First of all, it is not clear that those prisoners are in any sense "protected persons", but rather "illegal combatants" who have no rights under the Geneva Conventions.

You must recall that Taliban-Al Qaeda operates as a state without borders and consider the statement in the conventions which says, "Those states not bound by the Conventions are not protected by them."

It would be easy to show that the prisoners perpetrated war crimes such as:

Fighting without insignia,

Directing attacks against civilians (protected persons),

Carrying concealed weapons,.

all of which are punishable by death.

David F Mayer