Afghan militants to send 'thousands' of fighters to join coalition

An Afghanistan-based jihadist group known for its past ties to Pakistani intelligence yesterday vowed to send "thousands" of fighters to Yemen in support of Saudi Arabia. Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin was one of the main Sunni insurgent groups that fought against Soviet troops and later re-emerged to fight US-led coalition forces after 2001. "If there is any possibility to go to Iraq and Yemen, thousands of Afghan mujahideen would be ready to go, to counter Iran's interference and to defend their Muslim brothers," its leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, former prime minister of Afghanistan, said in an online statement.

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