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CNN Live At Daybreak

Northern Alliance Quells Taliban Prison Rebellion; Hundreds Dead

Aired November 28, 2001 - 05:09   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.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Meanwhile, more news from the Northern Alliance, where troops say they have nearly ended a rebellion by Taliban prisoners of war at a compound that is outside Mazar-e-Sharif. Some Taliban, possibly as many as 40, are still holed up inside that compound.

CNN's Allessio Vinci has more. We do need to warn you, though, that some of the scenes in this piece could be disturbing.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALLESSIO VINCI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Northern Alliance forces are using all the firepower they have to crush the rebellion -- heavy machine guns, a tank, and even the support of U.S. and British military advisers, who arrived at the huge fortress together early in the morning.

Intense shooting came from all sides. I could hear bullets ricochet just above my head. U.S. military jets bombed the fortress last night. A small number of Taliban continue to fight back, mainly with machine gun fire.

Almost three days of battle have killed hundreds of Taliban. Some of their bodies still lay in a ditch outside the fortress's main gate. And we heard reports of a carnage inside.

As we entered the fortress, the battle was still ongoing and we saw evidence of the fight's intensity -- dozens of bodies in an open field, some of them mutilated. Most of them have been there for days.

(on camera): There is a body up here.

(voice-over): Many more littered our way up to the vantage point of Northern Alliance soldiers. I was expecting to see soldiers on edge, keen to bring the uprising to an end. But the fighters we met looked quite relaxed. War here is a way of life.

This soldier used the body of a dead Taliban to rest his heavy machine gun. For now up here, the dead and living share the same space.

(on camera): The heavy fighting has somewhat died down now, but we are still witnessing some sporadic exchange of fire between Northern Alliance soldiers up here and Taliban prisoners held up in a basement some 50 meters behind me.

(voice-over): There is another battle front outside the main gate of the fortress, not to kill Taliban, but to attend to dozens of Northern Alliance wounded. Some had to wait for more than an hour before a car showed up to take them away. And as for the dead, they were left on the ground near working reporters who have already got used to seeing plenty of death all around them.

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

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