Rahmatullah Safi

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There are mulitple individuals named Rahmatullah who intelligence analysts assert are associated with the Taliban.

General Rahmatullah Safi (born 1948, died 2001) is a citizen of Afghanistan who is said to have been a member of the Taliban movement.[1]

Formerly a colonel in the Royal Afghan Army, he joined the National Islamic Front of Afghanistan, a mujahideen party led by Pir Sayyed Ahmed Gailani, after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. As a mujahideen commander, he was based in Peshawar, and operated in Paktia and Kunar provinces, taking part in the 1986 Zhawar fighting.[2]

As of 1998, Safi was living in London, England, but departed to Afghanistan along with Nabi Misdak to convince Mullah Omar to hand over Osama bin Laden to foreign authorities.[3], and he was considered the Taliban's European Ambassador according to a United Nations Security Council press release.[1].

As of 2004, Safi had resigned his military commission and announced his intentions to run in the 2004 Afghan presidential election[4]

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Press Release, AFG/131, SC/7028. United Nations Security Council. Retrieved on May 10, 2007.
  2. ^ Isby, David (1989). War in a distant country, Afghanistan: invasion and resistance. Arms and Armour Press. ISBN 0 85368 769 2. , p.106
  3. ^ Newsweek: Mohammed Omar's Driver Says U.S. Soldiers Came Close to Finding Him; 'Man of the People' Fled His Kandahar Compound in Rickshaw, Slept in Basements
  4. ^ Radio Free Europe/ Radio Liberty
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