LONDON, Nov 24, 2001 (AP WorldStream via COMTEX) -- A Taliban fighter in Mazar-e-Sharif blew himself up with a hand grenade on Saturday, killing two other fighters and seriously injuring a northern alliance commander, said a British TV reporter who was slightly injured. ITN reporter Andrea Catherwood, who was hit in the knee with shrapnel in the northern Afghanistan town, told ITV News that about 500 foreign Taliban fighters, mostly from Pakistan, had driven overnight across the desert from Kunduz. "They were met by Uzbek warlord General Dostum in the desert. They were disarmed, or so we thought. A lot of heavy arms were taken away in a truck," she said. The Taliban fighters were taken to a fort where Dostum has his headquarters and were being searched when the incident happened, she said. "One of these foreign fighters pulled the pin in a grenade. He blew himself up, he killed the two former fighters beside him, and he also seriously injured one of the northern alliance commanders," Catherwood said. There were a some other injuries, she added, and "my translator received a small cut to the face and I received a minor injury to my knee." "They tried to get the Taliban to put their hands up, there was one shot fired, the situation was very volatile, and we left the situation behind, and got out of the compound," Catherwood said.
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