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CNN Live Saturday

80 Taliban POWs Surrender to Northern Alliance Six Days After Staging a Deadly Uprising

Aired December 01, 2001 - 17:11   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, six days after the start of a deadly revolt, more than 80 Taliban prisoners of war surrendered to the Northern Alliance. They were survivors of a Taliban uprising inside a makeshift prison near Mazar-e-Sharif that started last Sunday. Hundreds of Taliban were killed in that violence, along with more than 100 Northern Alliance forces and an American CIA officer as well.

Here is CNN's Alessio Vinci with more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALESSIO VINCI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Red Cross officials here in Mazar-e-Sharif say that more than 80 Taliban prisoners who had been involved in the bloody uprising earlier this week are still alive and have surrendered to the Northern Alliance.

The Red Cross had suspended collecting the bodies on Thursday because what they believed were a few prisoners still trapped inside a building were shooting at rescue workers, killing one and wounding two. But the number of those still alive was believed would be two or three at the most.

Yesterday, Northern Alliance forces flooded the basement in an attempt to get remaining prisoners out of it. First, 16 of them emerged late last night. Then the rest of them emerged this morning.

The Red Cross was called by the Northern Alliance to go back to the fortress and when officials arrived there, they found more than 80 prisoners inside a crate container. A Red Cross official who went to the fortress told me that 18 out of the more than 80 prisoners were seriously wounded and needed immediate medical treatment. And one doctor from the Mazar-e-Sharif military hospital said that at least three prisoners, including one with a fractured skull, would have died if not brought to hospital immediately.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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