Afghan warlord returns to Kabul after 20 yrs

A former warlord branded the "Butcher of Kabul" returned to the Afghan capital yesterday, met by uneasy residents two decades after leaving the city where he stands accused of killing thousands of people.

Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a former prime minister, has returned to mainstream political life after his dormant Hezb-i-Islami militant group signed a peace deal with the government last September which sparked revulsion from human rights groups.

Hekmatyar earned his bloody nickname for laying siege to Kabul while during the 1992-1996 civil war, bombarding it with rockets that inflicted some of the worst damage in nearly 40 years of conflict, destroying one-third of the city and killing thousands of civilians.