On November 25, two CIA officers, Johnny Micheal Spann from the paramilitary Special Activities Division, and David Tyson, a case officer, Uzbek speaker and regional expert, arrived at Qala-i-Jangi to carry out prisoner interrogations in the fort's courtyard. The CIA officers questioned selected prisoners, especially one Sulayman al-Faris who was an American citizen born as John Walker Lindh (at the time, they noticed only that Lindh was a European-looking prisoner and different from the others, so he was singled out for an interrogation). Approximately two hours after the interviews began, a number of prisoners, some of them with concealed grenades, suddenly stood up and attacked their captors, who were outnumbered about four to one. Attacking in a suicidal manner, revolting prisoners overran and killed Spann and several Afghan guards; they also appeared to be often much better trained than their Northern Alliance captors, many of whom got shocked and frightened by their enemies' display of skill and fanaticism. The prisoners managed to take over the southern half of the fortress, including the armory and ammunition depot, seizing a large store of small arms, grenades, rocket-propelled grenade launchers, mortars and ammunition.