Khallad says he met a number of them at the Kandahar airport, where they were helping to provide extra security.

"They are economic asylum seekers, not political refugees," he told reporters at the Kandahar airport.

However, Kandahar airport was left relatively untouched and its main building was largely intact at the end of the war.

The two, who were not identified by defense officials, were taken to a jail that American forces have built at the Kandahar airport.

Having 4,000 American soldiers stationed at Kandahar Airport has a deterrent effect.

American forces are holding 368 prisoners, most of them at a detention camp guarded by marines and soldiers at Kandahar airport.

One of the men, Sergeant Ashraf, was said to have taken part in an attack on Kandahar airport.

The office was located at the Kandahar airport and was managed by Atef.

The Canadian soldiers were using it as part of a live-fire exercise on an established firing range a short drive from the Kandahar airport.

The prisoners, who were taken to a detention center at Kandahar airport, included many foreign Al Qaeda fighters, the officials said.