viewed as a key player in the U.S. effort to reign in the insurgency in Afghanistan through negotiations.

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More recently, Hekmatyar's backers said they were behind an attack that killed 10 French soldiers on Aug. 18. The fierce ambush marked one of the bloodiest days for French troops in recent history.

An ethnic Pashtun born in the northern province of Kunduz in 1947, Hekmatyar studied engineering at Kabul University. It was there that he made his entrance into politics as a charismatic student leader of the underground Muslim Youth group in the 1970s.

His path eventually led him to northwest Pakistan, where his stature grew as a fighter in the 1980s during the decade-long Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. His political savvy and military skills earned him millions of dollars in financing and arms from a host of backers that included bin Laden, the CIA, and the Saudi and Pakistani intelligence agencies.

The CIA largely dropped support for Hekmatyar following the Soviet withdrawal, and he was a central figure in Afghanistan's bloody civil war during the early 1990s. Campaigning to create a theocratic state, Hekmatyar eventually lost out in a power play with rival commanders. Exiled to Iran after the Taliban seized Kabul in 1996, he fell deeper into disfavor with officials in Washington after declaring his opposition to the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. In 2002, the CIA tried but failed to kill Hekmatyar by launching a missile attack on his convoy as it traveled through his stronghold in the eastern province of Konar.

He remained largely out of public view until early 2007, when he asserted that his forces had helped bin Laden evade capture in the Tora Bora mountains during the early days of the U.S. invasion. It is believed that Hekmatyar now spends much of his time shuttling between hideouts in the rugged tribal areas of Pakistan and eastern Afghanistan. Comments in his interview seem to bear out that theory.

"I have been attacked so many times. I have not been living in one place and have not been able to see my children," Hekmatyar said.

With several Afghan refugee camps firmly under his control in northwest Pakistan, Hekmatyar has expanded his political and military capabilities. U.S. and Afghan officials have said that it is from those camps that Hekmatyar has launched a series of attacks on coalition troops and Afghan government targets across the border. He has also managed to consolidate his political power in Afghanistan's east -- and more recently its north -- by tapping into the large population of Afghans returning after years of living as refugees in Pakistan.

At times, Hekmatyar has appeared to cooperate with several other leading Islamist commanders on operations inside Afghanistan. Although Hekmatyar's group asserted responsibility for the August attack on the French troops, the Taliban also said it was behind the ambush, leading some analysts to believe that Hekmatyar may have forged ties with his former adversary.

In the interview, Hekmatyar denied having links with the Taliban or al-Qaeda. But he talked at length about the religious ideology that binds the insurgency fighting foreign troops in Afghanistan.

"We don't have any kind of link with al-Qaeda, Afghan or Pakistani Taliban," Hekmatyar said. "However, we do respect all those who are involved in fighting in Pakistan, Afghanistan or anywhere else in the world against the United States and the enemies of Islam."

Special correspondents Imtiaz Ali and Shaiq Hussain in Pakistan and Javed Hamdard in Afghanistan contributed to this report.