Foreign Mercenaries' Prison Revolt Near Mazar-i-Sharif Suppressed

About 400 people died during the suppression of an armed prison revolt of foreign mercenaries near Mazar-i-Sharif, Qatar's Al-Jazeera TV channel reports, quoting sources in the Northern Alliance. The Alliance lost 30 troops. About 800 captured Taliban fighters, including mostly Arab, Chechen and Pakistani mercenaries, began the revolt early Sunday morning in the old fort of Qalai-i-Banghi, 10 kilometres west of Mazar-i-Sharif. At first, two prisoners detonated hand grenades, killing themselves and two Northern Alliance commanders--Mazar-i-Sharif police chief Nadir Ali and Islamic Movement commander Sayed Asadullah, after which other prisoners disarmed 30 guards and broke open an arms depot. To quell the rebellion, General Abdul Rashid Dostum brought in tanks and called U.S. warplanes. Fighting continued for about three hours. Al-Jazeera quoted eyewitnesses as saying that a U.S. commando, encircled by Taliban fighters, detonated a hand grenade, killing himself. Another U.S. commando was killed in the fighting.