Hundreds of Pakistani, Arab and Chechen prisoners of war were killed last night as US jets launched air strikes to help Northern Alliance forces quell an apparent prison uprising.
As Taliban forces abandoned their last northern stronghold in Kunduz, American jets bombed a mud-walled fort near the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif to put down what Northern Alliance generals described as a massive escape attempt.
At least 500 Taliban prisoners broke down their jail doors and tried to fight their way to freedom with Kalashnikov rifles, machine guns and grenades which they had managed to smuggle into the fort, eyewitnesses said.
Footage from a German television crew showed guards on the walls of the compound firing down into crowds of prisoners below. A US special forces soldier was seen calling in air strikes from a satellite telephone. "There's hundreds dead here at least," he said.
"They were all killed and very few were arrested," said Mr Zaher Wahadat, a Northern Alliance spokesman.
Some prisoners blew themselves up to kill their guards so that others could escape. Several fled during the day-long battle, climbing over the high, mud-brick ramparts of the 19th century Qala-i-Jhangi fort, the base of the Uzbek warlord Gen Rashid Dostum.
US special forces were in the compound of the fort yesterday when the fighting broke out. After reports of one US casualty a Pentagon spokesman announced that no US servicemen were missing; however armed forces spokespeople conceded that they were unable to say whether American citizens attached to other agencies, such as the CIA, had been injured or killed. ABC television later said one American, "affiliated with the CIA", had died. Lt Col Dan Stoneking said 300 prisoners had smuggled weapons into the compound and opened fire on Northern Alliance soldiers. Another 40 US special forces reached the fort but could not enter because of the heavy fighting. "There was general pandemonium," said Mr Simon Brooks, head of Red Cross operations in northern Afghanistan, who was in the prison at the time. The handling of the riot followed expressions of concern by the Red Cross over the fate that awaited prisoners of war taken from Kunduz.
The Taliban's northern army was last night waiting to surrender at a village on the outskirts of Kunduz as Northern Alliance fighters advanced into the city from east and west. There was confusion over which side held most of the city last night. The ethnic Tajik commander Gen Mohammad Daoud told Associated Press: "All of Kunduz is in our control."