Lejay, Afghanistan is a small village where an ambush

Ambush

An ambush is a long-established military tactic, in which the aggressors take advantage of concealment and the element of surprise to attack an unsuspecting enemy from concealed positions, such as among dense underbrush or behind hilltops...

 of an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 convoy took place

2003 Lejay firefight

A skirmish occurred on the morning of February 10, 2003 outside of Lejay, a small village in the northern, mountainous part of Helmand Province, Afghanistan...

 on February 10, 2003.
The Americans rounded up dozens of prisoners. By one account, the Americans rounded up 70 Afghans. Another account said they rounded up 40 Afghans. The Americans selected some of the men they rounded up;most of the men were released. They selected the men whose clothes appeared to have blood or gunpowder stains on them, or who were wearing army surplus jackets, or who appeared to have suffered temporary hearing impairment from firing weapons.

According to the evidence produced at the Combatant Status Review Tribunal

Combatant Status Review Tribunal

The Combatant Status Review Tribunals were a set of tribunals for confirming whether detainees held by the United States at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp had been correctly designated as "enemy combatants". The CSRTs were established July 7, 2004 by order of U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense...

s, some of the men who were not released were sent to the Guantanamo Bay detainment camp

Guantanamo Bay detainment camp

The Guantanamo Bay detention camp is a detainment and interrogation facility of the United States located within Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba. The facility was established in 2002 by the Bush Administration to hold detainees from the war in Afghanistan and later Iraq...

, in Cuba

Cuba

The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...

.

Press reports of the military action in the neighborhood of Lejay

Coalition forces conducted an aerial campaign against the neighborhood of Lejay.
Haji

Hajji

Hajji or El-Hajj, is an honorific title given to a Muslim person who has successfully completed the Hajj to Mecca, and is often used to refer to an elder, since it can take time to accumulate the wealth to fund the travel. The title is placed before a person's name...

 Pir Mohammad, the deputy governor of Helmand, led a six-man investigative team to the region, to investigate villager's reports of a massive American aerial bombardment.
Pir Mohammad reported that he had seen 17 Afghan casualties, but he could not state whether the casualties were Afghan civilians, or enemy fighters, wearing civilian clothes.

Reuters

Reuters

Reuters is a news agency headquartered in New York City. Until 2008 the Reuters news agency formed part of a British independent company, Reuters Group plc, which was also a provider of financial market data...

 interviewed Afghan official Haji Mohammad Wali, by phone, from Lashkargah

Lashkargah

Lashkar Gah , historically also called Bost, is a city in southern Afghanistan and the capital of Helmand Province, located in Lashkar Gah district. It is situated between the Helmand and Arghandab rivers. Lashkar Gah is linked by highways with Kandahar to the east, Zaranj to the west, and Herat...

, Helmand's capital. According to his account the civilian casualties were mainly women and children.

Reuters quoted a villager from the region who recounted seeing a home that had been demolished by the bombing, killing eight members of the family that had lived there.

Colonel

Colonel

Colonel , abbreviated Col or COL, is a military rank of a senior commissioned officer. It or a corresponding rank exists in most armies and in many air forces; the naval equivalent rank is generally "Captain". It is also used in some police forces and other paramilitary rank structures...

 Roger King

Roger King

Roger Douglas King is an English political figure who served as a Member of Parliament from 1983 to 1992.A member of the Conservative Party, King was elected to Parliament for Birmingham Northfield in the 1983 election, reversing a by-election loss to Labour the previous year...

, a US military spokesman, told reporters that the US Special Forces

Special forces

Special forces, or special operations forces are terms used to describe elite military tactical teams trained to perform high-risk dangerous missions that conventional units cannot perform...

 hunting the ambushers believed they were hunting between thirty and one hundred fighters. He informed reporters that American troops had found ammunition casings and empty rocket tubes. He called the reports of civilian casualties "unsupported". He stated that the US aerial bombardment had been confined to caves, and the ridgeline east and west of Lejay.

According to King: "Battle damage assessment conducted in support of operation Eagle Fury has not indicated any non-combatant casualties to date,"

Inconsistent reports of the scale of the US operations

Press reports of the scale of the bombardment King reported were inconsistent.

