A 15-year-old boy released after spending a year at the US prison for terror suspects in Cuba says he was detained after Afghan militiamen falsely accused him of being a Taliban sympathizer.
Mohammed Ismail Agha was reunited last week with his family in a remote southern Afghan village after a year as one of the youngest inmates in Guantanamo Bay.
Agha was one of three Afghan boys freed. Military officials said the boys had provided valuable intelligence but had no further value and were no longer a threat to the US.
In his first interview since his release, Agha said the US military "stole" 14 months of his life -- but still treated him well.
Agha was seized about a year after the Taliban was ousted by a US-led coalition.
Agha said American forces interrogated him at Bagram Air Base, north of the capital, Kabul, about whether he was a Taliban supporter. Yet once he reached Cuba, there were few questions, only schooling, prayer and good food.
"At first I was unhappy with the US forces. They stole 14 months of my life," said Agha, sitting in a relative's general store at the bazaar in Naw Zad, a market town some 490km southwest of Kabul.
"But they gave me a good time in Cuba. They were very nice to me, giving me English lessons," said Agha, a smile spreading across his face between a small beard and a white turban that made him look two or three years older.
"They were asking me if I was Taliban. I said, `No, I'm innocent.' I thought they would release me, but instead they sent me to Cuba," he said.
"For two or three days I was confused, but later the Americans were so nice with me, they were giving me good food with fruit and water for ablutions before prayer," he said.
Besides teaching him to read and write English, the military provided books in his native Pashto language and a Koran, Islam's sacred book.
The soldiers looking after the boys gave them a send-off dinner, taking photographs and urging them to return to school.
Agha said he was too poor for that, so he will search for work.
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