Afghanistan's anti-Taliban leader Abdul Rashid Dostam is ready to give military support to the United States in its campaign against Osama bin Laden, the online version of the German weekly journal Der Spiegel reported Thursday.
Spiegel Online said that Dostam, an ethnic Uzbek general, was willing to offer Washington the services of his 15,000-strong personal army.
It reports that the offer was made public by the German Christian Democrat deputy, Willy Kimmer, who is a former secretary of state for defence under former chancellor Helmut Kohl and a friend of Dostam since 1996.
Dostam is a leading opponent of the ruling Taliban regime in Afghanistan which has been sheltering bin Laden, seen by Washington as the primary suspect behind the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States.
Dostam was a powerful warlord before the Taliban gained control of Kabul in 1996 and was eventually pushed out of his northern strongholds in 1998.
He returned to Afghanistan from exile in Turkey in April with plans to open a new front against the Taliban in the north of the country, alongside longtime opposition chief Ahmad Shah Masood.
Masood died on Saturday from injuries sustained in a September 9 suicide bomb attack at his headquarters in northeastern Afghanistan -- BERLIN, Sept 20 (AFP)
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