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CNN Live At Daybreak

Afghan Warlord Was Preparing Assault on Interim Government

Aired April 04, 2002 - 06:25   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: In Afghanistan, security officials say they have foiled a plot to overthrow the interim government. Hundreds of people linked to a hard lined Islamic group are now under arrest.

CNN's Walter Rodgers joins us live from Kabul once again with details -- good morning, Walter.

WALTER RODGERS, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.

Afghan security officials say they arrested about 350 supporters of the renegade warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. The charge, that they were plotting to overthrow the government of interim leader Hamid Karzai here.

It is also alleged that explosives and weapons were found among those arrested. And the Afghan officials are now saying that the renegades who were arrested were indeed plotting to target the ISAP, the international peacekeepers here in Kabul, as well as targeting American soldiers and American military posts here in Afghanistan.

Also, Afghan officials are saying that one of the reasons the exiled king, Zahir Shah, has not been allowed to return is because it was known that Hekmatyar's renegades were out in the countryside. Indeed, they were planning to assassin the exiled king and had been passing out leaflets saying if Zahir Shah had returned as the king to Afghanistan, he would have been assassinated.

Now Gulbuddin Hekmatyar himself a bloody figure here in Afghanistan, a renegade warlord. He is still at large and he has a reputation as -- among Afghans -- as being, quote, "The Big Evil." He's known to have targeted residences, neighborhoods, with rockets for no particular reason at all. First he fought against the Soviets, then he fought against the Northern Alliance.

The Taliban did not want him here. They exiled him to Iran. The Iranians gave him refuge for a while until they recently discovered that Gulbuddin Hekmatyar was plotting to overthrow the interim government here in Afghanistan. So they banished him again.

It's believed he's somewhere hiding in Afghanistan, but the fact that 350 of his supporters were arrested in the capital, Kabul, does not bode well. The United States and Europe have bet all their hopes for a stable Afghanistan on the government of Mr. Karzai. And the fact that a renegade warlord like Hekmatyar was able to get 350 of his people into the city just is not a good sign -- Carol.

COSTELLO: And, Walter, it still surprises me that these people are able to get away. Like the leader of these 350 supporters, he just slips away and nobody can ever find him again.

RODGERS: Well it's not unlike Osama bin Laden. In this country, in Afghanistan, there are rumors that Gulbuddin Hekmatyar was spotted in the southern province. And then it was rumored that he was spotted up north. But he's very -- he's a very skilled man.

Remember he hid from the Soviets for years and years very successfully. He fought civil wars; he knows the countryside like the palm of his hand. And consequently, he can hide very easily here.

The government has no reach whatsoever beyond Kabul itself. It does not have an army or a police force it can send into a country the size of Texas. It's not difficult for a skilled guerrilla fighter like this man to hide -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Apparently not. Walter Rodgers, thank you -- reporting live from Kabul this morning.

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