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 to Pakistan. 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. |