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U.S. Says American Citizen May be Among Taliban Prisoners
ISLAMABAD, Dec 3 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - A pro-Taliban fighter claiming to be an American has been taken into U.S. custody following a bloody uprising at a prison in northern Afghanistan that left hundreds dead, officials said Monday.
U.S.-led coalition spokesman Kenton Keith said a man identifying himself as a U.S. citizen by the name of John Walker had been delivered to U.S. custody, but his identity had not yet been confirmed.
Newsweek magazine reported Sunday that a 20-year-old U.S. citizen identified as Abdul Hamid, born John Walker, was taken by the Northern Alliance after its troops and U.S. warplanes suppressed the prison rebellion last week.
"We understand that he has been treated for injuries and taken into custody by U.S. forces," Keith said here.
"We expect that he will be registered with the Red Cross like everybody else. I think it is too early to speculate on what will happen to him but I know that is a matter of active consideration."
Keith said the young man "represents himself as an American citizen and we're checking that... I have no reason to think that he is not an American citizen at this stage."
A three-day uprising by pro-Taliban prisoners at Qala-e-Jangi prison near the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif was put down by Northern Alliance troops assisted by U.S. and British special forces and U.S. warplanes on Wednesday.
Some 450 prisoners are estimated to have been killed in the uprising, while only around 80 survived, including the man claiming to be an American. A U.S. CIA agent was among those killed during the fighting.
The U.S. cable television network CNN reported Monday that it had interviewed Walker at a hospital in Shibarghan, northern Afghanistan.
CNN said Walker was a member of Ansar, or "the helpers," the Arab-speaking fighters funded and supported by terrorist suspect Osama bin Laden.
"I was a student in Pakistan studying Islam," Walker told CNN.
"And I came into contact with many people who were connected with the Taliban... So, I started to read some of the literature of the scholars and the history of the movement, and my heart became attached to them," he said.
CNN said Walker, a thin, bearded man about 5 feet 10 inches tall, had trained in camps run by bin Laden and had been sent to fight in the disputed territory of Kashmir and on the front lines north of Kabul.
He also fought in Takhar province and was among the 3,000 Taliban fighters who surrendered to Northern Alliance forces in the northern city of Kunduz and were brought to Qala-i-Jangi prison.
Newsweek said it had contacted Walker's parents and they had expressed shock and disbelief at the fate of their son, who was born John Phillip Walker Lindh in Washington, D.C., in February 1981. He uses his mother's last name, Walker.
Walker is the second of three children of Marilyn Walker, a home health care worker, and a lawyer, Frank Lindh,
Newsweek said. His parents are divorced.
His mother told the news magazine her son spent the first 10 years of his life in Maryland and the family moved to northern California in 1991.
She described her son as a "sweet, shy, kid."
"Everyone who knows him loves him," she told Newsweek. "Everyone expected him to become a scholar."
Walker was raised Catholic, but converted to Islam at age 16, according to a Washington Post article referencing the
Newsweek interview. The article said his mother "did not know why he was attracted to Islam," although he had a strong sense of social justice.
At age 18, Walker traveled to Sana'a, Yemen, to learn Arabic, Newsweek said, adding that he later joined a
madrassah, or Islamic school, in northwestern Pakistan where he studied the Qur'an and local languages.
Marilyn Walker told Newsweek she was shocked by her son's statements of support for the Taliban and bin Laden. "If he got involved with the Taliban, he must have been brainwashed," she said.
Walker said he was wounded by a bullet in his upper-right thigh during the prison uprising and sought refuge in a basement bunker, where he and dozens of other pro-Taliban fighters remained for seven days.
They survived days of pounding by grenades and gunfire and finally surrendered after freezing water was pumped into the basement.
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