A bloody prison revolt on Sunday by hundreds of Taliban and foreign fighters captured in Afghanistan caused the first US combat death there when an American adviser was trapped in the fighting, according to a Time magazine reporter who witnessed the uprising.
The two Americans were trapped inside the fort in the revolt, Alex Perry said. Other US and British commandos arrived by jeep and began directing airstrikes on the fort and advising alliance military leaders in efforts to regain control.
"I've heard there's probably three to four hundred Taliban (dead) now. The mission by the Americans and Northern Alliance is to kill every single one of them now," said Perry, who added he saw dead Taliban fighters outside the fort who had been shot between the eyes.
About a dozen British commandos in civilian clothes and US troops in air force uniforms were fighting alongside the Northern Alliance forces trying to quell the uprising, guiding US aircraft in bombing the prison near Mazar-i-Sharif, Perry said.
A US Special Forces fighter was killed inside the prison and another was trapped inside the ancient fort in Qala-e-Jangi, 10 kilometres (six miles) west of Mazar-i-Sharif, Perry said.
"There were two American soldiers inside the fort, one of whom was disarmed and killed, and another one was also in trouble," Perry said.
"He was out of ammunition, had managed to sort of hold off the Taliban with his pistol but he was out of ammunition when the main body of American and British people arrived. There's no word on his fate yet. But the Americans were mounting a rescue operation."
Perry said two journalists from Reuters also were trapped inside the fort.
US military officials denied any US troops were killed, but did not address the question of whether any other Americans were involved.
Perry, who was outside the fort when the revolt began, told the newsweekly the fighting began after journalists visited the several hundred mainly Arab, Pakistani and Chechen militants being held in the fort.
Some of the prisoners, who had surrendered Saturday, jumped on the journalists and nearby guards, taking their weapons and driving the guards out of part of the prison.
"It was probably the British journalist (that set them off)," Perry said. "It's merely the sight of a Western face. They're here to fight a jihad; they see a western face; they assume that's who they've come to get.
(China Daily November 26, 2001)
