By Molly Moore
The Washington Post
URUZGAN, Afghanistan — Afghan villagers who were misidentified by U.S. military forces as al-Qaida and Taliban fighters said they were beaten and kicked during their capture and subsequent imprisonment in what they described as a wooden-barred "cage" at an American base in Kandahar.
Several of the 27 former prisoners, who were released Wednesday, said American soldiers treated them so harshly that two men lost consciousness during the beatings, while others suffered fractured ribs, loosened teeth and swollen noses.
"They were beating us on the head and back and ribs," said Allah Noor, 40, a farmer and policeman for the new government who said he suffered two fractured ribs at the military base. "They were punching us with fists, kicking me with their feet. They said, ‘You are terrorist! You are al-Qaida! You are Taliban!’ "
Four of the 27 men described their experiences of being nabbed in an early morning attack Jan. 24 at a local school and a district government office that Pentagon officials described as outposts for al-Qaida and Taliban holdouts. Twenty-one villagers were killed in the assault.
The U.S. attacks in this remote village in the home province of Afghanistan’s interim leader, Hamid Karzai, added to a list of incidents involving misleading intelligence, mistaken identities and other errors that have led to killings of civilians and friendly forces during the war in Afghanistan.
The U.S. military released the captives two weeks after they were detained.
Local government officials said that many of those killed or captured, far from being Taliban or al-Qaida sympathizers, were involved in the struggle to oust the harsh Islamic forces and that most were working for the new administration. Two of the men killed in the attack were heading a local disarmament drive to collect weapons from former Taliban sympathizers and other citizens; one of the prisoners was the new district police chief, Abdul Rauf.
The gunfire and shouting outside the building jarred sleeping policemen awake just before 3 a.m. Rauf recognized loud American voices.
"They are our friends," a relieved Rauf told his frightened men. "Don’t run. They won’t do anything to us."
Several minutes later, Rauf said, he was curled on his side fending off boot kicks to his back and knee jabs into his chest. Rauf, who places his age somewhere between 60 and 65, heard one of his ribs crack, and then he blacked out.
Local officials interviewed here said they believe someone intentionally misled the U.S. military into believing al-Qaida or Taliban forces were using the buildings that were bombed on the outskirts of this village, 150 miles and a bone-crunching 13-hour drive north of Kandahar.
According to Abdul Qudoos Irfani, district chief of Uruzgan, the government building was occupied by officials loyal to Karzai, including Rauf, the police chief. The building contained stores of ammunition left over from Taliban occupation of the facility, he said. Aziz Agha, head of the local disarmament commission, said the school was being used to store ammunition and weapons seized in the arms-collection program.
The two attacks appeared to have been launched within minutes of each other. The bloodiest assault occurred at the school.
"I first heard a missile hit, then two minutes later the shooting started," said Amanullah, 25, one of about 30 employees of the disarmament commission. "I heard shouting outside coming toward the rooms."
Amanullah said he and three companions scrambled out the windows as soldiers burst through the door spraying the room with bullets. "I was very scared," he said. "Bullets were hitting the window."
Amanullah said he glanced back and saw soldiers struggling with his cousin, who had tried to escape with him. Amanullah hid in a nearby mosque throughout the night and returned the next morning to find his cousin dead, with bullet wounds to the back of his neck, stomach and shoulder. He said the rounds all appeared to have been fired from behind.
His cousin’s hands, he said, were bound behind his back with white plastic handcuffs stenciled with the words "Made in U.S.A." Amanullah said he saw eight handcuffed bodies in all.
Local officials said 19 men were killed at the school, including the burned bodies of the two top officers of the disarmament commission.
About 100 yards from the school, special forces troops blasted open the metal front door of Abdul Ali’s mud-walled house. Soldiers grabbed Ali, a medic for the International Committee of the Red Cross, and tied his hands behind his back, his family recalled. Other soldiers searched the house, herding Ali’s two wives and 13 children into the center courtyard.
"My father said, ‘Please shout, scream and maybe they’ll release me,’ " Fazal Rabi, Ali’s 16-year-old son, said.
At nearly the same time the assault occurred at the school and Ali’s home, U.S. special forces slipped into the compound of the district government building where district government employees, including Rauf, the police chief, were sleeping.
Pentagon officials said U.S. troops began shooting because they were fired on at the two compounds. Former prisoners and other witnesses at both sites, most of whom had been asleep when the incident began, either reported hearing no weapon fire from their own guards or said they were unaware how the event started.
Two men were killed and 27 were taken prisoner from the district building. The detainees included six men taken out of the police station jail, where they had been arrested on various criminal charges. Missiles destroyed a portion of the building where weapons were stored and destroyed several vehicles.
The American forces, who were wearing masks, tied the detainees’ hands and feet, blindfolded them and slipped hoods over their heads, according to several of the prisoners.
Each of the prisoners interviewed said they had been beaten, kicked and punched with the soldiers’ fists, feet and in some cases, their gunstocks.
"I thought they were going to kill me," said Ziauddin, 50, who was working as a guard for the new post-Taliban government and said two of his upper teeth had been knocked loose.
They were loaded into helicopters and flown to the U.S. base at Kandahar.
When the men reached the base, "They told us to lie on the cold floor," said Allah Noor. As the soldiers were beating the men they were screaming, "We’re Karzai’s people. We have been for two months.’ "
All 27 men were forced onto their stomachs, with their hands tied behind their backs and their feet chained, according to each of four former prisoners interviewed. They were then all connected with a rope, they said. "They were walking on our backs like we were stones," Rauf said. "They hit me in the head. My nose hit the ground and became very swollen."
The six accused criminals taken from the jail were separated from the group. But the other 20 men were kept together in what they described as a "cage" with wooden bars and a canvas top. The men said they were fed U.S. military Meals Ready-to-Eat but were not allowed to wash.
Despite the treatment, Akhtar Mohammad, 17, said, "It wasn’t the Americans’ fault. Someone gave them misinformation."
Rauf said an American military officer told him during his third and final interrogation session two days before the release, "We are sorry. We committed a mistake bombing this place."
Rauf, huddled under a brown blanket in a corner of his mud-walled house, said he still can barely stand because of the blows to his kidneys. "I can never forgive them," he said.
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