America's home-grown Taleban fighter

John Walker is being treated for gunshot wounds

US military forces in Afghanistan have taken custody of a young American from Washington DC, whose admiration for the Taleban landed him a role fighting his own country as a foreign volunteer for the Islamic regime.

Everyone who knows him loves him. Everyone expected him to become a scholar

Marilyn Walker
mother

John Walker was one of the few foreign fighters who survived a bloody revolt at a prison fortress near Mazar-e-Sharif last week which left hundreds of fighters and one American CIA agent dead.

He was discovered at the weekend after Northern Alliance troops flooded the basement of the fort to force the last bedraggled prisoners from their hiding place.

Mr Walker, who went under the name of Abdul Hamid, was described by a Newsweek reporter who interviewed him as a "white, educated and apparently middle class American", hidden under a ragged beard and layers of black soot.

He is currently being treated for gunshot and shrapnel wounds sustained during the prison rebellion.

Convert to the cause

Mr Walker was born in Washington DC and grew up near San Francisco. Brought up a Catholic, he converted to Islam aged 16 and later went to Pakistan to study the Koran.

"In my travels I came into contact with some of the original teachers of the Taleban movement. The ideas of the Taleban occupied my mind a lot," he told Newsweek.

Many foreign fighters have joined up with the Taleban

Six months ago he crossed the border and headed for the capital Kabul, where he offered to serve the Taleban.

Lacking the local languages, he was told by the authorities to contact forces supporting Osama Bin Laden. He was trained in a combat camp in Northern Afghanistan before being sent to Kashmir, where he fought alongside Pakistani allies of the Taleban.

Most recently, he fought with the Taleban at the siege of Kunduz and surrendered to the warlord General Rashid Dostum along with hundreds of other foreigners when the two sides negotiated a deal.

Fortress fear

It was at this point that he was taken to the fortress, where he described an atmosphere of fear among the 500 soldiers who had been incarcerated.

Some of the Taleban were scared - they thought we were all going to be killed

John Walker

"They put us in the basement and left us overnight. Early in the morning they began taking us out slowly, one-by-one, into the compound. Our hands were tied and they were beating and kicking some of us.

"Some of the Taleban were scared. They thought we were all going to be killed."

Mr Walker survived the rebellion hiding in the cells in the basement, before the Northern Alliance flooded the area on Friday.

"We spent the night in the freezing cold water. Those who could stand up survived, but there were a lot of wounded who couldn't stand and they were drowned."

On Saturday morning they came out.

There is no word as to the precise retribution Mr Walker will face for his actions.

If his American citizenship is confirmed, he may be returned to the US to stand trial by a military tribunal.