US military authorities in Afghanistan released seven men on Thursday who had been detained at a US prison in Guantanamo Bay. The bearded men, clad in T-shirts and trousers, were handed over to the head of an Afghan reconciliation commission in the Afghan capital, Kabul. "Life was tough. They punished me," said one of the men, Khan Zaman. He did not elaborate but said he had been held at Guantanamo Bay for four years. The men were among hundreds detained in Afghanistan on suspicion of being Taliban or Al Qaeda members after US-led forces overthrew the Taliban in late 2001.
"They didn't persecute me," said another of the men, who gave his name as Khodaidad. He said he too had spent four years in detention. "I don't know why they held me but I'm happy to be released from the custody of the infidels," he said. The head of the government's reconciliation commission, Sibghatullah Mojadeddi, gave each of the seven some money with which to get home.