Gulbuddin Hekmatyar (file photo)

Arab broadcaster Al Jazeera has telecast a videotape that shows an Afghan warlord wanted by the United States as saying that he and his followers want to support Osama bin Laden.

On the tape, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar says he hopes to participate and support bin Laden's battle.

Hekmatyar's Hizb-e-Islami faction helped end the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. After that, he was Afghanistan's prime minister from June 1993 to June 1994. The Taleban chased him out of Kabul in 1996.

His group has been blamed for several recent attacks against U.S.-led coalition forces in Afghanistan.

Hekmatyar's videotape comes less than two weeks after bin Laden and his number two Ayman al-Zawahiri issued messages on the so-called war on Islam and the political and security situations in Iraq.

Al Jazeera did not say how it received the tape and it was not clear when it was made.