Abdul Rab Rasul Sayyaf | |
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Sayyaf in 2014.
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Born | 1946 (age 70–71) Paghman Valley, Afghanistan |
Other names | Abdul Rab Rasul Sayyaf Abd-i-Rab Rasoul Sayaf Abdul Rabb Rasoul Sayyaf Abdul Rabb al-Rasul Sayyaf |
Known for | Afghan mujahideen, opposition to the Taliban, politician |
Ustad Abdul Rab Rasul Sayyaf ( pronunciation AHB-DOOL rah-SOOL sah-YAHFPashto: عبد رب الرسول سياف , born 1946, Paghman Valley, Afghanistan) is an Afghan former mujahideen and current politician. He took part in the war against the PDPA government in the 1980s, leading the Afghan mujahideen faction Islamic Union for the Liberation of Afghanistan.
During the war, he received patronage from Arab sources and mobilized Arab volunteers for the mujahideen forces. Sayyaf is said to have been the one who first invited Osama bin Laden to take refuge in Afghanistan (Jalalabad), after bin Laden's 1996 expulsion from Sudan by the otherwise sympathetic Sudanese régime under Saudi, Egyptian, and American pressure.