Britons at Camp Delta make a sorry bunch of warriors

British detainees were captured at scenes of heaviest fighting in Afghanistan, but family and friends say they are innocent

In the eyes of the American Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, the seven Britons held at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba are "very tough, hard-core, well-trained terrorists".

To their families and friends they are innocents who happened to find themselves in Afghanistan as language students, aid workers or lost travellers.

The group, which includes a website designer, a motorcycle courier, a care worker for the elderly and a factory worker, would not appear to be obvious recruits as frontline warriors for Osama bin Laden's al- Qa'ida network.

But they were found at the scenes of some of the heaviest fighting in the recent war in Afghanistan.

They are being held under the tightest security at Camp Delta, which was built at the American naval base on the tip of Cuba for the specific purpose of holding about 300 suspected al-Qa'ida fighters. Some of the Britons have been held captive for more than 200 days at the camp. None has been charged.

Feroz Abassi, 22, from Croydon, was among the first group of prisoners to arrive, hooded and manacled, in Cuba in January. He had been arrested the previous month by American forces in Kunduz, northern Afghanistan.

Mr Abassi, who was born in Uganda and came to Britain when he was eight, was described by staff at John Ruskin College, Croydon, where he sat A-levels, as a "well behaved and courteous student".

He later dropped out of an HND course in computer automation and at around the same time became a devout Muslim. His mother, Zumrati Juma, believes he was "brainwashed" during visits to Finsbury Park mosque in north London, where the imam is Abu Hamza, a militant former mujahideen fighter.

Two days after Mr Abassi landed in Cuba he was joined by two more British captives, Shafiq Rasul, 24, a law student, and Asif Iqbal, 20, a factory worker, both from Tipton, West Midlands. The pair had been captured near the northern Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif, which was the scene of heavy fighting.

The news stunned their families who told reporters that the young men were football fanatics who enjoyed going to amusement arcades and playing with computers.

But other locals described Mr Rasul as wearing traditional Islamic dress and photocopying flyers for meetings written in Arabic script.

Ruhal Ahmed, 20, a student who also came from Tipton, was being held by American forces in Kandahar, the former Taliban stronghold in southern Afghan-istan. He was also sent to Guantanamo Bay.

The next Briton to arrive in Cuba was Jamal Udeen, 35, a website designer from Manchester. Mr Udeen, who was born Ronald Fiddler and has Jamaican parents, told the American authorities who found him in a Kandahar jail that he was merely a tourist to Pakistan who had become lost.

After straying into Afghanistan he claimed he had been arrested as a spy by the Taliban authorities. He is reported to have said: "It doesn't bother me to be associated with al-Qa'ida. I haven't done anything." Mr Udeen's family said he had been "in the wrong place at the wrong time".

As the operation to mop up al-Qa'ida forces went on into the spring, so more Britons were captured. Tarek Dergoul, 24, a care worker from east London, contacted his family in March to say he was being held in Kandahar.

Unconfirmed reports say that Mr Dergoul was captured in the Tora Bora mountain complex, to which retreating al-Qa'ida forces had fled.

Mr Dergoul, born in Britain as the son of a retired Moroccan baker, told his family that he was flying to Pakistan last summer to learn Arabic. He was taken to Guantanamo Bay in May.

One Briton alleged to have fought for al-Qa'ida and Taliban forces managed to escape from Afghanistan and fled to his family's native Zambia, where he was arrested in March. Martin Mubanga, 29, a former motorcycle courier from Dollis Hill, north-west London, is said to have been raised as a Catholic but converted to Islam in his twenties.

The detainees

Feroz Abassi, 22

Born in Uganda and grew up in Croydon. He was a computer studies student who dropped out of college and disappeared one year ago. His mother said he had been brought up as a Muslim but had shown little interest in religion until two years ago. Held by American forces in Kunduz.

Shafiq Rasul, 24

The son of Pakistan-born parents living in Tipton, West Midlands. The law student is from a Muslim family and he was captured in Mazar-i-Sharif after a mutiny by prisoners

Asif Iqbal, 20

Born in West Bromwich, the factory worker and lifelong Muslim, is from a Pakistani family living in Tipton. He was captured in Mazar-e-Sharif, the scene of some of heavy fighting

Tarek Dergoul, 24

From east London, he is the son of a Moroccan baker and was a care-worker for the elderly. A lifelong Muslim, he was captured in Tora Bora mountains. One of his arms has reportedly been amputated after being wounded.

Jamal Udeen, 35

Raised in Manchester in a family of Jamaican origin. A website designer, he has been a Muslim for 10 years. He was found by American forces in Kandahar jail.

Ruhal Ahmed, 20

A student from the Pakistani community in Tipton in the West Midlands, he is a lifelong Muslim and was arrested in Kandahar. His family have denied he is a fundamentalist.

Martin Mubanga, 29

A motorcycle courier from North London, of Zambian parentage. Converted to Islam from Catholicism in his 20s. Held in Zambia after escaping Afghanistan.