Taleban captives executed despite US pleas

29 Nov, 2001 10:26 PM2 mins to read

By ANDREW BUNCOMBE

WASHINGTON - The Pentagon is investigating reports of the massacre of about 160 unarmed Taleban prisoners by Northern Alliance forces who ignored US pleas not to kill them.

The unarmed Taleban fighters were said to have been lined up and shot by Northern Alliance soldiers, after being captured while fighting for the strategic southern town of Takteh Pol, between the Pakistani border and the last Taleban stronghold of Kandahar.

Those Taleban fighters who surrendered immediately were not killed.

An unnamed commander with the forces of Gul Agha, a former mujahideen governor of Kandahar, said seven or eight US military personnel who were filming the battle for the town tried to prevent the executions but their requests were ignored.

"We tried our best to persuade [the Taleban] to surrender before we attacked. We asked them many times, quoted the Koran and even offered them money," said the commander, who asked not to be named.

"But they replied with abuse so we had no choice. We executed around 160 Taleban who were captured. They were made to stand in a long line and five or six of our fighters used light Machine-guns on them."

The claims, coming after numerous other reports of summary executions of Taleban fighters by opposition forces in the past two weeks, will not help the difficult negotiations taking place in Bonn about the future rule of Afghanistan.

The opposition commander said his fighters travelled to Afghanistan from their base in the Pakistan border town of Quetta, accompanied by a colonel from Pakistan and supported by US air power.

The force moved on Takteh Pol on November 23, where fighting for the town lasted three hours.

"There were seven or eight Americans with us at Takteh Pol. They just filmed how we attacked, how we moved and how we went forward," the commander said.

"They did not fight. Those Taleban who surrendered were not killed. Only those who fired on us were killed."

He said graves were dug and 10 to 12 bodies were buried in each of them.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch said it seemed that the shootings represented a serious war crime.

- INDEPENDENT

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