Taliban suspects released from notorious US jail

A GROUP of Afghans released from a controversial US prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, said on Tuesday they were happy to be home and had mixed feelings about their treatment in detention.

The 18 men were arrested after a US-led coalition ousted the rigid Taliban regime from power in late 2001 for sheltering Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida group, accused of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

“I did not have a hard time in Cuba because God was with me,” said Sher Gulab, who is from Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan but was caught while working as a labourer in neighbouring Pakistan.