Posted on 11/25/2001 8:38:35 AM PST by Leroy S. Mort
Some U.S. special forces troops were in an Afghan fortress where Taliban prisoners of war rioted, a Pentagon spokesman said Sunday. All the Americans were believed to be safe, while hundreds of foreign fighters were reported killed.
The uprising started among about 300 ``hard-core Taliban'' prisoners who had smuggled weapons into the fort and tried to fight their way out, spokesman Lt. Col. Dan Stoneking said. U.S. aircraft bombed the Taliban forces during the fighting, he said.
``It appears all U.S. personnel are accounted for'' and believed to be safe, Stoneking said.
The fighters were captured a day earlier in the siege of the northern city of Kunduz. The riot took place outside the northern town of Mazar-e-Sharif, where they were being held, a northern alliance spokesman said.
A northern alliance commander who controlled the fort, Gen. Rashid Dostum, brought in about 500 of his fighters to quell the uprising, Stoneking said.
The fighters were not Afghans, but most were Chechens and Pakistanis, Stoneking said.
Foreign fighters in Kunduz - mainly Arabs, Chechens and Pakistanis - had insisted on security guarantees following reports of summary executions by the northern alliance in Mazar-e-Sharif and Kabul, the Afghan capital.
Actually I think it was probably the British journalist. 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.
Just a bunch of pre-conditioned animals. Kill them all, no questions asked, no quarter given.
I don't think they can 'aim' them that well.
Because Senator, they are stupid as a wall.......I think the prison situation over there is a sham.
....the NA will be read the riot act I bet..
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Forget about the liberals, you can start here.
There are a heck of a lot of whining conservatives on this forum.
It has become evident that this or some variation on that theme is going to have to be SOP from here on out. They've left us with no other choice.
Good work. Let's hope for some more riots. Maybe they can finish them all off.
It is easy to armchair general this one, but I think you will find that in mass surrenders (this was one) prisoners are typically not immediately strip-searched. You march them into a compound, and then search and interrogate them.
While that sounds nuts, it is less nuts that playing a game of "Red Rover" with 2000 armed troops attempting to surrender, and having them come over one-by-one at two to five minute intervals to allow an individual search of each prisoner. Some brave boy is going to figure that you are afraid of them, take his AK and "unsurrender." Then some more are going to change their minds, and all of a sudden you have opposition again.
You are better off putting them in a cage, and then searching them for weapons. Of course, if you do violently resist after capture under international law you are a criminal, and can be charged with murder or assault. That is why escaping P.O.W.s (in real life, not the movies) rarely kill guards or pursuing soldiers. They then are no longer P.O.W.s, but rather criminals.
Of course, when you are dealing with wackos like Al Qaeda, all bets are off, but it is a bit unfair to the N.A. troops to dis them for assuming that the rules of war would be followed by their opponents. After all, this is Afghanistan, where warfare is merely another contact sport like hockey or football. It's like getting down on a football player for not expecting to get clotheslined.
Read the eye-witness account by the Time reporter (it's still on page one here)
He said the Talis became infuriated when a Guardian journalist tried to interview them (can you hear the question--"How does it feel to be a prisoner?" or some such blather)
Anyway, they jumped the few NA guards that were with the journalist (who is alive but badly beaten), grabbed their weapons and rushed the armory on the grounds of the fort where they were being held. Once they got to the armory, all hell broke loose and most of them, hopefully, are with their 72 virgins.
Suggestion: coat all US ammo with pig fat!
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