Americans are among the Taliban taken prisoner

At the moment, about 4,000 Taliban are in the captivity of the Northern Alliance. This information was presented by the Red Cross International Committee. According to this organization, among the captives are both the Taliban’s supporters from Afghanistan and numerous foreign mercenaries.

Suddenly, a sensational report appeared: among the captives belonging to the Taliban, there are three US citizens. This was reported at today’s briefing by US Defence Ministry’s spokesman Vice-Admiral John Stufflebeam. The officer neither expanded on this fact nor commented it. He preferred not to say how the Americans arrived to the Taliban. However, from his speech at the briefing, it became clear that the question is most likely about hostages, at least the US administration would prefer to regard it like this.

According to John Stufflebeam, an American is now under the US military’s protection. 20-year-old John Walker was taken prisoner during the neutralization of the revolt in Mazar-i-Sharif organized by captive Taliban and Al-Qaida’s militants, who had given up in Kunduz. The young American is wounded, so medical assistance is being rendered to him.

As for the other two Americans, nothing is known about them, even their names. They are in the Northern Alliance’s captivity, though nobody can say where exactly. It was Northern Alliance’s officials who informed about the two prisoners possessing US citizenship. It is interesting that while speaking about the subject at the briefing, the vice-admiral called them “supposed Americans.”

According to the Red Cross’s information, there is now a big camp where prisoners of war are being kept. It is called Shibargkhan and is situated west of Mazar-i-Sharif. There, several thousands of captives are being kept; some of them are injured. The Red Cross has not yet received yet permission to visit the camp, so the organization can say nothing about the condition of the captives.

Read the original in Russian: http://www.pravda.ru/main/2001/12/04/34498.html