US military frees 80 prisoners in Afghanistan

The US military today freed about 80 prisoners held in Afghanistan in a step which could help persuade Taliban supporters to give up their fight.

Two buses brought the prisoners, all Afghan men, from the main US base at Bagram to the Supreme Court in the capital, Kabul. Officials said they were later taken to the bus terminal to complete their trip home.

An aide to President Hamid Karzai said the prisoners had been held either at Bagram, at a US base in the south eastern city of Khost, or at Kandahar in the south. Court officials initially said the men were from the US jail in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, but later said they were mistaken.

US and allied Afghan forces captured thousands of suspected Taliban and al-Qaida members in Afghanistan during and since the bombing campaign that ousted the repressive Taliban government in late 2001.

Hundreds have been classified as “enemy combatants” and transferred to the prison at the US naval base at Guantanamo, while many others have been held at a string of US bases across Afghanistan.

The US military was still holding about 300 prisoners in Afghanistan late last year, though it has suggested that it is minimising detentions and that a reconciliation programme to be organised by Karzai’s government could reduce the numbers further.

Karzai has repeatedly called on former Taliban supporters to make their peace with the new Afghanistan and throw themselves into the effort to rebuild the conflict-plagued country in return for freedom from prosecution.

US commanders are promising not to arrest former militant foot-soldiers who come forward, and are pressing Karzai to complete a list of fugitive leaders whom security forces will continue to try to kill or capture.

US military officials in Kabul had no comment on today’s release.

Groups of Afghans were released from US custody on several occasions last year, including about 10 men brought from Cuba to Kabul in September at the request of the Afghan government. The office of US-backed President Hamid Karzai said at the time that it was working for the release of more.