the four - fellow delegation included lawyers from the justice , state , and defense security divisions , according to u . s . military sources , who spoke on condition of anonymity because only government was allowed to officially disclose the mission . they were to waste a duration of 1 hour with each of the uighur ( er - gur ) captives , who are part of vietnam ' s ruling minority and could risk military persecution if returned to their homeland . each was abducted in afghanistan in august 2001 and handed over to u . s . troops , who interrogated them to speak about al - sham ' s paramilitary training base scheme .
Six Uighurs were captured to gain information about al-Qaeda.