• On February 12, 2003, the New York Times quoted King as acknowledging coalition focrces dropping almost 20 2,000 pound bombs.
• On February 12, 2003, the Sydney Morning Herald quoted King acknowledging "Close air support was requested, and coalition F-16s dropped five 500-pound bombs."
• On February 13, 2003, Reuters quoted King acknowledging that the US had dropped a single 2,000 pound bomb, and fired ten 105mm cannon rounds from an AC130 aerial gunship.
• On February 13, 2003, The Guardian
  The Guardian
  The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
  
   reported that the region had been subjected to an eight hour bombardment, from a mixed force of B1 and B52
  B-52 Stratofortress
  The Boeing B-52 Stratofortress is a long-range, subsonic, jet-powered strategic bomber operated by the United States Air Force since the 1950s. The B-52 was designed and built by Boeing, who have continued to provide maintainence and upgrades to the aircraft in service...
  
   bombers.
• On February 14, 2003, the BBC quoted King acknowledging that the coalition had dropped four 500 pound bombs.

Allegations, testimony and status of the Lejay villagers

ID	name	notes
966	Baridad Baridad -Baridad's testimony at Abdul Bagi's CSRT:Abdul Bagi requested as witnesses at his CSRT three fellow Lejay villagers who were detained at Guantanamo.One of them was Baridad...	Abdul Bagi called on Baridad's testifimony at his Combatant Status Review Tribunal Combatant Status Review Tribunal The Combatant Status Review Tribunals were a set of tribunals for confirming whether detainees held by the United States at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp had been correctly designated as "enemy combatants". The CSRTs were established July 7, 2004 by order of U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense... . On December 16, 2006 the New York Times reported: "Another returning Afghan, Haji Baridad, who said he did not know his age, spent five years in Guantánamo. He appeared disturbed and kept complaining that an Afghan translator took his money — 3,600 Pakistani rupees, or about $62 — when he was detained." Other captives apprehended on February 10, 2003 faced the allegation they were captured with a senior Taliban commander, named, alternately Baridad Baridad -Baridad's testimony at Abdul Bagi's CSRT:Abdul Bagi requested as witnesses at his CSRT three fellow Lejay villagers who were detained at Guantanamo.One of them was Baridad...  and Bari Dad Khan. CSRT Transcript allegations testimony Alleged to have temporary hearing loss from using heavy weapons. Testified he had a congenital hearing loss Congenital hearing loss Congenital hearing loss implies that the hearing loss is present at birth. It can include hereditary hearing loss or hearing loss due to other factors present either in utero or at the time of birth.- Genetic factors :... Alleged to have operated a Taliban intelligence collection network. Testified he was a penniless, illiterate farmer who didn't even own his own land. He farmed a portion of Kushky Yar Kushky Yar Kushky Yar is a citizen of Afghanistan best known for the three years he spent in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba.... 's land. ARB Transcript allegations testimony Alleged to have ties to Hizb-I Islami Gulbuddin . Testified he was grateful to the Americans for giving him wheat when his family was hungry. Alleged to live in an area where the Taliban tapped income from the illicit opium Opium Opium is the dried latex obtained from the opium poppy . Opium contains up to 12% morphine, an alkaloid, which is frequently processed chemically to produce heroin for the illegal drug trade. The latex also includes codeine and non-narcotic alkaloids such as papaverine, thebaine and noscapine...  trade. Acknowledged that he and his neighbors had grown limited amounts of opium during the "Taliban's kingship" , but they quit when Hamid Karzai Hamid Karzai Hamid Karzai, GCMG is the 12th and current President of Afghanistan, taking office on 7 December 2004. He became a dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001...  became king . Alleged to have once glimpsed Abdul Wahid, from a distance, years ago, in a neighboring village. Acknowledged glimpsing Wahid, but he didn't meet him. "Capture data" allegedly indicated he was captured in a taxi. Claimed he was captured sunning himself on a bench outside his home.
963	Abdul Bagi
964	Rahmatullah	.
972	Alif Mohammed Alif Mohammed Alif Mohammed is a citizen of Afghanistan who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba.-Press reports:...	.