Posted on 12/14/2001 3:57:59 PM PST by Pokey78
A DRAMA of high danger and official indifference is unfolding at Kandahar's main hospital, where 10 injured al-Qa'eda fighters are holed up in a ward with hand grenades and pistols, surrounded by other patients.
Full details of the deadlock emerged yesterday, when medical staff told how the Arabs had been admitted without being searched. They refused to have their clothing removed when treated for gunshot wounds and bomb injuries.
Only when one had an X-ray for a pelvic fracture did the hospital staff realise that a grenade was strapped to his thigh. The nine Arabs and one Chinese, who fought for the Taliban before the city fell, are refusing to allow anyone but medical staff into their room.
They say they will blow themselves up if threatened with arrest. Despite acute fears over the safety of patients and staff, no official action has been taken to defuse the situation.
The International Committee of the Red Cross, which funds the surgical department, the new leadership of Afghanistan and the international military forces in the city have yet to step in.
The fighters, along with three relatives, are in a surgical ward of 10 rooms at the 180-bed Mirwais Hospital, also known as the Chinese hospital. A total of 35 patients are in the ward. The rooms on either side of the wounded Arabs are full.
Security is provided by a single armed guard posted outside to prevent any attempt to escape. It is not clear how much weaponry the fighters have hidden in their rooms. One member of the nursing staff estimated that they had six grenades and a pistol apiece.
Shawali Love, the head of the hospital's out-patient department, admitted the Arabs last week after they were wounded in a bomb attack on Kandahar airport.
He said: "They have grenades and pistols with them. Some are in their pockets, some in their hands, some under beds. They feel endangered. They have barricaded themselves in. They don't want to speak to any foreigners. They say they will commit suicide and kill others."
The Arabs have multiple injuries to their heads, stomachs and limbs. Three have lost legs. Dr Daud Farhad, a surgeon who has operated on three of the men, said: "The patients I operated on did not have grenades on them.
"But when we performed an X-ray on one man with a pelvic fracture we saw a grenade on his thigh. There might be more inside their rooms, but they have hidden them. At the time they were admitted, there was no security at the hospital to check them.
"They refused to let us take their clothes off. I told them this would be dangerous. I just hope the government and the ICRC will find the right way to deal with this." Dr Mohammad Usman, the hospital director, said he was alarmed that they would set off the grenades.
But he said: "The weapons should be taken by the government. We cannot do that." Ahmad Shah, director of the ICRC in Kandahar, claimed to have no knowledge of the armed Arab patients.
Thee are 2 choices:
1) Let them die alone.
2) Wait for them to kill others.
First the prison uprising, now this.
Pun intended?
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