The mullahs in my area said that as Muslims we should go to Afghanistan to fight a jihad....I can not deny this was my intention. I arrived in Afghanistan in October. I spent three days in Kabul and then went to Mazar-i-Sharif. I was captured the day after I arrived there." Like many of his comrades, Khan said he had received no military training and insisted he was a religious student who had been "misled" by the mullahs. "They sold us," he said. "We learned later that for every 10 mujahideen (holy warriors) that they sent, they would receive 5,000 rupees ($100)."

30 year old Mohammed Afriqi was among a group of 50 that surrendered. Only 20 survived:

He was initially held at the notorious Shiberghan prison, where Dostum's forces are accused of killing hundreds of prisoners or allowing them to die because of overcrowding. In September 2002, Dostum issued a formal statement acknowledging that "approximately 200 prisoners died, but mostly of wounds suffered in the fighting, disease, suffocation, suicide and general weakness." Afriqi showed Reuters scars on his chest he said came from wounds caused by being whipped with electric cable.

The prisoners said the past 18 months of their captivity had been much better than the initial stage, and Sunday they all looked clean, fit and healthy.

No one ever decided whether these men were prisoners of war. They were the 'Joe Shmoes' of the opposition. The captured fighters that were perceived to have value to the U.S. were shipped to Guantanamo.