Afghans Free US 'Bounty Hunter'

A senior prisons official said Idema left jail in early June and flew out of the country. He served less than three years of his original 10-year sentence.

Idema was jailed with two other US men, also since freed. He said his work was approved by the US and Afghan governments, which denied the claim.

The Pentagon said he was a bounty hunter.

'Unknown destination'

Jonathan "Jack" Idema was one of many former special forces soldiers working privately in Afghanistan - some to provide security, others acting as bounty hunters attracted by the millions of dollars in rewards offered for Osama Bin Laden and other top al-Qaeda suspects.

A senior prisons official in the Afghan justice ministry said the former soldier had been released at the start of June.

"We escorted him right to the airport and onto a plane", the official, Abdul Salam Asmat, told the AFP news agency.

Idema's Afghan lawyer, Rahim Ahmadzai, told the Associated Press news agency that Idema had been freed on 2 June. He said he did not know where he went.

A US embassy official quoted by the agency said that, according to court documents filed in Washington this week, Idema had left for an "unknown destination".