U.S. forces fortify outpost

Associated Press

SOUTHERN AFGHANISTAN – Newly landed U.S. Marines cemented control of an outpost in the Kandahar region Monday as Navy fighter jets attacked a convoy of armored enemy vehicles moving near the base in southern Afghanistan.

Two F-14 Tomcats hit the armored column, said Maj. Brad Lowell, a spokesman for the U.S. Central Command in Washington. He said Marine AH-1W Cobra helicopters were in the area but did not fire on the armored vehicles.

The mission of the U.S. Marines in Afghanistan is to cut off escape routes for Taliban and al-Qaida leaders, pinpoint targets for airstrikes and conduct quick strikes when the chance arises, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Monday.

Meanwhile in the north, Northern Alliance troops aided by U.S. special forces fought a pitched battle in a sprawling mud-walled fortress near Mazar-e-Sharif for a second day Monday with captured loyalists of Osama bin Laden. Five Americans were wounded by a stray U.S. bomb.

Prisoners captured by the alliance last weekend in the siege of Kunduz rained rocket-propelled grenades and mortars on alliance troops trying to suppress the uprising.

Hundreds of Pakistanis, Chechens, Arabs and other non-Afghans fighting with the Taliban were brought to the fortress here as part of the weekend surrender of Kunduz, the Islamic militia’s last stronghold in the north. The prisoners stormed the armory and were still resisting the next day despite U.S. airstrikes and attacks by alliance forces.

One CIA operative was missing in the uprising, according to a U.S. official speaking on condition of anonymity.

American special forces troops called in an airstrike but a U.S. JDAM smart bomb went astray, exploding near the Americans. Five U.S. soldiers suffered serious wounds and were evacuated to nearby Uzbekistan, Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in Washington. Their identities were not released, and their injuries were not life-threatening, officials said.

Alliance commanders said the Taliban-allied holdouts, trapped in a tower, were running out of ammunition and wouldn’t last long.

In Kunduz, thousands of Afghan Taliban fighters who gave up were allowed safe passage out of Kunduz. However, some Afghan fighters remained and fired on alliance troops who entered the city Monday after the two-week siege.

After an hours-long battle with rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons, alliance forces crushed the last of the resistance, killing about 100 Taliban, alliance officers said.

Alliance troops then sought vengeance on the holdouts, roaming through the dust-covered streets. Reporters watched as alliance soldiers blasted away at wounded Taliban and dragged those who hid out of their houses for beatings.

Alliance fighters beat one overweight Taliban fighter with rifle butts and stomped on his face, throwing him into a truck bound for a detention center only when he fell unconscious. Three other fly-covered Taliban bodies lay in empty market stalls.