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CNN Live At Daybreak

U.S. and Northern Alliance Continue to Combat Prison Riot

Aired November 27, 2001 - 06:14   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.
DONNA KELLEY, CNN ANCHOR: In Mazar-e-Sharif, Northern Alliance, British and U.S. soldiers storm a holding compound where Taliban prisoners had been rioting since Sunday. Only a few of the original 400 prisoners are said to be still alive.

In Mazar-e-Sharif this morning, it looks like the U.S. and British Special Forces are, indeed, storming that holding area, where Taliban prisoners have been staging that riot since Sunday. In the beginning, about 400 prisoners were waging this war, and this morning, only a small number of them are said to still be alive.

CNN's Alessio Vinci picks up the story from there.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALESSIO VINCI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Approaching the compound on foot, I could hear sporadic but intense fighting from inside the fortress. Then, the sound of a mortar headed my way.

As I took cover behind a mud wall, a second shell. It was immediately clear some of the Taliban prisoners, who revolted the day before, were still in position to fight, despite hundreds of Northern Alliance soldiers trying to put down the uprising.

Northern Alliance soldiers say they have lost some 150 fighters, and that between 300 and 400 Taliban prisoners have been killed, most of them after U.S. jets bombed the compound on Sunday.

"We have two of our own soldiers wounded here and two are dead," this soldier, who just came out of the firefight, told me. "We are going to carry them into town now."

Earlier in the day, U.S. jets mistakenly hit one side of the fortress occupied by Northern Alliance fighters. One of these soldiers says he believes it was friendly fire. Both Northern Alliance and U.S. soldiers were nearby.

"When the plane bombed here, we all got disorganized," he says. "The enemy is inside, and we occupy the perimeter outside." Adding, "They bombed themselves."

Another soldier, who says he witnessed the airstrike, says U.S. military personnel on the ground gave wrong targeting information to the fighter jets. "The coordination was wrong," he says. "They bombed the commanding post, and there are injuries, but no dead."

(on camera): It is now more than 24 hours the Taliban began the uprising, and despite U.S. bombings, they seem to be holding out well. Northern Alliance soldiers out here are telling us that most of the Taliban fighters are holed up inside the building, but have access to a lot of weapons.

(voice-over): But they have nowhere to escape, and as Northern Alliance troops gear up for a major fight, or perhaps a final storming of the fortress, they assured me that in the end all of the remaining Taliban inside will be killed.

Alessio Vinci, CNN, Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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