Amnesty International has demanded an urgent inquiry into the US-led attack on a Mazar-e-Sharif prison compound in north Afghanistan which resulted in hundreds of foreign pro-Taliban fighters being killed.
Amnesty was reacting to pictures and reports showing dead bodies scattered across fields outside the compound. Other pictures showed a Northern Alliance fighter cutting string from the tied arms of a corpse and a fighter prising gold fillings from a corpse.
The scene at the Qala-i-Jhangi complex was one of devastation after heavy fighting erupted on Sunday. Hundreds of Pakistanis, Chechens, Arabs and other non-Afghans, who had fought with the Taliban, were brought to the fortress after the weekend surrender of the northern city of Kunduz.
Red Cross workers wearing rubber gloves loaded corpses onto trailers attached to tractors. The chief of an international Red Cross delegation, Mr Simon Brooks, declined to estimate the death toll, but it is believed to be several hundred.
The rebellion was brought under control on Tuesday following heavy US air strikes co-ordinated by US and British special forces who backed Northern Alliance forces. The CIA confirmed yesterday one of its covert operatives was killed during the prisoner uprising. He was named as Johnny "Mike" Spann (32), from Winfield, Alabama, an officer with the CIA's clandestine service, the Directorate of Operations.
Meanwhile, the Taliban leader, Mr Mullah Mohammad Omar, defiant after a US bomb raid failed to hit him, is reported to have ordered his beleaguered Taliban troops to stand firm in the southern city of Kandahar.
Hundreds of US troops are now based on the outskirts of the Taliban's last stronghold, with thousands of militia trapped in the city. US reinforcements arrived onto the airstrip near Kandahar yesterday where 1,000 Marines are assembling to hunt Osama bin Laden and to assist in taking the city.
The US Defence Secretary, Mr Donald Rumsfeld, said troops would begin a ground search for bin Laden and his al-Qaeda network, promising to track them in their tunnels and caves.
The UN talks in Germany on Afghanistan received a serious setback yesterday when the Northern Alliance rejected calls for an international security force in Afghanistan but there were hopes that the alliance and monarchists were close to agreeing the outlines of a scheme for power-sharing.
Earlier, the leader of the Northern Alliance delegation, Mr Yunus Qanooni, called for further talks in Kabul and stressed the need for an Islamic state.