Dasht - i - Leili massacre The Dasht - i - Leili massacre occurred in December 2001 during the U . S . invasion of Afghanistan where between 250 and 3 , 000 ( depending on sources ) Taliban prisoners were shot and / or suffocated to death in metal truck containers , while being transferred by U . S . and Junbish - i Milli soldiers from Kunduz to Sheberghan prison in Afghanistan . The site of the graves is believed to be in the Dasht - i - Leili desert just west of Sheberghan , in the Jowzjan Province . The transferred prisoners were under supervision of forces loyal to General Rashid Dostum and some of them were survivors of the Battle of Qala - i - Jangi in Mazar - i - Sharif . In 2009 Dostum denied the accusations . According to all sources , many of the prisoners died from suffocation inside the containers and some witnesses claim that those who survived were raked with gunfire . The dead were buried in a mass grave under the authority of Commander Kamal . Those who participated in the burial included Commander Taher Charkhi , who voices no regret for their deaths . " Thousands should have died , not hundreds , " he has said . The allegations have been investigated since 2002 by Physicians for Human Rights ( PHR ) . PHR conducted two forensic missions to the site under the auspices of the United Nations in 2002 . In 2008 , PHR , working with the UN , documented that the grave had been tampered with . Controversy over responsibility and scale . In late 2001 , around 8 , 000 Taliban fighters , including Chechens , Pakistanis and Uzbeks as well as suspected members of al - Qaeda , surrendered to the Junbish - i Milli faction of Northern Alliance General Abdul Rashid Dostum , a U . S . ally in the war in Afghanistan , after the siege of Kunduz . Several hundred of the prisoners , among them American John Walker Lindh , came to be held in Qala - i - Jangi , a fort near Mazar - i - Sharif , where they staged a bloody uprising which took several days to quell . The remaining 7 , 500 were loaded onto containers for transport to Sheberghan prison , a journey that in some cases took several days . Human rights advocates say hundreds or thousands of them went missing . The first allegations that dozens of prisoners had suffocated in the containers appeared in a December 2001 " New York Times " article . A 2002 documentary named " " by Jamie Doran produced testimony from eyewitnesses alleging hundreds or even thousands of prisoners had died , either during transport in the containers or being shot and dumped in the Dasht - i - Leili desert after arriving at hopelessly overcrowded Sheberghan prison . Witnesses presented in the documentary also alleged that wounded and unconscious survivors of the container transports had been executed in the desert under supervision of U . S . soldiers . Doran ' s documentary , which was viewed by the European and German parliaments , caused widespread concern in Europe and among human rights advocates . It was not reported on in the United States mass media . Allegations of American involvement were disputed by Robert Young Pelton , who had been in the area reporting for National Geographic and CNN . Pelton also said the number of prisoners who suffocated in the containers was roughly 250 , a far smaller number than alleged in Doran ' s documentary . He claims he saw US medics treating some of the prisoners . He says some of the bodies may be victims of the Taliban or of Malik ' s executions in the 1990s . Subsequent investigations . In 2002 , Nathaniel Raymond of Physicians for Human Rights ( PHR ) led an investigation of alleged mass gravesites at Mazar . A UN forensic team found fifteen recently deceased bodies in a six - yard trial trench dug at a grave site and performed an autopsy on three of them , concluding that they had been the victims of homicide , the cause of death being consistent with suffocation , as described by the eyewitness reports featured in Doran ' s film . A major " Newsweek " article on the massacre appeared in August 2002 , raising questions about America ' s responsibility for the war crimes committed by its allies . It quoted Aziz ur Rahman Razekh , director of the Afghan Organization of Human Rights , asserting " with confidence " that " more than a thousand people died in the containers . " The 2002 " Newsweek " article stated that " death by container " – locking prisoners in containers and leaving them to die in them – had been an established method of mass execution in Afghanistan for some years . As the containers were sealed , the prisoners began suffering from lack of air soon after being locked in them . According to witnesses in Doran ' s documentary , air holes were shot into the sides of some containers , killing several of those inside . " Newsweek " reported that drivers were punished for giving water to the prisoners , or punching holes into the containers . Survivors of the container transports , interviewed by " Newsweek " , recalled that after 24 hours the bound prisoners were so thirsty that they resorted to licking the sweat of each other ' s bodies . Some bit into the bodies of fellow prisoners . In the containers of these survivors , only 20 to 40 prisoners of an original 150 or more were still alive when the containers arrived at their destination . Further investigation of the mass grave sites were impeded by Rashid Dostum ' s continuing military control over the area and due to intimidation . Physicians for Human Rights have claimed that the Bush administration consistently refused to respond to PHR ' s calls for investigation . In 2008 , the United States Defense Department and State Department released documentation per a Freedom of Information Act ( FOIA ) request by Raymond that indicated that 1500 - 2000 people were killed at Dasht - i - Leili . Ahmed Rashid wrote in 2008 that the prisoners were " stuffed in like sardines , 250 or more per container , so that the prisoners ' knees were against their chests " . According to Rashid , only a handful survived in each of the thirty containers and UN officials reported that just 6 out of an original 220 survived in one of the containers . The dead were buried by bulldozers in pits in the desert . Rashid called the massacre " the most outrageous and brutal human rights violation of the entire war " , which had occurred " despite the presence of US SOF in the region . " Obama calls for probe in 2009 . On July 10 , 2009 , an article on the massacre by Pulitzer Prize - winning journalist James Risen appeared in the " New York Times " . Risen stated that human rights groups ' estimates of the total number of victims " ranged from several hundred to several thousand " and that U . S . officials had " repeatedly discouraged efforts to investigate the episode " . Questioned about the article by Anderson Cooper of " CNN " during a trip to Africa , United States President Barack Obama was reported to have " ordered national security officials to look into allegations that the Bush administration resisted efforts to investigate a CIA - backed Afghan warlord over the killings of hundreds of Taliban prisoners in 2001 . " Excerpts from Doran ' s documentary " Afghan Massacre : The Convoy of Death " were broadcast on " Democracy Now ! " on 13 July 2009 , with images from the documentary shown on the programme ' s website . The programme , which featured James Risen and Susannah Sirkin , Deputy Director of Physicians for Human Rights , claimed that " at least 2 , 000 " prisoners of war had perished in the massacre . Sirkin confirmed the claims made in " Afghan Massacre : The Convoy of Death " that eyewitnesses who had come forward with information on the incident had been tortured and killed , and stated that a FOIA document showed that the " U . S . government and , apparently , intelligence agency – it ' s a three - letter word that ’ s redacted of an intelligence branch of the U . S . government in the FOIA – they knew and reported that eyewitnesses to this massacre had been killed and tortured . " Risen commented in the programme that in writing his article he " tried not to get caught up in something that I think in the past has slowed down some of the efforts by journalists to look into this . I think in the past one of the mistakes some journalists made was to try and prove a direct involvement by the U . S . personnel in the massacre itself . I frankly don ' t believe that any U . S . military personnel were involved in the massacre . And , you know , U . S . Special Forces troops who were traveling with Dostum have long maintained that they knew nothing about this . And , you know , so I tried not to go down that road . " He added that " the investigation should focus rather on what happened afterwards in the Bush administration . " A " New York Times " editorial on July 14 , 2009 called the Bush administration ' s refusal to investigate a " sordid legacy " . Noting that Dostum was " on the C . I . A . payroll and his militia worked closely with United States Special Forces in the early days of the war " , the editorial asked President Obama to " to order a full investigation into the massacre . The site must be guarded and witnesses protected . " Edward S . Herman , writing in " Z Magazine " , commented that this renewed interest by the " New York Times " in the massacre , after a 7 - year silence on the matter , was rather late in coming and coincided with Dostum ' s restoration to a position of power in Afghanistan prior to the August 2009 elections , in a move that the U . S . administration disapproved of . Herman said that the " New York Times " had essentially looked whichever way the current U . S . administration had wanted it to look for the best part of a decade , and that this was also " part of the sordid legacy of the " New York Times " . " On July 17 , 2009 , in an article published by " Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty " , Dostum , recently reappointed to his government job by Afghan President Hamid Karzai , again described Doran ' s film as a " fake story " , saying that the whole number of prisoners of war captured by his troops was less than the number Doran ' s film claimed had been killed , and denying there could have been any abuse of prisoners . Dostum ' s column was sharply criticised by human rights groups . In a rebuttal published by " Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty " in parallel to Dostum ' s piece , Sam Zarifi , the Asia - Pacific director for Amnesty International and a human rights investigator in Afghanistan in 2002 , stated that " investigations carried out shortly after the alleged killings by highly experienced and respected forensic analysts from Physicians for Human Rights established the presence of recently deceased human remains at Dasht - e Leili and suggested that they were the victims of homicide . " In December 2009 Physicians for Human Rights ( PHR ) renewed its call for the Obama administration ’ s Department of Justice to investigate why the Bush administration impeded an FBI criminal probe in the wake of the July 10 , 2009 front page article in The New York Times . On December 26 , 2009 , the Asian Tribune published the full transcript of a video interview given by the officials of Physicians for Human Rights , detailing nearly eight years of advocacy and investigation .