Suspects Fire Rockets at Pakistan Military (Abdullah Mehsud)

WANA, Pakistan - Pakistani troops backed by helicopter gunships poured artillery and mortar fire at al-Qaida-linked militants led by a former Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, prisoner hiding in a mountainous village near the Afghan border, officials said.

Led by Abdullah Mehsud, the former prisoner, the militants returned fire at the troops.

The rebels also fired rockets Thursday at a nearby army base, but they landed in an open field, causing no harm, said an official in Wana, the main town in South Waziristan.

Authorities say hundreds of Central Asian, Afghan and Arab militants suspected of having links with al-Qaida are in South Waziristan, where Osama bin Laden (news - web sites) and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, are also believed to be hiding.

Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao told reporters in Islamabad that their security forces have surrounded the village in South Waziristan where Mehsud and men were thought to be hiding.

Sherpao reiterated Pakistan's stance that bin Laden or Taliban chief Mullah Mohamnmed Omar were not in Pakistan. "Osama and Mullah Omar are not here, but they could be somewhere in Afghanistan, where they have more options to hide," he said.

Pakistan, a key ally of the United States in its war on terror, has arrested more than 600 al-Qaida suspects, but no senior figures have been caught in the border region.

Abdullah Mehsud, left, former Guantanamo Bay prisoner who allegedly led kidnapping of Chinese engineers, talks to reporters near Chagmalai on Thursday, Oct 14, 2004 in South Waziristan along Afghanistan border. Helicopter gunships and about 1,000 Pakistani ground troops on Wednesday raided a suspected hideout of an al-Qaida-linked militant chief, trading gun and mortar fire with fighters in the mountainous region near the Afghan border, officials said. (AP Photo/M. Sajjad, File)

Abdullah Mehsud, a Pakistani militant who masterminded the kidnapping of two Chinese engineers, talks on a radio in the tribal region near Afghan border, in this picture taken October 15, 2004. One of the two Chinese engineers was killed, the other was rescued and five of the kidnappers were killed when army commandoes launched a rescue operation earlier this week. Picture taken on October 15, 2004. REUTERS/Stringer

Abdullah Mehsud, left, former Guantanamo Bay prisoner communicates with kidnappers of Chinese engineers, before special forces' operation near Chagmalai on Thursday, Oct 14, 2004 in South Waziristan along Afghanistan border. Hours after, Pakistani special forces attacked kidnappers holding two Chinese engineers near the Afghan border, killing all five of the al-Qaida-linked militants, who were led by the former Guantanamo Bay prisoner. One of the hostages survived while the other was killed in Thursday's raid. Security forces later launched a manhunt for Mehsud, officials said. (AP Photo/M. Sajjad)

Afghan Prisoners Released From U.S. Base

Thu Oct 21,12:04 PM ET

By AMIR SHAH, Associated Press Writer

KABUL, Afghanistan - Seventeen Afghans were released Thursday from a U.S. base at the center of an investigation into the deaths of two prisoners in custody, the international Red Cross said.

The men were freed from Bagram Air Base, north of the capital, and brought to Kabul, where Red Cross officials gave them enough money to cover their trip home. An estimated 300 prisoners remain in the base.

Several of the men said they had been picked up some four months ago and interrogated repeatedly about the activities of Taliban rebels. But they spoke of no mistreatment in the time before they were released without charge.

Up to 28 U.S. soldiers face possible criminal charges in connection with the deaths of two prisoners at Bagram in December 2002, the Army announced last week.

The army has said both victims suffered "blunt force injuries" and ruled both deaths as homicides.

Noor Wali Khan, a 37-year-old waiting at a Kabul bus station, said he was well fed in his time at Bagram and showed reporters a copy of the Quran presented to him on his release.

"I wasn't beaten or threatened in the jail, the atmosphere was OK," he said. "We had two showers a week, but unfortunately the water was cold. That was a bit uncomfortable for us."

Khan said six American soldiers had arrested him about four months earlier during evening prayers at a mosque in Khost province, a former al-Qaida stronghold on the Pakistani border.

He said he was brought via an airport — presumably that in Khost city — to Bagram where he was kept "first in a cage and then in a room."

In repeated interrogations, "they said 'You know Taliban, where are the Taliban?' We said we didn't know, that these were baseless accusations."

The military says it has made a string of changes to procedures at some 20 secretive military prisons across Afghanistan since the deaths at Bagram.

The top American commander here said recently that soldiers had stopped stripping prisoners for medical examinations — a grave humiliation in the eyes of many Afghans — and using dogs to scare them into cooperating.

An American general reviewed the prison network earlier this year, but his report has yet to be made public.

U.S. authorities are investigating several other alleged cases of prisoner abuse in military jails in Afghanistan.

One case pursued by the CIA has resulted in charges of assault being brought against a former agency contractor over the June 2003 death of an Afghan detainee in eastern Afghanistan.

Some of the soldiers who may be charged in connection with the Bagram deaths are from the 519th Military Intelligence Battalion. Some members of the 519th went from Afghanistan to Iraq in 2003 and are among those accused by Army investigators of abusing Iraqi detainees in the fall of 2003.

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