MAZAR-I-SHARIF, Northern Afghanistan, (Islamweb & News Agencies) -The Northern Alliance, denied reports it was using an uprising by Taliban prisoners of war at a fort near the city of Mazar-e-Sharif, in northern Afghanistanas as an opportunity to get rid of unwanted prisoners.
Northern alliance troops aided by U.S. special forces fought are fighting a pitched battle in a sprawling mud-walled fortress for a second day Monday with captured loyalists of Osama bin Laden. At one point, an American bomb went astray, killing six Northern Alliance fighters and seriously injuring five US soldiers. By nightfall it was still unclear whether the rebellion had been crushed. (Read photo caption below)
The hurt men were among a number of American special forces inside the fort who are helping to co-ordinate the response of the Northern Alliance.
The alliance had detained about 500 non-Afghan Taleban prisoners in Qala-e-Jhangi fortress - many of whom have now been killed - following their surrender in Kunduz over the weekend.
The revolt began on Sunday when the prisoners killed some of their guards with guns they had reportedly smuggled into the fort, and seized more weapons.
Some reports say they then attempted a mass breakout.
The International Committee for the Red Cross has been trying to visit the fort to assess the situation.
US casualties
Several hundred Northern Alliance fighters and Taleban prisoners have been killed. US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said some Taleban had managed to escape.
Alliance soldiers emerging from the fort have been describing a bloodbath.
The injured US soldiers have been evacuated to Uzbekistan, said General Richard Myers, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, in Washington.
One CIA operative is reported to have died.
A journalist who was near Mazar-e-Sharif during the initial stages of the revolt said American and British special forces went into the fort because they thought an American soldier there had been killed, and another had run out of ammunition.
Denial of opportunism
Abdul Wahid, a Northern Alliance spokesman, denied his group was using the uprising as an opportunity to get rid of unwanted prisoners, and stressed the alliance was aware of its international obligations.
Alliance commanders said the remaining prisoners, trapped in a tower, were running out of ammunition and would not last long. ______________________________________________
PHOTO CAPTION:
Dust covers the face of a northern alliance commander after a U.S. jet mistakenly struck his position, during fighting with imprisoned pro-Taliban forces at the fortress commanded by Gen. Rashid Dostum, near Mazar-e-Sharif, northern Afghanistan, Monday, Nov. 26, 2001. Several hundred prisoners, mostly foreign pro-Taliban fighters captured part of the fortress. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic)