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Afghan warlord who trained Bali bombers nominates for presidency
A former Islamist
warlord who trained 9/11 terrorists and the Bali Bombers has nominated to run
for the Presidency of Afghanistan. Abdul Rasul Sayyaf announced his candidacy
this week, three days ahead of the deadline, by driving a motorcade of armed
mujahideen through the capital Kabul. The 67-year-old warlord, also allegedly
the man who invited Osama bid Laden to live in Afghanistan and made a base for
his al Qaeda network there. He also ran militant training camps throughout the
80s and 90s in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Abdul Rasul Sayyaf who fought against Soviet occupation
of Afghanistan in the 80s, was named in the 9/11 Commission Report as the ‘‘mentor’’
of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the principal architect of the 2001 attacks on New
York and Washington. Ten of the men involved in the 2002 Bali bombing,
including Mukhlas and bomb-maker Umar Patek, are believed to have trained at
Sayyaf’s Sadda militant camp near Peshawar. Two hundred and two people,
including 88 Australians, died in the Bali blasts. Patek is serving 20 years in
jail, Mukhlas was executed by firing squad.
Sayyaf was an enemy of the
Taliban, however, and sided with the US after its 2001 invasion. President
Hamid Karzai is constitutionally banned from running for a third term, but the
Karzai name is still expected on the ballot paper. The president is an
all-powerful position in Afghanistan’s nascent, and fragile democracy.
UA-42128338-1
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